The tiny village of Thixendale, nestling peacefully deep in the Yorkshire Wolds north of Pocklington, was rudely awakened on Sunday as the Cross Country circus came to town to run the fourth leg of the East Yorkshire Winter League. Recent rain made an already challenging course muddy and slippery underfoot, although nothing like as hazardous as the previous race at Langdale End, and the strong bitingly cold wind was cheerfully ignored by this hardy branch of the species known as Yorkshire Runner.

Both Viking Striders teams showed improvement from previous outings. The Mens team, boosted by the return of Simon Griffin, snatched 3^rd place on the day from a City of Hull squad admittedly even more decimated by absences than the Striders usually are. The men are safe in a mid-table fourth position in the league table, with no danger of being caught but unfortunately with even less chance of doing any catching.

The Striders ladies fielded a full strength team for a change, led as always by Julie Masterman, but their best efforts could only achieve 5^th on the day against some very high quality opposition. The team is marooned in 5^th place overall, and will need to be on their mettle in the final two rounds to stay ahead of the chasing pack.

Striders times and positions:
7^th Simon Griffin 44.36, 20^th Dave Hanney 46.13, 21^st Martin Midgley 46.32, 38^th Mike Baggott 49.43, 40^th Nigel Warner 49.51, 42^nd David Byas 50.20, 49^th Mark Thompson 51.35, 60^th Richard Bramham 54.20, 62^nd Dave Ryan 55.02, 67^th Steve Lund 56.52, 82^nd Ray Smith 61.40.

Ladies: 7^th Julie Masterman 52.49, 20^th Kay Ryan 59.25, 23^rd Patsy Fenelon 60.34, 27^th Sandy Midgley 68.41, 29^th Jo Mouncey 73.05.