Category Archive Seniors

ByPeter Booth

Summer Series Race 2

The second race in the club summer series is Worsthorne Trail Race, tomorrow, 25th June from Worsthorne Village Square. The race is 5 miles with about 1000′ ascent and is the usual summer series format: first past the post and guess your time (no watches allowed). Start is at 7.00pm with post race re-hydration in the Crooked Billet.

ByPeter Booth

Weekend 15th/16th June

Buckden Pike FR Saturday 15th June

27 Clayton Harriers  – 6 ladies; 21 men – made the short trip to the English Fell Championship counter at Buckden Park on Saturday. Jean Brown was our first lady home in 27th place (11th LV40), followed by Wendy Dodds (49th;1st LV60) and Alison Dugdale (56th). Linda Lord also won the LV65 category, while Katy Thompson and Nichola Horsfall completed the sextet. Jean, Wendy and Alison were 5th LV40 team.

Star male performer was again Mike Wallis who finished 64th in a high quality field, pipped for 1st place in the MV55 category by Dave Neild. Captain Dave Motley ran well to claim 84th place, with Chris Balderson our third counter in 105th. Kieran Carr’s go-faster haircut helped him to third place in the MV65 category. The MV50 team: Mike, Dave Naughton and Pete Booth were 4th. After the race, 15 men enjoyed a few beers and a meal in the Buck Inn before taking a leisurely route home via Skipton, which included rather more pub stops than was good for us! A good night was had by all. Thanks to Gary Balmer for organising the trip.

Ladies Results

Men’s Results

Hendon Brook Half Marathon Sunday 16th June

There was strong Clayton presence at the Hendon Brook, organised superbly by John Roche and team: 33 runners, plus marshals, helpers and spectators. An amazing solo run By Tom Cornthwaite (Salford) saw him complete the challenging course in 1:15:29 breaking Roger Brewster’s long-standing record. Matt Lalor was again our best place runner in third (1:25:09). There were category wins for John Hartley (M55), Irene Roche (F55), Mevyn Thistlethwaite (F60), Vicky Heys (F40) and Yvonne Wickham (F50). Special mention must be made of the 4 runners who survived the rigours of Buckden Pike and its aftermath to take part: Dave Motley, Richard Briscoe Dave Naughton, Gary Balmer. Chapeau.

Full results.

ByPeter Booth

Paddy’s Pole Fell Race Tues 4th June

On a beautiful summer evening 25 Clayton members made the short trip over to Chipping for the fourth counter in the 2013 club fell championship. What a pleasure it was to register outdoors and mingle with friends and rivals without having to run about to keep warm.

The traditional route starts with the lung-bursting steep tarmac before depositing runners on the even steeper open fell – but at least here you can walk! At this point the field fanned out across the fell with some Clayton members choosing to follow the wrong leaders! After the steep climb, there is a steady, runnable climb to Fiendsdale Head and Paddy’s Pole, which is reversed on the other side of the wall, before the climb up Parlick (a problem if you’ve run too hard early on) and the superb, grassy descent to the finish.

First across the line was Danny Hope who stopped the clock at 28:40. Mike Wallis was first Clayton home (7th place, 2nd M50 in 30:27), closely followed by Dave Nuttall (30:53). Remaining Clayton placings:

13 Matt Perry 31:37

20 Dave Motley 32:41

22 Paul Hesketh 33:02

27 Chris Balderson 33:23

31 Ivan Whigham 34:02

32 Pete Booth 34:04 (1st M60)

33 Richard Briscoe 34:06

41 Nigel Weaver 35:47

43 Neil Worswick 35:59

45 Mark Nutter 36:14

47 Mark Taylor 36:19

49 Dave Naylor 36:41

54 Gary Balmer 36:53

55 Jean Brown 37:00 (4th F; 3rd F40)

59 Dug McCallum 37:16 (2nd M60)

61 Andrew Dugdale 37:50

64 Jeff Pickup 38:26

67 Richard Bellaries 39:23

69 Robin Nicholson 40:22

71 Andrew Howarth 40:40

73 Peter Dugdale 40:58

77 Linda Lord 41:18 (1st F60)

84 Jean Rawlinson 45:03 (2nd F60)

Following the race there were drinks and a lively presentation in the Sun Inn, which included free spicy potato hash. Congratulations to the 2 Jeans and Linda – Ladies’ Team winners. Full results here. Cap’n Motley will update the club championship standings asap.

ByPeter Booth

Weekend Round Up 1st/2nd June

Members of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers were in action across many disciplines and in a range of events over the weekend.

New recruit, Anthony Gotts, a wheelchair athlete, took part in a number of events from 100m -5000m over two days at the England Athletics Open UK/IPC Meeting at Bedford Stadium. On Saturday, Anthony enjoyed a clear victory in his 800m race, just 0.1sec outside his personal best and finished fourth in the 5000m in a time of 13:11. On Sunday, Anthony set PBs in the 200m, 400m and, most notably in the 1500m when he improved by a massive 26 seconds.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Club President Dave Scott set a PB at the Burnley Parkrun on Saturday morning, before winning his age group at the Kelbrook Fell Race in the afternoon – at the tender age of 70! Other notable Clayton men’s performances at Kelbrook came from Dave Walker (7th), Matt Perry (12th), Tom Brewster (15th ), Dave Motley (17th), and Paul Hesketh (19th/2nd M45), while John Wilcock was first M50 and Steve Breckell first M60 in his first race for some time. Not to be outdone, the ladies also shone:  Vicky Heys (1st F40), Irene Roche (1st F55), Yvonne Wickham (1st F50) and Karin Goss (1st F60).

Over at the Wharfedale Off Road Marathon, Martin Terry finished in 15th place to take the M50 prize and there were good performances from Ivan Whigham (33rd), Bev and Peter Thompson (80th & 81st), while in the Half Marathon Jeff Pickup took first prize in the M60 category, with Dawn Richards and Lorna Balmer finishing in the top half of the field.

Also on Saturday, seven men made the journey north to compete in the first Lakeland Classic Long Race of the year: Duddon Valley Fell Race. First Clayton home, in 26th place (2nd M50) was Mike Wallis, followed by Dave Naughton (35th) and Andy Orr (38th). Chasing Andy hard all the way were Andy Robinson (39th) – first in the over 60 category – and Pete Booth (42nd;2nd M60). Richard Bellaries completed the set in 77th place while Alex Braysford was unfortunately forced to retire.

7 members were at the Pen-y-Ghent FR on Saturday and a contingent of ladies made the long journey to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish borders to contest the British Championship FR.

On Sunday morning about 1600 runners lined up in Burnley town centre to take part in the Jane Tomlinson Pennine 10K Road Race. In-form Matt Lalor had another superb run to take second place, while Laura Hesketh was first female to cross the line, in 39th place overall. Despite his exertions at Kelbrook on Saturday Tom Brewster was 5th, followed by John Roche (17th; 1st M45), Alex Cran 18th, Richard Briscoe (20th) and Andrew Foster (30th).  Many other Harriers took part in the event, helping to raise money for the Pendleside Hospice and other deserving charities.

ByPeter Booth

June Newsletter

The June ‘Harrier’ is now out with news from 3 continents: Africa – Marathon des Sables with Phil Hanson, North America – Peter & Sandi Browning’s progress up the east coast of the USA and Europe – Ali Dugdale & friends’ cycling adventures on Mallorca. Plus all the usual features, results and fixtures. June Newsletter 2013

ByPeter Booth

Summer Series 2013

The first race in this year’s summer series is The Ogden round at 7.00pm on Tuesday 21st May from Barley – registration on the car park.

Here is a map of the course: Ogden Round Summer Series

ByPeter Booth

Weekend 13/14th April

Clayton-le-Moors Harriers scored a wonderful 1-2 at Saturday’s wet and windy Langdale Daffodil 10K road race. Barnoldswick’s Tom Brewster battled his way along flooded roads to record his first ever race win in 35:39, crossing the line just 22 seconds before club mate, Breton Holdsworth, recent winner of the Dentdale 14, in second place on this occasion. Tom’s win is the culmination of over two years of hard training that has seen him improve continuously and has included recent winning performances at the Burnley Parkrun. The icing on the cake was an 11th place finish (1st M55) for Tom’s dad, Roger – himself a winner of many races in the past – which gave Clayton Harriers the team award.

Meanwhile, three female members made the long journey to Northern Ireland to contest the first British Fell Race Championship counter, based at Silent Valley in the Mourne Mountains. After 10 miles and 4500’ of ascent over very rough terrain and in very testing conditions, our first counter was Jean Brown in 84th position (14th female) in 2:17:12, ably supported by Wendy Dodds (139th; 1st F60) and Katy Thompson (157th). Their combined performance was good enough to give them 3rd position in the female vets’ teams.

Finally, much further afield, Phil Hanson completed the gruelling Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert. Phil finished the 160 mile event in under 37 hours, which gave him 319th place out of 970 finishers (over 1000 started).

ByPeter Booth

Racing 16th/17th March 2013

On Saturday, fifteen members of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers made the short trip to take part in the Heptonstall Fell Race, a ‘B’ long race of 15½ miles (25K) with 3000 feet of climb around the moors and trails of Hardcastle Crags. First Clayton home, in fourth place was Matt Lalor, in a time of 2:05:08, just 7 minutes behind the winner, Adam Osborne of Leeds City. Also in the prizes was Anna Kelly, who was third female to finish, first LV50 in a new record time for her age category, in 100th place overall out of 225 finishers.

Earlier in the day, Tom Brewster had finished in first place and set a new PB – 18.01 – at the Burnley Parkrun, a 5K run held each Saturday morning in Towneley Park. Not to be outdone, Clayton juniors Chris Archer and Eleanor Root also set personal bests, as did Tony Scott, Christine Leathley and Yvonne Wickham, who are not juniors any more!

Meanwhile, in the southern Lake District, winner of last week’s Dentdale Run Breton Holdsworth maintained his good form by gaining a very creditable 7th place at the Cartmel Trail Race, a very wet and muddy course along the tracks and trails to the north of Morecambe Bay.

Last, but by no means least, Steve Biscomb completed the Ultrafit St Annes 10 mile road race in 1:10:00, a time which gave him  72nd place, 9th in his age group. Yvonne Wickham completed her second run of the weekend in 181st place (5th F45) in a field of 255 competitors.

ByPeter Booth

What a Weekend for Clayton

Last Saturday, 9th March was a red letter day for Clayton-le-Moors Harriers.  Breton Holdsworth claimed a brilliant first place at the super tough Dentdale Run, a 14 mile road race. Enjoying his first-ever race win Bret clocked 1:24:42 and had a 40 second margin over second place, with over 300 others trailing in his wake.

Bret winning Dentdale 032013

At the same, in Barley, Barrie Walmsley and Keith Thompson supported by a legion of Clayton members, were staging the 3rd Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round which saw around 200 runners, including over 30 in orange black and white, take on the 9.5 mile course which incorporates 2000 feet of ascent. Former English and British fell running champion, Rob Hope broke the course record, defeating top fell runners Lloyd Taggart, Carl Bell and Ian Holmes in the process. Clayton’s top runner was Dave Edmondson in 18th place, closely followed by new dad, Dave Motley, our fell captain.  Next came Mike Wallis and Phil Hall  first and 2nd Vet 50s respectively. Jean Brown was third lady home and Linda Lord won the LV60 category. In the men’s V60 race, Jack Holt and Pete Booth held a re-run of last year’s encounter with Pete reversing the 2012 result by crossing the line 3 seconds in front of Jack to win the category.

Meanwhile, just over the (Yorkshire) border, Dave Naughton was winning the MV50 category in the Wuthering Hike (aka Haworth Hobble). Dave finished in 11th place, clocking 4:50:08 for the 31 mile course. Just 7 minutes and 6 places behind was Martin Terry, second MV50. Not to be outdone by her male counterparts, Wendy Dodds won the ladies V60 category in just over 6 hours.

Clayton ‘Brummie’, Paul Shackleton performed well at the Cardington Mill Canter while, closer to home on Sunday, there were plenty of Clayton representatives at the Roddlesworth Roller (seniors) and Daffodil Doddle (juniors) races run from Abbey Village.

ByAndy

Mid-Lancs Cross Country, 12th January

Another fine, if slightly cold day for a Mid Lancs XC. We certainly have been very lucky this season that all the fixtures have defied the rain. It was a very muddy course that greeted the runners at Hyndburn but that did not slow down those who ran. A good turnout by the juniors and some very good individual performances set the benchmark for the seniors. Laura Hesketh ran really well and just missed the top ten in the ladies and Brett Holdsworth also put in a good performance to lead the men home. A big thank you to those who ran and hope to see you all and who knows a few more at the next one at Lancaster University 9th February so put it in your diaries. Set aside personnel targets for a day and come and support the club. You never know you might enjoy it.