PHIL Marsden narrowly missed out on successive winning weekends as he flew round the Pendle Hill course to finish second.

He was thwarted by Horwich’s own Rob Hope running for Pudsey and Bramley, while club colleagues Joe Mercer – making a first appearance for 2017 on the fells – came fifth and Jonathan Bruton ninth.

The cross country season is drawing to a close and at Leigh Sports Village the best performances were from Janet Rashleigh who has wintered Down Under and claimed the L55 prize with a fine 11th place overall.

Under-15s' Robert Seddon continues to steadily improve and took third place on the day and sixth place in the Mid Lancs series.

Still on the cross-country scene, it was the presentation evening for the Red Rose Cross Country League at Horwich RMI on Friday in which the club's big winners were the u13s boys who scooped the team series prize with Cian Healy, Matthew Flatters, Matthew Mair and Toby Middleton claiming second, third, fourth and fifth places behind Jackson McKay of Clayton le Moors.

The u13s girls were the bronze medal winners in the team series.

In the vets, David Miliken and Tony Hesketh, in the V50 and V65 categories, respectively, secured second series places.

Moving from the fells to the trails of Smithills, Alastair Murray benefited from his long-distance training programme in the relatively short Trotters 5 Miler staged by Burnden Road Runners.

He was second overall and easily took the V40 prize, while Tony Hesketh was first M65 and Brenda Hesketh, who is usually found encouraging her junior squad on the fells, made a rare race outing and took the F60 prize.

On the road, the Trafford 10k attracted a large quality field of over more than 800 athletes and Chris Farrell and Michael Cayton were not fazed, putting in solid performances in wet and breezy conditions.

In parkrun, Lucas Collings was second in the junior run at Queens Park, while in the senior parkrun, Lukas Siska and Richard Howarth extended their winning records with first places at Bolton and Cuerden Valley.

Horwich RMI results: Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round fell race (Barley) – 2nd Phil Marsden 1:08:12, 5th Joe Mercer 1:12:20, 9th Jonathan Bruton 1:14:12, 65th Steve Jackson 1:29:27, 107th Mick Green 1:36:03;

Mid Lancs Cross Country (Leigh Sports Village) – u13 girls – 36th Alyssia Jackson; u13 boys – 13th Matthew Mair 11:05; u15 boys – 3rd Robert Seddon 13:56; senior ladies – 11th Janet Rashleigh 28:24; senior men – 182nd Gordon Stone 56:35, 184th Lawrence Pinnell 58:19;

Trotters 5 mile trail race (Smithills) – 2nd Alastair Murray 29:15, 28th Michael Chadderton 33:35, 79th David Unsworth 36:54, 105th Tony Hesketh 38:32, 152nd Pete Bland 42:22, 190th Lawrence Pinnell 44:16, 198th Bernadette Unsworth 44:53, 286th Brenda Hesketh 52:32;

Trafford 10k road race – 21st Chris Farrell 30:27, 66th Michael Cayton 31:30.