Three pictures in the gallery above including the 'Cheeky Barlicker'
More picture of leg one in https://picasaweb.google.com/110439573756197443848/GatheringWinterFoolsRelayLeg102#
What a day for the Barlick ladies. They were third team in 2013, they were 3rd last year, but this year, they romped home in first place. Jen Hird and Leanne Dinsdale got the team off to a good start by taking an early lead and handing over in first place to Kelly Whiteside and Lorraine Slater. These are a good pair, but they were up against Wharfedale's top pairing of Emma Hopkinson & Lucy Needham and they dropped a place. Then it was the turn of Lucy Beresford & Paula Cullen, who put everything into their leg and regained first place after the Wharfedale pairing made a navigational error. Our last pair was Emma Bailey and Angela Donlan who set off like there was a charging bull after them and at that point, baring injury or accident, it looked like it was all over. As it happened, they ran a cracking leg and opened up the gap even further on the chasing Wharfedale team.
The men's A' team got off to a good start and there was nothing between them and Bingley 'A' at the first hand over point at the White Lion. By the Murder Mile, our pairing of Luke Maude and Julian Hood had opened up a 12 second gap on Bingley and they were a good two to three minutes in front of the chasing Wharfedale pair of Sam Watson & Ted Mason. However, by the time they emerged out of the mist on the top of Ilkley Moor, things had changed dramatically. Wharfedale had suddenly gone to the front and opened up a 90 second lead on the Barlick pair. Last year, Julian Hood looked strong on this leg and was pulling a struggling Chewy round. This year, it was Luke Maude who was pulling a struggling Julian round, who was battling with the cold and the wet. However, at this stage, they still had a 30 second lead over Bingley. However, by the finish, things had changed again as Chris Smale was struggling with a niggle on the last leg and this allowed Bingley to catch up and take second place and for Wharfedale to run out worthy winners.
However, behind them, there were some very sound performances from our 'B' team, who despite being at one time being closely pursued by Wharfedale 'B', managed to pull out a good lead and comfortably take 4th place.
All in all, it was a pretty good day for the club. We had five teams out of the top ten and all of our teams in the top thirteen.
The top teams finished as follows:
1 Wharfedale 'A' 3:27:58
2 Bingley 'A' 3:37:16
3 Barlick 'A' 3:38:54
4 Barlick 'B' 3:47:58
5 Wharfedale 'B' 3:59:15
6 Keighley & Craven 'A'4:08:17
7 Barlick 'C' 4:12:59
8 Barlick 'D' 4:23:28 (Vets)
9 Barlick Ladies 4:25:59 (1st Ladies Team)
10 Bingley 'B' 4:36:56
11Wharfedale Ladies 4:37:04 (2nd Ladies Team)
12 Keighley & Craven Mixed 4:50:19 (1st Mixed Team)
13 Barlick 'E' 4:57:59
14 Bingley Ladies 5:02:51 (3rd Ladies Team)
15 Keighley & Craven Mixed 'B' 5:02:54 (2nd Mixed Team)
A big thank you must go to Keighley & Craven for putting on this event. It is a cracking relay race over a great course. Thanks too must go to all the marshals who stood out in some very cold and wet weather.