Lindsey Brindle was first woman home as a good Horwich Harriers representation attended the annual running of Darwen Dashers’ Mr Sparkle’s Dark ‘Un last Friday.

The head torch five-mile fell run on Darwen Moors saw Brindle finish just ahead of a previous Pike race winner, Kat Klunder, of Chorley.

Alex Fowler is a bit of a night run specialist, having taken second place at the recent Nightrunner Rivington race, and he continued his sparkling recent form with third place.

Suzanne Budgett was first F60, Mark Walsh was second M50 and Tony Varley was third M70.

On Sunday, across the Pennines, Kitty Crossland had a great second place in the under-13 race at the competitive Hoppits Hill fell race as she built on an impressive set of cross-country results this winter.

Marcus Taylor was third M50 at the Dark ‘Un race and used it to kick off a fine three-in-three series of races, following up with the Saucony English Cross-country championships on Saturday and the Lostock six-mile road race on Sunday, where he was second M50.

Taylor said: “The Dark ‘Un was fun, the cross-country was a great occasion and the Lostock 6 was a chance to gain momentum.”

The English championships were at a new venue at Bolesworth Castle, in Cheshire, attracting more than 5,000 entries and Horwich took 27 runners.

There was a real festival vibe with tents displaying club colours from across the breadth of England.

The junior races precede the senior ones and in these, Harrison Stokes (56th at u15) and Benjamin Hall (81st at u17) had standout performances in the red and black chevron vest.

It was then time for the women to take on the 8k course with optimism based on impressive Northern Championship and Manchester League results.

The Horwich women did not disappoint as, in a field of more than 770 runners, Janet Rashleigh, in 263rd place in a time of 38mins 16secs, led the team to a great 44th place out of 93 teams, with Hayley Winder, Alison Mort and Helen Macdonald all finishing in the top half of the field.

This gave the men a challenge to come up with a performance to match on the 12k course and that they did, with Luke Foley finishing in 142nd place in 40:22. Ian Conroy, Simon Bruton, Sam Fairhurst, Jonathan Bruton and James Titmuss had strong runs to enable Horwich men to finish 34th out of 99 teams, which was the seventh best result by a team from the wider North West region.

Cross-country captain Peter Ramsdale said it was another fabulous turnout by Horwich and reflected: “The mud, hills and rain of Parliament Hill last year were replaced this year by the gentle slopes and sunshine at the splendid new venue.”

Foley then also showed great recovery and, like Taylor, took on the Lostock 6 road race on Sunday, finishing fourth in 30:36, just ahead of James Kevan in fifth place.

There was also a second place at M55 for Nick Kelly and a third at M60 for Sean McMyler. Gillian Smith followed her F70 win at Standish Hall trail race last week with F70 first place at Lostock.

On the track in Madrid on Wednesday, Sophie Walton ran for GB & NI in a new race format - Dynamic New Athletics U20 - that involved 10 events in two hours.

She ran two great 200m legs, with Sam Lunt, of Wirral AC, to win the 2x2x200m relay and the team returned home ecstatic that GB & NI won the trophy against five other nations.