CHRIS Farrell has had a busy end to 2016 after following up his win at Hurst Green last week with second place in the Ribble Valley 10k.

Farrell went under 30 minutes for the 10k for the second time this month, while his fellow England international Gareth Booth took the MV45 first prize.

The festive competitive spirit was seen again at the Whinberry Naze fell race where most runners wore at least a Santa hat to mark the occasion on Boxing Day.

Andy Ford led the Horwich contingent home in sixth place, closely followed by the improving Michael Hallas.

Two of Horwich’s fell vets, Graham Schofield and Steve Jackson, continue to deliver the results, vying there for the top MV60 prize.

For the women, Erica Booth made a rare appearance on the fells, fitting the race into her triathlon training schedule for the 2017 international season.

The efforts for fancy dress on the day also secured second prize for the Horwich contingent.

In parkrun, yet another three Harriers achieved first places this week.

At Skipton, Joe Mercer finished in 17mins 40secs and at Haigh Woodland Zachary Howe achieved a fast time of 16:36.

Arguably the top parkrun performance, however, came from Lewis Wilkes who was first place at Bolton in 18:36 with two other Horwich juniors, Luke Brindle and Matthew Mair, also in the top 10.

Lewis' father, Neil, said: 'It's been a good season for Lewis but he's now making the transition to seniors and this parkrun shows his real potential to turn out some great performances."

Lewis ran for Greater Manchester at the nationals in Birmingham during the summer and will be looking to add to these honours in 2017.

Also of note in parkrun was under-10s' athlete Fern O’Brien’s personal best at Haigh Woodland, taking almost a full minute off her previous personal best time with 25:52.

The Harriers celebrated the sport of running in mid-winter with Tony Hesketh’s prediction race on Two Lads Hill on Christmas Eve, where the juniors turned out in strength.

Lily Philbin, from Bolton United Harriers, won the under-11s' race and was also most accurate in predicting her time – only one second out.

Robert Seddon won the u17s' race, with Ethan Isaacs closest in predicting his time by a margin of 40 seconds.

In the senior prediction race the top three in the club’s championship, Gary Chadderton, Lawrence Pinnell and Doug Fleming, renewed their friendly rivalry and no-one is predicting the result of that contest yet.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Whinberry Naze fell race (Haslingden) – 6th Andy Ford 28:53, 12th Michael Hallas 29:18, 21st Graham Schofield 30:21, 31st Steve Jackson 31:17, 51st Brian Walton 33:12, 57th Erica Booth 33:40, 81st Josie Greenhalgh 35:56, 159th Pete Heneghan 43:50.

Leyland 10k road race – 67th Ian Hamer 43:57, 115th Geoff Leech 47:07.

Ribble Valley 10k road race (Clitheroe) – 2nd Chris Farrell 29:59, 39th Gareth Booth 32:40, 49th Jonathan Bruton 33:15, 77th Simon Pymm 34:20, 97th James Jordan 35:13, 538th Steve Thomasson 48:30.