Run Profile
The weather deterred one or two, illness prevented another from coming and Andy Hirst was stuck in Ingleton with a broken down car. Apart from that, the usual crowd and a few more that we do not often see on Wednesday turned out for this mid week off road training run.

Will Marshall has written a report of the night. Read Will's Report

On Thursday, three Wharfedalers joined two Bowlanders to take part in a Bowland Bat Run. There were going to be more, but given how the day started snow wise, it is perhaps not surprising that numbers were down. But what a cracking run up PenyGhent. Drifts were amazing (had to literally swim to get out of one about 5 foot high!!!)

One of the Wharfedalers was Neil Taylor and he has sent in a report, but this time in verse!

It seemed a good idea last week, to join the Bowland Bats,
A headtorch run on Thursday night? ...we really needed hats!.

So there we were the 3 of us, that's Adam, Pete and me,
Joined Bowland lads Keith and Andy, for our running spree;

At Helwith Bridge our epic started, up the track we went,
Ascending quickly to our target, mystic Pen y Ghent!

No sooner had we started thus, we all began to wonder,
With all the snow, and all the Ice, had we made a blunder?

But on the 5 of us did go, with snow drifts all around, ,
The night time beauty of the hill did all of us astound

Despite some falls and four foot drifts, we reached our destined target,
Then quickly turned and headed down, t'pub from whence we started.

With freezing toes we made it back, and quaffed a beer, or 2,
And so my friends for next week's run we'd love to see you to!

Ten Wharfedalers turned out for this event, which is up on last year, although overall, the total number of entries was down. The freezing conditions made it treacherous under foot, although it firmed up the fields where you feet normally sink into an energy sapping quagmire.

First home once more was Tom Cornthwaite, who had a good race to run out an easy winner, in a time of 45:51, which is not far behind the record time. As with last year, because of the conditions, the runners did not cross the stream by the bridge, but ran down the road before climbing the fence. Lucas worked his way through the field to finish 11th and first Wharfedaler home. Once more, Sam Watson and Will Marshall were having a bit of a tussle and Sam finished 2nd Wharfedaler in 20th place with Will in 22nd place, just 10 seconds behind him.

Mark Horrocks was on child minding duties this week and Juliet made most of the opportunity to have a great run and to take the prize for being 2nd lady. Whilst mentioning the ladies, Lynn Whittaker put in a good run to improve on her 2007 time and Emma Dodd, running this race for the first time, found out just how tough it is. However, by taking part in races such as this will help her improve no end.

Will Marshall has submitted a runners report of the day. Read Will's Report

Full results will follow shortly, but in the meantime, the finishing positions and times of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
11	Lucas Payne	53:14	V40
20	Sam Watson	55:44
22	Will Marshall	55:54	2nd Junior
38	James Harrison	58:00
54	Jonathan Gibson	1:01:12	V40
58	Barry Scholes	1:02:08	V50
59	Andy Holden	1:02:53	V40
64	Neil Taylor	1:03:38	V40
69	Juliet Horrocks	1:04:46	2nd Lady
103	Lynn Whittaker	1:14:16	FV40
108	Emma Dodd	1:20:52	F

Tim Stedman
This weekend, the Wharfedale vest was once again gracing mainland Europe when Tim Stedman entered the above trail race, which was held in the hugh forest, just south east of Brussels. Tim had a good run to finish in 11th place out of 806 finishers.

Callum Elson	Charlie Lowrie

Pictured above are two of the most talented under 11s around at the moment, coming home in 2nd and 3rd places respectively in their race. They are part of a growing band of very talented youngsters who are coming through our junior ranks. More pictures of the day will be added to the gallery shortly and all the results from Wakefield are now in the results section.

Tamara Hird has sent in a report of both the day and the season, as follows:

The 4th and final race in the West Yorkshire Cross Country League took place on Sunday 7th December at Thornes Park, Wakefield.

In the Under 11 boys, we had 2 fantastic results with Callum Elson second and Charlie Lowrie just 10 seconds behind in third place. With the best 3 from 4 races to count in this cross country league, Charlie finished in silver medal position (with a second and two third places) - which is brilliant!.

In the Under 11 girls, Natasha Burdock finished 29th in a strong under 11 girls field.

In the Under 13 boys race, Will Smith had a brilliant run to finish 4th place, Alex Speight had another great run to finish 7th and Ben Johnstone, suffering a bit today, finished in 21st position in another strong field. Overall, Will Smith finished in a brilliant 5th place and Alex Speight finished in 10th place.

In the Under 15 girls race, Isabella Ellwood in her first race for Wharfedale finished in 30th place in a tough race.

In the Under 17 boys, Johnny Bradshaw had a great run to finish 8th, with Thomas Cunningham, who was hot on Johnny's heels for most of the race, had a brilliant run to finish 11th. This gave Johnny 9th position and Thomas 12th position overall in the league.

In the Senior ladies race, Tamara Hird finished 27th and Kirsty Hall finished 65th. Overall positions in the league were Tamara Hird 8th, Cath Wolfenden 17th, Sharon Barker 22nd and Kirsty Hall 29th - in a good turnout for the ladies in this league.

In the Senior Men's race, Owen Beilby arrived late without his number and so didn't count on the official results sheet but finished in around 23rd place, Gareth Hird had a great run saving his best result until last - finishing in 36th place, Bruce Elsworth in his first crosscountry race for around 15 years recovered from the shock to finish in 56th place, Jason Hemsley with his first run in the WYXC league this year finished 87th and Nick Cunningham in a solid 135th. Overall Gareth Hird finished 16th in the Senior mens (under 35's) and Nick Cunningham finished 20th in the mens 40 - 45 category.

The full results are now available for this race.

It was a lovely clear moonlit night for this event, but it was treacherous underfoot with a lot of snow and ice still around and it called for great care and skill. Will Marshall suffered a fall and decided to retire, but he suffered no serious injury. The only other none finisher was Andy Walmsley who merely decided not complete the whole run but to return after reaching Sharp Haw.

The lead runner, Tim Edward, on reaching Sharp Haw decided to veer right and take a route down the wallside towards Rough Haw. Paul Crabtree followed him and it soon became obvious that this was not the best route, as the main body of runners followed the path and quickly closed the gap.

It was good to see six lady runners amongst the participants and the first one home, Heather Dawe of Ilkley, also went home with a bottle of wine, finishing within one second of her guessed time!

It was also good to see six junior runners out and Jack Smith had a particularly good run in the conditions to finish 5th overall.

There was only one biker, Pete Keron. He did well to finish in 9th place, as it was not an evening for bikes.

This was yet another good evening and it perhaps illustrates how the ever improving head torch technology is enabling runners to continue to enjoy mid week off road running throughout the winter months.

This is the highest finishing position in this event, since the club was formed ten years ago. Full results follow, but provisional details of the day are as follows.

Leg 1. Ted Mason & Steve Oldfield.
1:18:42 (6)
1:18:42 (6)

Leg 2. Pete Keron & Ian Taylor.
1:03:18 (9)
2:22:00 (6)

Leg 3. Jonathan Bradshaw & Tom Cunningham.
0:40:38 (10)
3:02:38 (7)

Leg 4. Bruce Elsworth & Kirt Livesey.
1:12:29 (8)
4:15:07 (7)

Leg 5. Gareth Hird & Sam Watson.
0:57:46 (7)
5:12:53 (6)

Leg 6. Owen Beilby & Andy Robertshaw.
1:08:17 (5)
6:21:10 (5)

The provisional team finishing places were as follows:


1 Salford 6:01:33
2 Dark Peak 6:06:01
3 Pudsey & Bramley 6:09:42
4 Bingley 6:10:56

There appears to have been errors in the results for both our mixed team and the "B" team. Taking the correction of these errors into account, the mixed team probably finished in 43rd place and was probably the 2nd mixed team.

The "B" team probably finished in 59th place.

The provisional results are now in the results section. They confirm that our A team finished in 5th place, the Mixed team were 2nd mixed team and 40th overall and the B Team were in 59th place.

Only two Wharfedalers decided to go for this run. Surprisingly, one of them was not Will Marshall, who pulled out because of a cold. No it was the two Andys. Andy Hirst and Andy Holden. The latter was a surprise, as he has not been running too well lately and he did not take part in the Sharp Haw race.

Andy Hirst sent in a report of the night.

"Only two Wharfedalers took the challenge of a night run up Whernside ..."(More)

Neil Taylor	Kirsty Hall

This race was organised by Brett and was effectively a night time run of the traditional Lothersdale race from the village to Pin Haw and back. It was a mild evening and conditions in the village were quite pleasant. However, at the summit, things were vastly different. As the above pictures show, it was a real pea souper.

Sam Watson had a good run, moving from third position at the summit to finish first. Full results are in the results section. Because of the conditions, it was quite disorienting and several runners went astray, only to find themselves visiting the summit for a second time. As a result, Madeline Watson found that this time, she was not the last to finish.

In spite of the above, it was a good evening and afterwards everyone adjourned to the New Inn at Cononley, where Brett had arranged for them to put on a bit of supper. A good end to the 2008 night events and thanks must go to Brett and Sue Weedon for organising it.

Will Marshall and Andy Hirst went off today to do the Three Peaks. No wonder Will was not at yesterday's night event. He has written a brief report of the day as follows:

"Andy Hirst and I decided to have a go at 'the big three' all at once ... " (More)

Route Profile

Under 18 Winner - Jonathan Bradshaw
There was a good turnout from Wharfedale for this race. Thirteen seniors and 9 juniors. Our three leading runners came in quite closely packed together and were led by Sam Watson, who managed to hold off a strong challenge from Jonathan Bradshaw. Our third place runner was new member, Colin Moses. Jonathan finished in front of Shaun Carey of Todmorden and Alex Sinclair of Skipton to take the Under 18 title.

Two new members to join our growing band of youngsters were Vincent and Hannah Moses. All our youngsters performed well, but the highlight probably fell on Lucy Horrocks who was first Under 8 girl.

Tom Cunningham	Tamara Hird & Nathan Airey

Once more, a group of Wharfedalers turned out on Boxing Day to work off the excesses of Christmas. It was nice to see Richard Wadsworth having a run out after being away from running for several years and his brother Sam also turned out for the first time since the Saunders. Both suffered from lack of training, but perhaps, that was to be expected.

It would appear that Gareth Hird led the Wharfedalers home followed by Tom Cunningham, who had a brilliant run. This race rounds off a good year for Tom which has seen him improve in leaps and bounds. If Tom keeps this up, he has the makings of being a very good fell runner.

Other Wharfedalers out in this race were Jason Hemsley, Nick Cunningham, Judy Howells, Sam White and Tamara Hird. Sam is a new Wharfedale member, who recently moved to Addingham from Leeds.

Tamara Hird treated this race as a fun run and ran round with her cousin, Nathan Airey, in a Santa outfit.

Full results will follow shortly

Graham Wadsworth, Mark Bennett, Angela Gray, Pete Keron, Jason Hemsley, Gareth Hird, Simon Throup and Adam Baker were joined by Steve Bottomley of Pudsey & Bramley and they all made their way over to Bolton Abbey for a Sunday morning bike ride.

The routes taken varied, the longest being via Cononley, East Marton, Gargrave and Stirton. It was actually a very pleasant morning for a ride, although Pete Keron complained about the cold and once in the Pavilion, he refused to move far from his position shown above, that is, next to the radiator.

Whilst some Wharfedale members were enjoying a pleasant bike ride, others were taking part in a serious road race. Lucas Payne and James Harrison had a run out in this race, which starts at Clitheroe. It is a fast start, as it is down hill and then the run levels out, although there are a few ups and downs that can catch you out. The winner completed the race in 29 minutes. Lucas finished in a time of 36:11 and James finished in 39:06. Both enjoyed it and both were reasonable happy with their performances.

The previous report on this race only mentioned two Wharfedalers. In actual fact, a third club member also took part. It was Brian Hugill, who finished in a time of 58:11. This was Brian's first 10k and he thoroughly enjoyed the run, in the glorious sunshine.

The full results are now available and details of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
77	Lucas Payne	36:11	V40
178	James Harrison	39:22
787	Brian Hugill	58:11	V40

The results are out for this race and we now have some times and positions for the Wharfedalers. These are shown below and confirm what a cracking run Tom Cunningham had.

Pos	Name	Time	Other
21	Gareth Hird	44:29
38	Tom Cunningham	46:14
49	Jason Hemsley	46:59
87	Nick Cunningham	49:02	V40
173	Sam Wadsworth	56:38
263	Judy Howells	55:44	L
287	Sam White	56:38
323	Richard Wadsworth	57:49
389	Simon Throup	1:00:31
715	Tamara Hird	1:14:39	L
716	Nathan Airey	1:14:41

Crinkle Crags and Upper Esk Dale	Great Gable from Band Great End

Pete Jackson writes:

Who needs John Lewis, Debenhams and BHS when you're upwardly mobile and willing to graft a bit? Beggar the sales, I thought, as I sat on my sofa on Monday evening. I know the answer!! I rang Andy Hirst and he was well up for going to Langdale for a fairly easy route (everything is relative). I said I would drive and picked him up at 8.30 Tuesday. The weather was cool but quite misty when we arrived at O.D.G (Old Dungeon Ghyll for you shoppers). My car was feeling the chill as the dash read -5 degrees. It's a fairly long trek up the valley towards Mickleden, but level and a good warm up for the first climb, which was Langdale Comb via Stake Pass. Then we took a route up Black Crags to Little Gill Head onto Rossett Pike. We had some decent running conditions, a bit misty in places but it was good under-foot (not much ice) so we pressed on. We took Rossett Pike before heading to Bow Fell. On top of Bow was magical, glorious blue skies above and a blanket of mist in the valley. Absolutely stunning, and no queues either! (shopping...bah humbug!). Andy was snapping away with his camera for fun. Everywhere you looked was a great picture. The off we went again, this time to Esk Pike, and Great End, dropping off what was a fairly awkward descent, but we managed to get down just South of Sprinkling Tarn via Great End Band. From there we headed back and after a 4 month lay-off,I think I hid my fatigue pretty well. We returned via Angle Tarn, Rossett Ghyll and Mickledore to the sanctuary of the O.D.G. and a bowl of pea soup and a very cold pint of Cumberland ale.

A brilliant day and this highlighted the reason why fell running gets my vote above pounding the pavement.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

Ian Taylor	Keiran Ashworth

A total of 22 Wharfedalers turned out for this race, including a few new faces. There were obviously too many to mention them all individually, but our top twenty finishers were Owen Beilby in 11th place and Ian Taylor in 18th. These positions were achieved against some strong opposition.

Amongst the 22 were three U18 runners and they were led home by Tom Cunningham who finished ahead of Will Marshall and Scott Bairstow.

Full results are now in the results section.