Tadcaster Grammar School girls compete in the English Schools' Cross Country Cup final at Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, on Saturday.

Their team of Lisa Collett, Nicola Lampard, Lauren Mason, Kate Hollier, Rhiannon Parsons and Emma Shooter will be hoping to improve on, or at least match, the eighth place in which they finished last year.

York Schools' Cross Country Championships are being held on Knavesmire on Tuesday. The boys start at 10am with the Year 7 race. The girls run in the afternoon, starting with Intermediates (Years 10 and 11) at 1.30pm, when Lara Gibbs (St Peter's) and Asha Hibbert (Canon Lee) should be favourites. The Year 7s' run at 1.55pm with Victoria Graves (Archbishop Holgate's) likely to do well.

The Juniors' race, starting, at 2.20pm, could be the best event as Nicola Lampard and Lauren Mason, both of Tadcaster Grammar, are challenged by Emma Macalister-Hall (St Olave's), who won all four of her school's races last season and finished 30th in the National Championships against the year group above her.

There will be a training session on the course at 11.15am on Sunday, meeting at Hamilton Panthers FC pavilion on Knavesmire Road.

Updated: 12:51 Wednesday, November 28, 2001