NEAL Emmerson led home a strong contingent of 27 Radcliffe AC runners to finish fourth in the Trotters Five-Mile Race in Bolton.

He clocked 29mins 2secs in Sunday’s event, helping the men’s team to second place, while Katie Percival was third woman in 35:58.

Emmerson was followed home by Robert Short (30:35) in seventh, Chris Whittaker (30:42) in eighth and Chris Paxton (31:15) was 13th.

The race was the first in the Central Lancs Grand Prix in which several clubs, including Radcliffe, take part during the season.

David Bartlett was pleased with his time of 47:28 in his first race since receiving treatment for leukaemia.

The women’s team was fifth and other great performances included a course personal best by three minutes and 11 seconds for Sharon Peterkin who finished in 52:06.

Other results: Mike Cooke 33:21, John Wrigley 33:38, John Gibbs 34:49, Mark Garner 37:25, Steve Hamer 38:18, John McNicoll 38:47, Paula Abernethy 39:29, Peter Cook 40:46, Peter Hunter 41:04, Scott Baxter 41:49, Michelle Hincks 43:57, Chris Fletcher 44:35, Caroline Malone 45:41, Elaine Bailey 48:44, Lucy Tetler 51:04, Stephen Parker 52:12, Andy Wheeler 52:38, Natalie Hitchen 54:02, Iain Harris 54:16, Tracy Wroe 54:36.

Husband and wife Dave and Sarah Rushton travelled further afield for Saturday’s Benidorm Half Marathon in Spain.

Dave clocked 1:37:22 on the two-lap course while Sarah ran 2:27:32.

Three club members also took part in the overnight High Peak Marathon in the Peak District.

Teams of four set off from Edale at 10pm on Friday to tackle the challenging route of roughly 42 miles over the high moors of Derbyshire.

Most of the terrain is pathless peat bog which, coupled with rain and mist, demanded good navigational skills throughout the night.

Radcliffe AC’s Peter McNulty finished in 13:31:00 with friends Wendy Dodds, Phil Elliot and Dave Egan.

They were pleased to come second in the veterans' handicap race, just 14 seconds behind the winners.

Radcliffe’s Fiona Lynch and Dave Ward finished in 11:47:52 with friends Rob Mills and Jim Masters.

They were the fourth mixed vet team and 23rd overall.

Lynch proved her versatility with a midweek run of 20:03 in the inaugural Universities 5k at Platt Fields, Manchester.

Lee Turner was first home for the club at the Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round fell race on Saturday.

He completed the 10.4-mile course, which has 1,936 feet of ascent, in 1:32:40, while Paul Swyers ran 1:34:05.

Lisa Carter continued her good form by knocking four minutes 30 seconds off her personal-best time to finish in 1:52:40. Finishers received a bottle of Moorhouse’s beer.

At the popular Ron Hill Accrington 10k, Kirsten Cook was fourth vet-55 in 54:12, finishing 251st out of 514 runners on Sunday.

Radcliffe AC head coach Ian Warrington took the tough but sensible decision to pull out of the Chester Ultra after 20 miles when he became violently sick.

Junior Ben Darbyshire celebrated double PBs at Heaton parkrun and Salford junior parkrun.