THE Blue Vests of Bolton marked their return to the national stage with a fantastic team effort at the 12-Stage ERRA English National Road Relays.

The journey to Sutton Park in Birmingham yielded a 32nd placing of 66 teams.

The cumulative time of 4hrs 42mins 55secs saw them finish 10th out of all northern teams and third out of those from the North West, with only Liverpool and Salford higher.

Jonny Kay once again led the team off with the argy-bargy of first leg, only to trip twice in the first mile. His 29:15 was still Bolton’s third quickest.

Martin Reid took over, pulling the team up 15 places with a barnstorming 16:12 for the short leg of three miles, before Karl Darcy put in 28:26 – the club’s fastest time for the long leg of 5.3 miles.

Frazer Jardine handed over in the highest position (31st), before a yo-yoing of places with Andrew Crickmore, Dom Gavin and Tommy Harrison.

Marc Tillotson struggled, but deserves credit after coping with a virus all week, before Tom Lucas showed his versatility following his marathon efforts last weekend.

John Knowles pulled back another three places, clocking the same as fellow M40 Tony Valentine (29:49), before Scott Crompton overtook Barlick Fell Runners – who had pipped BUH&AC by seven seconds at the Northern qualifiers in Sunderland a fortnight ago – to build a minute’s gap by the finish line.

Proud team manager Dave Shaw said: “We all had a great day, building a good atmosphere that was capped with an excellent team result.”

Bolton results: 4:42:55, 32nd, Jonothan Kay (49) 29:15, Martin Reid (34) 16:12, Karl Darcy (32) 28:26, Frazer Jardine (31) 16:46, Anthony Valentine (32) 29:49, Andrew Crickmore (32) 17:42, Marc Tillotson (36) 31:18, Dominic Gavin (37) 18:22, Tommy Harrison (36) 29:12, Tom Lucas (36) 18:10, John Knowles (33) 29:49, Scott Crompton (32) 17:54.

A 30-strong Bolton squad were denied a clean sweep of victories in the Central Lancashire Grand Prix team events at the Radcliffe 10K by Burnden Road Runners' women.

With Blue Vests taking five of the top 10 places in a field of 350, led by Tom Carson in overall bronze, the men’s team (22 points) recorded a narrow victory over Leigh by five points.

Nicola Cartridge eclipsed Bury’s Katie Geelan by 42 seconds to win and maintain her lead at the top of the women’s CLGP standings over Burnden’s Liz McLellan, though the race team counters, including promising juniors Liv Kearney and Rachel Bailey, narrowly lost out to BRR by two points.

The event, the third round of the CLGP, saw Phil Marsden and Chris Pickford feature in the A team (first 10 counters) for the first time in 2016, whilst the B team (next eight counters) featured an improving Stephen Bonney and injury-free Paul Mills.

John Knowles (M40) once again led the dominant vets’ team with M45 Simon Dally and fellow M40 Chris Povey hot on his heels.

BUH&AC times: Tom Carson 35:04, Tommy Harrison 35:25, Phil Marsden 35:39, John Knowles 35:57, Simon Dally 36:27, Tom Lucas 37:42, Chris Povey 38:47, Dominic Gavin 38:58, Chris Pickford 40:57, Nicola Cartridge 41:04, Peter Kearney 42:11, Ken Fowler 42:48, Stephen Bonney 42:52, James Rideout 42:54, Peter Walker 42:57, Paul Mills 43:05, Andrew Gallagher 44:17, Stewart Brierley 44:18, Andrew Barrow 46:51, Olivia Kearney 47:00, Rachel Bailey 47:13, Simon Thorne 48:42, Cecilia Woods 50:47, John McMyler 51:54, Hannah Edwards 52:45, David Morrison 53:39, Geoffrey Knowles 59:09, Gail Harrison 60:22, Nicola Halsall 61:21, Gerard Tucker 67:38.

Elsewhere, Nick Howarth overcame issues with his timing chip to lead three BUH&AC in the Chirk Triathlon in Wrexham. A field of 367 completed the 400m Swim, 23km bike and 5km run, with Howarth clocking 1:20:11 for 119th. Laurence Jackson (1:23:11) was not far behind while Jane Jackson’s (1:35:23) bike ride was complicated by a delay to the race.