Blackburn Harriers are on track to win their third successive Northern League First Division title after the seniors won their home match at Witton Park.

The second of the four rounds took place on Saturday and it was a rewarding weekend for our clubs with the combined Burnley/Pendle team winning their third division match while Rossendale and Hyndburn both improved on their first round results.

A topsy-turvy season so far could be playing right into Blackburn’s hands as they finished clear of the Blackpool Wyre and Fylde club with Preston Harriers third. City of York went from first to last as Wakefield could only take fourth.

That leaves the Harriers two points clear of Wakefield at the top of the table with two more matches remaining. Blackburn took eight ‘A’ string victories with Luke Evans and Alison Leonard each winning twice. Sprinter Luke clocked 11.0 and 22.1 seconds for his 100m/200m double as middle distance star Leonard was untroubled in the 800m and 1500m.

Five of their wins were converted into 16 point maximums with the ‘B’ string contenders also winning including Jerome Duxbury who backed Evans in the 100m and England fell runner Candice Taylor supporting Leonard in the 1500m.

The combined talents of Tom Cornthwaite and steeplechase debutant Karl Billington brought another 16 points which was matched by Liam Monag-han and Claude Peter-Thomas in the high hurdles and discus throwers Sarah Henton and Megan Searson. It was left to the ever reliable Ben Fish to produce one of the most decisive performances of the afternoon though as he won the 5000m with 40 seconds to spare.

Burnley/Pendle are going all out to win their second successive promotion and are so far unbeaten after matches at Leigh and latterly at Sports City, Manchester.

They improved their match score to 395 points, 15 more than runners-up East Cheshire with the men and women contributing almost equally to the total.

The women took six of their ten ‘A’ string wins though with Jade Lord successful in both the 400m and 800m.

Laura Martin took the 100m hurdles and in the field Helena Leathley won the high jump, Alexis Walker the javelin, and Lucy Chadwick the shot.

Second Division Rossen-dale Harriers are struggling valiantly to avoid relegation, and were initially marked fourth of six in a match they were hosting at Trafford.

After finishing last in the opener, they mobilised the troops to great effect, filling every event except the women’s ‘B’ pole vault.

‘Volunteers’ appeared in unfamiliar events just to add a point or two to the tally, but unfortunately some athletes did more than they were allowed and the extra points had to be deducted moving them back into fifth.

Their men’s 4x400m relay team of Joe Moores, Ashley Kay, Joe Kelly and Aaron Barker were winners while Kelly added wins in the ‘B’ 400m and 800m.

Hyndburn’s throwers scored 89 of their 203 points in their Division 4W match at Bebbington.

Veteran hurdler Nick Rawcliffe took a double first over the 110m and 400m distances. Caroline Smithson won the ‘A’ long jump and Tara Proctor the ‘B’ high jump.

In their Division 4WC match at Cleckheaton, Chorley AC fielded a small team although Ian Gold-thorpe and Dale Nuttall were second ‘A’ and first ‘B’ in the men’s long jump.