It would appear that we had only one Wharfedaler in this race, young Jack Smith, but he had a great run. At the moment, finishing times and positions are not available, but on the run down towards Penistone Country Park, he was in 10th place and looking strong.

Well done Jack.

Two Wharfedalers entered this event. One was Mark McGoldrick who finished in 182nd position in a time of 1:22:47. The other was Sharon Barker who finished in 1,854th place overal in a time of 1:37:10. Her gender position was 139th and her age and gender position was 81st.

Looking at the top res ults, it was interesting to see that Will Smith of Keighley & Craven had a good run to finish in 51st place overal in a time of 1:13:11.

A few Wharfedalers took part in this event which was a 4 mile run, a 23 mile bike ride and then another 4 mile run. Lucas Payne sent in the following report:

Third time lucky for me competing in this short but very demanding race. Representing Wharfedale were Lucas Payne,James Harrison ,Pete Keron, Paul Carmen and Emma Dodd. Sixty of us lined up in all. Emma was feeling very nervous concerned about finishing last. We all dashed off at the start. I tried to distance myself from Pete, as I knew he would pass me on the bike. Once he passed me on the bike, things took a turn for the worst, legs like lead, in fact I expected James to come smiling up beside me. The second run hurt, Pete was a spectator by then but I am sure he shouted us all through the finish line. Windy conditions seemed to affect our times from last year, two minutes down generally. I reckon Sam and a few others would love this race.

Results

Pete 3rd place 2.00.22 Ouch! nearly got under the magic 2 hours,outstanding.
Lucas 11th 2.07.20 Nay so bad.
Paul Carmen 15th 2.11.21 Good effort to say he had mudguards on his bike!
James 25th 2.14.02 Ouch!Couldn`t catch Lucas who is nearly 40.
Emma 57th 2.41.27 Storming bike leg.

Full results including splits are in the results section.

Jack Smith

The results, which are now in the results section, confirm that Jack Smith had an excellent run and did indeed finish in 10th place. It is perhaps also a reflection of the growing strenth of our juniors.

Jonathan Bradshaw
Talk of the growing strength of our juniors. Everyone will be pleased to learn that Jonathan has been selected for the U16s Team to represent England in the home international at Pentland Hills, next Sunday. We all wish him and the rest England team the best of luck in this event and hope that they can bring back the honours.

Charlie Lowrie breaks the tape	Charlie Lowrie with the trophy

A newcomer to running and Wharfedale this year, Charlie Lowrie has made an impressive start. After a successful season, beating allcomers in the BOFRA under 9's category, Charlie Lowrie has shown what a true athlete he is. On the back of a victory at the Great Yorkshire Run at Sheffield recently, Charlie travelled to Newcastle to take on his biggest race yet. On a cold Saturday morning, he took on 1,600 other runners in his age group at the Mini North run on 4th October, taking first prize over a distance of a mile in a time of 4mins 50secs.

A fantastic result for a promising young athlete.

Kevin White	Jonathan (Thod) Gibson

Andy Hirst is having a good year in these Lakeland races and obtained another pb in this one. He has sent in a report of the day as follows:

There were 500 pre entries with probably around 400 starters for this race, three being Wharfedalers, myself , Kevin White & Jonathon Gibson. The positions were :

127 Andy Hirst
154 Kevin White
224 Jonathan Gibson

I don't have any times as they had not entered them on the results board, only to say I came in around 2hrs:57mins, knocking 5mins off last year's time and a new PB. Kevin had a good race, Continue ...

With Wasdale cancelled, Kevin Rogan, Neil Taylor and Will Marshall entered this race, just to get a weekend race "fix". Here is Neil's report of the day:

Leeming reservoir, just outside Oxenhope is the venue for this race, a race in memory of Ashley Bevan, Continue ...

Unseasonably nice weather greeted the many junior and senior runners who turned out for this event and it helped, together with the friendly atmosphere, to create a quintessentially English "Sports on the Village Green" scene.

Wharfedale fielded a total of 11 youngsters, including two girls and they all did rather well. The fact that we have this ever growing band of juniors is very much down to the effort put in by David Hird in encouraging them.

Sadly, we did not get a team place. Our under 11 boys came home in 4th, 5th and 6th place respectively, but to get a team place, we needed four runners.

We had four good runners in the U13 boys race and all were in the top fifteen places, when Ben Johnstone had to pull out due to a pain in his leg.

Scott Baistow and Tom Cunningham each ran on their own in their respective classes with Tom picking up an eleventh place.

In the women's race, we had Tamara Hird, Catherine Wolfenden and Sharon Barker, which again was one short of a team. Toward the end of the race, Sharon found a sudden burst of energy to make a brilliant finish, both holding off a strong challenge from a couple of chasers and gaining several places in the process.

The mens race looked like an energy sapping grind as over 200 competitors made their three circuits of the course. Of our men, Gareth Hird finished in 54th.

All in all, it was a very pleasant day out and it was good to see so many youngsters from all the different clubs and schools taking part. David Hird was out and about with his camera and hopefully a few pics of the day will follow.

Scott Baistow
David took a few pictures, like the one above, of the day on Sunday and these are now available for viewing in the gallery.

Junior Wharfedale runner, Jonathan Bradshaw represented England in this international event, and the team came away with silver medals having been beaten by Scotland. They actually tied on points with Scotland, but the placings of the runners decided the winners. The England squad were not helped when Ashley Kaye dropped out half way round the first lap. Ironically, the reserve, Billy Pinder, who did not count, had a cracking race to come second.

Results of all the teams are in the results section. Overall the day went to Scotland, but the one bright spot was the U16 girls where England took the first four places and trounced the opposition.

The Screes Team
Four Wharfedalers went up to the Lakes for this race and all put in good performances, particularly Will Marshall who finished 11th. He sent in a report of the day, as follows:

The Screes Inn, Nether Wasdale was the venue for this race. It was a tough 5 miler, with a bit of everything. (Continues ... )

Full results will be posted shortly. In the meantime, the times and places of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
11	Will Marshall	50:34
17	Andy Hirst	53:11
21	Andy Holden	54:50
45	Kirsty Hall	1:05:29	4th Lady

Sam Watson	Cathy Bradley
First U23	First Lady

This race was hastily convened as a replacement for last week's cancelled Wasdale Fell Race and what a good race it turned out to be. It set off from Cracoe and the juniors followed the the normal Cracoe courses. However, the senior course was far more demanding than normal Bofra races. Having made the ascent to the obelisk, the runners cotinued on past Rylstone Cross towards the fell gate, where they made a descent before looping round up to the Cross again. They then made their way back the the obelisk before descending back to Cracoe.

Our juniors produced some good performances. Ben Johnstone finished in style by coming home in first place and therefore going through all the season with an unbeaten record. He was however chased home by team mate, Will Smith.

In the U17s, England International, Jonathan Bradshaw put in a great performance to take first place. Again he was chased to the finish by a team mate - Jack Smith

In the seniors race, Sam Watson had a good run to finish 3rd overall and first U23. Also in the seniors, Cathy Bradley had a great run to take the position of first lady.

This marks the end of the Bofra season and it has been a good season for several Wharfedale runners. Ben Johnstone is the U12 Champion, Sam Watson is the U23 Champion and Jonathan Gibson is Male Vet 40 Champion.

Well done to everyone involved with Bofra for putting on the season and for the good work that they do in encouraging so many youngsters to take up the sport of fell running.

Full results are in the results section and there are a few pictures in the gallery. The latter are of the seniors only as photographer Andy Holden was marshaling at the fell gate.

This training run was from Malham and led by Andy Holden. As the nights are now drawing in, it was obviously by head torches. When everyone returned, they all remarked what a lovely run it had been. The highlight was ascending Gordale Scar. The first person to arrive could see very little, but as everyone congregated together at the foot of the stalls, the headtorches lit up the falls to produce a display that was both breathtaking and awesome. Some awesome in fact, that Sam Watson later decided to take a dip in the stream! Thanks must go to Andy for leading yet another interesting mid week run.

The English Championship Races next year will be:

• 7 March - Half Tour Pendle.
• 30 May - Carding Mill
• 20 June - Tebay
• 11 July - Wasdale
• 22 Aug - Dent
• 10 Oct - Langdale

The British Championship Races will be:

• 4 April -Slieve Bernargh
• 2 May -Stuc A Croin
• 20 June -Tebay
• 1 Aug - Y Garn

The word is that our ladies are going to have a "real crack" at these next year.

Our youngsters were a bit decimated by the fact that this was the start of the school holidays and quite a few had gone on holiday, but those that remained put on a great show for the club. Full results follow, but the brief details are as follows:

U 11 Girls

• Natasha Burdock 27th
• Zoe Baistow 45th

Both girls had a good run. Nathasha has a great running style and looked very stong in parts and is definitely one to watch for the future. Zoe also showed great determination in her run and is another one who will improve with experience.

U11 Boys

• Charlie Lowrie 2nd
• Jamie Middleton 6th
• Bradley Boucher 18th

Another great run from our youngest runners. Another team member would have put them amongst the leading teams.

U13 Boys

• Will Smith 6th
• Alex Speight 7th
• John Lockwood 15th
• Harry Muir 32nd

Wharfedale 2nd Team

All the boys put in a great performance especially Harry Muir who was expecting to run in the U11 race, but he was promoted due to a change in the age classification rules. It was his dogged determination in keeping going that resulted in the team getting 2nd place.

U15 Boys

• Scott Baistow 31st

Another sound run from Scott. He is definitely growing at the moment, but when his body and his muscles have adapted to this growth spurt, expect some good results from this young man.

U17 Boys

• Jonathan Bradshaw 6th
• Tom Cunningham 18th

This was a great performance from these two youngsters. Jonathan tends to think himself as only a fell runner, but today he proved that he can also hack it on a cross country course. Tom was a bit disappointed with his result, but in actual fact, he had a great race, but he was hampered with his choice of footware. The course was very muddy and had he run in some long spikes, he would have found that the amount of determination and energy he put into the race would have rewarded him with a much higher finishing place.

Senior Womens Race

• Tamara Hird 6th
• Catherine Wolfenden 21st
• Sharon Barker 44th
• Kirsty Hall 80th

Wharfedale 7th Team

Tamara led the team home and had a good race. The signs today were that she is getting back to her old form. Catherine put in a sound performance to finish in 21st place and Sharon did one of her, now famous, finishes to gain at least one place, if not two on her final run in. Kirsty battled with the sheer speed and lack of respite that there is in a cross country course, but she showed all her steely determination to stick in there to the end. It was nice to have a full ladies team out and to get a team place, possibly in front of a few of the more fashionable clubs.

Mens Race

• Gareth Hird 40th
• Nick Cunningham 146th

Full results and times are in the results section.

Andy Hirst and Pete Jackson were the only two Wharfedalers to take part in this competition. Unfortunately, Pete could only make two races and so did not feature in the final tables. Andy took part in all six qualifying races and based on his best three performances, came 45th out of 104 qualifying runners, thus confirming his prowess in these types of races.

The full final tables are in the results section.

Bruce Elsworth	Chris Newman

Heavy going underfoot and a strong wind greeted the handful of seniors and the couple of juniors who turned out for this race. The youngsters had a good day with Lucy Horrocks being the first U8 girl and Ellamae Gibson claiming 3rd place in the U10 girls race. Bruce Elsworth had a good race against some strong competition to come 6th and our other top twenty place was Chris Newman who finished 1th. It was also nice to see Juliet Horrocks back on the fells and she came home in 101st place

Full results are in the results section and the times and places of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
6	Bruce Elsworth	49:23
18	Chris Newman	52:35
41	Kevin White	57:22
43	Jonathan Gibson	57:31	V40
90	Kevin Rogan	61:32	V50
101	Juliet Horrocks	62:49	LV40
111	Kate Rogan	64:34	L
142	Cathy Bradley	69:12	LV35
155	Tim Stedman	71:09

Alex Speight & John Lockwood	Will Smith

David Hird was out and about with his camera on Sunday and the above are just two of the pictures which he took. There are now lots more available for viewing in the gallery.

The pictures are all edited down in size for viewing on the web, but if any parents would like a copy of the full size original, either to print or merely just to keep, please contact the webmaster.

It does not seem like a year since this event first took place. Last year, it attracted 17 runners. This year, the number increased to 37. This is not a race, but is effectively a timed training run, with each person having a guess at their own time, just for a bit of fun. In this respect, five runners were within 60 seconds of their actual time, with Andy Holden only 4 seconds out.

Last year, the top of Ingleborough was covered in mist and no effort was made to reach the trig point which could have resulted in runners getting lost. This year, it was much clearer, although about ten minutes before the first runners arrived, light snow started to fall. First to the top was Sam Watson, who had a huge lead on the chasers, although he lost some time looking for the marshal round the shelter, instead of at the trig point. However, he was caught on the descent by Alistair Dunn of Helm Hill and also by Ted Mason, who just beat him to the finish line. These top three finished ahead of Paul Crabtree of Keighley & Craven, who managed to hold off the pursuing bikers behind him.

Pete Keron and Ian Taylor, the only bikers, looked to be well placed at the the top to make up lost ground on the descent and possibly achieve the fastest time of the night, but in the event, they had to settle for 5th and 6th places respectively.

Some of the Wharfedale Juniors are enjoying off road training with headtorches and four of them took part and Jack Smith had a particularly fine performance in finishing 7th overall. Three ladies took part this year and they were led home by Gill Myers.

All in all, it was another good evening and Ingleborough is living up to its reputation for surprising us with the conditions on the top.