AFTER being promoted last season, PENDLE AC had been expecting a hard year in Division Three of the Northern Men's League. How- ever, they opened their campaign in style at Carlisle, finishing second to Barrow and with two teams gaining promotion at the end of the season, the prospects look bright.

It was essentially a team performance, personified by Patrick Weekes and Keith Kong, who each scored heavily with four top three placings.

Lee McCash easily won his first ever 5,000m, after running the first few laps with the pack, he broke them with a 65-second lap and recorded 15:19.9. He completed a double with victory in the 800m. Matt Holden won the 400m A race, and Tony Balko and John Riley each took two second places.

Pendle girls travelled to Bolton and had a convincing win in the McDonald's Girls' League, defeating near rivals Hyndburn by 228.5 points to 195.5, with Horwich third.

The team set no less than 14 personal best times with four girls each getting two - Charlene Halliday, Hannah Smith, Anna Bennett and Deborah Trickett. Lisa Ashworth won three A finals in the under 15s, the 100m, 200m and high jump (in a PB), and Kate Franzke and Laura Griffiths each won two As and one B final.

Lisa, Kate and Deborah were also in the winning under 15 sprint team with Laura Finucane and Laura Griffiths, Hannah, Charlene and Lisa Cockerill took the under 17 relay.

Justine Anderton was voted athlete of the meeting at Bolton after winning the 800m and long jump A finals in the under 13 age group. She was one of nine HYNDBURN athletes to record victories in a solid team performance. The under 13s performed particularly well, with Justine's victories backed by wins for Charlotte Baron in the 75m, Lauren Grime in the shot and Anna Griffiths in the 70m hurdles.

Among the under 15s, Claire Mullen (high jump) was the only winner, but Alex Noblett won two events in the under 17s, the B javelin and B long jump, and there were wins for Ursula Walmsley, Hayley Bullen and Rebecca Haworth.

The busiest athlete must have been Hyndburn's Neil Tattersall. His club sent a small team to the Northern Men's Division Five match at Carlisle and he ran six races, totalling over 27 laps of the track.

Amazingly, Neil had three wins and two second places in his individual races and helped the team to fourth in the 4x400m relay. Three youngsters also had a full weekend - Aaron Wilson, Matthew Anderton and Simon Pollard all competed in the McDonald's Boys' League on Saturday and the Men's League on Sunday, with Matthew and Simon both making their debuts for the men.

Matthew was rewarded with a PB in the 800m and Aaron with a win in the long jump. All three were also winners for the boys. Other men's winners were Ian Coffey and Mike Grime in the A and B hammer and shot.

Top performance for Hyndburn Boys at Wigan came from under 13s Andrew Charlesworth, who won both the 100m and the shot (the former with a PB) and was runner up in the 200m. David Pounder won the B hammer and set a PB in the shot.

BURNLEY AC won their Division Five match in the Northern Men's League at Stockport, beating Bradford by 10 points. The team recorded 10 individual victories, six of them in A finals.

David Bailey took both the pole vault and high jump, and finished second in the triple jump, and there were other A final wins for John Edwards (hammer), Mark Linacre (javelin), Mick Lister (3000m steeplechase) and John Linacre (400m hurdles).

Burnley hosted a round of the McDonald's Boys' League on Saturday and for the home club Simon Bissell led the way by winning the under 15s hammer and discus, and improving his PB in the latter by four metres to 42:64. The team won all the A throws in the under 15s as Ian Sturdy took the javelin and shot. For the under 13s, Mark Hartley and Luke Bell took maximum points in the 800 metres, and nearly repeated the feat in the 200m as Luke won the B race and Mark was second in the A final.

Under 17 Colin Bailey defied injury to win the high jump, pole vault and javelin. Kieran Flynn, Mark Fenwick, Simon Wrigley and Simon Woods all recorded victories.

Another club playing host last weekend were BLACKBURN HARRIERS - in the Northern Men's League.

The Harriers are in the highest division of any of the local clubs - Division Two West - and they opened their season third of six teams, despite being unable to field athletes in three events. This proved crucial as Manx finished only half a point ahead, Trafford B were the winners.

The star performers were the middle distance runners Robert Barton, Mark Emmett, Jon O'Dea, Matt Nield, Mark Brown, Nick Samuels and Liam Barton who all set PBs. Jon O'Dea's previous best in the 1500m would have placed him fourth in the A race, but after improving by nine seconds he won in 4:06.9, gaining the team three extra points.

Robert Barton (400m B) and Liam Barton (400m hurdles B) also both won, thanks to posting PBs and Nick Samuels improved his 5000m time by 18 seconds to finish second in the 5000m B race.

The runners were supported in the field events by winning performances from Mike Hazlewood (discus and javelin), Mark Birchall (javelin, shot and long jump), John Wiggins (long jump and triple jump) and Paul Wickers (triple jump).

In the McDonald's Boys League, Blackburn finished second behind hosts Spenborough. Liam Barton, competing in the 400m hurdles, discovered halfway through his race that one of his hurdles was missing. He moved out into the next lane and jumped that hurdle instead - and he still won the race.

Liam also won the high jump, twin Robert took victory in the 800m and 1500m and also in the under 17s, John Clements won the sprint hurdles. Thrower Andrew Lake won the hammer and javelin for the under 15s, and Matthew Wood took the sprint double for the under 13s. Matthew was also a member of the winning sprint relay team with Robert Entwistle, David Fairbrother and Gavin Southworth.

Following last year's promotion to Division Four of the Northern Men's League, ROSSENDALE HARRIERS encountered new competition at Bury.

They were second ahead of Rochdale, Bury, Oldham and Leeds, beaten only by Chorley AC. Although their only winner was Ian Barnes in the B steeplechase, there were numerous second and third positions. Chris White, still available after delaying joining the army, took second in the B 400m hurdles, and third in the sprint hurdles and flat 400m. Declan Callan was runner up in both the 400m B and 800m A races and Chris Watts was second at high jump and 400m hurdles. Versatile Mark Aspinall was second in the 5,000m A race.

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