A trio of young Horwich Harriers travelled to the South Coast and performed well at the English Schools Cross-Country Championships.
Kitty Crossland, Charlotte Wilkinson and Harrison Stokes were competing for Lancashire Schools at the Ardingly Showground in West Sussex.
Crossland was competing for the first time at this higher level and did well, coming safely in the middle of the pack with a time of 11mins 8secs over 2.8km in the Junior Girls’ event.
Wilkinson was competing for the last time at the English Schools event in the Senior Girls’ race, running comfortably in the top-half of the field with an excellent 15:56 over 4.1km, while being the third runner in for Lancashire.
Stokes ran the 6km Senior Boys’ event in a fine 20:25, also scoring for Lancashire in the process.
Closer to home, seven Horwich athletes took on the relatively local Roddlesworth Roller - an undulating 9km trail race around the Roddlesworth Reservoirs, starting and finishing in Abbey Village.
Adam MacDonald came home an excellent 14th overall and third V40 in a very fast 38:29.
Kevin Newall almost broke the 42-minute barrier in running 42:05, Sean McMyler was fifth in a very competitive V60 field, in 43:59, Graham Schofield was second V65 in 44:37, Katherine Newall broke 50 minutes in running 49:19, Helen Shan got around in 51:47 and Tony Hesketh won the V75 category in 58:32.
There’s also a shorter race for kids called the Daffodil Doddle - a 2.1km run on similar, flatter terrain.
Toby MacDonald was the second boy home, third overall, and first boy in the primary school age group with a fast 8:16, while his sister Matilda came 17th out of 129 finishers with a time of 9:10.
Out on the fells, Sam Fairhurst decided to take on the 11km/2,000-feet Beater Clough fell race in the small village of Portsmouth, roughly equidistant between Burnley and Todmorden.
In a hard race where only two managed to get home under an hour, Fairhurst showed himself the fastest of them all on a highly undulating route, coming home in first place overall in a fantastic 58:16, over a minute-and-a-half ahead of second place in the process.
He was not the only Harrier there, as Dan Gilbert came 12th in 1:06:34, Alistair Murray was not too far behind, being 17th in 1:09:08, while Stephanie McKee rounded off a splendid showing by the Harriers by finishing in the top half of the field in 1:25:44.
The local parkruns also saw several Horwich runners at the various starting lines.
Mark Seddon was the furthest away from home, popping up in Oxfordshire to run Witney in 26:11, while Mary White was in deepest Shropshire when tackling Alderford Lake in a time of 28:16 and Paul Kaye was just outside Nottingham when rushing around Rushcliffe in a brisk 22:16.
At the more local events, former Mayor of Horwich, Gordon Stone, returned to action at Worsley Woods to run 32:21, while the Middletons rocked up at Warrington where Jason completed the course in 24:30 and Janet ran 31:57.
Jack Hardman ran a personal-best time in Preston in a fast 19:33, Brendan Bolland fancied a trip to the seaside by tackling Morecambe in 26:44 and Alex Fowler just missed the 20-minute mark at Worden by six seconds.
Peel and Haigh Woodland saw some unofficial competition as four ran Peel - Rob Jackson leading them home in 18:40, while Andrew Crickmore got 21:56, Hayley Winder ran 23:44 and Steve Jackson continued his return to action with 33:31.
Haigh saw six Harriers involved with Isaac Parker coming fifth in 18:46. Richard O’Reilly was only two places behind in 20:17, Alison Mort clocked 24:18, Andrew Storey got around in 28:29, Kristina Mountain ran 32:05, Gillian Smith ran 36:46 and Lawrence Pinnell did 45:59.
In a slew of fine parkrun performances, the finest of all this weekend came from Joe Mercer, who blasted around Marple and finished first in an excellent 17:09.
