DAVID FORRESTER (St Helens-Sutton) opened the new Liverpool and District season as he ended the last one with an emphatic victory, on this occasion at Beacon Park, Skelmersdale.

Forrester finished 19 seconds clear of the Liverpool duo of Richard Burney and John McCole, leading club colleagues Marc Laithwaite, Ian Roberts, Tony Smith, Ian White and Robbie Marsh into third place five points behind champions Liverpool. Wirral, led by Alan Woods in fourth place, packed superbly, John Hunt (10), Phil Scarrett (11), Mike Hulmston (15), Dave Norman (22) and Kevin Buxton (28), steering them home to a seven point margin over Liverpool for whom Joe Riley and Luke Reddy made the top 10. Stalwarts Tony Clarke and Paul Owens completed the count.

Rob Berry (Southport Waterloo), spearheaded by sixth Rob Berry, Mike Tillotson (14) and Rob Ashworth, who also made the top twenty, finished fourth.

The Sandgrounders’ effort was distributed between the Liverpool and District event and the Mid-Lancs League which was held at Burnley.

The U13 Boys’ quartet of Liam Ellis, Michael Panes, Gary Clark and Luke Tyson beat Liverpool’s

Owen Sharp, Kristian Quirk, Tom Schumacher and Jack Courtney by 22 points.

The weekend’s events were not without incident. Southport’s Tracey Peters running in the Lancaster Half Marathon fell head first into a water logged ditch at eight miles and bravely continued her race only to be battered by hailstones as she completed the final 400m.

At Skelmersdale, Barry Graney (St Helens-Sutton) lost the heel from his shoe, tied the sole on with marking tape, then lost the entire sole of the same shoe and completed the race on the equivalent of slick tyres.

This weekend the main event is the Manchester Area League at Boggart Hole Clough on Sunday, the same day as the Preston 10 mile road race. The Gill Pimblott Memorial 5k takes place at Tyldsley.