21 December 2014 – 5 miles / 800 ft
The planets and stars must have been in alignment high up above Brontë Country on the weekend of the 21st, because we had positively hordes of P&B runners converging on the Woodentops Stoop race.
It was especially great to see plenty of Juniors out and since their races were first, we’ll kick off with them.
Juniors
Two of our up-and-coming fell runners, Joshua and Archie. Photo by Woodentops
Coach Pete Watson and co-ordinator Joanne Boocock pose with some young P&Bers and friends. Photo by Woodentops
In the U16 race (2 mile / 300 ft climb), Joshua Swatman showed strong form finishing in a superb 5th place, with Emma Boocock not too far behind in 15th.
In the heavily contested U14 category (1 mile / 150 ft), Archie Armitage had a storming run to finish 12th, followed by Mitchell Boocock, Edward Wilkinson, Erin Hinchliffe, and Natasha Robinson.
Finally in the U8 race (0.5 mile / 100 ft) Annie Wilkinson showed some proper grit by making sure she finished despite taking a tumble.
Well done our junior runners as well as coaches and parents – fantastic to see the young club members racing and always improving.
Seniors
Current British Fell Champion Rob Hope shows off his most smashing blouse & tie combo as 400-odd fell running santas stampede out of the quarry. (Photo by Debi Nicholson)
The senior race saw some strong competition with the likes of Tom Adams, Simon Bailey, Holmesy, and of course a costumed Rob Hope leading the way.
We had a very strong finishing bunch however with Rob coming in 3rd overall (1st V40), Joe Baxter in 8th, Graham Pearce in 12th, Colin Walker in 15th, Neil Armitage in 19th (obviously using his initial ‘Quarry-Dash-for-Glory‘ to good advantage; see pic above), and Charlie Mac in 21st.
Ed Barbour was next to come home, followed by Alex, Scott, and myself. I think we were a bit thrown by seeing so many maroon-and-gold vests on the course that we got confused and had to huddle together for support.
Rachel Pilling had a great run (6th lady) and very nearly caught us, clearly wanting to find somewhere to blend in after making the decision to run in novelty muscle leggings and drawing strange looks for the entirety of the race.
Shane, Claire, Mike, Pete, and Caroline completed what turned out to be a very nice club get-together, with food, drink, and good cheer being shared in abundance in the pub afterwards.
Sorry not everyone made the photo – these were who we could dig out of the mud in time for a quick snap (Photo by Holly).
We were convinced we had the Men’s Team prize in the bag but ended up tied with the Wharfedale lads and losing out on countback! Ah well, on the flipside the Ladies won their Team Prize although later perusal of the results revealed it was down to a slight admin error(!). Anything can and does go on in the chaos of prizegiving at a Woodentops race!
Thanks as always to Dave & Eileen, as well as supporters, photographers, marshals, elves and of course Santa Claus himself – everyone mucked in to make for a very Merry Fellmas.
Rob Hope 3rd (1st V40) 32:44. Joe Baxter 8th 34:16. Graham Pearce 12th 34:55. Colin Walker 15th 35:38. Neil Armitage 19th 36:40. Charlie McIntosh 21st 36:57. Edward Barber 67th 40:08. Alex Jones 85th 41:20. Scott Alder 90th 41:33. Graham Pilling 91st 41:35. Rachel Pilling 95th (6th lady) 41:52. Shane Green 101st 42:05. Claire Green 116th 42:56. Michael Rees 195th 47:10. Pete Hill 205th 47:50. Caroline Harding 269th 51:51.
U16 – Joshua Swatman 5th 14:00. Emma Boocock 15th 17:06.
U14 – Archie Armitage 12th 7:45. Mitchell Boocock 39th 8:35. Edward Wilkinson 60th 9:35. Erin Hinchliffe 77th 10:51. Natasha Robinson 79th 10:55.
U8 – Annie Wilkinson 32nd 5:09.