BURNDEN scored a string of overall victories in the 2016 Central Lancs Grand Prix Series.

The final race in the series at Gin Pit village resulted in an avalanche of team and age-category prizes.

Men’s captain Lee White and Andy Staveley took their age groups, in the M40 and M55 respectively.

Liz McLellan was first F45 and second female competitor overall to continue her fantastic season with Paula Pilling first F40 and third overall.

Ladies captain Gwen Kinloch led by example throughout the series and claimed the F55 top spot.

Second places in their age groups went to Katy Thompson (F40), Lucille Corrigan (F45), Shirley Staveley (F50) and Anne Ferguson (F55).

In the team standings, the club’s B Team, Vets team and ladies' teams all claimed first spot with the A Team second in their rankings.

The Red Rose Cross Country League series kicked off at Leigh with a large and competitive field.

Pilling was third L40 and 16th overall in 23mins 16secs, with Shirley Staveley fourth L50 not far behind in 25:03, closely followed seconds later by Lyndsay Darbyshire who finished in 25:15.

Anne Ferguson was third L55 in 26:03, Elaine Roper claimed fourth L55 with 29:02 and Brenda Sedgwick was first L70 in 34:46.

Pilling, Staveley and Darbyshire’s combined times earned the club fourth place in the Ladies' Vets team standings.

Other ladies' results: Jane Forrest 27:09, Maria Parkinson 30:21, Sally Cottrill 30:50, Jenna Leeks 31:46, Emma Donaldson 34:12, Louise Wall 35:06.

In the men’s race, Martin Whalley led the Burnden challenge with a time of 42:12. Ed Ashton was next in 44:43 followed by Rob Short in 46:26.

Other men's results: Steven Bate 51:12, Tony Wall 51:26, Paul Christie 51:38, Colm O’Brien 52:46, Don Nichol 53:37, Rob Mack 54:24, Marcus Taylor 56:14.

After her cross country exploits, Shirley Staveley followed up less than 24 hours later with third F50 place and 64th place overall in the Ennerdale Trail race, a 25k circuit of Ennerdale Water in the Lake District. She completed the tough course in 2:47:35.

Andy Staveley delivered a top-10 finish in the race, ninth overall and first V50 in 2:07:56.

Burnden’s nine participants in the Manchester Half Marathon all showed incredible consistency in their split times, which results in some personal bests and one or two near misses.

Gareth Doherty led the way with split times of 21:25 for the first 5k, 21:07 for the second and 22:42 for the third before crossing the finish in 1:30:02.

George Butler was next in a time of 1:41:28 with 5k split times of 21:23, 43:09 for 10k and 1:08:29 for 15k with a final 6k of 32:59.

Linda O'Byrne crossed the line in 1:49:25 with times of 25:11, 25:30 and 26:29 for the first three 5k splits before finishing with a 6k of 32:15.

Also finishing in under two hours, Maggie Slamin was next with 5k times of 27:57, 28:17 and 28:08 before a final 6k of 34:43 for an overall time of 1:59:15.

Ann Butler and Mark Butler finished within a second of each other, Ann shading it in 2:06:26 with a strong finish.

Judy Povey was not far behind in 2:12:39, followed by Dawn Evans in 2:29:15 and Gillian McGowan in 2:41:59.

Iain Conner and Wasyl Gelyczak completed the New York City Scope It Out 5k in 26:08 and 26:12 respectively.

In Majorca, Colin Rigby led the club home in the Palma Half Marathon with a cracking time in hot conditions of 1:28:58. Keith Thomas was a short distance behind in 1:30:08.

Julie Newton crossed in 2:08:46 ahead of Diane Morrison in 2:17:56 and Dave Beevers in 2:54:57.

Stewart Jones was fourth M55 in the 10k race in Palma, finishing inside the top 100 in 84th place with a time of 43:48.