BURNDEN ladies picked up silver at the National Masters Road Relay Championships in Birmingham at the weekend.

Gwen Kinloch’s time of 20mins 27secs, along with Anne Ferguson’s 21:48 and Lesley Fisher’s 20:46, saw them finish just 18 seconds behind winners Bingley Harriers in the V55 category.

Burnden’s Ladies also fared well in the V45 category with Lyndsay Darbyshire (20:34), Carolyn Barker (22:41) and Kirsty White (19:34) finishing in seventh place, just eight seconds separating them and the two teams that finished in fifth and sixth.

Burnden’s male vet 55 team of Keith Thomas (18:51), Stewart Jones (19:40) and Andy Staveley (18:20) finished 11th in their category, narrowly missing out on a top-10 finish by 11 seconds.

Lee White (18:33), Matt Barker (20:40), Craig Philpot (21:37), Colin Rigby (18:21), Paul Duke (18:25) and Andrew Henderson (18:26) finished a respectable 31st in the highly competitive V35 category.

Paul Christie (21:12) Reb Teyve (24:57), Andy Warburton (23:46) and Chris Greenall (21:25) competed in the V45 category with Dave Pearson completing the course as a single runner in 24:40.

Ed Ashton led home a 15-strong Burnden contingent at the Last Drop Loop Fell Race. Ashton finished 12th overall, completing the 8.6km route with 800ft of climb over some tricky trails in a highly impressive 45:12.

Laurence Keighley notched 47:00 as the next member to finish with Rob Short (48:33) and Don Nichol (59:17) the others to dip in under an hour. Jackie Oakes was second F40 in 1:00:52 with Phil Glassbrook 1st V70 in 1:02:53.

Burnden's other competitors were Julie Newton (1:03:53), Richard Lord (1:08:03), Sally Cottrill (1:11:07), Alec Cottrill (1:11:07), Diane Morrison (1:24:24), Joanne Darby (1:24:24), Fiona Ashton (1:24:24), Louise Geoghegan (1:24:24) and Dave Beevers (1:29:02).

There were several category successes at the Haigh Hall Inter Club 3.75-mile race in midweek with a new route providing a stern test for all entrants.

Phil Eccleston led a strong club presence, grabbing fifth place overall in 21:21.

George Butler was first u20 in 23:35, while Andy Staveley took the V55 honours in 23:40.

Liz McLellan was second lady home overall and first L45 with a time of 25:30 and Paula Pilling followed her as third lady to finish and first L40 in 25:44.

Gwen Kinloch (27:44) and Anne Ferguson (29:25) took the top two places in the L55 category and Kinloch’s time, along with McLellan and Pilling, was more than enough to claim the ladies' team prize.

Ed Ashton (24:41) was second V50, crossing the line in 24:41 with Keith Thomas third V55 in 25:45.

Shirley Staveley claimed second L50 with a time of 30:18, while third place in the V60 class went to Paul Christie in 28:17 with Katy Thompson third L40 in 29:57 and Tony Foster third V65 in 35:55. Eccleston, Butler and Staveley’s times, plus Lee White’s 24:02, earned the men third place in the team standings.

The other times were: Colin Faulds 24:39, Paul Duke 24:51, Marcus Chester 24:52, Laurence Keighley 25:58, Adrian Merritt 26:35, Stewart Jones 26:43, Matt Barker 27:25, Dave Swift 28:01, Steven Bate 28:16, Lawrence McDonald 28:27, Lyndsay Darbyshire 28:42, Mark Butler 28:49, Chris Greenall 28:59, Colm O’Brien 29:31, Rebecca Wensley 29:43, Craig Philpot 29:44, Sarah Sutcliffe 30:04, Carolyn Barker 30:48, Lorraine Halwood 30:49, David Newman 31:07, Phil Lamb 31:50, Andy Warburton 33:20, Julie Newton 34:56, Fiona Ashton 35:57, Kierenne Baldwin 40:08, Rita Ledwards 40:36, Dawn Evans 41:01, Joanne Darby 41:05 and Gillian McGowan 45:55.

Phil Eccleston came in under 75 minutes at the Chester Half Marathon. His time of 1:14:41 earned him 13th place out of a huge field of over 5,240. He covered the first half of the race in 36:50 and crossed the 10-mile mark in 56:53.

Four Burnden members travelled to the Yorkshire border with Cumbria for the second race in the 2016 Montane Trail Series among the rolling Howgills, one of the toughest events in the calendar.

Lorraine Halwood (6:11:23) and John Hall (6:11:25) took on the full marathon. Mark Butler and Ann Butler took on the half-marathon distance with Mark home in 2:46:01 and Ann registering 3:40:11.

Colin Faulds recorded a time of 38:08 to finish a tremendous 27th overall out of 153 finishers in the Mearley Clough Fell Race, an arduous test over 5.6km of tricky trails and paths with 1,250ft of climb.