On Saturday morning 22-01-11 a sizable crowd gathered in Cheeryfield Park, Templeogue for the latest offering of the Bhaa Cross Country Season, organised by Eircom.  There was a definite hint of Spring in the air as the twittering ( not Mr. Boyle) but of the birds, was audible as the athletes warmed up on the football pitches of Ballyboden St. Enda's GAA Club.   Recent cool temperatures combined with the absent rain of late ensured that underfoot conditions were quite good for a cross country course in late January.  Despite these favourable conditions, there were occasional falls on some of the tighter corners where the ground became greasy underfoot.  In excess of 200 men took to the start line at midday with some top class runners to the fore including Mick Clohissey, Peter Matthews and Kevin Moriarty ensuring that the winning time would be particularly swift. An Garda Siochana Athletics was very well represented on this occasion with another "newbie" taking to the soft ground with the appetite of a powerful thoroughbred.  That man, Tom Power.  Tom in his maiden outing shot around the course in 36:34. It is fantastic to see so many new faces at the races wearing our colours.   Duracell Reddy continues his relentless assault on chasing top spot in his Division for the second year in a row with 43:30. Jeremiah Moloney will have done his overall classification in his division no harm at all when coming home in 39:14. Brian Brunton and Ian Redican continued their war of attrition.  Brian took the honours at SDCC two week previously by 40 seconds, however Ian took the crown this time around, and had 11 seconds to spare on Brian.  Karl McKenna made his second appearance on the XC circuit running 31:28 while Denis Ferry battled his way through the field in the latter stages of the race to cross the line in 31:25 with Anthony Malone just ahead of him in 30:47.  However our performance of the day was without question that of Bridget Buckley.  Bucks ran superbly to take 5th place in a race which fielded nearly 60 athletes.  With 800m to go she found herself struggling at the rear of a group of 6 runners all chasing 5th position, with the top four spread out ahead.  Sandra Armstrong of Dublin Hospitals made the decisive break with 400m to go.  Bucks was the only one who covered Armstrongs injection of pace and latched onto her shoulder as they matched each other stride for stride.  Thundering down the home straight cheering onlookers egged them on, as their battle of wills raged.  Armstrong had prevailed two weeks earlier at the SDCC race by 1 second and with 20m to go it seemed she had the advantage again, but Bucks mustered a final push and prevailed by 2 seconds.