KATY Thompson has been a key member of this year's record-breaking Clayton ladies fell squad, but on Sunday she tasted individual success when finishing third veteran at the High Brown Knoll Fell Race.

The 6-miler at Mytholmroyd demands navigational skills as the route is flagged only to Sheepstones part way up the climb, and the descent from High Brown Knoll is completely unmarked.

Todmorden's Sean Willis was first to the top, but had dropped to fifth at the finish as Bradford veteran Steve Oldfield found the optimum route back and set a new course record. Todmorden had four of the first dozen finishers with Jon Wright sixth, Karl Smith ninth and new signing Robert Glover 12th. They finished second, but the club's ladies went one better as veteran winner Alison Rees, Caroline Rogers and Pat Collier clinched the team prize.

Rossendale's highest placings were for brothers Thornton Taylor (21st) and Ken Taylor (23rd). Ken was first M50 well clear of Clayton's Geoff Newsam (39th) but lost his overall lead in the South Pennine Grand Prix to Chris Seddon of Horwich. The penultimate race in the series is the Gale Fell Race at Littleborough on October 31. One of the oldest races in the calender, the 33rd running of the Gale sadly will be the last.

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