BURNDEN teams put in a tremendous showing against the best runners in the north of England with excellent returns in the regional 6-Stage and 12-Stage Road Relays.

The event, held this year at Birkenhead Park in Wirral, saw the ladies' team battle their way to 28th place in the team standings over the two long laps of 8k and the four short laps of 4k.

Liz McLellan got the team off to a great start with 32mins 45secs for the first long lap with Kirsty White completing the other 8k in the fourth leg in 30:12.

Gwen Kinloch was the quickest over the short legs with a time of 16:03, followed by Anne Ferguson (16:53), Vicki Hamer (17:12) and Louise Wall (20:59).

This gave them an overall time of 2:14:04.

In the men’s 12-stage event of four long legs and eight short loops, Jonathan Sangster opened the club’s account over the 8k distance with 28:47.

The other longer stages were run by Steve Nolan (29:14) 1:12:42, Ed Ashton (31:17) 1:58:07 and Lee White (30:02) 2:43:13.

George Crabtree was the fastest over the shorter legs with his time of 14:08, with Chris Worthington (14:41) and Marcus Chester (14:46) also breaking 15 minutes.

Gareth Doherty, Richard Pollitt and Andy Dunleavy just missed out on joining them with 15:04, 15:14 and 15:28 respectively.

Tony Wall (16:10) and Steven Bate (17:02) completed the line-up as the team clocked a combined time of 4:01:53 for 58th place overall in the team standings, a highly creditable result against some considerable competition.

Burnden’s B team completed 11 stages with one disqualification which ruled them out of the team standings.

Their combined time of 4:21:46 was achieved by Adrian Ashburn (34:34), Christophe Menand (34:00) and Andy Duffy (33:13) over the long legs and Marcus Hamer (16:57), Ged Turner (17:23), Mel Walker (19:53), John Edge (18:47), Mark Butler (17:37), Andy Warburton (18:31), Chris Greenall (17:23) and Mark Cannon (15:30) over the shorter distances.

Mark Jackson was the fastest Burnden runner at the tough To The Pike and Back Half Marathon starting in Moss Bank Park and taking in the Winter Hill mast and Rivington Pike before returning via the same route.

Jackson battled through the blustery conditions for 53rd overall in 1:52:58 just 24 hours after completing the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Canter Marathon in 3:53:16 on Saturday.

Phil Glassbrook was first V70 in 2:38:50 despite a punishing fall during the race.

Mumtaz Patel was the club’s fastest female finisher in the To The Pike and Back Half Marathon, 79th overall and second F45 in 1:58:24. Nia Bell was second F55 in 2:42:35, while Don Nichol was third V60 in 2:20:51.

Other results: Kris Worsley 2:14:35, Emma Walker 2:23:14, Sarah Woodiwiss 2:39:03, Debra Hennessey 2:58:13, Gillian McGowan 3:44:58.