RADCLIFFE AC’s Neal Emmerson has been crowned the Central Lancashire Grand Prix men’s champion – and the club has won the team title.

The results were confirmed after Radcliffe fielded a fantastic 21 runners in Sunday’s testing Through the Villages race – the culmination of the 10-race championship which is contested by local clubs over distances ranging from a mile to a half-marathon.

Emmerson took second place in 49mins 16secs on the hilly 8.45-mile course which has several challenging climbs.

He was part of the winning men’s team with Ian Warrington, who clocked 54:21 in 11th place, and Robert Shot, who was 18th in 55:11.

But the results of every Radcliffe AC runner who took part in this year’s series contributed to the club lifting the overall championship team prize.

This is because clubs are awarded points for their first 10 finishers in each race.

Clubs that do not field 10 runners are docked points, with the bigger the field the bigger the deduction.

Radcliffe’s strong turnouts throughout the series helped to boost the size of the fields.

In the final race, Craig Norman also ran 56:36, Chris Paxton finished in 57:23, Mark Williams clocked 1:00:41, Katie Percival was second senior female in 1:02:02 and Dave Rushton ran 1:04:10.

Alex Pullan was second male junior in 1:04:26 in his first race for the club, while Mark Garner ran 1:06:00, Paula Abernethy was third Vet-50 in 1:06:34 and Sheila Jones claimed second Vet- 60 in 1:12:14.

Paul Barrington ran 1:12:19, Deborah Barrington finished in 1:23:32, Karen Doherty clocked 1:24:58 and Elaine Bailey crossed the line in 1:25:02.

Other results: David Schofield 1:25:36, Andy Wheeler 1:26:23, Sarah Rushton 1:29:40, Tracy Wroe 1:30:06, Iain Harris 1:38:57.

The championship presentation evening will be hosted by Radcliffe AC at Bury Sports Club on November 15.

Radcliffe’s B team finished second in the competition, the ladies’ team was third and the vets’ team was fourth.

Six represented the club at the Railway 5k, a scenic trail race around Jumbles Reservoir in Bolton.

Mauro Rotondi was 12th out of 97 runners in 24:49.

Other results: Kirsten Cook 28:42, Michael Scott 32:02, Karen Doherty 32:12, Lisa Donnelly 35:37, Christine Berry 42:27.

Two Radcliffe runners took to the hills for the fast and muddy Shepherd’s Skyline Fell Race in Todmorden.

Paul Swyers completed the 10k distance with 1,148 feet of climbing in 1:10:35 and Mark Wolfenden ran 1:27:06.

Lee Turner completed 1,004 feet of climbing over six miles in the Cop Hill Fell Race in West Yorkshire in 57:55.