CLAYTON Harriers had a great day at the Winfields Rossendale Way Relay - almost. In the 45 mile event run in pairs over six stages, they won the veterans and the ladies classes, were the third mixed team, and had the first B team home.

But what happened to the A team? They were the defending champions and had also won the Calderdale Relay a few weeks ago. Many of their stars were fully rested having skipped the Cross Country the previous day. This was one they were aiming to win.

Andy Black and Simon Thompson gave them an ideal start, completing the first stage in second place, about 100 yards behind Bingley. Four teams had failed to complete the first stage due to poor visibility (one ending up miles away at Owd Bets near Rochdale), but conditions were at their worst on the second leg as the mist fell.

A checkpoint in the form of a tally drop had been introduced this year on stage two to stop a much used short cut. Whether this caused their confusion isn't established, but Mark Brown and Paul Thompson went spectacularly wrong and ended up in Littleborough instead of Sharneyford near Bacup. Two and a half hours later they arrived back courtesy of a friendly farmer who gave them a lift. It's been a week of extremes for Brown - it had started with him winning a world championship silver medal. Bingley, fielding a team bristling with internationals, had an untroubled run leading from start to finish. After Pudsey and Bramley and Horwich in second and third positions, our top local teams Clayton Vets, Rossendale and Todmorden were involved in a battle for fourth place.

The Clayton team were always just ahead of the others thanks to the start given to them by Roger Brewster and Mike Wallis, third in leg one. Todmorden's Sean Willis and Jon Wright recorded the third fastest time of the day on the troublesome second stage to move ahead of Rossendale, but Clayton consolidated their advantage on leg three with fourth place by John Roche and Peter Butterworth.

Although Steve Brandwood and Joe Kuterescz were fourth for Todmorden in stage four, they lost ground as Rossendale's Dave Schofield and Phil Taylor ran magnificently to set the fastest time of the day. Clayton were the fastest of the three teams on stage five which meant that Rossendale's fourth place on the final leg through Sean Molloy and Andy Buttery was in vain. Just behind these teams, Clayton B finished seventh and Rochdale eighth.

The organising club, Rossendale Harriers won the prize for third veteran team with 13th place overall. Three of their pairings had top 10 finishes, Pete Irwin and Tony Spicer, Rod Graham and Dean Hebden, and Tony Higginson and Nigel Gotts.

Clayton Ladies trounced their opponents winning their class by half an hour. Top performers were Bev McWade and Vanessa Peacock (29th on stage two) and Helen Jones and Wendy Dodds (30th on stage three).

Results: 1 Bingley 4:45.13, 2 Pudsey 5:03.13, 3 Horwich 4:11.4, 4 (first vets) Clayton Vets A 5:21.59 (Roger Brewster and Mike Wallis, Jack Holt and Simon Clarke, John Roche and Peter Butterworth, Steve Taylor and Kieran Carr, Peter McWade and Brian Horrocks, Graham Cunliffe and Paul Brannon), 5 Rossendale A 5:23.48 (Mervyn Keys and Andy Preedy, Dave Holt and Gary Sumner, Ray Rawlinson and Stuart Sumner, Dave Schofield and Phil Taylor, Ken Taylor and Pete Lyons, Sean Molloy and Andy Buttery), 6 Todmorden A 5:29.15 (Paul Brannigan and Marcial, Sean Willis and Jon Wright, Mark Anderton and Dave Collins, Steve Brandwood and Joe Kuterescz, Simon Anderton and Andy Smith, Andrew Horsfall and Karl Smith), 36 (first ladies): Clayton 6:48.43 (Alison Martin and Maureen Laney, Bev McWade and Vanessa Peacock, Helen Jones and Wendy Dodds, Sue Middleton and Judy Hindle, Kath Wallis and Katy Thompson, Carol Life and Alison Smith).

Other local: 7 Clayton B 5:38.12, 8 Rochdale A 5:44.36, 12 Bowland FR 5:58.56, 13 Rossendale Vets 5:58.57, 14 Clayton Clarets 5:58.59, 16 Clayton Vets B 6:05.39, 17 Rossendale B 6:06.04, 18 Rossendale Triathlon 6:08.38, 26 Clayton Z 6:30.57 27 Clayton Mixed 6:33.17, 28 Darwen Dashers 6:34.35, 29 Todmorden B 6:48.32, 35 Rochdale B 6:48.38, 41 Accrington A 7:06.31, 42 Clayton X 7:07.30, 44 Blackburn Harriers Mixed 7:14.58, 45 Rochdale Mixed 7:16.10, 47 Clayton Vintage 7:21,15, Rossendale Combining 7:35.56, Rossendale Ladies 7:40.41, 54 Blackburn RR Mixed 7:44.26.

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