With this race coming up this weekend, it is perhaps interesting to once more go back into the archives to have a look at what happened ten years ago. Below is the race report together with a report from the Sharphaw race. The results are also available for viewing.
Kirkby BOFRA 1999 Results


Sharphaw BOFRA 1999 Results

Brief report from Tamara Hird.

Wharfedale Harriers had 2 ladies teams and 2 mens teams in this event. The Mens Team of Lucas Payne, Sam Watson and Gareth Hird finished 5th, followed by Peter Keron, Jason Hemsley and Marcus Rae in about 8th position. The first ladies team of Joanne Middleton, Judy Howells and Tamara Hird also finished fifth ladies team and not far behind were the second Wharfedale ladies team of Louise Pickles, Vicky Rae and Angela Grey.

I might send a better report when the results are available - depending on how long this takes. The first mens team was Pudsey and Bramley and the first ladies team were Bingley Harriers.

Nicole Narey mixing it with the seniors
There were some big names at this race, but that did not put off a couple of our juniors testing themselves at this level. They were the only U14s and were the youngest runners in the race, but they certainly did credit to themselves. Ben Johnstone came home in 22nd position and Nicole Narey finished 79th out of 111 finishers. Well done to these two youngsters. They can only get better with age.

At 13 miles and 7000 ft of climbing, this race is tough. But it is actually tougher than those figures portray, as it is over some very rough terrain. It was maybe a race for Andy Hirst and Pete Jackson, but surprisingly, they did not attempt it. It was left to the girls to show us what they were made of and Judy Howells and Kirsty Hall put on a great performance came in as joint 5th ladies. It was not easy though and you can read all about it from Kirsty's report below.

Kirsty's Report

Full results are in the results section.

At 9:02 this morning, Lindsey gave birth to a baby daughter, Hannah Lauren Beilby. She weighed 7lbs 13oz at birth and both mum and baby are doing great.

Lucas Payne was the only Wharfedaler to take on this race, which is part road and part off road. He reports that he found the long run out of Laneshaw Bridge very hard and that he was not happy with his sprint finish at the end. However, he still managed a top ten place.

Full results are available in the results section.

Charlie Lowrie Uphill - U10 Champion
We only have sketchy details of this event at the moment, but the main news in that Logan Hargreaves-Madhas came 2nd in the U8s, with Tommy Lowrie getting a top ten finish in the same category. Charlie Lowrie became the U10s English Uphill Champion, beating Charles Smith of Ilkley

It is thought that Will Smith came 7th in the U14s with Nicole Narey also competing in this top flight group.

A few seniors also took part, with Barry Scholes finishing 2nd V50 and new member Val Done was apparently 3rd lady.

Further details follow.

The results are now available for these races and Wharfedale had nine youngsters taking part with Charlie Lowrie winning the U10s race. The positions for all our runners were:

U8s

•   3 Logan Hargreaves-Madhas
•   4 Sam Johnstone
• 10 Tommy Lowrie

U10s

• 1 Charlie Lowrie
• 5 Robbie Johnstone

U14s

•   4 Ben Johnstone
• 16 Nicole Narey

U16s

• 13 Scott Baistow

U18s

• 2 Jonathan Bradshaw

Quite a few Wharfedalers went to the Beamsley race, but Barry Scholes and Keiron Ashworth gave it a miss and went to this race instead. Their positions out of 165 finishers were:

•   73 Barry Scholes 37:47
• 105 Keiron Ashworth 41:07

Steve Cram with Will Smith, Jessica Sanchez, Saline De-Kamps and David Hird
Steve Cram took some time out this weekend to meet local young athletes who enjoyed chatting to him, jogging with him and having their pictures taken with him. Apparently, he was really good with the youngsters and it is really great to see that someone who has achieved so much is willing to put time in to encouraging the next generation.

There are more pictures of the day in the gallery.

A brief text message has been received from Carl to say that Jonathan Bradshaw came 12th and England came 3rd. The English positions were:

•   5 Billy Pinder
• 12 Jonathan Bradshaw
• 23 Ashley Kay

Full details are in the results section.

Whilst a lot of Wharfedalers went to the Beamsley Beacon race, there was one sole runner in this race and that was Keiron Ashworth. He came home in 56th place in a time of 36:07.

The results are now in for this championship race and Tamara Hird has sent in report of the day.

Read Tamara's Report

The main news is that Gareth Hird won the race in a time of 38:18 and was the first of four Wharfedalers in the top ten. He finished ahead of Richard Barrett of Skipton and Niall Bourke of Pudsey & Bramley. Lucas Payne confirmed his recent good form by finishing in 4th place, just ahead of Pete Keron and Marcus Rae returned to the fells to finish in 10th place.

Will Smith had an excellent run to finish as 5th Wharfedaler and first junior.

The first lady home was Jenny Guard of Leeds City. Second lady was Mary Green of Bingley and the third was Judy Howells of Wharfedale.

Full Results

Two races in two days for Colin Moses and impressive finishing places for both of them. He was 4th at this race and 7th at Buckden Pike.

Full results are in the results section.

For the second time this weekend, top ten finishes by Bruce Elsworth, Mark McGoldrick and Lucas Payne, ensured that Wharfedale Harriers were the first team. The Wharfedale turnout was completed by Keiron Ashworth who finished in 46th place. The finishing times and places were as follows:

•   2 Bruce Elsworth 58:10
•   3 Mark McGoldrick 59:24
•   8 Lucas Payne 62:34
• 46 Keiron Ashworth 79:38

Full results are in the results section.

Hector Haines	Ted Mason

The video of the day, in two parts and taken by Andy Holden, is available for viewing from the links below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxJzQEVb_PI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHyuCpnKpD8&feature=channel_page

There were slightly fewer numbers at Buckden this year, mainly due to the clash with championship race at Tebay. However, this probably made it more in keeping with the original intentions of the day and that is a traditional fell race at a traditional Dales village gala.

The race starts with a steep ascent out of the village and at the fell gate, Hector Haines had already taken the lead. He increased this as the race progressed and when he reached the first marshal on the tops, second man, Ted Mason was nowhere in sight. In fact, the first three places were decided on the ascent. Ted managed, with his renown descending skills, to close the gap on the way back, but the lead built up was too great and Hector Haines could afford to take the final steep descent at a steady pace and ensure victory. It was a good skillful all round performance from the winner.

It was a similar position in the ladies race. Lisa Lacon built up a good lead on the ascent which was too large for second placed lady Helen Glover to close.

Mention should also be made of Robert Cutts. He has taken part in every Buckden Pike race and although he celebrated his seventieth birthday in February, this did not stop him returning to complete his twenty eighth consecutive race. Quite a remarkable achievement from quite a remarkable runner.

Photographs of the day are now available from:

Andy Hirst
Sam Wadsworth
Sam Watson
David Emmerson

In summary, the first three men's places were:

• 1 Hector Haines, Ilkley, 34:14
• 2 Ted Mason, Wharfedale, 35:14
• 3 Tom Anderson. Winchester, 35:59

The first three ladies were:

• 1 Lisa Lacon, Holmfirth, 41:43
• 2 Helen Glover, Keighley & Craven, 43:04
• 3 Kate Rogan, Wharfedale, 50:50

First junior was Will Marshall who was 14th overall.

First team was Wharfedale Harriers.

Full Results

On the night, Will Marshall was Will the marshal and he took the opportunity to take some video footage of the race. It is in two parts and they are available from the links below. Part one mainly concentrates on Wharfedalers and part two included most of the rest of the field. They are bothe best view in high quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOd96njKy4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyZqN7YCK-M&feature=channel_page

Bruce Elsworth decided to take full advantage of his 2 nights off work – not only did he have a great run at Weets on Wednesday to have a clear win, but decided to head up to Kettlewell on the following night for a new race organised by Abbey Runners. The race is very similar to Weets. It is 5 miles with 2000ft of climbing. It follows the same route as the Bofra race, but continues over the fell top, taking a fast descent down to Arncliffe. There, the route turns back up the fell before dropping down a fast loose stone track to the finish.

Bruce came in 1st – in 39.30, well clear of the next man. There was also a good field of 16 ladies taking part with Karen Pickles coming in 1st lady with Heather Dawe 2nd. Cathy Bradley was 6th lady in 49 minutes and 18th overall. There were 41 runners in total, which is a great turn out for a new race. Abbey are a really friendly club and there was great soup in The Bluebell afterwards! There were loads of prizes – it was almost like Dave Woodhead throwing chocolate round the pub at Haworth!

Page last updated 2 July 2009