This race saw Chewy return to the fells where he a good battle with Chris Miller from Harrogate Harriers.  In the end, Chris was quicker on the descent and opened up a good gap in the last mile.  Also running was Chris Smale and a return to action for Rob Weir.

All runners finished in thew top twenty and resulted in Barlick being first team.

2 Stephen Chew 50:17
6 Chris Smale 53:42
15 Rob Weir 56:55

Barlick managed to field a total of 5 teams in this race and were rewarded by having three of them in the top ten, with the "A" team comfortably winning the race.  The first leg pair of Gary Shaw & Nick Treitl finished just behind Bingley with Wharfedale in third place.  Stephen Chew and Julian Hood took over and quickly passed Bingley, as did the Wharfedale pair of Ted Mason & Spencer Riley.  By the time they reached the Murder Mile, Stephen & Julian had already opened up a fair gap over 2nd team Wharfedale.  In the early part of the leg Stephen had been setting the pace, but once on the top, Julian took over at the front with Chewy struggling to keep up with the blistering pace that he was setting. By the change over at the Busfield Arms, they had opened up a six minute lead which the chasing teams never managed to close. 

The Barlick "B" team were never far behind the third team place and started the last leg with a deficit of 2 minutes.  However, Bingley had a strong last leg pair and they stretched their lead by another three minutes to finish just behind Wharfedale.

Incredibly, our "C" team also finished in the top ten.

It was touch and go who would come in first between our ladies team and our "D" team, with the ladies just shading it and again taking the third team place, although with a faster overall time than last year.

It was a good day for Barlick and was only marred by Pete Beresford being taken off to hospital with a suspected broken ankle and Emma Bailey falling and banging her head with the winning line only a short distance away. 

Provisional top teams

1 Barlick "A" 3:27:01
2 Wharfedale 3:33:09
3 Bingley 3:33:39
4 Barlick "B" 3:38:46
5 Keighley & Craven "A" 3:54:25
6 Queensbury 4:05:01
7 Keighley & Craven "B" 4:07:45
8 Barlick "C" 4:14:48
9 Bingley "B" 4:18:37
10 Baildon 4:22:01
11 Pudsey Pacers 4:27:51
12 Craven Energy 4:28:22
13 Otley Mixed Team 4:31:23
14 Bingley Ladies 4:34:17
15 Wharfedale Ladies 4:35:22
16 Pudsey Pacers Mixed 4:37 17
17 Heptenstall 4:40:10
18 Barlick Ladies 4:47:50
19 Barlick "D" 4:50:28

Barlick Fell Runners were out in force round the town today, not actually running, but helping to marshal this event in aid of Bosom Friends Cancer Charity.  Above are a few pictures of the runners coming along Rainhall Road.

The Gravy Pud is a category BS fell race of 5 miles/1001ft, from the village of Tintwistle, on the edge of the Peak District.

It was very cold and wet at the start of this race.   Almost all of it was on good, runnable tracks (albeit very muddy in places) with no visibility problems and the more exposed area was well marshalled.   

The route heads up on to the moors above the village, initially via a farm track leading to the local high point of Lees Hill before descending through the trees of Swallows Wood, and along the top edge of Arnfield Reservoir, to re-join the farm track back to the finish.

The winner was Tom Saville of Dark Peak Fell Runners in a time of 35 minutes 59 seconds.
Richard Treitl finished 142nd in 1:01:08s.

There were 155 finishers.