Orkney Women have Lindsays XC Season off to flying start with historic North golds and there’s excitement at East and West, too

Sunday 12th October 2025

The Lindsays Cross Country Season is off and running and what a brilliant weekend we enjoyed for the Lindsays District XC Relays.

Big fields turned out at three venues and at this juncture we say a huge thank you to competing athletes, their coaches and our clubs.

Thanks to all volunteers and Officials and in particular our three host clubs Kilmarnock Harriers in the West, Lothian RC in the East and Inverness Harriers in the North.

As Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week concludes, let’s start our round-up from three venues in the North and a special day for Orkney RAC at Inverness . . .

Lindsays North District XC Relays

North Results page

An Orkney women’s team travelled to Inverness by air, road and ferry to secure an historic first-ever win in the Lindsays North District cross country relay championships at Bught Park

Lillie Giggle-Bain (14:55), Elsie Hutchison (15:29) – from Westray, a further 80 minute ferry journey north of Kirkwall – and Ava Luke (14:36) took the honours by 25 seconds from defending champions Highland Hill Runners, with another island club, Stornoway, in third place.

Defending men’s champions Inverness Harriers (Ruairidh Stirling 12:49, Robin Regan 12:27, Stephen Mackay 12:23 and Luke Davidson 12:16) took a narrow lead after the first leg and extended it before being pegged back to a 56 second victory margin by East Sutherland’s Ross Gollan who produced the fastest time of 11:50. Bronze went to Moray Road Runners.

JSK Running Club (Tammy Wilson 16:05, Andrea Drummond 19:49 and Roma McIntosh 18:34) took Masters Females gold and the male award went to Inverness Harriers (David McColl 14:17, Donnie MacDonald 13:12, Paul Paterson 15:05 and Norman Ferguson 14:33).

Inverness took both young athletes’ titles but the margin of victory over Ross County on the male side was only two seconds.

Riley Davidson (9:36), Charles Davies (8:47) and Archie Grant (8:26) were pursued right to the line by County’s Billy Sutherland who had the fastest time of 7:52, and County’s B team took third place.

In contrast, Inverness took all three young female medals, with gold going to Kyla Grant (9:17), Niamh Doorley (9:33) and Anna Meek (9:32), and Peterhead’s Hayleigh Reid produced the fastest lap of 9:07.

With thanks to Charles Bannerman

Photo by Carol Sim

+++

Lindsays East District XC Relays

East Results page

The East season made a strong start at Dechmont Law with the Lindsays East District XC Relay Championships – the first competitive outing of the Cross Country season for many clubs.

Young Females
Aberdeen AAC made a commanding start to their season with a decisive win in the Young Females Relay, delivering consistent performances across all three legs to take gold. Harmeny AC pushed hard to claim silver, while Edinburgh AC completed the podium in third after a close-fought battle.

Young Males
The Young Males race proved one of the most competitive of the day. In the end, it was Harmeny AC who came through strongly to take top spot. Lasswade AC and Corstorphine AAC followed in second and third respectively after brilliant performances from their teams.

Senior and Masters Females
The Senior and Masters Female Relay featured a wide variety of athletes, from student runners and first-time relay participants to experienced XC Masters regulars– showcasing the depth and diversity of cross country running in the East.

Central AC took the win after the lead changing hands several times to make for an exciting race, with Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds in second. Aberdeen AAC rounded out the medals in third.

Senior and Masters Males
Anticipation had been building throughout the day for the Senior and Masters Men’s race, and it did not disappoint.

A strong run from Central AC saw them claim victory in the final event, ahead of Aberdeen AAC in second and Carnethy Hill Running Club in third – wrapping up what was an exciting return to the mud for clubs across the district.

Big thank you as always to all Officials and volunteers who made the event possible – and to the athletes, coaches and supporters who continue to create a welcoming and fun atmosphere at the Lindsays XC Season events.

With thanks to Eilidh Miller

+++

West Results page

Cambuslang Harriers have a strong cohort of athletes at Senior level currently – and that became clear at the Lindsays West District XC Relays.

In fact, the Kilmarnock podiums were painted red for most of day with the exception of the opening race, the Young Females.

Cambuslang duly won both Senior races in fine style with the quality of athlete in attendance high in particular in the Senior Men’s last race of the day.

Anchor leg Andrew McGill was handed an advantage and held off the chasing Lewis Hannigan with Kilbarchan thus taking the silvers as Ben Potrykus guided Inverclyde AC to the bronze medals.

Cambuslang and Kilbarchan were on the Senior Women’s podium, too, as the women in red took the win. This time, a strong Glasgow Uni team split the other two clubs as the students landed fine silver medals.

Giffnock North won the Masters Women’s race from Greenock and Garscube and when the Masters Men’s podium assembled there was another splash of red again. Cambuslang teams took gold and bronze there with Inverclyde the silver medallists.

The Young Females race had opened the action and there was a fine win for Inverclyde AC; Giffnock were second and Law and District AC were third.

With a brilliant anchor run from Callum Dick, there was no stopping Giffnock from gold in the Young Males race as Cambuslang took the silver and Law and District a second set of bronze medals.