Shaun Chew is starting to earn a reputation and some prize money to go with it. At his latest event Shaun won the event out right and a £500 first prize with a dominant performance in the final.
Matt Lalor won this race with another sub 33 performance. His winning time this week was 32:51.
This was a tale of two races. Although part of the Mid Lancs Cross Country League, this race was also a British Athletics Cross Challenge Race and as such, attracted some of the top athletes in the Country with the promise that the top runners would be selected for the European Cross Country Challenge in Bulgaria. Competition amongst the elite athletes at the front of the race was fierce, as was the speed in both the men's and womens' races and was awesome to watch. Then followed those athletes that we are used to seeing in local events and who we normally regard as being pretty good and today demonstrated the gap between those runners and those at International level.
The men's race was won by Callum Hawkins of Kilbarchan AAC in a time of 29:26. The Barlickers finished as follows:
140 James Craig 33:39
145 Chris Singleton 33:50
147 Nick Treitl 34:01
154 Marc Hartley 34:12
177 Ian Livesey 35:10
215 Lucas Payne 36:43
220 Luke Maude 36:53
317 Andrew Chew 40:01
329 Derek Walkden 40:31
366 Lee Edwards 41:50
396 Dave Halliday 43:12
496 James Stead 51:56
The ladies's race was very similar to the men's. The speed at the front was impressive and those women looked like they could hold their own in the average men's race.
The winning lady was Gemma Steel of Charnwood AC in a time of 26:58. The Barlick team finished as follows:
85 Sarah Tipler 32:06
148 Rachel Lowther 38:34
176 Emma Bailey 42:27
With Emma making up the team, the ladies have maybe once more secured the maximum points at this event.
Rob Affleck of Preston Harriers took the race in 32:47. Stephen Chew finished 4th with a time of 33:27.
4 Chris SMEDLEY 20:23
87 Lee EDWARDS 31:17
98 Chloe BOOTHMAN 35:04 New PB
99 John BOOTHMAN 35:05
Instead of the usual pub run, there will be instead an off road pre-Christmas social run from Higher Stone Gappe, the home of Graham & Pat Wadsworth. The run will be led out by Sam Wadsworth and afterwards, there will be meat & potato pie, chile, a few bowls of chips and draft ale courtesy of the Bridgehouse Brewery. To mitigate the cost, there will be a charge of £5 per head and £2 for juniors.
To get some idea of numbers, it would be helpful if you could email Graham Wadsworth (details on contacts page) or ring or text 07976 794749.
The start time for the run is 7:00 pm and will last about an hour.
Detailed directions are below.
1448 Gary Parkinson 2:01:36
The race was won by Horwich runner Thomas Carson. Chris Singleton was 4th in a time of 36:36
Lee Athersmith was back at Skipton and he looked to be flying, but he didn't quite make a PB. Lucas Payne was chasing him down during the run, but the gap was too large to close and in the end, he had to settle for 2nd place.
1 Lee Athersmith (Bingley) 17:44
2 Lucas PAYNE 18:06
8 John BOOTHMAN 21:12
17 Richard STARKIE 22:34 New PB
41 Emma BAILEY 25:34
77 Gary BAILEY 31:29 New PB
80 Jenna BOOTHMAN 31:43
89 Chloe BOOTHMAN 35:37
90 Angela BOOTHMAN 35:32
17 Lorna HARGREAVES 25:17
At last the results are out and the 17 Barlickers who took part finished as follows:
15 Luke Maude 2:42:05
64 Andrew Driver 2:57:48
73 Andy Berry 2:59:29
147 Tom Beebe 3:16:20
149 Gary Bradley 3:16:28
158 Lorraine Slater 3:18:30
159 Derek Walkden 3:18:51
209 Glenn Whittaker 3:31:05
232 Pete Beresford 3:37:11
233 Dave Halliday 3:37:12
259 Chris Smedley 3:42:21
260 Rob Hodgkinson 3:42:22
277 Ben Hoyle 3:45:53
301 Rachel Lowther 3:56:07
358 James Stead 4:20:32
DNF Nick Treitl
DNF John Boothman
It was ideal conditions for this navigation evening as 35 competitors, including a junior, set off to challenge their navigation skills against the dark and the clock, with some running solo and others as teams.
The penalty points for taking more than the allotted hour are quite harsh and most of the runners with previous experience of this event made sure that they were back with time to spare.
It was close between the top five finishers, but once more Mark Nutter showed his mastery of this event and his intimate knowledge of the area to finish first solo runner and overall winner. This saw him once more add his name to the Badger Trophy as first runner from Clayton.
Close behind Mark was the Chew brothers team who finished second overall and first team winners. They were chased hard by Sam Wadsworth & Andrew Driver, who finished in joint third position, along with the redoubtable Neil Hardiman, another Claytoner renown for his night time navigational skills and knowledge of the local area. As if to emphasise that this is Clayton territory, Ralph Baines was the third solo finisher and his club mates Andy Firth & Peter Dugdale were third team.
First solo lady was Jean Brown, who took her young son Christopher with her.
The harshness of the time penalty points was brought home by the fact that the last four runners and teams ended in negative point territory. There was a prize of the "Richard Briscoe Wooden Spoon" for the runner or team with the least points. Richard tried hard to win the spoon bearing his name by losing a battery out of his head torch and returning in the dark, but Chris Barnes was having such an enjoyable time trying to find the check points that he overlooked the price he would pay for being back late and it was he who returned home with his dubious prize.
The results are now out for this meeting and make good reading for those who made the long journey to Barrow. The men's team were second overall out of all four divisions and have once more secured maximum points towards the target of the division three championship.
The ladies' team were 10th overall and secured maximum points in the third division and they are now leading their table.
Individual Results - Ladies
3 Sarah Tipler 20:22
41 Jennifer Hird 24:39
64 Leanne Dinsdale 27:05
Individual Results - Men
7 Stephen Chew 31:16
11 Chris Singleton 31:33
13 Marc Hartley 31:55
31 Ian Livesey 33:16
32 Chris Smale 33:38
50 Dan Taylor 35:25
60 Andrew Carson 35:5
128 Stuart Bryan 40:43
190 Robert Whipp 49:57
Two quick times in a top quality race:
133 Matt Lalor 32:33
183 Julian Hood 33:16
The main aims of the club are to increase the participation of running in Barnoldswick and to keep organised running as accessible as possible.