BURY AC's female athletes shone at the final Red Rose Cross Country League fixture in Rossendale to scoop two league titles.

The senior women’s team put in a superb effort at the Marl Pits centre to triumph on the day and win back the title trophy.

Hannah Price took an excellent fourth place with Caitlin Cole, down from her home in Edinburgh to represent the team, hot on her heels in fifth.

Katie Oakley continued her excellent improvement to take 10th with Rachel Marshall in 16th. Other Bury finishers included Nicola Ryan (20), Katie Geelan (25), Fran Garroch (44) and Lizzi Cheshire (52).

Geelan is now the league V45 champion and the performances of Marshall, Garroch and her were good enough to secure the Bury Women’s Master’s team third place in the league.

Illustrating the potential for the future, the under-13 girls' team also did enough to win their league title.

Emily Purdy had a strong race to take third with Chloe Ardin in sixth.

Lola Potts was the final team counter in 10th place, but she was well supported by Lucy Hill in 12th.

The senior men’s team were led to an excellent third place by Ben Coop, whose performance was good enough for him to secure him third in the overall league standings.

Josh Birmingham took a fighting sixth place with junior Ben Forrest making a welcome return to cross country in 13th.

Jon Evans was in close order in 16th, but there was a nervous wait to the fifth and sixth counters, Patrick Babb (40th) and Paul Johnston (42nd), but the total score of 114 was good enough for the top three.

The u15 girls took second team on the day as Freya Potts produced yet another fine run to take second place and secure that place in the league overall.

Reilly Carson ran strongly to take 14th with Grace Gibson finishing 23rd to give the team the runners-up spot.

This was a position also secured by the u17 women after Charlotte Speakman-Farnworth took an excellent fifth place and she was ably supported by Kate Lilley and Charlie Ireland in 11th and 12th respectively.

The u13 boys' scoring trio of Samuel Howard (12th), Adam Warren (16th) and Finley Collings (18th) packed well to secure fourth place for the team.

The u11s girls' and boys' teams were sixth and eighth respectively. For the girls the scoring trio was Lucy Dent (sixth), Tia Buckley (24th) and Isabel Robinson, while the boys' point scorers were Edison Marsden (19th), Oliver Cooper (26th) and George Whalley (51st).

The u17 men and u15 boys were unable to field complete teams, but in the u17 race Oliver Donnelly ran well to take eighth place with Lochlam Blake in 11th.

For the u15s, Sam Smyth made a fine debut to finish sixth, with Nathan Ardin taking 21st.

The league awards will be presented to the individual and team winners at the presentation evening in February.

Elsewhere over the weekend, new member Andy Mellor ducked under the hour with a 59mins 16secs finish in the Myerscough 10, while Luke Harreld ran 16:47 in an icy Podium 5k at Barrowford.