Ambleside were the hosts for this year's relay event in the idyllic town of Grasmere. Over 1,400 runners descended on the sleepy town to partake in the 4 leg Fell relay. For those who aren’t familiar with the format, every year, Leg 1 is a solo leg with a defined/flagged route, Leg 2 is a pairs leg with a defined/flagged route, Leg 3 is a navigational Leg where runners are given a map with a series of check points on as they start their leg and are then expected to navigate their way between these, finally there is Leg 4 which is a solo leg with a defined/flagged route.
On the day BFR entered a ladies team, men’s A & B team and also an MV40 team. Leg 1 saw Jon Cleaver lead in the men, closely followed by Tim Chadwick and Virgil Barton with Jacqueline Collins representing the ladies.
Leg 2 saw Paula & Heather head out up the hill along with James Austin & Zac Kaye for the B team and the 2 Dave’s (Poole & Smurf) for the A team. It’s worth mentioning that the 2 Dave’s had a great leg coming in 22nd fastest from 248 teams - beating teams such as Ribble Valley. Great run!
Leg 3 (the dreaded Nav!)......Andy B and Nick T got round nice and cleanly for the A team, both Dave Halliday and Pete Beresford were 2nd fastest for BFR with a sub 2 hour run, then an AMAZING run from Vic Peel and Jen Hird saw the ladies come home just over 2 hours and 14th in the female open category....brilliant! Now for the bad news.....Pete Jackson and Gary "Navigational Expert" Bradley were the last BFR team home and got suitably ribbed by their team mates!
Leg 4 was the quickest leg of the day, we had Stephen Shorrocks for the vets, Emma Taylor for the ladies, Nicolas Kendall for the B team and Like Maude for the A team. Notably Emma was 20th in the female category and Luke was 15th in the Male open category - 2 top quality runs!
So, in summary, a great club day with BFR mixing it up with the top end as usual. Next year will be better still!
Andy B (Fell Captain and navigational god).
34 Barlick A 4:25:21 28th Male Open Team
96 Barlick B 5:14:20 9th Open Team
108 Barlick MV40 5:19:15 21st MV40 Team
171 Barlick Ladies 5:53:29 21st Female Open Team
Leg 1
57 A Team Jon Cleaver 55:50
64 B Team Tim Chadwick 56:25
75 MV40 Team Virgil Barton 57:09
145 Ladies Team Jacqueline Collins 1:07:08
Leg 2
22 A Team David Poole / David Mirfield 1:08:21
133 B Team Zac Kaye / James Austin 1:26:57
138 MV40 Team John Boothman / Andrew Smith 1:27:41
218 Ladies Team Paula Cullen / Heather Driver 1:46:01
Leg 3
56 A Team Andy Berry / Nick Treitl 1:38:15
144 B Team Dave Halliday / Pete Beresford 1:58:15
157 Ladies Team Jennifer Hird / Victoria Peel 2:02:49
181 MV40 Team Gary Bradley / Pete JAckson 2:07:28
Leg 4
15 A Team Luke Maude 43:00
49 MV40 Team Stephen Shorrocks 46:57
99 B Team Nick Kendall 57:43
142 Ladies Team Emma Taylor 57:21
27 Lucille Pickles 21:49
260 Graham Wadsworth 34:25
8 Paul Elcock 21:16
37 Jamie Fox 23:55 New PB
148 Kristian Clayton 33:49 New PB
With the main body of Barlickers going to the Red Rose Meeting at Leigh, we had only one runner out in these races - Lucille Pickles. She put in a cracking run finishing 2nd out of a field of 39 . She then intended going on to Wasdale to compete in the last BOFRA race at Wasdale, but the weather was so bad that it was impossible to get to Wasdale.
U11 Girls
2 Lucille Pickles 8:41
2625 Billy Haines 4:34:13
2626 Amanda Haines 4:34:13
It was a tough racing for everyone. The weather was so bad that the seniors ran the U17 route as the full route was deemed too dangerous. Jody Whitfield had a great run to come home 3rd U12 girl. Lily-Grace Clayton was just behind, coming home as 6th U12 girl
Oscar Clayton, who usually runs in the U9 races, had to run in the U12 race , as is the case at most show races. He gave a brave performance and came home 10th boy.
U12
12 Jody Whitfield 6:23 (3rd girl)
15 Lily-Grace Clayton 6:40 (6th girl)
17 Oscar Clayton 7:13 (10th boy)
This a new competition for the club and 16 juniors made the trip to Leigh to take part.
First off were the U11 boys who were led home by Garth Duffy, who along with Michael Moya and George Fitzpatrick brought the team home in 7th place.
Next off were the U11 girls who Summer Fitzpatrick led home to 12th team place.
In the U5 boys race, it was nip and tuck between Louie Johnson of Bolton United Harriers and Jack Villiers. As they crossed the bridge before enbarking on the long run down the track to the finish, they were neck and neck, but Louie had that little bit extra and crossed the line in first place, with Jack following. However, it was good racing and the team came home in 6th place .
U11 Boys
17 Garth Duffy 8:34
25 Michael Moya 8:43
36 George Fitzpatrick 9:06
58 Taylor Edwards 9:44
67 Will Pease 10:02
77 Isaac Whiteley 10:40
81 Zac Beresford 10:55
82 Alfie Muller 11:03
7th team
U11 Girls
67 Summer Fitzpatrick 11:36
83 Olivia Ralph 13:08
86 Holly Milligan
U15 Boys
2 Jack Villiers 12:30
23 Callum Whiteley 15:15
36 Connor Fitzpatrick 17:13
6th team
U17
14 Alex Mason 20:29
A new cross country season and a new competition for the club. After the success, in recent years in the mid lancs league, it is almost like starting again. For the men's team, Jon Cleaver put in a good performance to lead them home. Nick Treitl did not look his usual self and he ended up finishing further down the field than we would normally expect of him. For the ladies team, Jacqueline Collins led them home with a sterling performance which saw her finish just outside the ten. It was good to see some new faces in the ladies team and they will only get better with experience. The teams finished as follows:
Men
24 Jon Cleaver 37:24
58 Scott Boardman 41:16
70 James Austin 42:09
100 Shane Muller 43:56
110 Nick Treitl 44:35
145 Andrew Smith 47:52
174 Richard Starkie 51:28
188 Gary Parkinson 56:59
Seniors 11th
Vets 16th
Women
11 Jacqueline Collins 21:58
28 Paula Cullen 24:11
37 Cloey Mason 25:23
79 Hannah Newbold 26:56
80 Eleanor Moore 26:57
90 Nicola Muller 27:21
104 Diane Macdonald 28:21
105 Susan Hird 28:33
139 Sharon Newbold 32:13
21 Emma Bailey 22:13
125 Graham Wadsworth 35:15
126 Susan Hird 35:17
34 Sara Hardacre 32:20 New PB
A lot of clubs, full or promising youngsters, participate in these races, so it is nice when our juniors are amongst the winners. It is nice to see Jack Villiers continuing his good form to see him winning the Under Fifteen boys race, but what was amazing was to see Lucille Pickles not only win the Under Eleven girls race, but to set a new course record in the process.
U9 Boys
10 Oscar Clayton 3:16
17 Kai Paton 3:36
18 Zac Beresford 3:40
U9 Girls
5 Summer Fitzpatrick 3:37
12 Betsy Pickles 4:32
U11 Boys
9 Garth Duffy 7:48
11 George Fitzpatrick 8:02
13 Michael Rigg-moya
16 Alfie Muller 9:06
U11 Girls
1 Lucille Pickles 7:22 New Course Record
12 Lily-Grace Clayton 9:31
22 Ruby Beresford 10:45
U13 Girls
812 Amber Muller 9:52
BU15
1 Jack Villiers 5:56
Great performances and team work today saw the club finish in 10th position, which is our second best position in this race since the club was formed in 2013. The club only finished higher in 2014 when they came home in eighth place. The opening pair of Ian Beresford & Tim Chadwick got the team off to a sound start, handing over at Hartsop to Craig Shearer and David Mirfield. This pair tore into the opposition, pushing the team into 8th place by the Kirkstone Inn handover. Andy Berry and David Poole then set off up the long steep climb of Red Screes and lost a place before handing over to the final leg runners of Nick Treitl and Luke Maude. They too lost a place, as they found themselves up against the formidable duo of Ian Holmes & Victoria Wilkison. However, it was a great all round performance and sets up a sound platform for future years.
| Leg | Name | Time | Pos |
| 1 | Ian Beresford & Tim Chadwick | 40:07 | 12 |
| 2 | Craig Shearer & David Mirfield | 1:10:50 | 8 |
| 3 | Andy Berry & David Poole | 59:10 | 9 |
| 4 | Nick Treitl & Luke Maude | 1:13:06 | 10 |
Overall Time 4:05:13
9 Ian Livesey 2:31:02
42 Julian Hood 2:43:38
246 Dan Taylor 3:00:55
Rachel Villiers not only won this race, but she did it in style, finishing way out on her own, with a comfortable lead of almost three minutes over the chasing pack. A truly great performance. A good run too from James Austin who secured a top twenty finish out of a starting field of 225 runners.
19 James Austin 1:34:10
25 Rachel Villiers 1:35:55 (1st Lady)
The main aims of the club are to increase the participation of running in Barnoldswick and to keep organised running as accessible as possible.