Bedford & County AC's Senior Men's squad were in action on Saturday, earning much deserved but very hard fought for silver medals in the National Cross Country Relays at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield.

This relay is contested over 4 legs of 5K, each leg comprising 2 laps of a very testing undulating loop. With over 150 teams toeing the start line, including all the top teams in the country, it is one of the most anticipated events of the season.

With Bedford fielding their strongest squad since 2019, a top 3 placing was considered a remote, but realistic target, if all ran well.

Ed Blythman on Leg 1 wasted no time in declaring his intentions, storming to the head of the field within the first few hundred metres. B team runner Ben Davies caught the bug and followed close behind. Despite slipping back slightly, both athletes survived this slightly impetuous start to get both A and B teams off to a flying start, with Ed coming home in 12^th place in a time of 15:11, and Ben 27^th with 15:34.

Ben Alcock soon showed that he had recovered from his great 64:06 Half Marathon (Valencia!) last weekend, by gradually working his way through the field, eventually coming home in 5^th place in a time of 15:00. With half the race now completed, the cream was beginning to rise to the top with 5 of the main expected medal contenders beginning to close up together, although early leaders Milton Keynes Distance project still had a big lead.

The excitement really began to build towards the end of lap 1 of stage 3 as the big 4 of Shaftesbury, Cambridge & Coleridge, Highgate and Bedford all came together gradually closing on and then overtaking the leader. Shaftesbury’s Dylan Evans then broke away to open up a 14 sec lead. Meanwhile, Harry Brodie for Bedford was having a great run, and found himself in a race over the last half a lap with C&C International Jack Gray, Highgate’s Alex LePetre, and a charging Ellis Cross for Aldershot. Harry’s sprint took him clear and brought him home in 2^nd place with a time of 15:12.

With just 4 secs now covering 2^nd to 5^th places the scene was set for a classic battle for the medals.

There were some concerns regarding how Jack Goodwin would run as he is a fireman and had just finished a night shift that morning. But Jack proved equal to the task as he went out hard but controlled, gradually increasing his lead on the 3^rd placed athlete, to run 15:06, and bring Bedford home to a well deserved 2^nd place, and the silver medals. This was a first class team performance, with a mere 12 seconds covering the individual times of all 4 of the Bedford team.

The B team, also performed well, finishing as 5^th B team in 23^rd place overall. In addition to Ben Davies 15:34, James Minter ran 15:53, Michael Harrison 16:24 and Alfie Yabsley 16:31. The C team also did well, finishing as 4^th C team in 55^th overall. Sam Knee-Robinson ran 16:34, Jono Janes 16:02, Ed Whiting 17:44 and Supervet Alan Turnbull 19:25.

The club's Junior (Under 20) men were competing in their own separate 3 x 3K relay.

The A team was led off by Noah Campion, who despite a shaky start moved through the field in magnificent fashion to finish in 4^th place. His time of 8:48 was the 5^th fastest overall. The team eventually finished 27^th with Euan Supple running 9:41 and Jake Reynolds 10:21. The B team of Cameron Barnes (10:04), Ethan Cairns (10:22) and Daniel Smith (10:33) finished 58^th.