CLAYTON'S run of relay bad luck continued on the Calderdale Way last weekend.

The event, which Clayton's A team won last December, attracted over 100 teams of 12 this year. The runners competed in pairs over six stages covering the 50 miles of the Calderdale Way.

As usual, the event was very competitive with the main East Lancashire strength coming from Clayton-le-Moors and Rossendale.

After leg one from Halifax to Cragg Vale, Clayton A were in seventh spot with Rossendale A only 13 seconds down in eighth. Dale Lewis and Martin Lee then flew over to Todmorden with the third fastest leg to put Rossendale into fifth place with Clayton now almost a minute down but up to sixth.

The spectators excitement continued when Simon Thompson and Willie Sullivan put in one of the runs of the day to post the fastest leg time to Blackshawhead and pull Clayton into fourth place with Rossendale's Gary Sumner and Ray Rawlinson running the third fastest time and holding onto fifth. The long leg four to Wainstones, passing through Heptonstall and Hard Castle Craggs saw another change of position for our local teams with Rossendale's Mervyn Keys and Nick Hatchard taking Rossendale up to fourth with Clayton slipping one place to fifth but with still less than a minute between the two teams. On leg five Clayton fortunes seemed to be changing when Gary Wilkinson and Dave Walker produced a brilliant run, overtaking Rossendale with another fastest stage which looked as though they were back in serious contention.

Then disaster struck for Clayton when their final leg runners Dave Gregory and Phil Hall were not at the Shelf change over to take the baton.

They had been delayed by heavy traffic, which lost the team valuable minutes, their lead over Rossendale and the chance of a top three finish. The final leg was still fiercely run with the Clayton runners just beating Rossendale's Dave Schofield and Mark Rice to fourth place. After an amazing and eventful 50 miles only 18 seconds separated the two local teams. Clayton Ladies were the second all ladies team to finish in 50th overall in a time of 7:47.50.

Pudsey & Bramley, runners-up to Clayton last year, were the 1999 winners in 5:52.12, with Bingley Harriers second and Salford Harriers third.

Leading local teams: 4 Clayton A 6:03.40 (Tony Chew, Mark Brown, Ian Greenwood, Andy Hartley, Simon Thompson, Willy Sullivan, Andy Black, Anthony Waterworth, Gary Wilkinson, Dave Walker, Dave Gregory, Phil Hall.

5 Rossendale A 6:03.58 (Mark Aspinall, Adrian Murphy, Dave Lewis, Martin Lee, Gary Sumner, Ray Rawlinson, Mervyn Keys, Nick Hatchard, Phil Taylor, Pete Livesey, Mark Rice, Dave Schofield). Results: 1 Pudsey & Bramley 5:21.12 (P Sheard, S Green, N Armitage, G Devine, P Stevenson, M Hill, R Hope, S Neill, J Maitland, G Oldfield, J Noon, A Buckey), 2 Bingley HA 5:55.56 (M Kinch, C Moore, M Brear, I Holmes, J Convery, S Green, S Hawkins, M Whitfield, M Peace, R Jebb, C Cariss, I MacDougall), 3 Salford Harriers 6:02.36 (J Jackson, M Moorhouse, D Milliken, N Wilkinson, J Brown, D Mason, P Leybourne, M Fowler, D Townsend, B Burns, J Newnes, K Chapman).

Other local teams: 10 Clayton Vets A 6.27.02 (M Wallis, J Nuttall, S Taylor, B Horrocks, J Roche, G Cunliffe, R Brewster, K Carr, R Hargreaves, G Gough, B Mitchell, P Butterworth), 14 Clayton B 6:37.07 (N Worswick, J Harbour, J Rutter, S Whittaker, D Horrocks, L Thompson, M Blande, L Aspin, T Morgan, D Maguire, C Guiltrashaw, M Carr), 18 Todmorden Mix 6:45.21 (A Wrench, S Becconsall, L Hainsworth, J Wright, A Rees, A Horsfall, S Willis, K Leigh, S Clift, K Smith, H Allcock, R Glover).

26 Rossendale B 7:02.28 (S Molloy, A Lee, A Preedy, D Schofield, R Sutcliffe, N Gotts, A Buttery, S Clawson, D Schofield, R Stott, A Fell, S Sumner), 27 Clayton Vets B 7:03.08 (J Hickie, M Burridge, A Firth, P Browning, D Scott, D Hindle, J Pickup, N Targett, J Chrles, H Nicholson, G Murray, M O'Rourke). 28 Todmorden Vet 7:03.48 (D Donohue, S Anderton, A Mellor, D Collins, T Shaw, S Anderton, P Brandwood, J Kuterescz, L McCluskey, M Roberts, D Rawlinson, K Parkinson), 47 Rossendale Z 7:43.26 (C White, T Gotts, M Purdy, A Hewitt, D Holt, J Bibby, N Law, P Hannah, M Winnick, N Bower, M Nelson, A Gotts), 50 Clayton Lady A 7:47.50 (M Laney, W Dodds, L Sullivan, B McWade, L Bostock, K Thompson, V Peacock, A Smith, S Middleton, K Wallis, J Hindle, A Martin), 59 Clayton Z 8:00.43 (G Fletcher, T Peacock, J McGonagle, M Lee, R Wilkinson, G Thompson, M Green, P Hindle, J Kenyon, D Munroe, P Taylor, I Mitchell).

60 Todmorden A 8:00.51 (D Turner, M Grice, D O'Neill, M Anderton, I Morris, K Booth, V Fraga, E Wrathall, S Bartram, S Galloway, P Ankers, J Ashton), Rossendale Vets A 8:14.51 (N Harris, R Fell, G McDermott, P Nuttall, J Connolly, G Navan, D Ratcliffe, S Bateson, P Jepson, B Trickett, A McGuinness, J Kershaw), 79 Clayton Vets X 8:44.24 (G Laycock, D O'Brien, A Exton, P Healey, J Sharples, P Thornber, K O'Brien, J O'Connor, N Whalley, T Aspin, P Costello, N Stafford).

87 Rossendale Ladies 9:11.05 (M Dew, E Nuttall, L Hannah, J Wood, J Keys, C Tibke, J Moppett, S Fell, J Dickson, K Taylor, S German, J Feeney), 93 Clayton Lady B 9:44.51 (L Platt, C Lee, A Grindley, K Goss, C Campbell, J Hesseldon, J Sullivan, A Reedy, E Irwin, C Leathley, L Moore, M Ashton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.