TWELVE Radcliffe AC runners faced some testing conditions when they ran the eight-mile Crowden Horseshoe Fell Race in the Peak District last Sunday.

Dave McGrath was first home for the club in 12th position in 1hr 11mins 7secs on a course which threw up stream crossing, bogs, wind, rain and mist on its 1,699 feet of climbing.

But it was well marked to help runners and coming home second for Radcliffe was Chris Whittaker in 36th position in 1:16:53.

Other results: Benn Heywood 1:21:19, Craig Norman 1:25:57, Andy Haines 1:27:06, Katie Percival 1:28:41, James Hall 1:30:24, Peter McNulty1:33:14, Kris Lee 1:34:09, Steve Hamer 1:42:28, Mark Garner 1:50:12, Sheila McNulty (first vet-70) 2:04:59.

Radcliffe gained valuable points in the Run The Moors Grand Prix which includes several clubs battling it out at fell races throughout the season.

There was a free entry for next year’s race for Jenny Yates when she ran the Fleetwood Half Marathon and was among runners who ended up going the wrong way, adding on a couple of miles.

She said: “There was a two-mile detour for the first 150 or so when a marshal had gone away and the wind had blown a sign over.

"We were all offered free entry for next year."  

Vet-50 Paul Sawyers faced some hilly terrain when he took on the Pendle 3 Peaks Fell race on Saturday.

Starting from Barley, the course covered 9.4 miles on Pendle with 2,838 feet of climbing and he was the only Radcliffe runner to take part, clocking 2:02:09.

Sheila Jones was second vet-60 when she ran one of her favourite races – the Birchwood 10k Road Race in Warrington.

On closed and partially-closed paths through a leafy area she ran 49:49.

Andy Wheeler was pleased with his fastest 5k time this year when he clocked 29:43 at the Andy O’ Sullivan 5k at Whitworth. The race on Sunday marked O’Sullivan’s 35 years of organising races for charity and was a two-lap course of the Cowm Reservoir with commemorative mugs going to all finishers.

There was success in midweek for two women  in the 5.5-mile Hopwood Trot when Donna Cartwright was first vet-40 and fourth woman in 39:40 and Jenny Yates first vet-50 and seventh woman in 41:31.

Third-vet-65 Iain Harris ran the two-lap multi-terrain course from Hopwood Hall College, Middleton, in 1:00:31 in 110th position, saying it was tougher than he remembered when he did it years ago.

On the same evening Christine Berry clocked 1:00:23 when she ran the Quarry Bank Trail Race in Styal, Cheshire.

The course is between four and five miles long around one of Britain’s greatest industrial heritage sites with tough undulating terrain. Lucy Dewhurst also took part.