BURY AC have secured promotion to the Northern League’s Second Division as divisional team champions.

Third place at the final fixture at Ashton would have been good enough to take the title, but the team, under the leadership of captain Byron Edwards, made it a clean sweep by winning every single fixture.

The team was depleted as a result of injuries and summer holidays but what they lacked in numbers and experience they more than matched with grit and determination.

For the men, there were individual victories for Oliver Donnelly (B 1500m) and Jon Evans (B 5,000m).

Nathan Shepherd had a busy afternoon scoring vital points in the 100m, 200m, 110m hurdles  and 400m hurdles events as well as running the last leg in the 4x100m relay.

Josh Birmingham took second in the B 800m and A 5,000m races and vital points were secured in the throws by Michael Arain and Matthew Garside.

Critical to the victory was the willingness of athletes to take on unfamiliar events, like Gary Crowshaw competing in the 110m hurdles and high jump, Luke Harreld in the triple jump, Patrick Babb in the 400m hurdles and javelin and Jon Evans and Nathan Hilditch in the 400m.

In the sprint relays, the team of Harreld, Akshay Malhotra, Crowshaw and Shepherd took third – the same position as the 4x400m quartet of Harreld, Nathan Hilditch, Paul Johnston and Birmingham.

Nicola Harland made a successful return to competition by winning the B 800m and taking third in the B 400m and there were also individual victories for Hannah Price (A 3,000m), Sarah Thomas (B 3,000m), Katie Geelan (B 1500m), Charlotte Speakman-Farnworth (A 400m hurdles, B high jump and B triple jump), Lizzi Cheshire (B 400m hurdles and B 100m hurdles) and Daisy Worthington (A long jump).

Xenia Sawkuycz and Jess Harvey scored well in the throws, while Charlie Ireland performed well in the sprints and hurdles and Christie Cook ran superbly in the 400m and 800m.

Bolanje Akinnayajo made her club debut competing in both relay events. In the 4x100m she was joined by Ireland, Viola Melingi and Worthington with the team taking second place.

In the 4x400m, her team-mates were Worthington, Speakman-Farnworth and Christie Cook and the team also took second.

Earlier in the week, a small number of Bury athletes competed at Tuesday’s Trafford Grand Prix.

Freya Potts took fifth in the under-15 1500m in a time of 5mins 3.05secs, while Oliver Donnelly ran well in the A 3,000m race, finishing eighth overall and first u17 in 9:18.73. Harreld was the convincing winner of the B 3,000m in a personal-best time of 9:24.29 with Crowshaw in 13th in a new best of 10:55.38. Arain took third place in the shot and discus with best throws of 8.52m and 23.40m respectively.