HORWICH'S Julian Goudge was victorious in the Rivington Nightrunner race for the second year in succession.

He worked his way across the tricky terrain around Rivington Pike in the dark with only a torch to light the way.

Goudge was joined by four club colleagues with Chris Essex-Crosby achieving a top-10 finish and Gail Maxfield taking third spot in the F60 category.

Julie Williamson returned to one of her favourite courses, having completed the Hell of a Hill 5 marathon event in the autumn and both Maxfield and Williamson benefited from the regular torch training sessions led by Horwich’s fifth finisher and running leader Paul Sykes.

Earlier in the day, in the Manchester Area cross country league, the senior men put in a solid team effort in taking third place, which should go a long way to preserving Horwich’s spot in the top division.

Mike Cayton was beaten for the second week running by Altrincham’s Andy Norman.

The previous week it was by only four seconds at Heaton Park; this week Norman extended the gap to 21 seconds over the longer course.

But for Cayton, it was the third week of an impressive string of results and his strong finish augurs well for the summer road season.

The vets could not match the team effort, finishing 37 points ahead of Salford Mets vets in the team competition, albeit both teams were well down the finish list.

For the juniors, there was a great result for Charlotte Wilkinson at the Burnley fixture of the Mid Lancs cross-country league as she finished eighth out of 79 runners in the under-11s' race.

At the same venue, Robert Seddon was sixth in the u15s' race, while at Stockport in the Manchester League, Tom Massey was also sixth in the u15s' race.

Not much action on the fells this week but in the Ashurst Beacon race, which shuttles the runners across short, testing climbs and fast descents near Skelmersdale, Graham Schofield took yet another V60 win as Steven Foley finished three seconds ahead of him on one of his favourite courses.

At the Stanbury Splash junior fell race, Theo Middleton made a promising debut in the u13s' category.

At parkrun, the juniors featured strongly. At Queens Park junior parkrun Georgia Heath was first home, having competed in the Stockport cross-country race the day before.

Aleks Clayden opted for the Salford junior parkrun at Buile Hill and was also first home. He too had turned out the previous day at the Stretford parkrun.

Fern O’Brien was first u10 girl at Bolton parkrun, while Zachary Howe returned to parkrun in Horwich colours with a very fast 16mins 51secs for first place at Princes parkrun in Liverpool.

Lindsey Brindle was first woman at Bolton and Suzanne Budgett was third woman at Sale Water Park.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Petzl Rivington Nightrunner 10k trail race – 1st Julian Goudge 46:50, 10th Chris Essex-Crosby 53:03, 70th Paul Sykes 1:04:05, 249th Julie Williamson 1:18:53, 406th Gail Maxfield 1:43:14.

Manchester Area Cross Country League (Woodbank Park, Stockport) – Women – 79th Rowen Ratcliffe 42:34; Men – 3rd Mike Cayton 36:48, 11th Phil Marsden 38:04, 35th Sam Wardle 41:10, 37th Simon Pymm 41:26, 38th Ali Murray 41:29, 59th Michael Chadderton 42:51, 229th Gary Chadderton 50:13, 277th David Barnes 52:36, 353rd Lawrence Pinnell 57:11.

Mid Lancs XC League (Towneley Park, Burnley) – 67th Neil Holding 38:35, 223rd Gordon Stone 52:40.

Ashurst Beacon fell race (Skelmersdale) – 26th Steven Foley 45:53, 27th Graham Schofield 45:56.