Falkirk Vics star Scott Stirling plays his part in Scotland team silver medal at Home Countries International XC

The course was hilly with several hairpin bends which became increasingly slippy and harder to navigate as the races progressed and saw a number of falls.

In the senior men’s 10k, which was five laps of the tough course, Hugo Milner (Derby) took first place in 29:58, closely followed by Tom Evans (Lewes) in 30:00 and Mahamed Mahamed (Southampton) third in 30:11.

Scot Jamie Crowe (Central AC) stayed part of the front pack until the final downhill towards the finish and crossed the line in 30:11, finishing fourth overall but picked up an individual gold for the Home Counties International event. Falkirk Victoria Harriers ace Scott Stirling ran well, finishing 12th overall in 31:05.

“It was a great experience,” Vics star Stirling said. “I went out hard then faded in the middle part of the race. The course was really tough, I had hoped for a bit better but it was still a good run against the top guys in Britain. My dad, Tom, made the journey from Falkirk and back on the same day, it means a lot to have such great support.”

The Scottish men’s senior team won silver medal thanks to the tremendous combined efforts of Jamie Crowe, Scott Stirling and Angus McMillan (City of York) while the senior women won gold in the same event thanks to Scout Adkin (Moorfoot Runners), Kirsty Walker (Edinburgh AC) and Holly Page (Carnethy HRC).