Three team and two individual victories were claimed by Aldershot, Farnham & District AC in the National Cross-Country Championships at Durham on Saturday.

Chris Thompson successfully defended his U/20 title and Charlotte Browning added to her South of England and Inter-Counties gold in the U/13 age-group.

Browning hit the front immediately and was clear by the first corner. Closest was India Lee who eventually came sixth in 11mins 49 as her colleague went on to win by 25 seconds from Charlie Gaspar of Milton Keynes (11-39).

Emma Pallant, ninth in 11-59, and Hannah Jones, 18th in 12-13, formed the second half of the AFD foursome which triumphed by nearly 100 points.

The U/15 girls were almost as convincing, totalling less than half the aggregate of Bedford & County's silver medallists. AFD were led by Leonie Smith who was among a breakaway quartet which also included Rachael Nathan of Lincoln Wellington, the Inter-Counties' champion, Katrina Wootton of Bedford, the English Schools' junior champion, and Lynsey Jepson of Leicester Coritanian, who beat Smith to the national U/13 title a year ago.

The race then developed into a duel between Wootton and Nathan, won by the latter with four seconds to spare in 14mins 07, while Jepson ran an isolated third in 14-21 and Smith (14-45) was relegated to fifth in the closing stages by Sara Luck of Havering Mayesbrook, the South of England champion, who clocked 14-41.

Georgie Furze (14th in 15-01), Rachel Driver (28th in 15-26) and Nikki Bartholomew (29th in 15-28) completed AFD's team victory.

The club's other triumph had come in the opening race, for U/17 men. Adam Vandenberg came 13th in 21mins 30, Ali Smith 14th in 21-36, David Udal 18th in 21-42 and Gavin Smith 38th in 22-09.

Thompson almost led AFD to another victory as his side wound up with the silvers, just 10 points down on Sale Harriers, Manchester, who were fielding Lee McCash.

McCash, third in 31mins 28 and the beneficiary of a clearance to compete for his new club, nearly snatched the individual silver from Chris Bolt.

The Shaftesbury Barnet Harrier had been the only taker when Thompson made his move and finished 10 seconds behind the European silver medallist in 31mins 27.

AFD had Phil Banks in 27th with 33-42, Dan McCarthy 32nd (33-53) and Dan Acheson 36th (34-13).

The U/17 women were also second to Sale. Sarah Pickett was 14th in 20mins 09, Emily Adams 15th (20-15), Tahli Gill 40th (21-15) and Emma Whittaker-Axon 55th (22-03) while, in the accompanying U/20 event, Heather Fairbairn (22nd in 20-24), Gemma Greenfield (34th in 20-50), Clementine Adams (36th in 21-00) and Hannah Woods (68th in 22-39) comprised the AFD team which came fourth.

The senior men looked set for a placing not far outside the medals as Dan Getliffe, Simon Paterson, John Aspell, Paul Harwood, Karl Corpes and Richard Batchelor were all running inside or around 150. But Getliffe dropped out with one of the three laps remaining. Veteran Keith Donkin ensured that they finished a team, but the senior women had only one athlete. Amanda Purser's 35th deserved better support.