THERE was a great turnout of 14 runners from Radcliffe AC at the midweek Haigh Hall 4 in Wigan.

Neal Emmerson led the club home in 29th position out of 305 with a time of 24mins followed very closely by Rob Shiels (V40) only six seconds behind in 32nd place.

The men's team were ninth out of 14 teams with the help of Tony Holt (V50) running 26:32 and Kris Lee clocking 27:24. Eileen Royle was the first woman vet-65 with a time of 34:49. Dave Bartlett ran 28:19, Steve Hamer (V50) was not far behind in 28:51, Chemane Brier ran 30:43, Mark Emmett (V55) 31:11 and Kate Holden (V40) 32:29.

Kath Davies (V50), back racing after a broken elbow, clocked 33:01, Zena Knowles (V40) 34:14, Susanne Andrew (V40) 34:31 and Kirsten Cook (V50) was close behind with 34:45.

The race was part of the Central Lancs Grand Prix in which the club takes part along with several other clubs.

Emmerson had even more success at weekend when he ran a cracking time of 2:58 in the Brathay Windermere Marathon starting from Brathway Hall, Ambleside in the Lake District, while Knowles was "absolutely thrilled" at the weekend when she ran in her first half marathon in Chester on Sunday, clocking 1hr 58mins.

She was one of three taking part in the event which started at Chester Raceourse and finished outside the city's town hall and cathedral.

Mark Williams was first in but was a little disappointed with his time of 1:29, although he said the course was a nice one and the conditions were good. Amanda Hey clocked 1:46.

The day before three members had taken to the big hills of the Lake District for the nine-mile classic Fairfield Horshoe Fell Race run by 208.

On a tough course from Rydal Hall, which climbed 3,000 feet, Mark Cartwright (V40) was first back for the club in 2:09:50. John Andrew (V40) ran 2:17:27 and Sinead Hayes clocked 2:25:10.

At the 5k Bolton parkrun, Rob Shiels came a fine seventh out of 322 runners with a new personal best time of 19:05. And Kris Lee also chalked up a new pb in 24th place with 21:16. Kath Davies ran 26:21 and Eileen Royle 27:18. Paul

Barrington(V40) ran with his son Noah and both clocked 34:55 and Dawn Evans (V45) ran 35:06.

At Heaton Park with 567 runners, Rob Lister ran 22:56 and Sheila Jones (V60), trying for a new best missed it by 20 seconds when she clocked 22:57. Sheila McNulty (V65) ran 29:19.

The club's most travelled competitor, Andy Wheeler, took on the toughest half marathon he has ever done when he ran the Much Wenlock Olympian Society Half Marathon in Shropshire. He clocked around 2:15 but said it had the steepest and longest hill he had run up even in a fell race.