RADCLIFFE Athletic Club's new chairman Chris Paxton says he could not have been prouder of the marathon effort put in by members at Sunday's Manchester Marathon.

A group of 15 club runners joined the thousands taking part, while many more cheered them on from the sidelines.

In perfect conditions on a course billed as the flatest and fastest in the north of England, Mark Williams (V50) was first home for the club in 3hrs 21mins 18secs with Chemane Brier first among Radcliffe women in 3:33:17.

Paxton, who ran a good 3:30:32 himself, said: "I couldn't be prouder of our small and friendly club – lots of runners and lots of supporters. We must have had close to half the club out. Absolutely brilliant."

Last year the club had only two runners in the event.

John Scarlett ran 3:22:46, knocking four minutes off his previous best. Ian Warrington, who was recovering from injury but decided to run, clocked a creditable 3:27:37, while Peter Hunter ran 3:31:42 and Mike Cooke made it home in 3:37:04.

The club's senior runners had a great day with Amanda Hey finishing 19th of the women V50s in the race, coming home in 3:50:47. Steve Hamer (V55) ran 3:51:40 and Sheila Jones was second V60 in 3:58:50.

Of the other finishers, Kate Holden ran 4:11:59, Zena Knowles posted 4:31:21, Dave Bartlett, who struggled with cramp, clocked 4:37:49secs, and both Natalie Hitchen (4:45:23) and Kirsten Cook (4:53:19) completed the course under five hours.

The day before in the Wardle Skyline Fell Race there was more success on the hills for Fiona Lynch (V40) when she took second place among the women with a time of 58:16.

She was one of four members taking on the seven miles from Wardle, Rochdale, out onto the South West Pennine moors with 1,250 feet of climbing. James Hall clocked 59:53, Luigi Salzano (V40) ran 1:03:20 and Paul Swyers posted (V50) 1:12:16.

Alan Brown (V55) took part in his first competitive 10k in a Radcliffe vest for 16 years, clocking 49:48 at Arley Hall in Cheshire on Sunday.

At the 5k Heaton parkrun, Nick Barnes ran 22:09 and at Bolton Ken Smith (V55) clocked 23:03 and Eileen Royle (V65) finished in 27:54.

At Lancaster parkrun, Rob Lister finished in a personal best time of 23:53.