James Hall	Lloyd Davies
Scott Baistow & Will Marshall	Zoe Baistow & Lynda Hargreaves

Ten Wharfedalers, both juniors and seniors entered this quite incredible race where everyone, both young and old, run together.

The race was won by Morgan Donnelly of Borrowdale, followed by Darren Kay of Horwich.

Ben Johnstone and James Hall put personal competition to one side finishing side by side in 15th and 16th in 35:16, which was particularly impressive when you consider the quality of the competition they were up against. Will Smith was just a minute behind in 22nd in 36:22 and Phil finished just 37 seconds behind Will in 27th place in 36:59, to claim the 4th counter for Ermysteds who took 3rd place in the team competition. Lloyd Davies put in a strong run beating some well established seniors and finishing in 48th place in 41:10. Will Marshall, looks to have had a poor run, but he hurt his back on the ascent and spent some time having a chat on the summit of Arant Haw, before jogging back down to finish in 59th place in a time of 42:20. Scott Baistow was next in 56th place in 41:59 and whilst Tim Done tried to hang on to him, he beat him into 62nd place in 42:48. Lloyd Davies' dad Scott finished just a few places behind in 65th place in 43:36

Raj Madhas trotted back in 98th place in 52:44, but the results don't show that he was running with Logan, which is an incredible time for someone so young, whilst Lynda took up the rear, running in with Zoe Baistow in 113th and 114th in 1:09:34.

Wharfedale were 4th team, with young Lloyd Davies being one of the counters!

Top marks to Sedbergh School for putting on this event. It was a good course, with first class organisation, good food and results on the day.

There has probably never been so many Wharfedalers in this race - 21 in total. The overall race winner was Ian Holmes who led the rest of the field home by a country mile. Ted Mason has not been out on the fells much recently, either in training or races, but it did not show today. He had a bit of a tussle round the course with Mike Fanning and he just managed to pass him on the run in off the fells to finish in 4th place overall and 1st Wharfedaler. Another Wharfedaler who always keeps himself fit is Kirt Livesey and he was second Wharfedaler, finishing in 8th place. It seems to have been a day for good performances from several Wharfedalers and Jason Hemsley was no exception. He was up there challenging and took advantage of a fall from Paul Crabtree to finish 3rd Wharfedaler.

Amongst the ladies, Tamara Hird was first Wharfedaler and 4th lady overall. Emma Dodd is at the moment away from the fells studying in Preston, but in spite of this, she improved on her time from last year. Watch out for Emma when she has finished her degree and she can train on some hills.

At the presentation, there was no mention of a team prize, but Wharfedale must be in contention for first team.

The finishing times and places for all Wharfedalers and friends were as follows:

•     4 Ted Mason 1:10:28
•     5 Mike Fanning 1:10:48
•     8 Kirt Livesey 1:11:42
•   14 Jason Hemsley 1:13:44
•   15 Paul Crabtree 1:13:51
•   18 Christian Holmes 1:14:51
•   23 Nick Charlesworth 1:16:04
•   29 Mark McGoldrick 1:16:48
•   31 Pete Keron 1:16:54
•   38 Colin Moses 1:18:05
•   51 Paul Carman 1:20:01
•   57 Rob Shaw 1:20:38
•   59 Nick Treitle 1:21:02
•   61 Kevin White 1:21:19
•   80 David Ashby 1:24:52
•   82 Paul Harlowe 1:25:04
• 105 Simon Franklin 1:28:00
• 107 Tamara Hird 1:28:44
• 129 Carl Bradshaw 1:31:46
• 137 Gary Bradley 1:32:41
• 144 Juliet Horrocks 1:33:01
• 145 Judy Howells 1:33:04
• 220 Emma Dodds 1:52:39

For a change, it was beautiful sunny day on Black Combe. The race was won by Rob Jebb followed by Ricky lightfoot. The womens race was won by Natalie White. The Wharfedalers finished as follows:

•     8 Chris Newman 1:20:11
•   11 Sam Watson 1:21:11
•   13 Jack Smith 1:22:54
•   46 Andy Hirst 1:37:30
•   72 Kate Rogan 1:46:39
•   81 Kevin Rogan 1:49:28
• 108 Andy Smith 2:01:03

Borrowdale were team winners, Wharfedale 2nd. Cumberland Fell Runners 3rd.

Cathy Bradley, Jonathan Gibson, Gill Myers and Kirsty Hall ran the Trollers Trot – 24.5 miles.

Cathy and Thod had a good run to come home in 3 hours 55 mins. Kirsty only intended to do the half trot, but was informed the day before that only walkers would be allowed to do that, so she decided to give the full trot a go, even though she had not really prepared for it. Unfortunately, she bonked at 18 miles and had to walk the last six miles home, which included a navigational error which added an extra half mile. However, she still managed a time of 4:39. Gill Myers ran with her cousin and finished in 4:49. She would have obviously been much faster had she been running on her own.

Ted Mason	Jason Hemsley
Paul Crabtree	Tamara Hird

A few pictures from the race.

Continuing our series of how our juniors are doing representing their schools, this event, which is the culmination of the schools cross country season, saw Phil Done and Will Marshall representing Ermysted's.

Unfortunately, we have no note of how Phil went on in his race, but Will finished 7th against boys who were much older. Another year will see him do well in this race, when the tables will be turned. Will has written a report of his day, available from the link below.

Will's Report

Many fell running videos can be quite boring. Not those produced by Wharfeego. Watch his latest masterpiece and enjoy the stunning views, from the link below

Wharfee's Video - Cautley Fell Race

The full results are now out for this race and they highlight the brilliant run of Cathy Bradley, who finished in 35th place overall and led the Wharfedalers home. At the half way mark, she was six minutes behind Jonathan Gibson, but in the second half of the race, she pulled through, beating him by a minute. Quite a run!

The updated league positions are now available from the link below

Kendal Winter League Tables

Logan Hargreaves-Madhas with his trophy
As part of our series about how Wharfedale youngsters are faring representing their schools, Logan Hargreaves-Madhas has done his school proud. As he is now eight, he is able to enter this league for the first time. And what a year he had. He had to complete 4 out of 5 race to qualify and he gained two first places and two seconds. At six points, this was enough to enable him to win the league, but it was a close run thing. The second boy was on 7 points and the third had 8.

A great start to competitive schoolboy junior cross country.

For the first time in years, a few Wharfedalers entered this race. Nick Charlesworth had a great run with a sub 5 hour time, with Paul Crabtree and Christian Holmes not far behind. Raj Madhas enjoyed the first half of the race in the company of the Todmorden Ladies, but he could not keep up with them in the second half. The times of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

•   28 Nicolas Charlesworth 4:28:29
•   42 Paul Crabtree & Chris Holmes 5:07:29 (7th pair)
• 228 Raj Madhas 7:18:11

This was the last Owl Event of the season and was once again run under almost perfect conditions. It attracted a total of 38 runners, including several juniors and seven ladies.

Running on his own midden, Ted Mason was first back with a new record. It is a wonder, as he made the ascent with the equivalent of a faulty tractor sidelight for a headtorch and making a swap with the summit marshal for the return. He just held off Steve Brock of Keighley who finished second. It is hard to remember if Jason Hemsley has run in a night event before, if he has, it was quite some time ago, but he put in a very good run to not only finish fourth, but also to take the prize in the guess your time competition.

Further down the field, it was good to welcome back Neil Taylor to the fells, who seems to have lost none of his fitness during his enforced lay off. He retained the Nevin Cup by not only beating Kevin Rogan to the summit, but also by opening up the gap on his return. That is something that he never used to be able to do.

There were a few Wharfedale ladies out for the run, including new member Jean Powell. They were led home by Tamara Hird, who has not run in one of these events for a long time.

This year, a league table has been compiled and the overall winner for all the Winter's night events was Paul Crabtree. It is tempting to say that this reflects the fact that he enjoys these events, but it also reflects the fact that he is a runner who is very much on form at the moment.

That concludes this season of night events, but enthusiasts of night time Winter off road running will be cheered by the fact that they have only just over seven months before the start of a new season.

Full Results

This season has now come to an end and the final tables show some excellent performances for the Wharfedale juniors. As the competition is on a league basis, it reflects not only good fell racing performances, but also the commitment to turn out every week, whatever the weather.

In the U12s, 1st place went to Josh Newbould who had an outstanding season, winning six of the races outright. He was closely followed in 2nd place by team mate, Charlie Lowrie. Ellamae Gibson was 4th girl.

When you see the competition each week between team mates James Hall and Ben Johnstone, it was perhaps fitting that they shared the honours in the U14s with both finishing in 1st place. They were quite a formidable pair at the front of the pack and throughout the whole of the season, there was only one race where these two did not monopolise the first two places. In that one race, it was another Wharfedaler, Will Smith who took second place.

Amongst the seniors, Kate Rogan had a good season to finish 3rd lady and Jonathan Gibson continued last year's good form by finishing 3rd Vet 40. At the other end of the scale, Roger Hall also had a good season by finishing 2nd Vet 60.

The final league tables are now in the results section.

It seems amazing that up in Peeblesshire, in Scotland, you would find two Wharfedalers taking part in this race. The race format is simple: It's a trail race, with a few obstacles; be they water obstacles, balance beams, crawl nets or pipes. Everyone mass-starts, runs, and finishes. Just a simple "first round wins". However, to describe the whole race as "simple" would be a gross understatement.
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The water obstacles, including a masochistic 200m wade against the current of the icy Leithen Water. It chills the legs (and sometimes a bit higher) down to painful levels. The balance obstacles, while not high off the ground, can be slippery and awkward. The second major climb is up a steep slope of loose scree. The descents range from open smooth MTB track to so-steep-they-put-ropes-on-it wooded mudbank. This is definitely not a 'round the fields' cross country saunter. This is a course which pushes legs and lungs to the limit.

Andy Black, who is now living in Scotland and Tim Done, who was there on holiday, took part. Tim has written his account of the day and it makes for interesting reading. It is available from the link below.

Tim's Report

Three Wharfedalers entered this race and produced some good performances.

•   7 Jason Hemsley 1:28:05
• 12 Nick Charlesworth 1:28:51
• 60 Tamara Hird 1:42:17 (6th lady)

Keiron Ashworth
Keiron Ashworth was the only Wharfedaler to head to Wales for this event. He finished 94th out of 108. He must have had his mind on other things.