BOLTON Harrier Tommy Harrison claimed silver behind Leigh’s Central Lancashire Grand Prix champion-elect Neil Pendlebury at the Manchester YMCA-hosted Blackleach 5M trail race – the eighth in the series.

It mirrored last week’s Bolton Community Half Marathon result, while defending champion Tom Carson was building back to fitness and took the final podium spot.

Simon Walker recorded his best senior result to date – fifth, just ahead of Nicki Cartridge, who was beaten

by CLGP opposition – Burnden Road Runners’ Liz McLellan – for the first time this season.

Ken Fowler held off Pete Kearney to be final counter for the winning men’s race team, while the friendly rivalry between team-mates Liv Kearney and Rachel Bailey saw the former cross the line first in yet another positional switch – it is anyone’s guess as to who will emerge on top in the junior female standings.

Despite a squad of 17, Bolton’s CLGP ‘double sextuple’ challenge is in the balance after another low turnout relative to Burnden Road Runners, who are the main opposition.

The gap to Leigh in the A Team table is still a healthy 650 points, but Burnden quartered it in the B Team table to under 100 points and halved their deficit in the veterans’ table to 60 points; the Blue Vests remain second in the women’s table.

BUH&AC times: Tommy Harrison 28mins 6secs, Tom Carson 28:25, Simon Walker 30:04, Nicola Cartridge 33:45, Ken Fowler 34:02, Peter Kearney 34:04, Paul Turner 34:50, Cameron Donnelly 36:03, Cathy Flitcroft 36:51, Stewart Brierley 36:58, Olivia Kearney 38:06, Rachel Bailey 38:54, David Morrison 42:06, Alex Donnelly 43:33, Gail Harrison 44:49, Geoffrey Knowles 45:23, Gerard Tucker 51:33.

Elsewhere, Phil Marsden won the Hodder Valley fell race while Karl Darcy and Chris Povey (1hr 19mins 48secs) ran together in the Lake Vyrnwy half marathon.

Further north, newcomer Joshua Sabery (1:45:00), Lee Petch (1:56:40) and Caroline Wilkinson (3:33:42) completed the 13.1 miles of the Great North Run, while the associated City Games, held on the Gateshead/Newcastle riverside, saw international star Tom Lancashire finish fourth in the one-mile road race, clocking 4:07.15.