PAULINE Powell, Eleanor Markendale and Luke Evans helped to ensure another successful outing for the Lancashire team at the Northern Inter Counties Match at the Costello Stadium, in Hull.

A year ago the team had enjoyed its best result since the size of county was shrunk with the loss of Merseyside and Greater Manchester in 1974, and this year's result was nearly as spectacular.

The U17 men and the U17 women were winners, the U15 girls and senior men finished second, and the U17 women and U15 boys were respectively third and fifth.

The U17 and senior women's 3,000 metres were run simultaneously, and the race yielded a maximum score for Lancashire with Hannah Bateson, from Lancaster, the first U17, while Blackburn Harrier Pauline Powell took overall victory in 9:54:04.

Every point was especially vital for the senior women as ultimately the team beat Yorkshire by a single point.

Pendle's Eleanor Markendale was a handsome winner of the senior long jump in 5.54m and, as usual, had a busy afternoon with third in the 200m in 26.26 seconds, and second in the medley relay (200m, 200m, 400m,800m), with Christina Carr, of Blackburn, Ashleigh Williams, Ribble Valley AC, and June Swift.

The U17 girls won their medley relay, with Holly Bleasdale, of Blackburn Harriers, in the team.

Luke Evans, of Blackburn Harriers, ran brilliantly according to team manager Brian Craig, to win the U17 men's 200m in 23.39 seconds; he was also second in the 100m.

Craig pin-pointed the decision to put on a team coach as crucial to engender team spirit, and that spirit was demonstrated perfectly by Blackburn's Paul Whittle, who missed the coach by seconds, but followed it all the way to Hull before claiming third place in the senior 110m hurdles.

For many of these athletes, the weekend was a double header, with the Mid Lancs Medal Meeting taking place at Wigan the day before.

After the regular season, when everyone was competing for their clubs, it was a chance for individual glory with gold, silver and bronze medals at stake.