Juniors battle freezing rain to star at Tandle Hill

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HORWICH’S junior and veteran athletes showed their mettle with fine results in wintry conditions at the second round of the South East Lancs Cross-Country League at Tandle Hill. The under-13 girls’ team won their team competition, just one point ahead of Chorley, with Charlotte Wilkinson leading the team home with another fine run for third individual place.

For the u13 boys, Ethan Isaacs matched that performance with third place and led the team to second place, only three points behind East Cheshire. The u15s then took the windswept stage and excelled with a one-two-three for the boys, Matthew Mair having a particularly strong run. For the girls, Lucy Dixon was the sole Harrier but had a fine second place.

With the gloom gathering, the men set off and Harriers were heartened by the appearance of Ian Conroy for his first cross-country of the season. He led the club home with the vet 60 team behind him winning the age-category team competition for the second time in this league this year. Tony Hesketh resumed his great form to take the M70 first place and Gareth Webb and David Barnes did their best to keep in touch with him. They finished nine points ahead of Glossopdale’s team.

The same morning Rob Jackson had run the Cowm Reservoir 5k in memory of Bernadette Bowers. This route is fast but also subject to chilly strong winds, so his time of 18mins 45secs for third place overall was impressive.

He was also first M50, as was Mark Walsh at the last ever Hurst Green Turkey Trot 5-mile trail race near Clitheroe. Walsh was 15th overall, while the Collings family enjoyed the race in festive costumes. On Sunday, at the Stoop Quarry junior fell race near Haworth, Ethan Isaacs was out racing again and was the winner in the u13 boys’ category. Toby Middleton was second in the u15 boys’ category, showing both he and Ethan are in fine veins of form. Jack Barrago also showed he has a liking for the hilly stuff achieving fifth place at u13s level at the Stoop after having taken on Tandle Hill the day before. At parkrun, Robert Seddon repeated Lucas Milliken’s feat last week at Worsley Woods by finishing first out of 250 runners in a fast time of 18:02. Richard Howarth is ending 2018 as he started it with yet another first place at Cuerden Valley. There were new personal-best times for Suzanne Budgett, at Sale Water Park, and Gabriella Arnot-Smith, at Queens Park junior parkrun.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Bernadette Bower Cowm Reservoir 5k trail race – 3rd Rob Jackson 18:45; Hurst Green Turkey Trot 5-mile trail race (near Clitheroe) – 15th Mark Walsh 33:54, 32nd Ian Collings 36:31, 130th Emma Collings 53:15; SE Lancs XC (Tandle Hill, Royton) – Senior men – 18th Ian Conroy 44:47, 94th Tony Hesketh 56:27, 97th Gareth Webb 56:44, 98th David Barnes 56:46, 115th Lawrence Pinnell 59:17; u13 girls – 3rd Charlotte Wilkinson 14:52, 9th Emma Bradley 15:53, 11th Imogen Andreassen 16:15, 25th Imogen Wrigley 20:12; u13 boys – 3rd Ethan Isaacs 14:07, 8th Benjamin Hall 14:47, 9th Jack Barrago 15:10, 20th Aleks Clayden 18:23; u15 girls – 2nd Lucy Dixon 19:57; u15 boys – 1st Matthew Mair 18:33, 2nd Isaac Battye 19:05, 3rd Isaac Simmonite 19:20; Stoop Quarry fell race – u13 boys – 1st Ethan Isaacs 6:46, 5th Jack Barrago 7:37; u15 boys – 2nd Toby Middleton 6:11.