Leeds impaired by late loss of Buckley

Despite improving on last year's eighth place, 2008 winners Leeds will be disappointed they were out of the medals. Weakened by injury to Simon Deakin, they suffered a further blow with the late withdrawal of Alan Buckley due to illness.

The best Leeds performance came from Dave Webb on stage five, a long one. Webb has raced sparingly during the winter while training for the marathon. He moved from 11th to fourth with a time of 26:04, fourth-fastest of the day for the long stage. James Walsh (26:16) was not much slower and moved into second place on stage seven but Leeds could not match Newham and Essex, comfortable winners, Tipton and Scottish club Shettlestone and Aldershot passed them on the last stage.

Fastest short stage runner for Leeds was Mike Burrett (14:57) who gained five places on the second stage.

The Leeds B team were the top second squad in 22nd.

Other notable performances came from Holmfirth pair Mark Buckingham (26:10) and Matthew Pierson (26:14).

The women's race was a formality for Aldershot and Farnham who had the fastest runner in Steph Twell (15:22). Swansea, Coventry and Hallamshire battled it out for the other medals with Hallamshire just missing out for the second year. On stage three Hatti Dean took the Hallamshire team from 16th to third (16:05, the second fastest time of the day). They slipped out of the medal positions on the final two stages and missed Lizzie Adams.

Leeds City did well to finish 10th, helped by a fine run from Susan Partridge. She was fourth fastest overall with 16:21.