Ben Johnstone	Jonathan Bradshaw

Again our youngsters shone in this event. Ben Johnstone had a superb race in the U12s. He led the field up the fell, where he was chased by James Hall of Bingley. However, by the turn, he had opened up a reasonable gap and it was a question of whether he could descend as good as he could ascend. We need not have worried. He descended brilliantly and whereas at one stage, it looked like James Hall might be catching him, he put in that extra bit of effort and in the end ran out an easy winner. This now makes it six wins in a row and needles to say Ben must now be favourite to take the U12 league title.

In the U17s, Jonathan Bradshaw began the race very strongly and was second going up the fell. As they reached the fell top before disappearing out of sight, a herd of horses decided to run up the track in front of the runners and at this point Jonathan took the lead, with the first three runners in very close contention. When they reappeared again, Jonathan was in third place, which he comfortably held to the finish. Another good run by Jonathan.

The finishing order of the Wharfedalers is shown below. Times and finishing positions will follow at sometime in the future. Neil has sent in his report of the seniors race and can be accessed from the link below.

• Jonathan Gibson
• Carl Bradshaw
• Kevin Rogan
• Judy Howells
• Barry Scholes
• Pete Metcalfe
• Neil Taylor
• Lynn Whittaker

Read Neil's Report

Mark Bennett on Simon's Seat, doing what?

Owen Beilby and Ted Mason turned out for this race and both enjoyed a good result against some class opposition. As usual with Tod Harriers, the race was well organised and marshalled and the results were out on the web in double quick time. These are now in the results section. Owen sent in a report of the day, which is available from the link below.

Owen's Report

Andy Holden has been running around the fells with his SLR and has captured some interesting shots, like the one below of Kevn & Judy running along arm in arm.



For more of Andy's pics, see the gallery

Pete Jackson and Bruce Elsworth entered for this event and both did well. Bruce finished 7th and Pete was 13th and first V50. Pete was so pleased with the result, he sent in a report of the day, which is available from the link below. Full results are in the results section.

Pete Jackson's Report

Owen Beilby was our only runner in this race and he has sent a brief text to say that he finished in 1:19:19, but that he had no idea of his position as it was absolute chaos, with people going wrong and getting lost all over. The weather was grim - wind, clag, hail and rain.

Hopefully, he will send a full report in on Monday.

Bruce Elsworth

A very windy day greeted the eleven Wharfedalers who took part in this race. This made the going very hard on the tops. Not only that, but towards the end of the race, they also had to put up with heavy rain. However, in spite of the weather, there were good performances all round from our runners. Tom Cornthwaite led the field up to the top of Pendle, with Ted Mason and a Clayton runner battling for second place. Tom had opened up a lead on the second and third runners and all three had started to leave the rest of the pack behind.

After going round Churn Clough Reservoir, they came back into view as they made the steep descent into Ogden Clough. By this time, Tom Cornthwaite had opened up a good lead and he made his way very steadily down the hill. Second runner to appear was Ted Mason, who descended in true Mason style, but the gap was too large for him to get close to Tom. However, Ted did run out a comfortable second after what was a splendid run.

Bruce Elsworth also put in a sterling performance to get a top ten finish and Paul Harlowe too had a great run to finish 18th overall and to take the prize for first Vet 50.

All in all, we had five runners in the top twenty five -not bad for a small club - and we were probably second team on the day.

Full results will follow, but in the meantime, our times and positions were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
2	Ted Mason	1:09:52
8	Bruce Elsworth	1:15:49
18	Paul Harlowe	1:19:26	1st V50
20	Mark McGoldrick	1:19:38
25	Pete Keron	1:20:32
54	Pete Jackson	1:25:43	V50
74	Andy Hirst	1:29:25	V40
103	Glenn Whittaker	1:33:19	V40
121	Judy Howells	1:36:58	L
131	Neil Taylor	1:39:26	V40
145	Adam Baker	1:42:35

The provisional results are now out for this race and only two Wharfedalers took part. John Perry finished in 79th position, with a time of 1:25:12. Owen is shown as being disqualified, owing to a failure to dib at CP1. No doubt, we will hear more of this tomorrow, when Owen sends in his report.

Ben Johnstone	Jonathan Bradshaw

As usual, a comment first on our juniors and in particular, Ben Johnstone. With his win last week at Fell End Clouds, he secured first position in the U12s league and no one can now catch him, although he was pushed hard in the league by another excellent local runner, James Hall. Today's race was a challenge to him in many ways. How would he respond to not having to win the race and how would he cope with a different type of race. This week was different in that instead of being a steep up and down, it was a long run out along a lane, a not too steep ascent on the fells and then a long run back along the lane. We needn't have worried. Ben managed to gain the lead on the run out and led strongly going up the fells. However, he started to walk as he neared the summit, whereas James Hall continued running, to the point where he had almost regained the lost ground. However, once around the marker, Ben broke into his usual fast descent and managed to open up a gap again. That was perhaps not unexpected, but how would he cope with the long run in? Although he was pushed hard as usual by James Hall, he managed to hold off the challenge and once more take first place. Well done to Ben.

Mention should be made too of his younger brother in the U12s. Although he is running well under age, he always manages to put in a good performance and in a few years, he will no doubt be emulating his brother. The other Wharfedaler in the U12s is new member Ellamae Gibson, who can always be relied upon to put in good performance. Positions for her and Robbie will follow in due course.

The other outstanding performance in our juniors was Jonathan Bradshaw. Jonathan has always had a good style, but in the past few races, he has seemed to show a bit more grit and determination and he continued in the same manner this week. He ascended really well and was constantly pushing the race leader. The whole race continued in this fashion and on the descent, it was just the same, with Jonathan on the heels of the leader, all the way back to take a very good second place. If he continues running this way, it can only be a matter of time before he comes away with a first place. Also, in the U17s race was new junior member Scott Baistow. He is a runner who has just moved out of the U14 age bracket and although he is therefore running with much older runners, he is currently lying 7th in this age group. He is now coming along to our Wednesday night training runs and we will no doubt see a lot more of this young man over the coming months.

In the seniors, it was a bit like a repeat of yesterday, with Ted Mason again taking second place. On the ascent, it looked like yesterday's run was taking its toll as he dropped down from second to fourth place, but once on the tops, he regained second place and the descent again turned into a real battle, with Ted taking the lead on the run in along the lane, but sadly, he could not hold this and he finished in second place. Another good run by Ted. Neil's report is below, looking at the race from from a runner's perspective. From a spectators point of view, it was good to see Sheryl Slater back on the fells with her sister, new member Nicole. They both struggled a bit in the today's race, but when these two regain their fitness, they will be something else.

Neil's Report

Full results will be posted in due course. In the meantime, the Wharfedalers finished in the following (provisional) order.

• Ted Mason (2nd)
• Mark McGoldrick
• Jonathan Gibson
• Kevin Rogan
• Barry Scholes
• Judy Howells
• Neil Taylor
• Pete Metcalfe
• Lynn Whittaker
• Sheryl Slater
• Nicole Slater

Quite a good picture, captured by the roving SLR of Andy Holden.

Kevin Rogan leads the pack

Results now available in the results section

A picture of Ted at this race taken by Paul Rogan. There are more of Paul's pictures in the gallery.

Ted Mason at Pendle Half Tour

The last Owl Event of this winter season saw twenty one stalwarts turn out. Maybe the weather during the day deterred more from turning up, but as it happened, it was a very pleasant night for a run, except it was very boggy in places. There were all sorts of excuses for not running, like I strained my leg doing a recce or I got to Skipton and then remembered that I had forgotten my shoes.

No such excuses from the youngsters and it was nice to see Jack Smith and Scott Baistow from Wharfedale and Will Marshall from Skipton, who did not let a bit of a breeze put them off.

One thing that was notable about this event was that almost everyone was optimistic about their times except Andy & Jack Smith. Perhaps everyone underestimated how hard the route was from Embsay to Rylstone Cross. The Smith family were absolutely right in their assessment of the course and young Jack walked away with the bottle of bubbly for the nearest guess, under the ever watchful eye of his father.

The clocks go on again soon and the Owl Events have now come to an end until next winter. We hope that everyone has enjoyed this bit of winter fun and we look forward to seeing you all again as next winter approaches.

Full Results

A few pictures are now in the gallery from the cameras of Adam Baker and Paul Rogan.

The good news from this race is that Ted Mason was first to cross the finishing line. The bad news is that he was disqualified for missing a check point. It appears that Ted followed the wrong set of flags and that a lot of other runners did too, so there may be quite a few disqualifications. It would seem that Goldie followed the right course and finished in 8th place, which, if this turns out to be correct, represents a good result for him on his way back to full fitness. The only other definite news we have at this stage is that Jack Smith was first junior back. A good result from another of our promising youngsters.

Further details follow as soon as we get a clearer picture.

Judy Howells last week at Austwick
We had only one Wharfedaler in this race, but didn't she do well? Judy Howells was 2nd lady overall or 1st lady 35. Either way, it was a good performance from Judy or as race organiser Allan Greenwood put it, "a great improver". Talking of which. Well done to Allan in putting on another well organised race and well done too for getting the results out so quickly.

These are now in the results section.

Bruce Elsworth
It had to happen sooner or later. Jonathan Bradshaw has been running with a new attitude in the last two of these Kendal Winter League Races. Last week, it looked like it would only be time before he got his first win. Well this week, he has done it. He reached the summit first with a ten yard lead and then descended with determination and fought off a strong challenge from Tom Sessford to take first place. Well done, Jonathan. Scot Baistow was our only other junior at this event, but at this stage we are unable to comment on whether he has been able to improve on his 7th place league position.

There were thirteen seniors out today. Ted Mason led them home closely followed by Bruce Elsworth. Thanks to Neil Taylor for his report of the day, which is available from the link below.

Neil's Report

Full results will be posted in due course. In the meantime, the Wharfedalers finished in the following (provisional) order.

• Ted Mason
• Bruce Elsworth
• Mark McGoldrick
• Sam Watson
• Carl Bradshaw
• Kevin Rogan
• Barry Scholes
• Neil Taylor
• Kate Rogan
• Pete Metcalfe
• Lynn Whittaker
• Trevor Metcalfe
• Nicole Slater

A report was eagerly awaited from Owen regarding this event and we have had to wait a week for it, as he had to shoot off to Barcelona the day after the race! A week ago, Owen was disqualified. In the meantime, he has been reinstated and finished in 24th place with John Perry in 81st place. Revised reults are now in the results section.

Read Owen's Report

Both Andy Holden and Cathy Bradley have sent in a few pictures of this race. These are now in the gallery.

Also, the results for this race are now available in the results section. Well done to Helm Hill in getting these out promptly.

Four Wharfedalers went up for this race. Neil is still injured, so it fell to Kevin to send in a report of the day.

Kev's Report

Guiseley Gallop - 23 March 2008

Kendal Winter League, Elterwater - 16 March 2008

Kendal Winter League, Arant Haw - 30 March 2008

Midgley Moor - 29 March 2008

Edale Skyline - 30 March 2008