Ben Nevis - 6 October 2008

18:50 Saturday Evening

Update from Neil Taylor

Nevis bar food , beer and celebrations going well. Loads of race stories being retold, now doubt may grow as the evening proceeds. The Gang
The results:

Name	Time
Bruce Elsworth	1:49
Mark McGoldrick	1:51
Chris Newman	1:52
Sam Watson	1:54
Lucas Payne	1:59
Pete Keron	2:02
James Harrison	2:05
Kevin Rogan	2:24
Kate Rogan	2:27
Neil Taylor	2:32
Keiron Horrigan	N/A

Update from Neil Taylor 17:30

All Wharfedalers finished safely. Most of showered and dozing now. Most times a little down on expectations. Kevin retained the Nevin Cup. There is the possibility that Sam Watson may have won the U23 Trophy.

First report of the race from Pete Keron

Bruce Elsworth was first home for Wharfedale in around 30th place, then Mark McGoldrick, Sam Watson and Lucas Payne all in a time of between 1h 50 mins and 2 hours. Pete was an unofficial runner in about two hours.James Harrison finished in about 2:05 and Kevin Rogan at about 2:25 and then Kate Rogan and Neil Taylor.

Pete went afterwards to cool his legs down in Red Burn. Apparently, you can walk tomorrow, if you do that. Conditions on the top were OK. It was a bit windy and only the very top was in cloud.

News from Braemar is that the leading positions and those of our runners were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
1	Scott Frazer	25:06
2	Robbie Simpson	26:34
3	Colin Donnelly	26:37
4	Ted Mason	27:08
10	Andy Robertshaw	29:53
29	Barry Scholes	33:55
37	Lionel Sands	36:54
54	Kirsty Hall	40:33	5th Lady
56	David Hird	42:03

Ben Nevis - 6 September 2008

12:30 Saturday Lunchtime

Update from Neil Taylor

Off to warm up. Then pipe band round the field. Then we're off!!!

11:32 Saturday Morning

Update from Neil Taylor

Bruce and Cathy here, so all gang now set for a great race. Italian and Spanish Sky Runner Series runners mingling amongst indigenous regulars. Lots of brief chats with friends seldom seen, eg Brian Kirkdale of Hastings on his 31st race.

11:20 Saturday Morning

Update from Neil Taylor

Registration now in full swing. Commemorative buff to each runner - nice. Given chilly and windy conditions, mine will be put into immediate service.

10:30 Saturday Morning

Update from Neil Taylor

Car park filling up nicely and our support team, Sarah, Emma, Johnny, Melissa, Nicole, Mary Jane and Kathryn now en route to their chosen vantage points. Mel and Johnny aiming for the summit! Still windy with a definite chill in the air ... hope it stays dry.

9:06 Saturday Morning

More from Neil Taylor

Breakfast now finished and the realisation of perhaps unwarranted optimism on the guess your finish times in the pub last night! Cloud level variable, though no doubt upper slopes will be in mist. Buffeting wind expected

7:30 Saturday Morning

Neil Taylor was up early and reported as follows:

Overcast, dry with stronger wind this morning. Late arrivals last night, Pete Keron and Lucas Payne no doubt still in the land of nod. Unfortunately, two Wharfedale withdrawals. Tamara Hird is down with a cold and Pete Jackson with a nasty football injury. Otherwise, all team members rearing to go, at least will be when we get up. Breakfast, here we come!!!

Friday Afternoon at Fort William

Ben Nevis	John Thompson

Mark Bennett, John Thompson and Neil Taylor have an early recce. The conditions are dry, mild but very breezy, even at low levels. The feeling is that pre-race beer and bravado are needed at the meal this evening.

Owen Beilby normally sends his reports in fairly promptly,especially when he runs out the winner, but this late August holiday period seems to have affected us all.

Rather than traipsing up to Dufton I decided to spend Saturday looking at carpets and race on Sunday instead. Apologies to Sam & Jason, I didn't know anyone else was running .... more

The results, for what they are worth, are in the results section.

Whilst the lads were doing the Burnsall Classic, two of our girls decided to have a change and tackle a road race. The route is quite tough and undulating, taking in Linton, Grassington and Hebden. Tamara Hird finished 5th lady and Sharon Barker finished 11th.

Full results are in the results section.

Just catching up a bit on all the races over the holiday period. Four Wharfedalers went up for this event and it must be a long time since Kevin Rogan led a team home. But this is what he did, finishing ahead of Neil Taylor and John Thompson. Kate Rogan had a good run to finish 5th lady

Full results are in the results section.

Oliver Whyte at Kilnsey Show
Thanks to Tim Done, we now have the results for Kilnsey Show. These are now in the results section. Again, thanks to Tim, there are also results available for Malham and Hebden. Both these latter results are a little incomplete, but it is perhaps better to have something recorded for these events rather than let them get lost in the sands of time.

Wharfedale Ladies Team at Dufton
Our growing number of our women members was perhaps reflected yesterday when we had more women out on the fells at Dufton than men. And they did the club proud too. Tamara Hird led them home, followed by Catherine Wolfenden and Judy Howells.

Amongst the men, Jason Hemsley was first home followed by Sam Watson.

Tamara Hird wrote a brief report of the day. Read Tamara's report

Full results are in the results section.

The first of these took place three months ago and it is interesting to compare performances between the two events. Pete Keron set off determined to beat his previous record and managed to do so, but only by two seconds. Similarly, Lucas Payne and Sam Watson all finished within seconds of their previous times, although all three had slower first leg times. This must say something about the conditions.

Adam Baker improved his time all round and Kevin managed go slower all round. James Wadsworth was in England on a flying visit from Italy and had a go on an old bike out of the shed. He was a bit more on the pace in the second half of the race, but was a bit slow in the first half when he was cycling on his own.

Angela Gray is not a cyclist but had a go on a borrowed bike. Unfortunately in the second half, she came off and found herself in the nettles at the side of the road. Fortunately, no damage was done, apart from a few minor scratches and she remounted and finished the course.

Another good evening and a pleasant change from the usual training events.

Whilst most people were back to work, a few Wharfedalers went up to Reeth. However, this was only a championship race for the juniors. In the U17s, Jonathan Bradshaw led the field home. This gives him valuable championship points and everything is now to play for in this category. If he can emulate this performance in the last three races, he has the possibility of taking the championship. In the same race, Jack Smith came 4th and Scott Baistow came 9th. They are currently lying in 4th and 5th positions respectively in the championship, reflecting the commitment they have both given to this competition.

Ben Johnstone came first again in the U12s. He is already the champion in this category. The thing is; can he go through the season and be and become an unbeaten champion? Only time will tell and he has three more races to achieve this remarkable feat. In the same race, Will Smith was 4th and Robbie Johnstone,who was running way out of his age group, came 15th. In the same age group, Ellamae Gibson was 4th girl. She is now lying 3rd in the championship, just one place in front of Zoe Baistow.

Results are in the results section.

Last week Tamara Hird, Jason Hemsley and Judy Howells took part in this new race which was a 10km race over a 2 lap course around Esholt Woods. The race turned out to be a fast affair and was won by Jamie Hutchinson of Ilkley Harriers in 39.00. Jason finished a good 4th in 41.46. Tamara was first lady in 46.58 followed by Judy who was third lady in 50.20.

Results are in the results section.

Owen Beilby and Gareth Hird decided to have a go at this one. Owen did his usual party trick of going wrong, but he had a good excuse this time. Despite that, he came second and Gareth sixth. Owen's report of the day is below

Read Owen's Report

Full results are in the results section

This event was an English Junior Championship Counter and our youngsters did us proud. Robbie Johnstone was 2nd in the U8s, Ben Johnstone was 1st in the U12s and Jonathan Bradshaw was 1st in the U16s.

Well done lads

Full results are in the results section.

Sam Watson had a cracking run against some big names and led our team home by finishing in eleventh place. Teams were four to count and Wharfedale were third after Pudsey & Bramley and Bingley

The positions of all our runners was as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
11	Sam Watson	16:41
17	Pete Keron	17:11
23	Jason Hemsley	17:55
28	Paul Carmen	18:12
32	Shaun Chew	18:49
57	Kevin White	20:58

The full results are in the results table.

Brian Hugill	Lynn Whittaker

Good performances from the Wharfedalers who turned out for this event, taking second, third and fourth places. Andy Holden was out and about with his camera and so there are a few pictures in the gallery. He also sent in a brief report of the day as follows:

A brilliant run from Brucey to finish 2nd to the winner, Harry Coates of SkiptonAC. Ted 3rd, suffering from a cold...he tried his "incredible 'ulk" tactics on the descent but it wasn't to be today. Goldie had a solid run to finish one place behind Ted. Barry geed himself on the descent. Good runs from Cathy 'n Lynn, 3rd 'n 4th respectively in the ladies section. As always Brian Hugill smiled his way around the course and Stu Johnston can only keep on improving his fitness by taking on courses like Malham...good run lads.

In the junior section Ben Johnston cruised the under 14's...nice run Ben. (Malham Show rules stipulate running as "age on the day"). (I haven't got details of other juniors. Apologies to any others I've missed mentioning).

Results follow when available.

Another mid week run out for Owen Beilby. This is what he had to say about it.

Another midweek sojourn this week to Meltham for the Cinnamon Lodge Chase, not a fell race more of a trail / cross country type around the paths, fields and bridleways surrounding Meltham. Conditions were fine on the evening, although it was heavy going underfoot. The course is quite contrived in sections, but is still a nice run and was well marshalled by a friendly bunch from host club Meltham AC.

Holmfirth's Dave Watson was the clear winner, finishing over a minute ahead of myself in second (36.33) with Andy Whitworth of Meltham AC a further 2 min back in 3rd. First lady was from Penistone, who also won the ladies team prize with the men's prize going to Holmfirth. Overall a nice evening and a good midweek bash, made all the better by the fact that all the prizes were sponsored by the local Curry House (Cinnamon Lodge - hence the name!) No prizes for guessing where I'm heading this weekend!

Alistair Brownlee seemed to receive little coverage in the Press leading up to the Olympics, with all the emphasis being on Will Clarke and Tim Don. In the event, he was up there for most of the race. In the swim, be beat Jan Frodeno, the eventual winner by three seconds. By the end of the bike section, he was trailing him by five seconds. In the final section, the run, he was in the top six until he had run 7 out of the 10 kilometres, when he ran out of energy and slipped down the field.

Having said all that, it was a great performance for this brilliant local athlete who did not even expect to go to these Olympics and it augurs well for the Olympics in London

The under nines enjoying a run in the meadows at Gargrave
As well as having a run out, David Hird was out and about with his camera and like the one above, he has taken a few pictures of the juniors having a great day out. He has also taken a few of the seniors. They are all now available for viewing in the gallery.

Page last updated 7 September 2008