THE quality and quantity of Vale Royal Athletics Club’s runners was on full show in the Northern Road Relay Championships at the weekend.

While the women’s first-choice team secured a superb silver medal, the men’s ‘A’ team achieved a club record-equalling placing to secure, along with the ‘B’ team, their spot in the National Road Relays Championships in Sutton Coldfield on the first weekend of next month.

Both teams headed to Sunday’s Birkenhead Park event on the back of winning the North West Relays in Manchester two weeks prior, and highlighting the club’s growing strength in depth a further two senior women and three senior men’s teams were fielded in Wirral.

On top of that, among the junior races there were some notable individual performances for Vale Royal.

Harvey Brown, Thomas Taylor and Sophie Harding ran top-10 fastest legs overall in their respective races.

Harding led her under 17s women’s team to a somewhat bizarre bronze medal, when the first four teams to cross the finish line were all disqualified for inadvertently taking a shortened route possibly due to lack of adequate marshalling.

In the senior men’s race, the Vale Royal ‘A’ team, comprising Ryan Moore, Raif Serif, Chris Williams, Chris Perry, John Humphries and Arun Dight, ran brilliantly to come home in fifth place, only 25 seconds away from a bronze medal.

Meanwhile, the ‘B’ team of William Ashfield, Aaron Doyle, Andrew Miles, Jacob Brown, Matt McCormack and Sam Whitehead battled throughout to finish 11th.

Not too long ago, the club was happy to get one team through to the nationals, but now club chiefs acknowledge they would be disappointed not to get two men’s teams to Sutton Park.

The women’s ‘A’ team of Sarah Dufour-Jackson, Abigail Howarth, Kate Moulds, and Holly Weedall ran brilliantly to secure second place - only being beaten by Leeds City AC.

Weedall’s remarkable final leg run of 16:31 was the fourth fastest leg overall.

The women’s ‘B’ team of Grace Roberts, Ellie Bushill, Sarah Murphy and Anna Begbie came ninth overall and earned a bronze medal for being the first ‘B’ team to finish.

Results: Under 13s boys, 3x3320m, Vale Royal ‘A’ 8th, 37:12: Harvey Brown, 5th, 11:278 (9th fastest leg overall); George Bright, 9th, 12:58; Gus Fraser, 8th, 12:47; Vale Royal ‘B’ 24th, 41:45: James Reynolds, 24th, 13:27; Charlie Latham, 26th, 15:15; Connor Venables, 24th, 13:03.

Under 15s girls, 3x3320m, Vale Royal ‘A’ 17th, 39:18: Nancy Carrington, 17th, 12:46; Martha Bright, 19th, 13:31; Imogen Ward, 17th, 13:01.

Under 17s men, 3x3870m, Vale Royal ‘A’ 6th, 37:08: Harry Parker-McLain, 18th, 12:36; Thomas Taylor, 6th, 12:04 (10th fastest leg overall); Thomas Corwood, 6th, 12:29; Vale Royal ‘B’ 19th, 39:15: Rhys Bowden, 10th, 12:17; Theo Wassall, 21st, 14:16; Alex Macnab, 19th, 12:42.

Under 17s women, 3x3870m, Vale Royal ‘A’ 3rd, 45:14: Sophie Harding, 6th, 14:02 (9th fastest leg overall); Darcey Murphy, 7th, 14:51; Zoe Broughton, 7th, 16:21; Vale Royal ‘B’ (incomplete team): Erin Carney, 24th, 16:40.

Senior men, 6x5100m, Vale Royal ‘A’ 5th, 1:30:28: Ryan Moore, 13th, 15:04; Raif Serif, 9th, 15:03; Chris Williams, 7th, 15:12; Chris Perry, 7th, 14:56; John Humphries, 6th, 15:17; Arun Dight, 5th, 14:56; Vale Royal ‘B’ 11th, 1:33.40: William Ashfield, 26th, 15:33; Aaron Doyle, 20th, 15:23; Andrew Miles, 11th, 15:03; Jacob Brown, 11th, 15:40; Matt McCormack, 11th, 16:04; Sam Whitehead, 11th, 15:57; Vale Royal ‘C’ 34th, 1:40:01: Edward Pettitt, 37th, 15:55; Matt Rowlinson, 32nd, 16:29; Jack O’Reilly, 36th, 16:33; Elliot Davies-Hayes, 38th, 17:03; Ewan Macnab, 42nd, 17:22; James Griffiths, 34th, 16:39; Vale Royal ‘D’ 81st, 1:55:03: Robert Roe, 84th, 18:21; Mark Crabtree, 66th, 17:04; Colin Price, 77th, 20:08; Graham Miles, 76th, 19:13; James Dewdney, 81st, 20:36; Lee Carrington, 81st, 19:41.

Senior women, 4x5100m, Vale Royal ‘A’ 2nd, 1:09:14: Sarah Dufour-Jackson, 9th, 17:13; Abigail Howarth, 3rd, 17:26; Kate Moulds, 3rd, 18:04; Holly Weedall, 2nd, 16:31 (4th fastest leg overall); Vale Royal ‘B’ 9th, 1:14:07 (fastest B team): Grace Roberts, 23rd, 18:32; Ellie Bushill, 13th, 18:26; Sarah Murphy, 9th, 18:12; Anna Begbie, 9th, 18:57; Vale Royal ‘C’ 28th, 1:21:38: Molly Roberts, 43rd, 20:12; Hollie Carrington, 30th, 19:24; Julia Hartley, 28th, 20:39; Megan White, 28th, 21:23.