Gisborne Boys’ High School’s annual cross-country at Sponge Bay once again proved a mixture of competition and fun for the hundreds of students who took part.

And the fun factor, as usual, came from mud, glorious mud.

Who knows what else lurks in the brown stuff and what exactly was the reaction from the person who washes their clothes, but Lennox Weatherley and Jack Taylor were happy to cake themselves in it.

Others had no choice as mates pushed and pulled them into the dirty depths although there was not as much mud to revel in as in previous years.

A grass fire hundreds of metres away on Sponge Bay Road, which sent smoke across the course, added to the day’s drama.

Results and more on the cross-country to follow.