Forth Valley run winners so close.

An injury-depleted Forth Valley Orienteers came within a hairbreadth of regaining the Compass Sport Cup on a dramatic day of racing in the English Midlands.

Orienteering's equivalent of the FA Cup was won by FVO in 2015 and 2016 but the local team travelled south to the Potteries shorn of nine of their points-scoring athletes from the qualifier in March and on-paper projections had them as much as 100 points behind 13-time winners SouthYorkshire and defending champions Bristol OK.

But great efforts by Mark Holliday (pictured) with 44.57 in the SuperVet category, Peter Molloy (30.34, Junior Men), Hazel Dean (40.24) and Dave Godfree (59.05) - both second in their classes - and a one-two Elite Men result for Mark Nixon (63.26) and Chris Smithard (65.57) gave FVO hope of a surprise victory.

TheYoung Junior Mens class saw James Hammond secure second place in 20.27 with team-mate Jamie Goddard close behind (23.33) in third.

Strong runs came from Jon Cross (50.45), Ben Stansfield (51.47) and Rona Molloy (43.44) in the veteran age groups while Dave Coustick (UltraVet Men, 49.48) and Pierre Lardet (Junior Men, 40.21) added vaulable points.

FVO was relying on their possible points scorers - ranked 20th to 25th in the scoring table - to put in a strong performance and were rewarded as first Ross McLennan (Veteran Men - 68.16), then Ana Trubkina (Elite Women - 60.06) and Mattie Smith (SuperVet Men - 64.42) produced points-scoring runs.

Near the finish, Jegor Kostylev (76.20) and Andy Llewellyn (76.50) scored valuable points in Elite Men and Fiona Berrow extended her all-time FVO points scoring record at this level with a strong finish in Elite Women (62.30), just ahead of team-mate Carolyn Hindle (62.33).

A classy run from Lizzie Stansfield in Junior Women (41.03) saw FVO finish nine points behind winners South Yorkshire.

Team captain Jon Cross said:" It was a great effort by the team and much closer than the pre-race projections suggested we might finish. As ever, FVO runners performed well when it matters."

CAPTION(S):

Great shift Mark Holliday did well in FVO's Compass Sports Cup bid