A STRONG Horwich team finished 14th out of more than 50 'A' teams at the Northern Road Relays in Blackpool, despite the absence of international star Chris Farrell.

The Horwich side came in just one place behind Bolton United Harriers.

Farrell was otherwise occupied competing in the invitational Home Countries Cross Country International in south Wales where he finished as the top-placed North of England athlete, helping them to finish ahead of Wales and Northern Ireland but behind England and Scotland, who fought it out for top spot.

The North were pipped by the Midlands by one point for third spot.

Meanwhile in Stanley Park, Horwich were 14th of 48 northern ‘A’ teams, achieving the top-25 place that should qualify the team for the National Road Relays at Sutton Coldfield in two weeks’ time.

Mike Cayton led the team out having recovered well from the Wilmslow race the previous week.

The club welcomed Julian Goudge into its ranks and he took his chance to put in a strong shift.

Best stage performances came from Sam Wardle, seventh on stage 10, and Alastair Murray, ninth on stage eight, but it was a great team effort.

Martyn Bell, who coaches mostly these days, also ran a great stage and put his performance down to “the support that goes on behind the scenes that contributes to the terrific team spirit”.

The Coniston 14-mile road race boasts of being the most beautiful road race in Britain, around the Lake.

Gareth Booth took advantage of the warm conditions and raced into a great second place, finishing first M45 as well.

On very different terrain in the aptly named Boulsworth Bog fell race, Andy Ford took third place, following on from his second place in the Two Crosses event the previous week.

The Fell Runners Association English Junior Championships commenced this week at Cock Howe on the North York Moors and Toby Middleton had a fine 13th-place finish as he moved up to the under-15s.

Robert Seddon also opened his account with a solid 27th place.

Juniors also featured strongly in parkrun this week. Isabella Merritt was second female finisher at Worsley Woods in 21mins 2secs and in the Queens Park junior parkrun, Horwich had the second, fourth and fifth finishers with the Topham boys, Ben and Joshua, being closely followed home by parkrun debutant Aidan McKenna.

The juniors took home prizes at the South East Lancs cross country presentation night with Matthew Mair and Isabella Merritt taking the individual top prizes at u13s, leading their respective RMI teams to victory too.

Lewis Wilkes was second in the u15s' category and at senior level Simon Pymm was joint winner with Scott Matthews, of East Cheshire.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Home Countries XC International (Port Talbot) – 8th Chris Farrell 32:52;

Northern Road Relay Champs (Blackpool) – (team stage positions) 11th Michael Cayton 29:57, 13th Jonathan Bruton 17:20, 13th Richard Howarth 32:06, 12th Nick Leigh 16:58, 13th James Kevan 31:23, 13th Julian Goudge 17:58, 13th Ian Conroy 31:34, 13th Alastair Murray 17:20, 14th Chris Essex-Crosby 19:23, 14th Sam Wardle 17:03, 14th David Jackson 18:28, 14th Martyn bell 18:59;

Cock Howe Classic fell race – u13 – 58th Theo Middleton 15:07; u15 – 13th Toby Middleton 13:07; u17 – 27th Robert Seddon 19:54;

Coniston 14-mile road race – 2nd Gareth Booth 1:21:03, 1,079th Laura Ryan 2:47:29;

Boulsworth Bog fell race (Colne) – 3rd Andy Ford 56:46;

Pete Hartley Memorial Liver Hill fell race (Rossendale) – 13th Dan Gilbert 38:29, 72nd David Barnes 50:29.