PENDLE Athletic Club made home advantage tell at the opening Young Athletes meeting at Seedhill on Sunday winning their Division Two match by 197 points.

Luke Simpson was voted Boy Track Athlete of the Match for his Grade One 11.3 seconds in the under 17s 100m, and added two more A string victories in the 200m and 400m.

Eleanor Markendale was equally quickly into her stride and took the Girls Field Athlete of the Day award.

Now in her final year as an under 15, her winning long jump at 5.16 metres was also a Grade One. She added more valuable points with a win in the 75m hurdles and second in the 100m.

Thrower James Finucane scored a treble with his efforts in the under 17s discus, hammer and shot while Ross Inglis was another three time winner in the under 13s 100m, 200m and 800m.

Aisling Ogden exceeded expectations by setting three personal bests to win the under 13s A 70m hurdles, and place second in the A 1200m and B 75m.

In this division, Pendle meet all their six rivals at each meeting, and such a resounding win already points to promotion come the end of the summer.

Our other local clubs, Blackburn Harriers, Burnley and Hyndburn are already in Division One - a step higher than Pendle.

They are in a 16 team division employing a round robin format which sees each club meeting their rivals three at a time. It means that the prospects for our clubs will only become apparent later in the season.

Still there were bright starts all round with Blackburn and Hyndburn opening with second places.

The Harriers were only seven and a half points behind their hosts Stockport in spite of fielding a wafer thin squad.

The under 13 boys for example were represented by four sprinters, who were all asked to run in a middle distance race too.

Zac Bamber was their star winning the A string 100m and 200m, a feat matched by Andy McDonald in the under 15s.

Hyndburn were second to well fancied Trafford who were hosting the fixture.

The girls were the heaviest scorers for the team with Maisie Bonney winning the under 13s 800m, shot and long jump and Imogen Walters adding first places in the shot, discus and javelin for the under 15s.

Charlotte Edmundson underlined the strength in depth by winning three B string events for the under 15 team - 800m, 75m hurdles and the javelin.

Burnley were at home - as they will be three times this summer - and Tom Clarke from Habergham High School was the talk of the club as he made a winning debut in the under 17s 800m, recording a brisk 2:05.

Elizabeth Highton cleared 1.45m to earn maximum points in the under 15 girls high jump and Alexis Walker won the under 17s javelin with 31.17m.

Martin Wall is the club's form horse and the under 17 won the triple of 100m, sprint hurdles and javelin.

Next up for the athletes is this weekend's Lancashire Championships at Blackpool.