In amongst the romance of Valentine’s Day weekend, our members have been getting downright dirty! Muddy shoes, cross country fixtures, tackling Hills and Mountains in England, Ireland and Scotland. It’s definitely been 50 Shades of Mud for our adventurous club members!

Mid Lancs League Cross Country – Blackpool

A superb turn out of over 50 Clayton-le-Moors Harriers ranging in age from the under 10s right up to V70 made for an action-packed fixture.

The juniors were out in force with some brilliant performances right across the age groups. Sophie Ashworth finished in 10th place in the U-11 girls race with good runs from her team mates.  Dexta Thompson ran well finishing in 14th place closely followed by Christopher Brown, with solid performances from their fellow U-11 boys.

Our superb U-13 girls team didn’t fail to impress with Briony Holt winnning first place. Strong runs from her fellow team mates placed their team in 3rd position for this fixture.

Alice Pier was our sole U-15 girl, and our U-15 boys team earned 3rd place in the fixture. Curtis Holt ran well finishing in 8th place in the group.

Our U-17 runners Jordan McDonald and Bethany Quinn also ran well both finishing 4th in their age group.

George Pier ran in the Senior Men Race and was the 5th Clayton  male finisher making him a counter in the team placings.

Well done to all of our juniors for putting in such a great effort for the team!

U-11 Girls – 52 runners

U-11 Boys – 49 runners

 U-13 Girls – 37 runners

Briony Holt finishing in first place in the U-13 girls race

Team Placing – 3^rd B Holt | E Root | M Stubbs

 U-15 Girls – 14 runners

U-15 Boys – 21 runners

Team Placing – 3^rd C Holt | T Bradley | S Wilshaw

Clayton Juniors Bethany Quinn and Simon Wilshaw at the Mid Lancs Cross Country

U-17 Women

U-17 Men

Senior Ladies – 142 runners

Lots of new faces at this fixture although rumour has it some of them only made it by the skin of their teeth due to navigation errors on the way to Blackpool! Thanks goodness they all made it though!

Clayton Ladies out in force at the Mid Lancs Cross Country fixture in Blackpool.

Team Placings:

Team ‘A’ – 18^th J Brown | J Knightley | J Rushton
Team ‘B ‘- 19^th J Bennett | E Mullan | S Angelone

Vet Over 35 Team Placing

Team ‘A’ – 8^th   J Brown | J Knightley | J Rushton
Team ‘B’ – 12^th J Bennett | D Richardson | C Leathley

Vet Over 45 Team Placing

Team ‘A’ – 3^rd J Brown | J Knightley | J Rushton
Team’B’ – 9^th J Bennett | D Richardson | C Leathley

Senior Men – 198 runners

Again lots of new faces and representation across all the age ranges.   Tom Brewster was the first Clayton man, finishing in 23rd place, closely followed by Bret Holdsworth.  There were a couple of impressive debuts from Jacob Watson and Jonathon Pye. Congratulations to our Vet 60s team for their 1st place and well done to David Scott and Ted Orrell for 1st and 2nd V70 respectively.

Senior Men’s Race – Richard Stevenson, Jonathon Pye, Jacob Watson and George Pier

Team Placings

Team ‘A’ – 5^th T Brewster | B Holdsworth | J Watson | K Davies | G Pier | D Motley
Team ‘B’ – 14^th R Stevenson | C Helliwell | J Pye | A Cran | M Hogan | J Wilcock

Vet Over 40 Team Placings

Team ‘A’ – 4^th B Holdsworth | K Davies | A Cran | M Hogan
Team ‘ B – 15^th J Wilcock | P Booth | A Quinn | J Pickup

Vet Over 50 Team Placings

Team ‘A’ – 3^rd K Davies | J Wilcock | P Booth
Team ‘B’ – 8^th J Pickup | P Browning | D Scott

Vet Over 60 Team Placings

1^st – P Booth | J Pickup | D Scott

Full Results

Late Results – Sidney & Andy’s Birthday 5k 7 February

A 5k trail/reservoir race in Rochdale. Well done to our 3 club members who were all first in their respective age categories.

Full Results

Valentines Day 10K –  14 & 15 February

Two races one on each day.  Just one Clayton-le-Moors Harrier spotted in the results and that was Alan Clarkson. He came 36th in a field of 127 runners in a time of 43:47 on the Sunday race day.

Full Results

Anglezarke Amble 14 February

A handful of club members took part in this LDWA organised event.  You can choose between a 16 or 24 mile route around the West Pennine Moors, taking in Rivington Pike, Winter Hill and Great Hill; the longer route extending to Entwistle and Darwen Tower.

We started from the Village Hall in Rivington, and began the steep climb up to Rivington Pike with a slight respite before climbing again to the TV mast station at the top of Winter Hill.  A fast and furious descent down followed before heading up and across the boggy moors to Entwistle. Resisting the urge to stop at the Strawberry Duck pub (and it was very tempting!) we continued climbing gradually to cross the A666 and head back across the moors to Darwen Tower.  It was very murky and seemed to go on forever. Visibility was very poor and it was a shock to suddenly see the famous tower looming out of the mist. The murk continued all the way down into Tockholes just before the final big climb up Great Hill.

Adrienne Olszewska almost at the top of Great Hill on the Anglezarke Amble

Feeling a bit weary now, I was grateful to be dragged up by Nick Olszewski and before too long it was down to White Coppice.  It’s a steady trot back to Rivington from here alongside the lovely Anglezarke Reservoir.

This event is organised by associate club member Stan Bradshaw (not he of the eponymous race but same name!) and he had this to say;

“There were 107 runners entered along with 267 walkers. As for Clayton members (I’m a geriatric associate member these days) I only know the ones who did the longer fell races back in the late 70’s to the early 90’s. I know Wendy Dodds, of course, and I recognised your Clayton hat and top. Other than that there was one very illustrious Clayton lady from the past taking part and that was Anne-Marie Grindley. She was doing the event with her friend, wife of ex Clayton member Harry Ball. They were being supported en route by Anne-Marie’s husband, the highly regarded in the Harriers, Will Grindley and Harry. Anne-Marie was only the second lady to complete the Bob Graham Round. We would be pleased to see you again next year along with a few more fellow Claytoners.”

Ivan Whigham also took part as well as Nicholas Olszewski and Adrienne Olszewska.

Parbold Hill Race 14 February

A classic race. Approx 6.75 miles Multi Terrain.  Just one member at this race. V70 John Francis who finished in a time of 01:29:40.

Full Results

Windy Hill Fell Race – 14 February

Windy Hill Fell Race is a fast fell race run on good visible paths, rolling hills and has one memorable climb. All this takes place on the Pennine moors where the views of Hollingworth Lake and landmarks further afield are stunning. The route takes on the Old Roman Road at Blackstone Hedge, passes Windy Hill and descends quickly to finish where it started at the back of Hollingworth Lake (Rakewood).

This was a great race for Christopher Holdsworth who fininished in 4th place with a time of 59:06 bettering his 37th place in last year’s race by just shy of 10 minutes.  A brilliant result. Here’s his report;

“Having got lost in this race in 2014, I had a 12-month long grudge to rectify last years mistakes. Having said that, an injury set back in the previous weeks wasn’t great preparation, though I thoroughly enjoyed the race last year and didn’t want to miss out.

The weather and conditions underfoot were much worse this year than the previous, which made it a difficult race over the tops. It was made all the more treacherous in my attempts to keep up with Calder Vally’s Ben Mounsey, who well and truly schooled us all.
Weary lungs and legs meant I couldn’t hold on to 3rd place, relinquishing it after the 7 mile marker – though at least no extra miles this year! “

Christopher Holdsworth at the Windy Hill Fell Race. Photo by www.woodentops.org.uk

Also putting in some great performances were Neil Hardiman, Ryan Wilkinson and Michael O’Donnell.

Neil Hardiman and Ryan Wilkinson at the Windy Hill Fell Race. Photo by www.woodentops.org.uk

Michael O’Donnell at the Windy Hill Fell Race. Photo by www.woodentops.org.uk

Our sole lady competitor was Barbara Savage who finished in a time of 1:31:06

Barbara Savage at the Windy Hill Fell Race. Photo by www.woodentops.org.uk

Full Results

Run Mount Juliet  – 14 February

Cross country captain, Irene Roche, was away and had to miss the mid lancs cross country fixture.  She still managed to race along with John Roche, Vicky Heys and Angela Shian. They all took part in the Run Mount Juliet 10K in Ireland in a field of 389.  Irene described the race as; “Lovely scenery, course hilly – quite similar to the Blackburn Winter Warmer”

Well done all of you

Full Results

Calder Vale Muddy Shoes Race 15 February

Described as an off road run, walk or crawl with a choice of 5 or 11 mile routes mainly on tracks and fields with a promise of lots of mud.

Jason Pier, George Pier, Andy Bradley and Gary Moore at the Muddy Shoes Race.

Jason Pier reports:

“Myself and George Pier along with Andy Bradley and good friend of Clayton, Gary Moore, took part in the Calder Vale Muddy Shoes 11 mile race run over trails and farmland. Running in teams of two and armed with a race map George and Andy soon got away with the lead group on the steady climb up onto the farmland with Jason and Gary not too far behind. Not content with the 11 miles George and Andy along with the leaders decided to take a wrong turn which resulted in them going more than a mile out of their way. A real shame really because without the detour they’d have been amongst the first few to finish. They put in a great effort to make up for lost time, catching and overtaking Jason and Gary in the last mile. This is a great event suitable for all abilities. You get the lot, mud, pie and peas, mud, medal and goody bag oh and more mud. Can certainly recommend this race.”

Well done guys sounds like good muddy fun!

Full Results

Carnethy 5 – 15th February

Jack Holt was our sole representative at this Scottish race. The race starts near Silverburn village, 10 miles SW of Edinburgh in Scotland. The  course is approximately six miles with 2500 feet of ascent, covering five tops in the Pentland Hills to be run in the following sequence: Scald Law (1899′), South Black Hill (1840′), East Kip (1750′), West Kip (1806′), and returning via the Howe (900′) to Carnethy (1890′) – starting and finishing at the Old Kirk Road (900′).

Jack Holt at the Carnethy 5. Photo by Cammy Scott

515 runners took part in this event and Jack Holt finished in 182nd place with at time of 01:11:10. He was 2nd V60 male.

Full Results

parkrun roundup

Lots of PBs for our members this week with some excellent runs from our junior members at the Burnley parkrun.  Jackson McKay came in 10th place with a new PB of exactly 20 minutes. His younger brother, Joshua also had a great run and new PB. Well done to the Jackson brothers and all of our parkrunners.

Bolton parkrun – A total of 298 runners took part.

Burnley parkrun – A total of 236 runners took part.

Annabel Wilcock earning a new PB at Burnley parkrun

Pendle parkrun – A total of 55 runners took part.

Fell Foot parkrun, Newby Bridge – A total of 129 runners took part