HORWICH just missed out on a top-10 placing at the Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relay in the Lake District on Sunday despite a fine team performance.

In the longest running mountain relay in the country, with the title coveted by many clubs, Horwich finished 11th out of 69 clubs competing.

Each team fields eight runners in pairs so it relies on getting the the team balance right as well as individual performances and fell captain Jonathan Bruton’s selection worked in the Harriers' favour.

Andy Ford resisted running at Thieveley Pike the previous day and, with Gareth Booth, got the team off to a good start before two blistering stages by Phil Marsden and Michael Cayton and then Joe Mercer and Simon Pymm lifted the team into the top 10.

Mark Walsh and Dan Gilbert limited the damage on the long slog of the final leg to bring the team home just 45 seconds off a top-10 finish.

At Thieveley Pike, Ford watched on as Ian Conroy, a previous winner of the race, repeated his third place of last year while Lindsey Brindle was also in fine form, taking the women’s prize.

Gracie Sherbourne was Horwich’s sole runner in the junior races, finishing ninth in the under-9s' race.

The previous weekend Mercer, an expert orienteer, did the Holcombe duathlon, taking second prize, while it was Ford doing the orienteering on Cowpe Moor where, despite an Achilles injury and a stag do the night before, he completed the course in 20th place out of 65 finishers.

The trail-running scene saw four regular runners enjoying the quiet autumnal warmth, with Lawrence Pinnell and Julie Williamson gaining valuable points for their club championship ambitions at Gin Pit, while Tony Hesketh and David Barnes took on the inaugural Mawdesley Millennium race over a varied multi-terrain route in the flat west Lancashire farmland.

At Queens Park junior parkrun, Thomas Massey showed he is returning to form with a fast win in 7mins 10secs with Isaac Battye half a minute behind in second place.

Thomas’ father, Paul, was in even better age-graded form, finishing third behind Lukas Siska’s second place at Bolton parkrun, where u17s runner Robert Seddon set a new personal best in fifth place.

PBs were also set by a Horwich trio of junior females at Stretford parkrun with Milly Lever taking second female place ahead of Freya Whittle and Emma Bradley.

At Pennington Flash, the u14s runner Ella Pendlebury was first female in a great 74 per cent age-graded performance.

At Cuerden Valley, Gareth Booth, warming up for the Hodgson Brothers Relays, beat Richard Howarth into second place. A good parkrun week for Horwich also saw Sean McMyler take second place at Haigh Woodland.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Holcombe Mountain Trial Duathlon (near Bury) – 2nd Joe Mercer 2:05:21.

Rossendale 50th Mini Mountain marathon (Cowpe Moor) – 20th Andy Ford 3:02:45 (310 points).

Ron Hill 79th Birthday 5k trail race (Whitworth) – 45th David Barnes 25:27.

Thieveley Pike fell race (near Burnley) – 3rd Ian Conroy 37:15, 11th Lindsey Brindle 39:46, 90th Paddy Conroy 50:36, 94th David Barnes 50:48.

Gin Pit 5 mile trail race (Tyldesley) – 134th Lawrence Pinnell 41:29, 203rd Julie Williamson 47:42.

Mawdesley 10k trail race (near Ormskirk) – 24th Tony Hesketh 48:19, 31st David Barnes 49:21.

Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relay (Patterdale) – (leg times and places) Gareth Booth and Andy Ford 42:53 (20th), Phil Marsden and Michael Cayton 48:32 (7th), Joe Mercer and Simon Pymm 43:12 (7th), Mark Walsh and Dan Gilbert 44:19 (23rd).