Coniston Fell Race 2014
‘A particular favourite of mine, the route is a classic horseshoe, starting with the lung bursting climb up Mouldry Bank on the way to Wetherlam, before crossing Prison Band and then on to Coniston Old Man…’
A perfect day for racing the second English Championship of 2014; the weather stayed dry and just the right temperature and conditions under foot , which were as good as they could be for a Lakeland race this early in the season. A particular favourite of mine, the route is a classic horseshoe, starting with the lung bursting climb up Mouldry Bank on the way to Wetherlam before crossing Prison Band and then on to Coniston Old Man, finishing with an infamous descent back to the village.
Being a championship race the entry list had filled up quickly and the stars were out! The first three back were Tom Addison in 1:07.57, having battled it out with Rob Hope who was a mere 1 second behind with Morgan Donnelly a further 90 seconds behind. But in my opinion the performance of the day was from Ian Holmes in fourth place. Ian is the record holder (1:03.29 in 1996!) and has won the race on numerous occasions so this must be a favourite of his too! At 48 to come fourth in a hotly contested English Championship race is a great achievement.
As for Clayton-le-Moors Harriers, I was pleased to see a good turn out from the ‘veteran guard’ including Jack Holt, Kieran Carr, Linda Lord, Wendy Dodds and Pete Browning still grinding out the classic Lakeland races! Shack had made the long journey from the midlands to continue his V50 campaign and captain Dave Motley was there to spur us all on among several others. However, I’m afraid I didn’t get chance to find out too much about the placings so you will have to check the results when they are posted.
(CH: Here they are! Full Clayton-le-Moors Harriers times and positions below, full results here.
Place/Time/Runner/Age Category
77 1.21.43 DAVID NUTTALL M45
155 1.30.11 GEOFFREY P GOUGH M55
155 1.30.11 GEOFFREY P GOUGH M55
161 1.30.34 JACK HOLT M65
199 1.36.02 JEAN BROWN W45
218 1.37.37 PAUL SHACKLETON M50
220 1.37.42 PETER BROWNING M55
222 1.37.44 KIERAN F CARR M65
261 1.43.28 WENDY DODDS W60
284 1.47.59 ANDREW FIRTH M55
293 1.49.00 ANDREW M DUGDALE M50
303 1.51.02 MARK TAYLOR M
311 1.51.51 RICK MOORE M50
321 1.53.05 ALISON DUGDALE W40
321 1.53.05 ALISON DUGDALE W40
335 1.56.41 DAVE MOTLEY M
342 1.58.07 KATY THOMPSON W60
356 2.02.45 PETER DUGDALE M55
361 2.03.36 LINDA M LORD W65
368 2.06.27 NICHOLA J HORSFALL W55
378 2.10.02 ANDREW HOWARTH M50
397 2.26.16 KARIN GOSS W65
For me the day was capped off with a few pints in Coniston and a brief game of dads vs. kids rugby at the football club, where I found myself camping amongst a bunch of Yorkshire fell runners and their families making the most of the bank holiday weekend. This camaraderie is what makes fell running so special – and the result… kids won by one try!
Thanks to David Nuttall for this weeks race report!
The Rest of the Weekends Action
It was a weekend of two halves. If you wasn’t at Coniston Fell Race, it seemed you was at The Great Hameldon Hill Race instead. For some, like Captain Fantastic Dave Motley, you were at both. With an underlying Chris Barnes stag do coinciding with the first race of the Grad Prix calendar, there was a lively and mischievous atmosphere that engulfed the Sunday morning proceedings.
The race began and off flew Spiderman and Captain Clayton, though their burst of speed was short lived. Soon enough, the serious racers began their climb through the car park and the smiling faces turned to humourless, dour-faced grimaces, as the runners soon realised the gravitas of the tiresome task ahead. In the end, the Clayton-le-Moors Harriers did the Clayton-le-Moors Harriers organised race proud, picking up the team prize through fell foes Christopher Holdsworth and Matt Perry, along with the ever increasingly impressive Jacob Boyle. Christopher Holdsworth was also awarded the ‘First Clayton Home’ trophy for his efforts.
There were a grand total of 39 Harriers in total!! That is a momentous number for any club to produce at a race, well done! Sorry I can’t mention you all, though I will say it was good to see a healthy turn out from the ladies. Alison Dugdale, Angela Shian, Vicky Heys, Fionnuala Swann, Kaye Callaghan, Irene Roche, Rebecca Rawcliffe, Natalia Suchomska and Susie Allen all made the effort to climb the 1000ft climb. Well done ladies!
The juniors also had a great turn out, lead by under 8 runner Finlay Stubbs with a time of 01:24, coming in at 1st place! There was also speedy performances from Eliza Cottom in 5th, Rachel Stevenson in 8th and Joshua McKay in 9th.
Jackson McKay came in at 02:59 as another Clayton junior 1st place finisher, whilst Ella Dorrington had a spectacular run finishing in 3rd place for the under 10s race. Again, there was another brilliant performance from the under 16s race, with Leon Passco coming in 2nd place with a time of 11:20.
A total of 28 runners partook in the junior race. The above were just highlighted performances and as much as I’d like to highlight you all, in reality I don’t have as much time as I’d like to spare! If I did I would write each and every name out as you all of you did brilliantly. Well done juniors, thank you for all you efforts!
Senior results can be found here, whilst Junior results can be found here.
On Monday, five Clayton-le-Moors Harriers took to the Avenham Park 5k in Preston. ‘Christopher Huldslorin‘ managed another 6th placed finish in 00:17:05. Martin Brady managed 57th place, whilst Jackie Kershaw was next with a time of 00:24:48. The extraordinary Marion Wilkinson was the next through in 00:27:15. However, the story of the day goes to Sophie McIntosh, who finally broke her targeted sub30 5k, smashing it in a time of 00:29:36. Well done Sophie!
UK Results is currently down, so I apologise if there were any more races this weekend. You can contact the Media Manager if you have any more results for me to post.
The Calderdale Way Relays are this weekend. With a number of teams submitted, it would be great if we could have your support! You can find information on the race here. If you have any other queries, don’t hesitate to ask! Good luck to all running next weekend!
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