Hercules Wimbledon's men's and women's cross country runners ended their league programmes in fine form with the women gaining promotion in the Surrey Ladies League for the first time and the men posting their best team performance of the season.

In addition, Hercules Wimbledon youngsters took three individual titles.

Hercules Wimbledon secured a place in the top division of the Surrey Ladies League for the first time by securing third overall place in the final Division Two match at Wimbledon Common on Saturday despite two of ther club's runners missing the start.

The successful squad was led in by Masumi Dobson who finished 12th of more than 130 runners in 33 minutes 16 seconds.

Rosemary Fernando was 25th in 36:24, marathon runner Claire Grima, who is expecting a baby this summer, 35th in 37:17, Marilena De Luca 41st in 38:20 and Annmarie Seymour 44th in 38:59.

Other Hercules Wimbledon runners were newcomer Agnieski Mizerek 73rd in 41:52 and Rowena Hornshaw 91st in 43:37 and Amy Dolan 94th in 43:58, who both missed the start.

Meanwhile, the club's senior men were in action in the final Sweatshop Surrey League meeting over a testing, muddy and undulating course at Guildford.

The team finished third on the day and fourth overall for the season.

It was led in by Kieran White who was 12th out of more than 160 runners in 26:36.

Teenager Liam White, who was too young to score in the team, was two places behind in 27:00 with Alex Robinson, who was first under 20 finisher to clinch the under 20 individual title for the season, 17th in 27:10.

Other Hercules Wimbledon scorers were Adam Przedrzymirski (28th in 27:37), Ian Horrocks, having his first race of the season, 40th in 28:12; former English cross country champion Dave Clarke 50th and first veteran over 50 finisher in 28:43, Phil Glynn 52nd in 28:47, Gervase King 63rd in 29:17, Deon Coetzee 67th in 29:25; Mike Halman 74th in 29:34 and Richard Xerri 75th in 29:35.

Other Hercules Wimbledon finishers were Matthew Sharp 91st in 30:22, veteran Peter Lee 97th in 30:32, Jamie Helmer 101st in 30:59 and Stewart Bond 143rd in 34:42.

Joe Clark finished runner-up in the young athletes race in 16:33 to clinch the individual under 15 title for the season.

Other Hercules Wimbledon finishers, who helped the club retain their league title, were Ben Palmer, fourth in 17:18, Dean Bilhaj seventh in 17:48, Augustin Mallon 8th in 18:03 and Daniel Haigh 11th in 19:18.

Although he did not run at Guildford, Ed Saywell took the U17 individual title for the season.

Cassian Hyde, who finished second in the U13 race in 16:43 was also overall runner-up in the individual standings for the season.

Other Hercules Wimbledon runners in the U13 race were Alex Bond 13th in 21:13, Julian Howard-Baker 16th in 21:37 and Max Wilking 18th in 23:17.

They helped Hercules Wimbledon finish runners-up for the season in the U13 section.

Elsewhere, Hercules Wimbledon's Tim Livingstone had the race of his young life when he led Surrey to second place in the South of England schools inter-county match at Reigate on Saturday.

He finished second out of more than 70 runners in 13:52, just 11 seconds behind the winner of the junior boys championship and gave a big boost to his chances of being selected to represent the county in next month's English schools championships in Manchester.

Two other Hercules Wimbledon youngsters with English schools team places in their sights, Joe Toomey and Ed Saywell, were also in action at Reigate.

Saywell was 35th in the intermediate boys race in 20:43 and Toomey 41st in the senior boys event in 26:20.

Hercules Wimbledon's Alex Bruce-Littlewood finished 35th out of more than 200 runners in the British Uiversities and Colleges men's 11.1km cross country championship at Stirling University on Saturday in 36:52.

Jennifer Fernando was 140th out 240 runners in the women's 6.4km championship in 29:16 with younger sister Hannah 167th in 30:29.

This weekend, Hercules Wimbledon are staging the East Surrey League cross country relays on Wimbledon Common on Saturday.

The boys U13 1.95-mile race starts at 2pm from close to the junction of The Causeway and West Place, near the Fox and Grapes pub, at 2pm with all other age groups starting at 2.30pm.

The young athletes relays are over three laps of 1.95 miles with the seniors and veterans relays over four laps of the same distance.