Southend High enjoyed their usual domination when the Borough Senior Schools Cross-Country Championships for boys were staged at Garon Park, Eastern Avenue.

The event was switched to a new venue from Belfairs Park, where it had been staged for many years.

However, this made little difference to the results as Southend High captured every age group team prize and retained the overall championship with four points from Westcliff High and Eastwood (both 13) and St Thomas More (19).

Southend also collected individual glory in three of the five races with the mould being broken only by St Thomas More's David Bottjer capturing the honours in 11.04 in the year nine event and Ashley Humphreys (Independent) coming up trumps in years 10/11 with 15.23.

Southend's J Burnett won year seven with 12.13 with Westcliff filling the next two places through M Bettis (12.18) and K Quinn (12.36).

Adam Hickey took control of year eight with a winning time of 10.58 - the fastest by a junior on the day - from Southend team-mate David Crichton (11.04). Chris Lee (Shoebury High) was third in 11.16.

Bottjer's year nine glory saw Westcliff's Daniel Quinn runner-up in 11.11 with Daniel Schade the first Southend winning team member home in third place. He finished in 11.18.

Humphreys's success in years 10/11 was the biggest of the day as runner-up Chris Butterworth (St Thomas More) was 55 seconds behind in 16.18 with E Paul (Southend) third in 16.23.

Years 12 and 13 provided a clean sweep for Southend High with James Hinds first, Ben Lewis second and Alan Gajewski third.

Their A team took the team prize on six points from St Thomas More (13) and Southend B.

Southend won the year seven team honours on 40 points from Westcliff (57) and Alleyn Court (138).

Year eight success for Southend was on 35 points from Westcliff (94) and Eastwood (147), while they had 51 points to take year nine from Prittlerwell (75) and Westcliff (109).

The years 10/11 margin was also massive as they totalled 48 points with Eastwood trailing way behind on 113 for runners-up spot and St Thomas More third on 132.

Top runners from this event, plus the girls' championships the previous week, will be in action for Southend at the Essex Schools Championships at Chelmsford in January. Those qualifying from that day will go on to represent the County at the English Schools event, also at the Essex venue this year, in March.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) it's the turn of pupils from senior schools in Rochford and Castle Point to go for glory when their championships are staged at Sweyne Park, Rayleigh.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.