Blackburn Harriers were the leading Lancashire club in the North of England Men's 12 Stage Road Relays at Heaton Park in North Manchester, finishing seventh outright, the second highest position in their history.

The team easily qualified for the National final, while Clayton-le-Moors Harriers were made to scrap before securing the last qualifying place. Rossendale Harriers and Chorley Harriers missed out.

The race includes four long legs of nine kilometres with the others being five kilometres and Blackburn was forced into a late change with Paul Guinan promoted to the first long leg after Chris Hart's withdrawal with injury.

Paul gave the team a solid foundation before handing to students Matt Wood and Toby Banfield who lifted them 23 places over the course of their two short stages.

Max Colligan, Mark Almond and Liam Barton consolidated before Ben Fish raised the pace with 29:17 on the third of the long stages.

It elevated the team's position to eighth and in sight of Lancashire leaders Preston Harriers.

Although Paul Bradshaw overtook their rivals on the eighth stage, Andy Farnworth slipped behind on the next leg and it was left to Tom Cornthwaite to make the decisive move.

Tom was a minute faster than Preston's athlete on the last long leg and rapid runs by Scott Monk and Matt Nuttall0 extended the gap to over two minutes by the finish.

Clayton Harriers were the third Lancastrians home after beating Wesham Road Runners by less than a minute, but they didn't know until much later that they had qualified for the nationals because they were involved in a mass start for the last stage which masked their position.

Paul Thompson was the fastest of their long leg athletes on the first stage while team captain Lee Passco ran the quickest short leg on the final stage, crucially overtaking Wesham.

The team finished 27th, but with two B' teams ahead of them, they were the 25th club to squeeze home as the last qualifiers.

Rossendale Harriers were 31st with a stage to run, but the last leg athlete Aaron Barker was omitted from the results although he did finish.

However, the club believes that it was behind Clayton and therefore just outside the qualifiers.

Chorley Harriers were 47th with Dominic Raby and Russell Barron their strongest performers as Blackburn Harriers B' placed 46th with veteran Evan Cook the pick.

The Northern Women's Six Stage Relays took place simultaneously with Clayton finishing 17th and Rossendale 27th.

Anna Kelly, Candice Leah and Tracy Mitchell were the nucleus of the Clayton squad as Heather Corbishley gave Dale a bright start.

All the stages were five kilometres long for the women and the former Hyndburn star Amanda Parkinson was among the quickest, seventh fastest on the day in 18:07 as Sale Harriers took fifth place.

Katie Ingram from Chorley helped her Horwich club to ninth place with 19:25.

There is no pre-qualifying for the Women's Nationals which will be held in conjunction with the Men's Nationals in Birmingham on Saturday, April 8.