A change to tarmac this weekend for Sam who entered this race to join a few workmates who were doing this race.  It is a ten mile race through lovely countryside with a few hills in it like the Birstwith Brute which is a never ending climb out of Birstwith.  This may be the last time that this race takes place as it starts and finishes at Ripley Castle and although they have lived there since 1309, the Ingleby family have now sold it and it is not clear whether the new owners want to continue with the race.  That would be a shame as it is a lovely race (for tarmac) on roads which see little traffic.

104 Sam Wadsworth 1:13:39

Another good performance from Smirf to take 3rd place.

3 David Mirfield 45:33 (2nd M40)
19 Andy Berry 52:20 (2nd M45)
46 Andrew Smith 58:39 (3rd M60)

144 Stephen Jackson 28:36

314 Sharon Newbold 33:07

It was almost perfect conditions for this race and right from the start the first six runners made a scorching start up to the first res, led by Wharfedale's Matthew Athersmith  The group included David Mirifield who was in 2nd place and Ben Whitehead who stuck with them despite running in the cross country the day before.  In his second race since making his comeback, Andy Collins decided to let them go and not try to keep up with them, but still looked like the climb had taken a lot of him when he reached the res..  As the race progressed, Matthew Athersmith continued to set a fast pace and the following runners, led by David Mirfield began to drop off him. This was the position at Ponden.  At this point, Andy Collins seemed to have found his second wind and was running well.

The race continued in this way with Matthew Athersmith gradually stretching out his lead,and on the approach to Haworth, Smirf was still in second place.  However, on the run in, he was pipped by Matthew's brother Lee and got pushed down into third.  It was however, brilliant racing between all three contenders.  Ben Whitehead was still going well in 6th place and was followed by Andy Collins who looked set to take a comfortable 7th place.  However on the run in, he was challenged by Calder Valley runner Andy Ford and he had to give his all in an exciting dash to the finish to maintain his place. 

The ladies race was won by local girl Helen Smith, now running for Salford.  The Barlickers were led home by Emma Law, with everyone then following in quick succession to leave Barlick with 3 top ten finishers.  It was nice to see Cloey Mason & Anne-Marie Beech out in their first race for quite some time.

3 David Mirfield 56:39 (2nd M40)
6 Ben Whitehead 59:39
7 Andy Collins 62:53 (2nd Senior)
14 Robert Cranham 69:22
16 Andy Berry 69:33
24 Andrew Smith 72:08 (2nd M60)
35 John Mason 75:09
67 Pete Jackson 85:17
103 Carl Pawson 101:31

Ladies Race
7 Emma Taylor 77:23
8 Emma Law 78:17
9 Jacqueline Collins 79:02
11 Hayley Whitehead 79:22
13 Paula Cullen 83:10
19 Lucy Brown 87:22
38 Cloey Mason 106:45
39 Anne-Marie Beech 107:41

We had a full team of men out in this race, but sadly, we were one lady short, so no women's team out.

Senior Men
11 Gary Shaw 32:45
27 Ben Whitehead 34:26
47 Andy Berry 36:14
66 Carl Nevison 38:11
95 John Mason 40:55
102 Andrew Smith 41:37

Vet 70 Men
1 Raymond Banks 26:43

Senior Women
11 Victoria Peel 21:31
44 Paula Cullen 24:51

Team Positions
Senior Men
8th Barlick Fell Runner

Vet Men
3rd Barlick Fell Runners

78 Robert Cranham 38:31

He's back! 

After quite some time of not racing, Andy Collins made his comeback solo race this weekend and found himself competing against Ted Mason who was running on his own midden.  Despite his age, Ted, unsurprisingly, took the honours,  Before the finish, all runners have to sink a pint of ale and both Ted and Andy are adept at that.  He finished third, which is a brilliant run for someone not yet race fit.  Watch out for future races.

3 Andy Collins 44:45

103 finished.

Jed Whitfield, Gary Shaw/Sam Horrocks, David Poole/Julian Hood and David Mirfield represented the club in this event, which this year was hosted by Ted Mason in and around Appletreewick

The team came home in 30th place in a time of 4:17:31.

We did not have a ladies team this year.

It was wild at wet at this race.  It was reasonably dry for the first half, but went downhill from there.  John Boothman continues to race without the corresponding training and the cracks are beginning to show.  He enjoyed a good race for the first fifteen miles, but then his pace began to drop off and the last 2K were a disaster.  In view of his lack of preparation and training John thought that finishing around the four hour mark would be a good result, so given the situation in which he found himself,  he was happy with his time.

Further down the field Raymond Banks had a good run to finish 4th in his category

1423 John Boothman 3:42:49
3012 Raymond Banks 4:20:33

143 Stephen Jackson 28:28

14 Robert Cranham 21:28

216 Graham Wadsworth 40:26

3 Emma Law 1:52:13 (1st V40)
21 Jacqueline Collins 2:07:57

52 Andrew Smith 56:50 (2nd M60)

A very strong run by Lucy Brown saw her finish with a top twenty place and 3rd V40.  In the ladies race, she was supported by Paula Cullen who ran her socks off and battled for places right up to the finish.  However, their efforts were in vain as it was five to count for team places. 

In the men's race, Gary Shaw stormed round the course, again to take a top twenty place and first V50 by a country mile.  Because he is over 70, Raymond Banks could have run over the ladies course, but he missed that race and therefore chose to run in the senior race.  It was lucky that he did, as he was our sixth counter, thus ensuring that we had a team place.  It was a bit of a dad's army team, as it was comprised of all vet runners.  As a result, we struggled in the overall positions, but did quite well in the vets race, finishing 3rd team.

Ladies' Race
20 Lucy Brown 26:21 (3rd V40) 9th Vet
40 Paula Cullen 28:03 25th Vet

Men's Race
20 Gary Shaw 39:44 (1st V50), 3rd Vet
47 Andy Berry 43:36 12th Vet
53 David Poole 44:07 16th Vet
95 John Mason 49:07 46th Vet
115 Andrew Smith 50:46 61st Vet
182 Raymond Banks 1:04:12 (1st V70) 115th Vet

Team Positions
Overall
9 Barlick Fell Runners 498 points
Vets
3 Barlick Fell Runners 76 points

37 Anne Marie Beech 31:11
48 Robert Cranham 34:36

192 Richard Shilton 30:29