THE Mid-Lancashire Cross Country League competition came nearer to home with the second fixture of the season staged at Tulketh High School, Preston.

Weather leading up to the meeting was not exactly what one would choose for a holiday and the course on the day was a mudbath. Nevertheless there was a bigger turnout than the opener put on at Barrow.

Clayton-le-Moors Harriers gave their usual strong support and were rewarded with a clean sweep of team firsts in the senior sections.

Mark Aspinall excelled once again by taking third individual place and leading home the winning A team in the senior men's race.

Fell international Shaun Livesey was next into the funnel in 12th spot with Ian Green close behind 13th. Veteran-40 Steve Taylor was 20th home and Mark Brown, 33rd and Anthony Taylor, 40th completed the six counters.

The B team had all six scorers in their next 17 to finish so counting up to decide who had won the section was hardly necessary. Veteran-50 Barry Mitchell headed the pack in 42nd place.

Three veterans-40, Graham Cunliffe, Jack Holt and Alan Turner placed 44th, 47th and 49th and with Alan Life 57th and Paul Shackleton 58th, the winning team was closed.

The popularity of the womens section of the league has grown steadily over the past few years.

The strength of the Clayton ladies team has grown with it and was shown again with the club's three counters heading a group of 10 who faced the starter. Vanessa Peacock wore the leader's shoes again, finishing fifth, with Tina Lewis 12th and Carol Dewhurst 16th making up the counting trio.

Katie Thompson 18th, Carol Spain 21st, Maureen Ashton 23rd, Carol Campbell 29th, Sue Middleton 40th, Karen Goss 48th and Christine Leathley 56th were the remainder of an impressive turnout.

The male veterans completed a hat trick of team wins. With Steve Taylor, Barry Mitchell, Graham Cunliffe, Jack Holt and Alan Turner all scoring in the A and B teams, and all past the 40 mark, there was no need to look further for the scoring vets.

Blackburn Harriers fared best in the under 15 age group where the boys team was made up of Glen Garrett who placed fifth, Robert Barton 15th, Chris Kay whose 25th place was his best in the league and Liam Barton who was 28th.

In the same age bracket Christine Nicholson was eighth in the girls race which was also a best-in-the-league for her.

The senior men had five in the field, of whom three were veterans. Vet-40 George Woodburn was 43rd and Eric Wilson who was 74th is in the same age category. Mike Blackledge was 93rd, vet-45 George Davies 94th and Peter Lovick 169th in a very big field. Pendle AC also shone in the under 15 girls section where the team packed in very well behind Vicky Rusius who was their star of the afternoon with a convincing individual win. She was followed by Rachel Parker 11th, Jane Parker 15th and Lisa Robinson 17th.

There was more success for the Rusius family with James placing fourth in the under 11 boys race and older brother Chris sixth of the under 13s.

In the under 15 boys race Sam Brooks was 30th and Mark Robinson 32nd and Chris Singleton, although still a junior, was 75th in the senior men's section.

Hyndburn AC took only a handful of youngsters to the meeting, but they made themselves noticed while they were there.

Rachel Holt was a clear winner of the under 11s race which opened the proceedings. In the next age group, under 13, Clare Mullen was fifth and Clare Lonsdale 11th. Up another bracket, Karen Brooks was third and Casey Dean 16th of the under 15s.

On the boys side, Michael Hammer was 10th and Aaron Wilson 21st of the under 15s and Andrew Gabriel 13th of the under 13s.

Burnley AC were also short in numbers, but not in strength at this meeting. Single entries saw Carol Glover an excellent second in the under 13 girls race and Nick Samuels fifth of the under 17 boys.

There were three from the club in the under 13 boys group with Jonathan Hunter placing 10th, Andrew Whitehead 11th and Colin Bailey 20th.

Park High School, in fact, had only one representative, Jennifer Tunstill who placed seventh in the under 13 race and earned selection for the coming inter-league match.

There is virtually a full northern women's inter-league meeting being held at Springfield Park, Rochdale next Sunday, December 1.

As well as the Mid-Lancs League, others taking part will be the North East League, West Yorkshire League, North West Womens League and the Red Rose League.

They will find the Rochdale course both testing and interesting and this should be an excellent extra event for the best in these competitions.

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