TOM Carson marked his official return to Bolton United Harriers with a win in 26mins 18secs on the trails around Pennington Flash from Leigh Sports Village.

Not far behind in third was Karl Darcy – the 36-second gap was closer than the same five-mile distance at Horwich nearly three months ago, illustrating his continued improvement this year.

It sets up an intriguing battle to the line for the Individual Central Lancashire GP title.

Leigh’s Neil Pendlebury was the silver filling in a Bolton metal sandwich, after which Simon Dally and John Knowles had a ding-dong battle for seventh and first finishing vets.

Due to the recent club switch, Carson couldn’t count for the Team A standings (first 10 club finishers), but Scott Crompton’s superb 14th did, despite the humid conditions.

Amongst the others also featuring, the ever-dependable M40 Chris Povey made it six blues in the top 17, with Ken Fowler and Paul Turner both second in their M60 and M55 class respectively.

Hosts Leigh cut the Blue Vests’ series lead by almost 100 points to 506, though the B Team (next eight counters) added another 70 points to the 696 buffer over Burnden Road Runners courtesy of Pete Walker’s lead and Paul Rankin’s book-ending.

Cathy Flitcroft led the female turnout with a good mix of promising juniors and stalwart seniors, exemplified by Zoe Gibson edging out the returning Lea Taylor, though an extremely strong turnout by Astley and Tyldesley saw ground lost on the CLGP podium.

Bolton’s squad numbered 31 of the 197 field and included John Grimshaw, after his 53:52 in the Rochdale 10K (112/368) last week, and was rounded off by Ged Tucker, who comfortably came in under his 50 minutes target. Earlier, Ben Pickford won the boys' 1.5-mile fun run.

BUH&AC times: Tom Carson 26.18; Karl Darcy 26.54; John Knowles 28.30; Simon Dally 28.48; Scott Crompton 29.44; Chris Povey 30.17; Dave Shaw 31.54; Daryl Bentley 32.15; Ken Fowler 32.25; Paul Turner 32.31; Chris Pickford 32.56; Peter Walker 33.29; Eric Ranicar 34.23; Stuart Parsonson 35.19; Andrew Gallagher 35.38; Andy Barrow 35.48; Cathy Flitcroft 35.52; Steve Houghton 37.15; Paul Rankin 37.44; Zoe Gibson 38.03; Lea Taylor 38.25; Donna Cooper 38.43; John Grimshaw 39.23; Olivia Kearney 40.50; Megan Robinson 41.32; Hannah Edwards 41.47; Sara Green 42.12; Deborah Flitcroft 43.10; Geoff Knowles 44:05; Gail Harrison 45.12; Ged Tucker 49.36

Below full international level competition, the England Athletics Championships is the most prestigious event for qualifying athletes and two of Bolton’s brightest prospects travelled to Bedford for the competition.

Georgia Lever capped off a fine season by finishing tenth in the U17 long jump. Her 5.04m was a little below her 5.35m personal best set in May this year. Holly Mills, of Andover, leapt 6.14m for the win.

Under-15 speedster Hannah Kelly went in her preferred 200m. Heat progression came courtesy of 25.99s in second, while the semis were dusted off in 25.62s, close to her 25.49s PB.

For the final, a 25.83s burst placed fifth, though her semi-final time would have netted bronze in this race. Enfield and Haringey’s Akaysha Ellis ran 25.26s for the honours.