HORWICH completed the South East Lancs Cross Country League with the club's women dominating as a team and the men's U50 team also taking a series win.

The senior ladies had the closest battle, beating Rochdale by 14 points on the series whereas the the U35 and U40 teams ran way from the competition with final standings of 37 points to second place Altrincham's 153 in the U35 category and 57 points against Middleton's 159 at U40 level.

A clean sweep was missed as the club failed to finish a U45 team in the first race but won the other three convincingly. The senior men finished fourth to Salford whilst the U40 men were third behind Middleton.

The U50 men were never in doubt of retaining their trophy, leading Rochdale by 91 to 180.

Results: 1. M. Hill (guest, Tipton) 33:04; 5 J. Logue 35:29; 13 S. Barlow 36:55; 20 T. Hesketh (1st U50) 37:56; 52 S. Morran (U) 41:39; 70 A. Sweatman (U) 44:08; 73 P. Ramsdale (U) 44:24; 74 P. Walkington (U50) 44:24; 84 P. Bland (U50) 45:25; 90 K. Makin (U50) 46:17; 93 C. Waterworth (U) 46:43; 106 M. Crook (U50) 47:47; 108 P. Watson (U50) 48:15; 109 S. Baines 48:23; 110 A. Blinkhorn (U50) 48:25; 115 P. Scott (U50) 49:07; 121 G. Stone (U) 50:10; 130 T. Gidman (U50) 52:44. Ladies 1. J. Sparke(Altrincham) 17:49; 8 J. Harold (1st L35) 20:15; 11 S. Webb (3rd L35) 20:48; 12 G. Higson 21:03; 14 A. Foster (1st L45) 21:11; 17 S. Norris (2nd L35) 21:43; 18 L. Smart (L40) 22:02; 21 N. Guffog 22:20; 23 C. Wright (L40) 22:33; 25 M. White (3rd L40) 22:39; 52 C. Sweatman (L40) 29:20.

Further afield, Michael Cayton was up against the cream of Europe in the IAAF U20 World Cross Challenge at Brussels. His finishing position of 16th in 20:36 was only a minute behind winner Gareth Melvin.

On the fells, Graham Schofield finished 11th (31:06) at The Stoop race held at Haworth in West Yorkshire on Sunday with Tony Hesketh not far behind in 27th (33:13) to take the U50 prize. Sprightly Alan Robinson took the U70 honours in 51:43 for the five mile race with 800 feet of ascent.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.