RADCLIFFE Athletic Club runners have been taking to the hills again and bringing home the trophies.

In the South Pennine Grand Prix, a series of ten fell races throughout the year, Carly Hancock was first senior lady and veteran Tom West snatched the first place in the over 60 category.

The results are based on the best six performances from the ten events and a large contingent from the Radcliffe club took part in each of the events.

The final race on Sunday was at Littleborough and was a four mile run -- finishing at The Summit -- the pub where the overall presentation was held in the afternoon.

Despite overnight frost a bright autumn morning made the conditions ideal for running.

Radcliffe's Danny Appleby, who had been in second place overall in the first eight events, faced some of the top fell runners. Although he finished the race in a very good eighth position it was not enough and he had to settle for sixth place overall.

Peter McNulty and Tony Holt had not done enough to qualify overall in the series bu they battled it out in Sunday's event with Peter just holding Tony off to finish 52nd. Sheila McNulty finished 13th lady and first 0-55 and Denise Sutcliffe was 19th lady and 3rd 0-45, both vowing to run the full series next year.

Other Grand Prix positions were: Mick Howard: 12th overall, 4th vet/40. Arthur Warren: 22nd overall, 4th vet/50. Brian Booth: 23rd overall, 5th vet/50. Steve Hamer: 30th 0verall, 7th vet/45. Jim Sutcliffe: 36th overall, 8th senior man.

And in the mountains this weekend Mick Howard and Brian Booth took part in their fourth Karrimor Mountain Marathon in the Langholm Hills on the Scottish borders.

They put in their best performance so far in what is one of the toughest event in the mountain marathon calendar. They were the fastest vets team over the two-day race and finished in a great 9th position overall in 10hrs 21mins 52secs.

The event calls for navigational skills and the ability to carry all your equipment for two days out in the mountains. The first day covered 23 kms and the second 18km over some very tough terrain.