Lee and Gavin before their run for the Vets Team

Whilst the 3 minute and 47 second winning margin may seem small over second-placed Todmorden Harriers Veterans, at the start of Leg 4, the CVFR Men’s Vets were a full 18 minutes down on Todmorden, who were leading comfortably at that point. The red and white striped vets managed to claw back an impressive ten minutes over legs 4 and 5, plus an amazing 11 minutes more on Leg 6 alone, as veteran ultra-runner Kevin Hoult kept partner Paul Haigh paced to perfection, despite the unexpected heat. Both CVFR and Todmorden Harriers easily outpaced all other veteran teams with Rossendale Men’s Vets in third place.

Fresh faced Kev with Paul who’s done in after giving it his all for the team

Here’s what Paul had to say ‘With a depleted team (as members were either doing other races or pulled into the Calder Valley Men’s open team); injuries (2 of our original 12 pulled out the week before the race) and myself and Kev pictured having ran Ultras within a week of the race (a day before in Kev’s case) we were not expected to win. At one stage we were 18 minutes down, but Dougie and Jonny on Leg 4 and Matt and Bill on Leg 5 managed to reduce the deficit to 8 minutes at the start of Leg 6. After running 90 miles the weekend before I knew it was going to be tough. But Kev paced us to perfection so we raced hard but still had something left in the tank at the end. I quietly cursed when I saw the Todmorden team at the top of the hill in Southowram with 2.5 miles to go and turned to Kev and said ‘I can’t race this last bit’. But when they didn’t chase after us autopilot kicked in and Kev and I kicked up a gear to lose them. As it started to hurt all I could think over and over in my head was “2 minutes, 2 minutes, 2 minutes” (the margin I lost the 90 miles Dales High Way the week before). The Hebble Trail at the end seemed to go on forever. A first and historic win for the men’s vets team’.

Do you think they were pleased with the Vets Win – Ecstatic Kev and Paul. Photo courtesy of Nick Small

Lucky Team No 13 was the women’s veteran runners  – Christina Turner and Sarah Noots (Leg 1), Stella Chrisanthou and Trudi Entwistle (Leg 2), Emily Ledder and Rachel Johnston (Leg 3), Susie Richardson and Natasha Butterfield (Leg 4), Catherine Holden and Rachael Beaumont (Leg 5) with Helen Buchan and Gayle Sugden on the final Leg 6 – also ran amazingly well. The female veterans finished the relay in a combined time of just over 8 hours and 15 minutes. This saw them not only record a time that was nearly two hours faster than the second placed female veteran’s team, but also one that had them place second amongst all female teams – only beaten by the winning open ladies team Barlick Ladies A.

Stella and Trudi after their storming run

In the mixed team category, to qualify at least half of the 12 runners must be female, the red and white hooped mixed A team – comprising George Kettlewell and Jake Smallbones (Leg 1), Cass Chisholm and Sonia Pascal (Leg 2), Rebecca Alathoor and Sophie Baggot (Leg 3), Aaron Roberts and Chris Norman (Leg 4), April Caulfield and Ambi Swindells (Leg 5) with Chris Hall and Cam Rushworth on the final Leg 6 – finished in an impressive second place, with a combined time dipping in just under seven hours and 55 minutes. The Mixed A Team were only beaten by a very strong set of runners from Chorlton.

Andy and Will crossing the finish line for the mixed B team

CVFR’s Mixed B Team – Andy Davies and Alex Deltenre (Leg 1), Carolyn Shimwell and Liz Lloyd (Leg 2), Gill Dickson and Glorida Ayuso (Leg 3), Martin Davies and Iain Powell (Leg 4), Catherine Jones and Lindsay McMillan (Leg 5), with Andy Greenwood and Will Stewart (Leg 6) – crossed the line with a combined time of less than 9 hours and ten minutes. They took 9^th place in the mixed category.

CVFR’s Mixed C Team – Ben Mason and Charlotte Wetton (Leg 1), Kate Lycett and Nicki Latham (Leg 2), Jocasta Fletcher and Bob Howard (Leg 3), Di Wright and Tamsin Cooke (Leg 4), James Cooke and Toby Sydes (Leg 5) with Oli Beaumont and Dominic Camponi on Leg 6 – came in in 18^th overall, finishing the full route in just shy of 9 hours and 43 minutes.

Big thanks go as always to Halifax Harriers and especially Nick Small for organizing & running this mammoth event.

Stuarts’ Paddy

Away from our local fells, a special mention must go to Stuart Russell, who on Saturday 14^th May completed the famous Paddy Buckley Round in Wales. Runners can start anywhere on the course & proceed either clockwise or anticlockwise. Russell set off on this punishing 100-km route with its lung busting 47 peaks at 10am from Capel Curig and finished this huge test of mental fitness, stamina & endurance in 26 hours and 57 minutes. Whilst the aim is to finish in under 24h, just getting round the course at all is a major achievement. Russell, who describes the experience as ‘an amazing day out with mates’, reports how the first leg went well and to schedule, but by the second, he had started feeling quite sick and experiencing bad cramps. This unfortunately caused him to drop quite a bit of time off his target. He was amazingly grateful to his support team, who kept him going, not least Charlie Parkinson, Helen Buchan and Fiona Lynch who kept him company on three legs of the whole course!

Stuart on his PB on a beautiful day

Mid-week Prizes

In the mid-week races, on Tuesday, 10^th May at Mearley Clough fell race (sponsored by Moorhouse Brewery), it was a fourth time win for Calder Valley’s Darren Kay. Veteran runner Kay finished the 3.5 mile course with its 1247ft of climbing with a strong time of 31 minutes and 24 seconds – only 72 seconds shy of the overall course record, set in 2015!

It goes without saying, given his first place outright, that as well as winning the overall race, Kay also took the V50’s title. He is also no stranger to success in Mearley Clough, having won the race on three previous occasions (2006, 2007 and 2013), which coupled with this 2022 win, means Kay has now won the race more times than anybody else.

Darren receiving the trophy and his goodies as race winner

Also on Tuesday, 10^th May, following a two-year absence due to COVID, the 35^th edition of the Jack Bloor fell race took place in the brilliant sunshine on Ilkley Moor. This classic 5.2-mile navigational fell race was established in 1985 to commemorate the life of the acclaimed Yorkshire sportsman whose name it carries. In this year’s race, CVFR’s Adam Osborne ran well to finish 5^th overall, and first in the V40’s race.

Adam Osborne with his V40 winner’s trophy at Jack Bloor fell race – with Bloor’s daughter Hilary – photo courtesy of Dave Woodhead

CVFR Juniors doing us proud

This Sunday, 15^th May also saw a couple of our U17s & U19 CVFR juniors have the honour of racing not only for club, but also for their counties of birth at the inter counties event at Great Whernside on the outskirts of Kettlewell. As well as an inter-counties event, this was also the third counter for the junior English championships competition, meaning there was a decent turnout and a high standard of racing.

The U19s Inter Counties team winners Yorkshire – photo courtesy of Dave Woodhead

CVFR junior runner William Hall ran a cracking race in the British U19 Inter Counties Fell and Hill Championship race, securing a top three finish and so also win a third-place medal for Yorkshire. This helped Yorkshire to win the Team Gold.  

Will Hall (Yorkshire), Charlie Pickens (Greater Manchester) and Euan Logue CVFR proudly wearing their vest

In the U17, Charlie Pickens, competing for Greater Manchester, ran very well to come 6th – only just over a minute and a half behind the first placed runner. Pickens recalls how ‘proud’ he was to wear his new orange & black vest for the first time and represent not only CVFR but also Greater Manchester. On the race, he describes a ‘fast start up a long steep hill’, and how following on from this, ‘despite less gradient, the strong headwind made it hard to pick up any speed’, meaning he had to just ‘keep on pushing through the pain’. After a short respite of flat, it was into the second, ‘steep & rocky ascent up to a ledge’. Here, ‘with many paths to choose from’, he was able to gain places by choosing ‘a steeper but more direct route’ up to the top, where ‘there was a 200m sprint to the turnaround’, after which it was a case of ‘haring it back down the way you came’, i.e., down a ‘challenging & rocky descent’, ‘with loose footholds and scree preventing any proper speed’. The race finished with a sprint, with a following wind and ‘the freedom to choose paths’, which allowed him to choose a ‘very direct route to the finishing funnel’. Pickens was quick to praise the organisers & comment how much he appreciated seeing so many competitors, especially running for their respective counties. In the U17 boy’s race, there were also top 20 finishes for Calder Valley’s Leo Illstone & Euan Logue (16^th and 20^th respectively). 

In the U13 race Clara McKee won another outstanding race to win outright (beating all the boys) by over half a minute and finishing more than one and a half minutes ahead of the second-placed female runner. Also in the U13, Archie Cole & Harry Cliff finished 12^th & 14^th boy respectively.

In the U15, Thomas McKee ran well to get a top ten finish (8^th), with Wynn Standish finishing 42^nd boy. Finally, in the U11 race, Georgie Illstone was the only CVFR runner & did well to take 16^th place in the girl’s race.

CALDER VALLEY NEWS REPORTER: catherine jones