We could be forgiven to think that the weekend of Mothering Sunday would be a quiet one. Not at all! There’s lots to find out from Junior cross-country to fells and roads. This week’s compilation is care of Irene Roche. Read on!

Clayton Juniors have been busy competing in The English Schools Cross Country on Saturday.

Briony came 85th, 5 seconds behind Jasmine and a few places in front of Esme Davies. She pushed harder downhill than last year and felt it speeded her up compared to last time. Well done Briony!

Briony Holt at the ESAA National Cross Country Championship

Results
http://www.esaa.net/v2/2015/xc/xc15intro.php

Burnley Parkrun saw a total of 216 runners on Saturday.

Pendle parkrun – A total of 89 runners took part.

18 of our junior runners took part in the Pendle parkrun on Saturday morning as part of their summer series of races.  There were top ten finishes  from Jackson McKay and Thomas Bradley. There were also 6 new personal bests  for  Thomas  Bradley, Adam Stevenson, Finley Stubbs, Natashas Olszewska, Daniel Bradley and  Lucy Stevenson.  First times at this parkrun were Dexta Thompson, Harry Mason, Lennon Jackson, Sophie Ashworth, Beth Quinn, Joshua McKay, Kady Thompson and Milly McCabe. All of them put in great performances on a tough parkrun course –  a credit to the junior coaching team.  They showed great team spirit with many of them running back to support and run in with their teammates.

Preston parkrun – A total of 267 runners took part.

Gunnersbury parkrun – A total of 311 runners took part.

Dewsbury parkrun – A total of 75 runners took part.

Shrewsbury parkrun – A total of 311 runners took part.

Next up, the fell news.

What better place to start with than the first counter for Team Clayton’s Fell Championship? Jean Brown reports Black Combe as an excellent day on Saturday, being a “really is classic race!”

Jean describes the race as a steep first section followed by a long runnable climb to the summit, the first time around. “After a wonderful long decent the second time up is rather different – a walking climb for the vast majority. All followed by a great run off – for which there is a fastest decent prize. Excellent pie afterwards as well. Only three Clayton ladies there – Katy, Kath Brady and me – Katy was first LV60 and I was 2nd LV40. Plenty of Clayton men there though.

For the men, Garry Wilkinson reports the event as a great day where David Bagot beat the “Old Master” (Garry himself), following his every move to the summit. He says Richard Briscoe had “a cracking run” as he took third place in the champs. Also, a well done was given to Dave Burnett for running his first Lakeland race and to all the other Clayton runners who travelled. Celebrations followed with a few beers in the town later. Full results.

Dave Bagot celebrating standing 1st place in the Club Fell Championship

Team Clayton were also present at The Howarth Hobble. Report from Nicholas Olszewski.

This is a great classic race and one of my favourites, it’s 32 miles with about 4500ft of climbing and a great introduction for anyone looking at distant running because of its low-key friendly atmosphere. 4 Clayton runners took part this year, Martin Terry, Ivan Whigham, Andrew Armstrong and myself. The race starts outside the Fleece Inn on the very narrow cobbled main street in Haworth with a very casual, “Have a nice day, go”.

Nicholas Olszewski at the Haworth Hobble. Photo by the Woodentops

The route is fantastic, with some brilliant scenery to take in on the way round. Basically, you’re heading towards Bronte Bridge, Top Withins then over to Widdop. From there Gorple Road then over to Long Causeway, off on the bend to the first very muddy bit at Stiperden House Farm. God,was it muddy! Onto Stoney Lane head then over to Mankinholes for a wee dram if you fancy as they have whisky on the checkpoint as part of the refreshments. The next bit up Stoodley Pike is a killer, after 20 miles of my Stuart Mills race plan (run as fast as you can for as long as you can) my legs where feeling a little tired, but once at the top it’s a nice steady trot down into Hebden Bridge, until you hit those dreaded steps heading up to Heptonstall which just about finished my legs off.

Once I’d reached Heptonstall and turned right at the pub I felt I was on the return. Everything had gone to plan and, apart from my legs feeling fatigued, I felt great. The next part along the packhorse track to Crimson Dene was a little gooey and quite breezy, at the last checkpoint Andy Armstrong caught up with me and we ran the last few miles together, which was great. I was grateful as he had his junior training head on and had us running and walking between road markers to speed us along, thanks for that Andy!

1  Chris Singleton  (Trawden)  04.09.10
12  Martin Terry                       04.50.37
78  Andy Armstrong                05.32.39
81  Nicholas Olszewski          05.33.15
131 Ivan Whigham                  05.57.49
325 finished. Full results.

On Saturday Paul Shackleton ran the Carding Mill Canter fell race at Church, Stretton, achieving 18th place overall and 3rd vet 50. The course is 7.8km with 580m of ascent. Paul added, “ what a beautiful place this is, not with massive climbs but they are steep”. Full results.

And some for the road…

Jonathan Pye and Jacob Watson ran in the Blackpool “Sweatshop” 10 mile road race. This was their first time racing this distance, so weren’t sure what to expect. However they both got the times they wanted “so happy days all round!” Jacob reported that  it was organised and marshalled well and had fairly decent, “not too windy” weather. It was an enjoyable race with a fast crowd out… definitely one for the race calendar next year!  Full results.

Breton Holdsworth reports his 4^th run of this 14.1 mile road race through the valley from Dent at Dentdale on Saturday describing the course as “a sort of figure of eight” and “quite undulating” (around 1000ft of ascent). Results.

He reports, “I was quite surprised when I realised that this was my first road race of the year! After a week of obsessing over checking the weather forecast it turned out to be near on perfect apart from a bitter wind. I knew there were some very quick lads due to race after looking at the start list. I wasn’t wrong, I did well to keep them in view for the first couple of miles then lost site of them. At this point I was in 8th and feeling strong, got to the halfway point and 7th position pulled out. I had 6th in my view and caught him around 11 miles (someone who was actually more colour co-ordinated than me) this spurred me on to put a 5.35 min mile and found I felt strong still. 5th place was then in view with around a mile and a half to go though. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the ground up before running out of race! In the end I finished 6th and a couple of minutes faster than my time 2 years ago when I won the race, overall very happy and it’s still one of my favourite races”.

Steve Biscomb did the 10 mile road race at Bispham on Sunday commenting that it was good to see a good number of Clayton runners there. He predicted his time well (as 70 minutes), completing in 70.33! Well done Steve! He said it was good to see Ted Orell there too, having a fast finish fighting off “another oldie” in the final 200 yards. Just beating him on the line! Steve said, “ Asking him which age group he was in, I was gob smacked when he said V70, wow! I am always amazed at the quality that there is in the older categories”.

A short but sweet report arrives from the Podium Road Race completed on Saturday. Paul Brannon was 1^st Vet 55 in the country, with his Podium run on Saturday. Well done Paul!

Also on Saturday, Mark Taylor competed in The Silverstone Half Marathon. Full results.

To include cycling with our running, some of our members have completed a duathlon this weekend. Vicky Heys claimed the third team ladies team prize, alongside fellow runner Julia Hartley from Accrington Road Runners. The prize includes vouchers for new goggles! Results.

Apologies to anybody who I’ve missed but it’s a challenge keeping up with everything as so much has gone on this weekend. Well done all! Irene Roche.

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