ATHLETICS: DANIELLE Bentley has been rewarded for a busy weekend's work with West Cheshire AC .

The youngster had success in a schools' race on Saturday and then produced an award-winning display for her club 24 hours later.

Danielle won the girls' race at the latest Ellesmere Port and Neston Primary Schools Cross-Country Series on Saturday, and the distance-running ace secured third position overall in Sunday's Cheshire Cross-Country League final round at Macclesfield.

Danielle, who had finished fourth in the opening round at Frodsham in December and fourth in the second round at Stock-port last month, achieved fifth spot in the under-11 girls' race at Macclesfield.

She negotiated an undulating 1,980-metres course and found the finishing line after a determined performance.

Also in action for West Cheshire AC on Sunday were four men who earned third position overall in the veterans team event.

Graham Earlam steered the quartet to the finishing line at Macclesfield by taking 18th position, just one place ahead of Graham Jenkins.

Paul Price negotiated the testing 8.4k course to finish 26th and John McGill completed the team by finishing 36th.

Bradley Williams represented West Cheshire AC in the under-11 boys' race and finished a very creditable eighth after rounding a difficult 2.7k course.

Kerry Riley and Rebecca Grimes ran for West Cheshire in the under-13 girls' race over the 2.7k course. Kerry finished eighth and Rebecca posted 14th spot.

Danielle Bentley, representing Brook-lands, finished ahead of second-placed Danielle Street (John Street) in Saturday's school race and Marie McKeown (St Wine-frides) finished third.

Tom Littler, of Our Lady's, won the boys race at John Street, ahead of Josh King, representing the host school, and third-placed Jordan Smith (Neston).

Fixtures this weekend include the North West Sportshall League Finals on Sunday at Wigan. West Cheshire AC will be represented in all six age group events for the first time at the finals.

The next West Cheshire AC committee meeting will be held on Tuesday (7pm start).

Entries are now being accepted for West Cheshire AC's Open Indoor High Jump and Shot Put Competitions at Stan-ney High School Sportshall, Ellesmere Port, on Sunday, April 4. All age groups, from under 13 boys and girls, to senior men and ladies, are being catered for, and entry is on the day.

West Cheshire AC are organising the Chester Spring Five Miles Road Race on Tuesday, April 6 (7pm start), from Cheshire County Sports Club, Upton.

Entries are being accepted by Richard Batterham, Ranelagh, School Lane, Guilden Sutton, Chester CH3 7ET.

Further details about West Cheshire AC can be obtained from Dennis Wall on 0151 201 1254.

Wirral AC juniors travelled to Maid-stone in Kent to represent Merseyside in the English Schools Cross-Country Championships.

Best performance of the day was from Tom Madden, a pupil at St Anselm's, Birkenhead. Out of a field of 320 finishers, he was 31st in the junior boys' event and first Merseyside. Second to count for Merseyside was Stephen Duckers who is also at St Anselm's, finishing 92nd.

Calday Grange's Francis Fitzpatrick was 197th and fifth counter for the team, who came 24th overall from 41.

In the inter boys' race, Alistair Braid-wood (Wirral Grammar School) led Merseyside home in 66th. Adam Peers, as third counter, was 94th with Jordan Donnelly (St Anselm's) 183rd. In all, 322 athletes completed the course and Merseyside were 15th county out of 44.

Jonny Mellor (Pensby) was 160th in the senior boys' event with lone Wirral girls' school representative Gemma Lawlor (Upton) taking 134th place in the junior race and qualifying as the fourth counter for Merseyside.

Wirral schools took the honours in all but one age group in the concluding races of the Merseyside Boys' Schools Cross-Country League.

St Anselm's won the under-12s, the under-14s and the under-16 age groups, only losing out to St Edward's who won the senior boys event. They were third in this age group.

Calday took the runners-up spot in the under-14s and the seniors and were third in the under-12s.

St Anselm's also had three individual race winners on the day - Huw Shimmin, Tom Madden and Jordan Donnelly. Huw Shimmin won the under-12 race ahead of Sean Egan, from Wirral Grammar, and Ben Creedon (Calday) in fourth place.

Tom Twells, the only representative in any race from Bebington High, was a commendable fifth. He was followed by Andrew Gawne (St Anselm's) sixth and Calday's Craig Skillen in seventh. Out of 72 finishers, 43 were from Wirral schools.

Tom Madden finished half a minute ahead of his rivals in the under-14 race. St Anselm's took the first three places with Stephen Duckers second and Matthew Hughes third.

Francis Fitzpatrick, of Calday Grange, broke the sequence, finishing in fourth place ahead of St Anselm's boys Patrick McKeown in sixth and Andrew Campbell in 10th.

For the under-16s, Jordan Donnelly finished ahead of Wirral Grammar's Aistair Braidwood in third. With good close packing, Ben O'Gorman (fifth), Paul Ryan (seventh) and Adam Williamson (eighth) completed the St Anselm's team. Carl Muise (Wirral Grammar) was 10th.

The situation is not so bright in the senior age group. The race was dominated by St Edward's College, although Calday achieved good team packing with four finishers in the top 10.

The first to finish from a Wirral school was Graham Jones, of Calday. He was fourth with team-mate Peter Lomas sixth, Sean McColl eighth, and Chris Heseltine ninth. For St Anselm's, Richard Holden was seventh and Fergal Garvey 10th.