SHETTLETONE Harriers' Joe Symonds returned to his South Lakeland roots to win the 14-mile Sedbergh Fell Race at the weekend.

Symonds, 32, who lives in Glasgow, was born and brought up in the Yorkshire Dales town and savoured his victory on Sunday in a field that, although small, had quality at the front end.

"It's always nice to win a race that means a lot to you because you've grown up there," said Symonds, who will be in action again at the weekend in the 47-kilometre Glencoe Skyline Race.

Symonds was unsure how he would perform at Sedbergh after badly twisting his knee when his foot went down a hole on Swirl How last month. He had not trained for three weeks and used the race as a pointer to assess how fit he was before this weekend's Highland challenge.

The race visits check points at Arant Haw, Castley Knotts, Bowderdale Beck below Hazelgill Knott, The Calf and Winder.

"It was really encouraging because I felt really strong in the race and more importantly my knee was fine," said Symonds, who last won the race in 2007 after arriving five minutes late for the start. "I was cautious on the descents because I did not want to do more damage but I was strong on the climb."

Symonds had Staveley's Rob Jebb as company for much of the race and the Bingley runner had a 20 second lead on the approach to The Calf - the highest point in the Howgill fells. But Symonds put in a kick in to catch him up and because the descent from The Calf lacks tussocks and is runnable he was able to push on and arrived back at the People's Hall in 2-13-40, a minute and 47 seconds ahead of Jebb. Wharfedale's Ted Mason was cut adrift in third and clocked 2-24-23.

Kendal's Phil Clark is still going strong and was first MV60 in 3-11-34.

First lady was Dark Peak's Nicky Spinks who also won the FV40 prize in a time of 2-56-29. She was followed over the line by Clayton's Jean Brown (3-00-09) and Wharfedale's Sophie Martin (3-03-35). Joe's mother, Pauline Symonds, was the first FV60 in a time of around three hours 25 minutes.

EDEN'S Elliott Mattier was fourth, Helm Hill's Jack Byrne fifth and Dallam's Jason Steele seventh in the England U17 junior home international trial race at Loughrigg. The race was won by Alfie Thompson of Leicester Coritanian from Wharfedale's Thomas Nelson.