Darren Just Misses Out

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Winter Hill Fell Race Sun 8th Feb

Darren Kay made his intentions clear from the start when taking on the early pace and subsequently leading eventual winner Simon Bailey round the course, Rob Hope was also in close order and tried with Darren to shake off Simon, but as soon as the Mercia man knew the finish route he took off to win by just 17 seconds from Darren in second and Rob Hope third – the first four runners being inside the course record. This was an excellent run by Darren showing he is in fine form for the coming fell season.

Horwich had a good turn out of 22 runners with Dave Milliken – our second finisher – having a great run in 6th place and taking the first vet 0/40, and impressively knocking 15 mins off last years time. Denis Mason ran well and made up the team in 21st place which placed us second to Pudsey. This year we only managed to win one team award the vets category, thanks to Spike, Graham Schofield and Phil Dewhurst, relegating Pudsey vets into second. We did however collect the 0/55 prize with a good run from Ian Charters, and first 0/70 for Ray Stafford, Graham Schofield took 2nd 0/50, ditto with Mike Crook in the 0/60’s, well done chaps.

In the ladies race, Suzanne Budgett was our first counter in 7th place overall and picked up the first 0/45 prize taking 5 minutes off last years time, which considering the cough and cold situation over the last month or so was a super run. Our second counter Geraldine Walkington continued her impressive way on the fells finishing 9th overall and first 0/50 also taking a massive 10 mins off last years time. But our third counter Rachel Metcalfe went one better by running over 24 mins faster than year – and smiled all the way round – which placed us second to a strong Calder valley team.

Sorry if I didn’t catch you all on camera (Thanks Pauline).

I would like to thank all those who helped me with the Winter Hill fell race on Sunday. The conditions were certainly vastly different from last years almost summer conditions and it must have been cold for those of you who had to stand around for any length of time. I would also like to extend my thanks to Bolton Mountain Rescue for providing the usual safety cover, ETA/Walsh for sponsoring the race and Hilly Clothing for supplying the gloves for every runner at a discounted price.

I must also thank Chris Heyes who not only marshalled for me, but who also baked a large quantity of flapjacks for the runners which were very much appreciated.

Thanks, Tony

Results at: http://www.ukresults.net/2009/winthill.html

Photos:

Winter Hill 09