THE all new North of England Track and Field League made its bow on Saturday with the first round of matches taking part across the region.

Following the successful amalgamation of the male and female teams in the Young Athletes League, the seniors followed suit this season with the merger of the old Northern Men's and Northern Women's competitions.

Our featured match saw Rossendale Harriers and Burnley Athletic Club locking horns in the Division 4WC match at Bury and for Rossendale especially, every point was vital.

The team grabbed the runners-up spot by the narrowest possible margin. With Leeds City B winning with 350 points, Dale scored 324.5 while Oldham and Royton were just half a point behind with 324. Burnley were fifth of six with 278.

An unexpected appearance by soldier Chris White made all the difference for Rossendale with B string wins in the 110m hurdles and high jump and A string seconds in hammer and shot.

The team's youngest ever team manager, Anthony Gotts, chipped in with second in the A 110m hurdles and third in the A 400m hurdles.

The 400m hurdles was their most successful women's event with sisters Heather and Hayley Corbishley contributing a maximum 16 points.

Crucially all the other teams drew a blank after failing to muster a single entrant between them.

Natalie Murphy in the B 100m hurdles and Sarah Yeomans in the B triple jump were the team's other winners.

Burnley lacked numbers but not quality as Danny Whittaker demonstrated. He won the A string races in the 100m and 200m, setting personal best times of 10.7 and 22.1 in the process.

The club also gained maximum points in the hammer with John Edwards and Phil Wall for the men and Abigail Ewart and Karen Vaughan for the women.

Sisters Danielle and Alexis Walker were both A string winners, Danielle in the 1500m and Alexis in the javelin.

Pendle Athletic Club are the highest placed of our local sides being in Division One, but they found the going tough to finish last of six at Leeds, albeit with a decent score of 257.

Laura Finucane set a club record 24.9 seconds to win the A 200m, and she also took the A 800m and the B 100m.