HORWICH'S Mike Cayton was pipped to the post in the iconic Rivington Pike fell race on Easter Saturday, finishing 11 seconds behind winner Nick Swinburn of Northumberland Fell Runners.

Cayton was bidding to make it three Horwich wins in a row after Chris Farrell's successes in 2016 and 2017 with a stiff north-easterly wind facing the big field of 354 entrants as they ascended the near 700 feet to the tower.

At the top, the leader was eventual winner Swinburn who finished in 17mins 43secs.

The under-20 men’s prize was also won by a raider from the east coast, from the City of Norwich whose Jack White put in a fine time of just under 19 minutes.

For the women it was a bit of déjà vu as it was the colours of Ribble Valley that carried off the trophy, this time in the form of Katie Walshaw who succeeded club mate Louisa Powell-Smith as trophy winner, having previously won in 2013.

Powell-Smith had to settle for third place and first L40, with the Ribble Valley duo split by Olivia Stones from Leigh.

Horwich had a good turnout in the race with Cayton being joined by Danny Hope, under-23 Irish international Killian Mooney and Joe Mercer to take the men’s team prize.

Danny Hope, Nick Leigh and Dan Gilbert also won the vets team prize.

There were also age-category wins for Gareth Booth, Dave Milliken, Steve Williams and Janet Rashleigh, while Lewis Wilkes followed up his second place overall at the Curley’s 5k earlier in the week with a second place for his age category in the Pike race.

Tony Hesketh and John Parker also achieved second places in their age categories.

The Pike race has a long history of top winners from the sport and it is worth noting that Rob Hope, seven-times winner of the race and a Horwich boy himself now racing for a Yorkshire club, was fourth this year, pipped for third place by debutant Dan Haworth, from Keswick AC, who may be another one to look out for in the future.

Peter Ramsdale ran the race for the first time as a M60 and, as well as coordinating the event with race director Alastair Murray, he was on hand at the start to receive a generous donation of £600 to support the race from Horwich Rotary which also supplied several marshals.

Prize giving at a packed Crown Hotel was shared by the president of the Horwich Rotary, David Griffiths, with the Mayor of Horwich, Councillor Steve Rock.

The junior races had a big turnout too of 109 competitors from more than 20 clubs.

Elsewhere, James Jordan was third at Curley’s 5k – the first in a series of three races from the fisheries restaurant.

In parkrun, Peter Heneghan, at V75, had a fine personal best at Worsley Woods of 25:52.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Walsh Sports Rivington Pike fell race – 2nd Michael Cayton 17:54, 8th Killian Mooney 18:45, 10th Danny Hope 19:22, 12th Joe Mercer 19:50, 13th Nick Leigh 20:16, 15th Ian Conroy 20:40, 22nd Dan Gilbert 21:30, 23rd Gareth Booth 21:34, 26th Dave Milliken 21:50, 34th Lewis Wilkes 22:19, 65th Ian Collings 24:03, 80th Luke Massey 24:27, 86th Steve Williams 24:36, 111th Janet Rashleigh 25:46, 164th Doug Fleming 27:41, 177th Patrick Conroy 27:59, 178th Tony Hesketh 28:04, 195th Peter Ramsdale 29:05, 231st Michael Crook 31:11, 234th John Parker 31:24, 249th Gordon Stone 32:15, 260th Michelle Mortimer 32:53, 272nd Tony Varley 33:33, 322nd Emma Collings 39:32, 334th Ed Swift 41:00;

Liver Hill Peter Hartley Memorial fell race (Rawtenstall) – 11th Dan Gilbert 39:26, 36th Graham Schofield 44:12;

Curley’s 5k trail race (Horwich) – 2nd Lewis Wilkes 19:49, 3rd James Jordan 20:06, 28th David Unsworth 23:53, 38th David Barnes 24:30, 69th Keith Lewthwaite 27:30, 80th Bernadette Unsworth 29:01, 97th Andrew Storey 30:35, 138th Gillian Smith 37:35;

Salford 10k road race – 110th Neil Holding 37:16, 249th David Unsworth 43:12, 252nd Geoff Leech 43:16, 430th Julie Williamson 51:07;

Caldervale 10-mile road race (near Preston) – 57th David Barnes 1:16:21.