Horwich Harriers took a squad of 16 juniors to the first of five fixtures in the Junior Fell Runners’ Association Championships at Seathwaite and all performed admirably.

Several were making their debut in fell race competitions and the under-15s race featured top-20 results from Mark Titmuss (eighth), Harry Yates (16th), Charlie Cowburn (18th) and Grace Mort (20th), following up her Greater Manchester championship win.

The under-nines, u11s and u13s races saw 11 Horwich runners taking part on a course that tested the ability to descend with pace, and they all came through the challenge well with lots of support from the attendant parents and coaches.

Fell running is, by its nature, a sport that carries risks but these are managed well with young athletes taking on incrementally harder courses and Charlotte Wilkinson and Aidan McKenna showed again they are ready to progress to the senior ranks with solid runs at Seathwaite and good prospects for the next fixture at Todd Crag near Ambleside in May.

The seniors also had a race at Duddon and James Titmuss and Alison Mort both achieved first places in their V45 categories, with Titmuss taking third place overall.

A bit further north on the stunning Derwent Fells, three Horwich runners were taking on the tough 11.5 miles and 3,600 feet ascent in the Newlands Memorial Race, which takes in the ‘Wainwright’ peaks of Hindscarth, Dale Head, High Spy and Catbells.

Lindsey Brindle resumed her encouraging return to competition with a F40 category win by a clear 10 minutes in 1hr 9mins 34secs. Alex Fowler, who has had a successful winter of night races, and Dan Gilbert, the club’s fell captain, both had strong runs in 43rd and 68th places overall.

Meanwhile, in the Peak District, David Barnes returned to the short Herod’s Farm race and although two minutes slower than last year ,was pleased to see two of the recent Rivington Pike winners were battling it out for the top-two places, with Joe Steward and Dan Haworth both breaking the previous course record.

Horwich has a good set of running groups to encourage as many people as possible to enjoy athletics and running in particular at the level they enjoy best.

Adele Lever has just commenced leading the club’s latest ‘Couch to 5k’ course and for the first time the club has linked up in this initiative with Bolton Arena, Bolton Council’s public health team and Bolton Ironman.

The success of these courses is evident in that for this one, Lever has the help of four previous participants.

She said: “There is no better feeling than starting with people who can’t run to nine weeks later completing a 5k.”

Twenty-five new runners have commenced this course, it’s a fun and sociable environment and for many it can be the springboard to enjoyable exercise or even competition.

This week was a relatively quiet one on the parkrun scene. Top age-graded result was from Graham Schofield at Heaton, where he recorded an impressive 80.52 per cent.

Grace Freary was 15th at Pennington Flash and was first female, recording the club’s second-best age grading this week of 73.22 per cent. Gordon Stone was at Worsley Woods, running his fastest 5k this year in 25:31 and was second M65, while Chris Charnley was fourth at the hilly Witton course. He has done 247 parkruns, beaten this week only by Andrew Storey’s run at Worsley Woods being his 252nd.

On the road this week, it was even quieter with Steve Thomasson recording the only result with a 51st place at the Power of 5k event in Lancaster. He was happy with his 21:40 time as he prepares for the latest leg of his European tour of half marathons.