PROMOTION was sneaked by City of Salisbury.

The running club's senior men's team scraped into the promotion places at their final fixture of the Hampshire Cross Country League on the muddiest of courses in the New Forest.

The efforts of their seven-man squad were only just enough to fend off a last-gasp attempt by Ryde Harriers to prevent their joining Wimborne AC in promotion to division two next season.

Ian Shelley led the way in 67th spot, followed by Steve Auton 76th, Rithy Hy 85th, William Watson 87th, John Liston 118th, Jon Kershaw 140th and Darren Clissold 142nd.

The women’s trio of Sarah Warren 58th, Jill Coles 84th and Ali Sloane 86th also did well.

Among the club’s younger members, Emily Warren was 18th in the under-11s, George Yarwood 15th and Evan Osborne 20th in the boys’ race. Rose Warren was 12th and Ellenor Bessey 51st in the under 13s as did an outstanding Nile Battey 7th and Ollie Phillips 13th in the boy’s race.

Abi Burn was 14th in the under-15s with Louise Webb 28th and Tasha Mundell 39th and in the boys’ race Sam Coles was 16th, Ollie Liston 36th and Alex Osborne 38th, while in the under-17s, Fabrice Webb took a good 13th spot.

In the England Athletics indoor age group 800m championships at Sheffield, Jay Domoney was the youngest in the under 20’s field and finished seventh.

On the road, Rithy Hy knocked three minutes off his previous best in the Bramley 20mile with a time of 2hours 15min 20sec.

Chris Southern showed he is in good form with a fourth placing in the Wiltshire 10mile with a speedy 56min 16sec and at the Lytchett 10mile Steve Lomas was timed at 94.15.

At the Bath Skyline 10k, Ian Shelley was second in his age group with 40min 42sec and Kathryn Dreyer fifth in hers with 70.50.