FIFTEEN-year-old Alex Till of Arnside has been called up to the England Under-16 Fell Racing team to run at Susa, in Italy, on June 25.

Alex took part in the trials race at Bolton earlier this month where he came fourth.

The first three to finish automatically qualified for the team and the fourth place was to be given on form and at the selectors' discretion.

Alex, a student at Dallam School and member of Dallam Running Club, has had a string of impressive results this year.

He won the Kendal Winter League U17s title which included victories in the last five races. He finished third in the first round of the English Championship Under-16 races at The Wrekin and more recently has won his age group race at Cat Bells.

This weekend he will be trying to improve his position when the second round of the England Championship races take place at St. John's in the Vale, near Keswick.

Alex is the only member of the England squad who will be eligible to run in the same age group next year, so he is definitely one for the future.

STAVELEY'S Rob Jebb was denied an English championship victory despite leading for most of the way in Saturday's Fairfield Horseshoe Fell Race, writes Mike Addison.

Jebb, who runs for Bingley, was caught at the wall crossing on the long descent off Fairfield by Pudsey and Bramley's Rob Hope and championship leader Simon Bailey of Mercia.

The three hit the long track to the finish virtually together and although Jebb managed to overhaul Bailey, he was unable to catch Hope who went on to win the nine-mile, 3000ft race just two seconds outside the record of 1-15-11 set by Borrowdale's Mark Roberts in 2000.

"I took it on the best I could but I was only 30 to 40 seconds ahead at the top of Fairfield," said Jebb. "I have no complaints because those lads are running faster at the moment."

Ambleside's Nick Sharp was in the chasing group and finished sixth ahead of Borrowdale's Jim Davies who was first V40. Mark Roberts was second vet in 12th and Pudsey & Bramley's Gary Devine was third vet in 17th.

First woman home was Altrincham's Olivia Walwyn, who clocked 1-30-54 to beat Dark Peak's Janet McIver by 20 seconds. Clayton's Candice Leah was third ahead of Bingley's Natalie White.

Staveley's Sharon Taylor was seventh ahead of the first woman veteran Sally Newman of Calder Valley, while Kirkby Stephen's Sarah Tunstall, who runs for York Acorn, was first under-23 woman in ninth place.

Both the men and women's teams representing Cumbria in the inter-counties fell running event at Crowden in Derbyshire returned home with medals.

The men's team bagged silver after good performances from Ricky Lightfoot (6th), Morgan Donnelly (8th) and Ben Bardsley (9th) while the women's team of Rebecca Robinson (5th female), Jane Reedy (10th), Phillipa Jackson (12th) and Louise Roberts (14th) collected the bronze.

Salford's Andy Jones won the men's race. while Dark Peak's Janet McIver triumphed in the women's race in 33rd position overall.