HORWICH’S senior team finished a fine fourth in the first week of the new Premier Division of the Manchester Area Cross Country League.

James Kevan led the team home with a fine second place behind the winner, Stockport's Jack Morris.

Kevan was well supported by the Harriers with Nick Leigh in 14th, also taking third V40 place, and Gareth Booth in 24th was second V45.

This also meant the vets' A team was second in the vets' team competition.

More of the club’s vets joined up with the juniors at Leigh Sports Village for the Red Rose Cross Country League.

James Titmuss, making his Harriers’ debut, led the team home to third place in the vets' competition and sixth place in the overall table.

Graham Schofield was first in the V60 category and Tony Hesketh added another V70 win to his list this year.

The next day at Gin Pit, Hesketh did it again – this time on the road.

The Harriers’ women are resurgent and at Leigh they took eighth place in the team competition out of 17 clubs.

Lindsey Brindle took third place in the women’s race with the top six within 50 seconds of each other as Leigh’s Olivia Stones, one of the top under-20 athletes in the country, ran out winner.

There was a big turnout of juniors at the Red Rose event and once again the under-15 boys and girls excelled by both winning their respective team competitions.

The girls’ team of Eva Baldwin, Lucy Dixon and Georgia Heath were second, third and fifth to give them victory by a clear 10 points from local rivals Chorley.

The boys’ team of Toby Middleton, Lucas Milliken and Matthew Flatters were third, fifth and seventh for a 25-point victory over second-placed Bolton United.

In the u11 boys' race the Harriers placed third in the team competition with Harrison Stokes, Sam Bradley and Marty Arnot-Smith gaining the individual results to edge out Chorley again, but behind Trawden and Leigh.

Other strong individual results came from Ethan Isaacs, fourth in the u13s' race, and Robert Seddon, fifth in the u17s' race.

Andrew Crickmore was Horwich’s top performer in the Manchester Half Marathon where 160th place is no mean feat in a field of 14,000 runners.

Rob Jackson, at V50, was pleased with his result, especially as it was on the 30th anniversary of winning the Swinton half marathon.

In parkrun, Suzanne Budgett was first woman at Witton, Maria Lowe was second at Heaton Park, Alyssia Jackson was third at Haigh Woodland and Lesley Davidson ran her 150th parkrun at Pennington Flash.

Isabella Merritt was first home at the Queens Park junior parkrun.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Manchester Area Cross Country (Wythenshawe) – 2nd James Kevan 32:05, 14th Nick Leigh 34:18, 24th Gareth Booth 35:11, 31st Alastair Murray 35:42, 55th Jonathan Bruton 36:41, 88th David Jackson 38:16, 135th Chris Essex-Crosby 39:37, 275th Doug Fleming 44:12, 294th Gary Chadderton 45:06, 410th Lawrence Pinnell 52:05;

Red Rose Cross Country (Leigh) – Men – 26th James Titmuss 37:28, 34th David Milliken 38:26, 39th David Purnell 39:10, 44th Mark Walsh 39:41, 65th Graham Schofield 41:41, 106th Stephen Williams 44:18, 139th Tony Hesketh 47:16, 158th Gareth Webb 49:00, 166th Gordon Stone 50:23, 186th John Parker 56;14, 190th Peter Ramsdale 58:37, 191st Stephen Jackson 58:38; Women – 3rd Lindsey Brindle 20:32, 31st Kimberley Chadderton 23:18, 69th Gemma Stokes 26:21, 128th Emma Collings 31:37;

Breidden Hill fell race – 90th David Barnes 1:27:49;

Gin Pit 5-mile road race – 71st Tony Hesketh 38:03, 109th Lawrence Pinnell 42:22;

Blackpool Autumn Breaker 10k – 35th Erica Booth 43:06;

Manchester Half Marathon – 160th Andrew Crickmore 1:21;42, 234th Rob Jackson 1:24:08, 871st Stuart Bolton 1:34:08, 976th Mark Kmiec 1:35:26, 1,673rd Geoff Leech 1:41:29, 3,193rd Claire Blood 1:50:32, 7,403rd Angela Kmiec 2:14:18.