COACH Noel Finucane has spoken of his pride for Pendle Athletic Club’s youngsters after they defended another cross country title in stunning fashion.

The Nelson-based club’s U13 boys have not put a foot wrong in holding onto their Mid Lancs Cross Country crown this winter, and confirmed their dominance with a superb showing in the penultimate meeting of the season at Barrow on Saturday.

Although the club did not send a full complement of athletes to Cumbria – along with several other East Lancashire outfits – Pendle U13 boys proved again to be the winning team.

The team had mathematically booked its gold place position after a solid performance in the previous fixture at Hyndburn last month.

But led by Matthew Barnes, the youngsters took top spot for the fourth occasion out of five at Barrow, with further good runs from Thomas Marchant, Gregan Baker and Jacob Van Geffen.

It has been a sparkling period of success for Pendle, with Tiarnan Crorken proving a major contributor to the U13 team’s success, along with brothers Matt Thompson and Luke Thompson, Jordan Isherwood and Morgan Ratcliffe.

Before the turn of the year, the team defended their Red Rose Cross Country title and, last month, they took gold at the Lancashire Cross Country Championships at Witton Park.

Their Mid-Lancs success comes just two months after they successful defended their Red Rose Cross Country title.

Four of the runners have now been selected to represent Lancashire at the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championship on March 10 at Crofton Park, in Birmingham.

The results have pleased nobody more than Pendle coach Finucane, who insists the boys deserve their success due to their hard work.

“They are all very talented and competitive,” said Finucane. “They’re also very dedicated which is important. These boys don’t miss a day’s training.

“It’s so rewarding. It makes you feel better as a coach in these winter months knowing they are doing so well.

“We’re all very proud of how well they’ve done over the past couple of years.”

Finucane added: “It’s a great achievement for such a small group from Colne or Nelson, with one or two boys coming from Burnley.

“We’ve only got about 15 or 16 boys here throughout all the age groups.

“Some of the bigger clubs – such as Blackburn and Lancaster & More-cambe – have got over 100, so it shows how well we’ve done.”

As well as Barnes, other individual wins at Barrow came from Blackburn Harrier Grace Handley in the U13 girls event, Clayton’s Helena Leathley in the ladies’ U17 race, and Rossendale Harriers’ Emma Flanagan in the ladies’ U20 category.

Emma’s youngster sister Rebecca finished second in the U15 girls, with Chorley Harriers’ Emma Plant in fourth place.

In the U15 boys’ event, Robert Wong of Blackburn Harriers took second spot, with Pendle’s Matthew Dutton in fourth. Clayton’s Natalya Irvine was fourth in the U11 girls’ race.

The Clayton senior men vets 50 team took top spot.