It was a close call this time with Notts AC just nine points behind.

Leeds went into the race without their Northern champion Dave Webb, suffering from illness after racing in Belgium the previous week, but Notts were also without their No 1 runner.

Leeds were spearheaded by their Midlands champion James Walsh. He led the field on the first lap, but then lost ground before finishing strongly for an outstanding sixth place.

Medical student Adam Grice is getting better all the time and finished a splendid 16th and veteran Darran Bilton, 42, had an amazing run for 28th place, despite a long standing achilles tendon problem.

With three of the six counters home, Leeds had a 27-point margin over Notts, but the Midlands outfit made inroads with their other three counters without looking as though they quite had the strength to derail the powerful Leeds squad.

Chris Birchall ran solidly throughout for 40th, one ahead of Simon Deakin who was down on his Northern performance. The last Leeds counter was Martin Hilton, stalwart of all the Leeds successes in recent years.

His season has been wrecked by a persistent leg injury and he was a doubtful starter until late in the week leading up to the race. Despite that he ran a gritty race to complete the scoring in 52nd place.

Martin Roscoe (60th), Mike Burrett (64th) and Adam Osborne (70th) all ran well, giving the Leeds team the trophy for nine counters as well.

There was a significant run by Bingley's Chris Cariss. Serious injury struck when he failed narrowly to make the marathon team for the last Olympics and he has hardly raced since. He finished a commendable 18th in the field of 1,250.

Northern winner Alistair Brownlee was beaten in the junior race by Lee Carey (Nuneaton), but was well clear of the rest for the silver medal while in the youngest age group, the Under-13s, Yorkshire and Northern champion Fergus Roberts completed a clean sweep with an easy win.

In the women's race, won comfortably by Liz Yelling, the best Yorkshire runner was Victoria Wilkinson (Bingley) who finished 11th. Hatti Dean was 21st, not in the sort of form that saw her run in the World Championships last year. Her team, Hallamshire, finished seventh, the first Northern team by some margin.

Northern champions Rotherham took the bronze medals in the junior women's race. Another fine run by Rosie Edwards gave her sixth place and she was well supported by Natalie Grant (28th), Klatchen Cheshire (39th) and Jade Allen (41st).

STEPHEN HEPPLES (Loftus and Whitby) won the Snake Lane 10-mile road race at Pocklington yesterday. Strong winds meant Hepples was well outside his own course record, but 50mins 37secs was a class performance.