YOUNG Horwich RMI Harrier Emma Bradley celebrated her 11th birthday in style by finishing as first under-13s girl at the Shepherd's Skyline event in Todmorden.

It was the final event for this season in the club’s junior fell championships and Horwich sent a team of keen runners.

Other notable performances came from Gracie Sherbourne, second girl at u9s, and in the u15s, Milly Lever and Freya Whittle were second and third girls home respectively.

In the senior race, Horwich was represented by three proud parents of the junior athletes – Lindsey Brindle, Ian Collings and Emma Collings – doing her first 10k fell race.

In the Area Fell Grand Prix, there was success for Dan Gilbert who took second place in the exacting 11-race season.

He was only five points behind A&T’s Tim Campbell, while Gary Chadderton won the V55 category and Ed Swift was third in the V70 category.

Overall, though, it was a slightly disappointing season as the club slipped from second last season to fifth of eight clubs this year.

It was a busy parkrun weekend with Horwich runners taking part in 11 parkruns across the country.

At Bolton, Horwich runners took second, third and fourth places with father and son Paul and Tom Massey sandwiching Lewis Wilkes.

Several more juniors participated in the 5k parkruns and top performances came from Ella Pendlebury (76.70 per cent age grading) and Matthew Flatters (75.78 per cent) at the new Sale Water venue, and by Isabella Merritt (75.74 per cent) at Haigh Woodland.

Aleks Clayden achieved a personal best at Bolton and was first home in the u10 age category.

He then followed up with fifth place at the Queens Park junior parkrun the following day, with the win there going to Isaac Battye.

At Cuerden Valley, Richard Howarth resumed his winning ways and Suzanne Budgett took second female place as she continues a tour of North West parkruns.

At Worsley Woods, Gordon Stone achieved his third successive first home in the VM60-64 category and Tony Hesketh continued his fine record of being first in the VM65-69 category, this time at Haigh Woodland.

But the highest age-graded results were for Phil Marsden and Lukas Siska, who were separated by only four seconds in finishing second and third at Heaton.

Andy Ford was first home at a muddy and undulating Ludlow parkrun.

In road races, Paul Muller’s season continued with a great 10th place in the Through the Villages race, while Erica Booth was second F35 in the same event.

In the Cheshire 10k, Geoff Leech achieved a personal best chip time of 43mins 40secs which, in a large field of more than 1,200 runners, converted to a gun time of 44:17.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Cheshire 10k road race (Arley Hall, Warrington) – 181st Geoff Leech 44:17.

Shepherds Skyline (Todmorden) – (seniors) 55th Lindsey Brindle 55:02, 162nd Ian Collings 1:05:02, 298th Emma Collings 1:27:15; (juniors) under-nines – 14th Gracie Sherbourne 5:44, 22nd Gabriella Collings 7:29; u11s – 10th Aidan McKenna 8:50; u13s – 6th Ethan Isaacs 7:10, 8th Emma Bradley 7:47, 14th Lucas Collings 9:22; u15s – 3rd Milly Lever 7:23, 4th Freya Whittle 7:24.

Sweatshop Through the Villages road race (Wheelton) – 10th Paul Muller 52:04, 81st Erica Booth 1:03:12.