WELL off the beaten track, Barley Village is usually one of the most tranquil places in East Lancashire, but on Saturday it was more akin to organised chaos as close on 600 fell runners turned out for one of the sport’s busiest days of the year.

The Pendle Fell Race always attracts a strong local entry, but with the added lure of the Lancashire Championships and with it qualifying for the Inter Counties Championships, the field swelled to around 300.

For most organisers that would have been more than enough, but David Bailey and his team from Clayton-le-Moors Harriers had first to contend with 276 junior athletes, some as young as six, taking part in the opening round of the English Junior Champ-ionships with the locals also chasing county titles and medals.

The focus is on enjoyment rather than competition for the youngest so there are no medals handed out in the U8 or U10 age groups, but there was a familiar name at the head of the U8 race as Isaac Wilkinson, son of Clayton stalwart Garry was first past the post.

Ella Atkins of Pendle was the winning girl ahead of Blackburn’s Eleesha Charnley while in the U10s Ella Tinman was second for Rossendale.

Sally Searson of Blackburn Harriers is the early leader of the U16 Girls’ English Championship after defeating Sarah Hodgson from the Lancaster and Morecambe club by nine seconds. Sally was one of three Blackburn Harriers to take Lancashire titles although the only one to win her race outright.

Jack Hindle was the U14 Boys’ County Champion and Beckie Taylor won the U18 Girls’ trophy. Rossendale Harriers had six medallists and that was just enough for them to pip Blackburn to win the Lancashire Team Award.

Callum Davidson, Danny Walsh and Joe Johnston were second in the U14s, U16s and U18s while there were three thirds for the girls with U12 Eleanor Solomon, U14 Rebecca Flanagan and U16 Leah Williamson.

Blackburn tied with Dale after Robert Buckley and Dominic Mahoney picked up bronze medals in the U16 and U18 boys’ races and Georgia Turgoose was sixth U12 girl, but the seventh best from each club settled the tie-break in Rossendale’s favour.

Hyndburn’s Joshua Boyle has won the Lancashire Boys’ U12 Championship and was second in the English Championship race.

Ben Johnstone from Pendle became the new Lancashire U18 Champion.

Pendle have a strong fell section nowadays and they won three medals with Tiarnen Crorken and Matthew Barnes second and third in the U12s and James Marchant third in the U14s.

Lucy Horrocks from Barnoldswick is the U12 girls’ County Champion while in the same race Clayton Harriers won the silver medal thanks to Natalya Irvine.

The senior event, which is 4.5 miles long, was won by John Brown of Salford with the first Lancastrian, Shaun Godsman of Calder Valley coming in seventh.

Tim Ellis of Edgeworth won the second auto-matic selection for the Inter Counties and the two discretionary places have been allocated to the next two in the race, Paul Thomp-son of Clayton and Horwich Harrier Gary Priestley.

However, Godsman has since declined his invitation. English champion Lauren Jeska is the Lancashire women’s winner and will take her place in the County team in Southern Scotland on May 28 alongside Lindsay Brindle from Horwich.

Debbie Gowans, of Accrington, won the bronze medal but the Lancashire selections have gone instead to Nichola Jackson of Preston, the U23 race winner, and to Accrington’s recent signing Tara Kryzwicki.