May 2025 – in the main, dry, very dry!
As tends to be the case at this time of year, the juniors were going to be very busy, with the latest English Junior Championship race, as well as the Yorkshire Champs & some Bank Holiday shenanigans. First up on May 5th was Coiners, on the hills above Mytholmroyd, which once again had been chosen as the Yorkshire Junior Championships, so was bound to be popular. Looks like we had a couple of runners taking part, so well done to Eleanor Yelland-Brewer (19th overall & 8th FU15) & Alice Parry (16th overall & 7th FU17) for flying the amber flag. Next up on Sunday May 18th was the English Champs race at Sedbergh, but it doesn’t look as if anyone made it up to the Howgills this time. Finally, it was a trip to Austwick in the Yorkshire Dales on Bank Holiday Monday May 26th, but again, looks like we had no takers. Let’s hope we can generate some interest for the relatively local Edale race on June 8th.
For the seniors, it was time for this year’s HHAC weekend away, taking on the challenge of the Fairfield Horseshoe on Saturday 10th May. Despite a few injuries & other absences, we still had 27 Harriers on the start line at Rydal Hall, which was a fantastic achievement & I reckon we were the best-represented club there! What made it even more special was that not only did we have plenty of hardened fell-runners taking part, we had several novices & debutants in the team, including our esteemed Road Captain Kevin Dessoy (who is more used to walking the Wainwrights), recent 2.57 London Marathon man James Burbidge and Craig (Track & Field) Sheard, as well as plenty of support out on the hills (shout-outs to Jason, Tommy, Bill & his jelly babies, Rosie, Mike, Judy & Catherine)! The weather was absolutely scorching, so as well as having to take full FRA kit, we also needed to take water along, which was much needed on the 10 mile/3000ft AM course, as it was incredibly dry & dusty throughout. Stand-out performances include Ben Jarvis (27th overall in 1.39.37), Katie Walshaw (43rd overall & 1st lady in 1.43.12), Helen Haigh (7th lady & 1st FV50) & Rob Kersey (4th MV70), but it was an achievement to simply finish the race in such warm conditions, so well done to everyone who made it round. There were 329 finishers overall, with the race winner Grant Cunliffe of Rossendale Harriers floating round in a very impressive time of 1.21.31.
We then headed down to the Ambleside Youth Hostel, where we took over the tables on the terrace overlooking Lake Windermere & drank them out of hand-pulled bitter! Fish and chips were the post-race choice for many, although Keith would have been happy with a tin of Heinz Beans & Sausages if he could have found a camping stove! Sunday morning started with a hearty breakfast for most (not too many sore heads on show), followed by a quick stroll up Jenkins Crag before heading back to Honley in the fun-bus (big thanks once again to Adam Sunderland & South Pennine Community Transport). All in all, a great weekend and planning has already started for next year!
It was then back to more local trails and the Calderdale Way Relay on Sunday 18th May, where once again we managed to put out 4 teams (48 runners) – the traditional Open, Ladies & Vets teams, plus the Cote de Holme Moss team, which this year was a full Mixed team of 6 men & 6 ladies. Not quite as relaxed a build-up this year, with a number of changes to the teams, but the reserves stepped up where needed, so many thanks to them – in particular, Annie Garside, who came down to the club for the first time on the Tuesday, ran the Summer 5k event, joined on the same night & then got the call-up on the Friday! Kit requirements were relaxed on some of the legs, although it wasn’t as sunny as predicted, with a cool wind on the tops, particularly at Wainstalls, which seems to have its own micro-climate! At the sharp end, it was an incredibly tight race once again, with Rossendale successfully defending their title, coming back in a time of 6.03.41, ahead of Calder Valley (6.05.54) & Wharfedale (6.13.08), which was a repeat of last year’s 1-2-3! For the record, the Open team were just a couple of minutes slower than last year, finishing an excellent 9th overall in 6.43.46, whilst the Ale Stars were 27th overall (2nd Vets team) in 8.02.06, the Ladies were 41st overall & 3rd Ladies team in 8.22.42 (behind Sale Harriers and Calder Valley) and the Cote de Holme Moss were 61st overall (7th Mixed team) in 9.20.17. There were 90 teams taking part this year and individually, results of the day for Holmfirth included Joe Minchella & Alex Robinson 5th quickest on Leg 3, as were Tim Street & Patrick Needham on Leg 4, whilst Katie Walshaw & Helena Croft had the 2nd fastest Ladies time on Leg 4 (& 20th fastest overall), as did Julia Jagger & Sophie Cromwell on Leg 6.
Elsewhere in the month, it’s been great to see plenty of Harriers getting out on the hills, including Tom Heap, Hannah Austin, Jim Durrans, Phil Hobbs & James Spencer at The Cake Race (where Tom’s better half won the Best Cake competition), Katie Walshaw at Coiners (where she was 8th overall, 2nd lady & 1st FV40), Tim Street, Debbie Hall, Mark Henderson, Rob Kersey & Jean Shotter at Hartcliff Hill (where Tim was 4th overall, Debbie was 2nd FV45, Jean was 2nd FV60 & Rob was 2nd MV70), Neil Robins at The Lap Windermere Ultra (where he placed 194th from 836 finishers), Mark Henderson at the Hayfield May Queen, Katie Walshaw, Hannah Austin & Mark Henderson at Mount Famine (where Katie was 12th overall & 1st lady), Mark Henderson at Lantern Pike Dash (where he was 2nd MV60 & so competed in all 3 of the Three Days in May series), Ben Kellett & Tim Brook at the UTMB Snowdonia 100km (where Ben was 17th overall), Annie Garside at Hutton Roof Crags, Katie Walshaw at Ilkley Trail (where she was 9th overall & 1st lady), Annie Garside at Bamford Sheepdog Trials, Ben Jarvis & John Field at the Grasmere Gallop (which Ben won), Annie Garside at the Great Langdale 21 (where the organisation left a lot to be desired by all accounts) and finally at the 3rd instalment of The Trunce, we had Helen Ilsley (2nd lady vet), Kevin Yewlett (2nd MV70), Barbara Hinchliffe (1st FV70) & Janet Foreman amongst the 264 runners!
Congratulations to Katie Walshaw, who has been selected to run for Yorkshire at the Senior & U23 Inter-Counties race at Pen Y Ghent on Saturday 14th June – she is in fine form at the moment, so this is well-deserved – best of luck, Katie!
Also coming up in June, the seniors have Edale on Sunday 8th, followed by Harden Moss/James Blakely on Saturday 21st and Kinder Trog on Sunday 22nd, whilst the juniors have the next 2 English Champs races, Edale on the 8th & Clougha Pike on the 21st. Finally, I’m organising the Harden Moss race again this year, so will need a handful of helpers on the day if anyone would like to volunteer!
Finally, some local(ish) races to have a go at:
Trunce 4 (BS) – Oxspring – Monday 2nd
Hebden Bridge (BM) – Tuesday 3rd
Castleton (BS) – Friday 6th
Churn Milk Chase (BS) – Midgley, nr. Mytholmroyd – Saturday 14th
Knowl Hill (BS) – Norden, nr. Rochdale – Sunday 15th
Ogden Midsummer Madness (AS) – Ogden, nr. Illingworth, Halifax – Wednesday 18th
Brown Wardle (And a Bit Moor) (AS) – Whitworth, nr. Rochdale – Wednesday 18th
Tideswell (BS) – Friday 20th
Trunce 5 (BS) – Monday 23rd
Cragg Vale (BS) – Cragg Vale, nr. Mytholmroyd – Wednesday 25th
Eddie’s Revenge (AS) – Shaw, nr. Oldham – Wednesday 25th
Bakewell Pudding Race (CM) – Sunday 29th
Stoodley Pike (BS) – Lumbutts, nr. Todmorden – Tuesday 1st July
Thurlstone Chase (BS) – Thurlstone, nr. Penistone – Thursday 3rd July
See you on a hill sometime!
Cheers,
Phil
