The recent third team place for the senior men’s team in the C.A.U Inter-counties at Loughborough was a magnificent performance from a Sussex point of view.
In normal circumstances a top ten team placing would be considered an excellent placing and indeed the senior women’s team, who finished a splendid fifth was rather overshadowed by this year’s men’s effort but they had won the title in the 1970s.
It was way back in 1955 that the Sussex men had finished fifth, over a frozen and icy course at Liverpool punching well above their weight, and in 2016 team manager Dave Leach matched that placing , which equalled the highest ever placing by a Sussex team.
The races however were vastly different events and in 1955 the Inter-county championships over 7.5 miles was held on the third Saturday of January and was a major stepping stone, on the run up to the National 10-mile Cross-country championships, and selection for a place in the England team for the International Cross-country championships.
All the leading British runners lined up for the race, with the exception of Frank Sando from Kent who claimed that the icy conditions were dangerous. Ironically Sando was to be selected for the International Cross-county Championships following the National champs and he won the International title from Hugh Foord.
In the “55” Inter-county championships however it was Brighton’s Hugh Foord, who had won the County title a couple of weeks earlier led the team home in tenth place just one place and 16 seconds behind Surrey’s Gordon Pirie who was then regarded as the top British distance runner and one place ahead and one second ahead of Peter Driver, the Commonwealth Games One mile champion.
W.P Pat Ranger (Eastbourne), who was then in the R.A.F, was 14th and Horsham Blue Star’s Maurice Baker finished a brilliant 27th.
Peter West (Worthing) placed 48th while Brighton & Hove’s Dick Newington and Bert Foster completed the scoring six in 51st and 57th places with 217 points.
There can be little doubt that the icy conditions were a great leveller but it was still a tremendous achievement to get their scoring six in the first sixty places.
It was in 1955 that both Foord and Ranger made the English Cross-country team for the International Cross-country and both scored for the winning English team. Foord achieved the highest placing since, W.E (Joe) Cottrell Roy Corps of Signals (when stationed at Crowborough) when placing second to Sando.
Cotterell won in 1924 and again in 1929 after he had left Sussex when it was a different sort of race.
Crawley’s Tim Hutchings finished second twice in the 1980s when it had become the World Championships and was a much tougher race than the 1955 race.
By the 21st Century the Inter-counties were a different event and was moved to March, within a couple of weeks of the National Championships and no longer did all the leading Cross-country runners. Many leading runners with an eye on the then World Cross-country Championship would concentrate on the National championships or whatever race was deemed the selection race.
In 2016 it was County Masters champion, Keith Newton (Brighton & Hove) who led the Sussex team home placing 30th, his best ever placing in this event and he was followed by then club mate Max Dumbrell in a fine 42nd place and oft time Sussex runner James Baker (Chichester) placed 50th, which I believe is his highest placing in this event. The then emerging Paul Navesey (Crawley) filled 59th place while Dean 
Heneghan (Horsham Joggers), making his debut for Sussex filled 81st and Brighton & Hove’s James Turner closed in the scoring team in 84th place with 346 points, a fine performance to get all scoring six runners in the top One hundred finishers at this race.
Come 2020 a magnificent performance, at Loughborough, saw the senior men win their first ever Inter-county team medals. Former County champion from Lewes, Tom Evans, who is an ultra-distance specialist had probably the best cross-country run of his life. Evans clocked 38:15 in a magnificent third place behind Hampshire’s Mahamed Mahamed (Hants) who clocked 37:21 and Adam Hickey (Essex) 37:56.
Reigning Sussex champion Jack Leitch (Worthing) filled 14th place while Brighton & Hove’s Kevin Moore and James Knapp cracked the First fifty in 25th and 33rd and Simon Heath (Phoenix) 78th Will Cork (Brighton & Hove) closed in the team in 103rd position to total 256 points behind teams from the North East, who won with 203 points and Yorkshire’s 221 points.