The first race of the new Frostbite Friendly League Season kicked off on Sunday at St Neots. As if to reinforce the end-of-summer fee,l the course had been soaked by torrential weekend rain which continued throughout making times noticeably slower than u

The first race of the new Frostbite Friendly League Season kicked off on Sunday at St Neots.

As if to reinforce the end-of-summer fee,l the course had been soaked by torrential weekend rain which continued throughout making times noticeably slower than usual for the 5-mile off-road course.

But club runners are a hardy breed, and there was a large field of over 300 eager to tackle the three-lap grassy, hilly and muddy course around Priory Park. The rain made parts of the course treacherous underfoot and the slippery mud on narrow woodland paths made overtaking difficult in places.

Historically Ely have always started slowly in the Frostbite league but this year, although missing a few star names, there was a sizeable turnout of 13 men and five ladies.

With Craig Holgate and Ian Day scoring in the top ten and Daisy Glover - in her debut Frostbite race placing highly as second lady - the Ely team managed a solid third place in the team event.

The first seven men and three ladies formed part of the scoring team, although all team members contributed to the overall result.

Official Results:

6th Craig Holgate 28:43 (Scoring Team)

9th Ian Day 28:55 (Scoring Team)

13th Stephen Pettit 29:41 (Scoring Team)

18th Alex Gilroy 30:15 (Scoring Team)

28th Stephen Howard 31:10 (Scoring Team)

29th Daisy Glover 31:12 (Scoring Team, 2nd F overall)

37th Max d'Ayala 31:56 (Scoring Team)

41st Adam Etches 32:05 (Scoring Team)

107th Peter Harris 35:24

117th Steve Collett 35:56

119th Natalle Etches 36:04 (Scoring Team)

125th Ian Blatchford 36:24

164th Adrian Stokes 38:02

170th Tony Robinson 38:20

232nd John Turner 40:52

244th Lisa Redman 41:53 (Scoring Team)

249th Julie Foreman 42:30

268th Emily Knight 44:24

There were 328 finishers.

Team Results (15 teams, after 1 race):

1st Riverside 15 pts (336 running pts)

2nd Nene Valley Harriers 14 pts (403)

3rd Ely Runners 13 pts (544)

4th Werrington 12 pts (853)