Ilkley Harriers compete over the country and fells

In the Ladies race Ilkley Harriers had: 22, Alison Bennett 22:06; 26, Cath Wolfenden 22:33; 44, Di Kitchen 24:35. And for the men: 92, Jamie Hutchinson 39:10; 109, Terry Lonergan 40:03; 132, Neil Chapman 41:23; 171, Andy Kitchen 46:03.

The same day was the the Langdale Horseshoe fell race, 14 miles with 4000ft' of climb in difficult conditions. This was the final counter in the English Fell Championships, and there was a great turnout of Ilkley Harriers, with the ladies performing strongly to hold their third team position in the Championship.

Ilkley had 58, Nick Pearce 2h39:16; 64, Dave Cheesewright 2h42:58; 87, Eddie Winslow 2h47:44; 88, Geoff Howard 2h47:56; 95, Alison Eagle 2h51:26 (6th lady, and 2nd lady Vet); 107, Mike Baldwin 2h54:22; 109, Jon Sage 2h55:00; 146, Morgan Williams 3h04:55; 165, Mark Iley 3h11:13; 176, Jo Foster 3h15:58 (12th lady); 178, Jane Leather 3h16:08 (14th lady); 185, Peter Sibley 3h16:59; 230, Phil Chappell 3h25:41; 296, Joyce Marshall 3h39:05 (40th lady); 320, Clare Cheesewright 3h53:22 (44th lady); 321, Rachael Gooch 3h53:27 (45th lady); 329, Dave Ibbotson 4h04:01.

On Sunday the Harewood 10 Trail race also some good Harriers results with 6th Tim Ashelford 62:02; 20, Neil Chapman 66:05; 50, Ewan Welsh 69:31; 224, Vincent Gibbons 81:28; 248, Linda Wright 83:33; and 433, Amanda Parnaby 107:43.

In the Harewood Hop over two miles the junior Ilkley Harriers enjoyed good results: Simon Chapman was 5th in his age group; Mary Gibbons 6th; Bradley Chapman 9th; and Annabel Smith 6th.

The Booths Ilkley Harriers Runner-of-the-Month for September is Roy Ruddle, for his long distance running achievements and in particular the first East-West traverse of the Brecon Beacons - 80 miles, 19000ft of climb and 31 2000ft peaks in 22h34m.

Ilkley Harriers is a friendly club, training from the Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash club every Tuesday at 7pm. For more info, see www.ilkleyharriers.co.uk

Skyrac Fellrunners

The Langdale Horseshoe last Saturday (14 miles, 4000 feet) attracted the cream of fellrunning as the final counter in both the English Championship and the Lakeland Classics series, the latter co-sponsored by Skyrac's Graham Breeze.

The weather was poor and when the clouds come down, as night follows day, runners get lost and the familiar sight of runners 'bunching' for security was apparent through the mist.

The organiser took nearly 500 entries and refused a further 100 applications relying on no-shows to bring the number of runners to below the 400 limit and 380 actually started.

Bingley superstars Ian Holmes and Rob Jebb were second (2.04.46) and third (2.04.51) behind a sensational victory by Gavin Bland (2.04.24).

A few years ago Gavin was the outstanding fellrunner of his generation but his interest waned and he disappeared from the front rank. He appears to be back!

Holmes won the English Championship and Jebb won the Lakeland Classics.

For those for whom 14 miles is too far the West Yorkshire Cross-Country season got underway at Roils Head, Halifax.

Skyrac's Joel Riley (still under 20) was sixth and other seniors finished 59th Jon Keith, 99th Jonathan Lester, 127th Bob Pritchard, 147th Alan Bye, 149th Malcolm Coles and 163rd Ryan Owen giving 15th place to the team.

Lady finishers were 28th Lisa Dent and 39th Holly Grinstead.

In the junior races results were: U-13 girls Laura Griggs 28th; U-13 boys Aarron Dawskin 18th; U-15 boys Thomas Griggs 36th; U-15 girls Chloe Glover 28th; and U-17 boys Iain Clarke 13th.

Skyrac can be contacted via www.skyrac.org.uk or 0113 229

Orienteering

Airienteers from Leeds and Bradford travelled to the North Yorkshire Moors to take part in a two-day orienteering competition run by the Cleveland Club.

On Saturday, this long-standing event (the October Odyssey) provided a technical but fast course in Guisborough Forest and around the steep-sided flanks of Roseberry Topping.

The Sunday course was at Scarth Wood Moor on the western edge of the National Park, near Osmotherley and this also incorporated the North-East Championships for 2003.

Three local runners excelled by winning their respective competitions which were made up of the combined times over the two days.

George Stevens, of Ilkley, won the under-14 boys competition by fully 11 minutes, whilst Neil Conway (M35) was first in a time of 1hr 50m 10secs, six minutes in front of second place. Alistair Wood bounced back from a long-term injury to run off with the M50 race in 1hr 55min 16secs, eight minutes ahead of the opposition. These were all high class performances showing the ability to navigate at speed, worthy of winners of the North-East Championships.

Other Airienteers featuring prominently in the overall results included:

M45 Howard Sawyer - 10th; M50 Frank Kew - 3rd; Michael Cox 6th; Gerry Van Hee - 8th; M55 Chris Burden - 15th; M65 Tom Crowther - 3rd; W21 Kathy Van Hee - 7th; W50 Susan Stevens - 4th; W55 Patricia Villiers - 9th.

The annual meeting of Airienteers will be held at 4pm on Saturday, October 12, at the Royalty Public House on Otley Chevin. Details of upcoming events for orienteering can be found on the club's website at www.aire.org.uk.

Excellent season

ILKLEY Grammar School pupil James Heaton, aged 13, has just completed an excellent season of athletics, competing for his school, Bradford Schools and Bingley Harriers Athletic Club.

Notable highlights of his season were his successes at the Yorkshire Championships held at the Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield, where he became Yorkshire Champion at the high jump for under-15 boys, as well as reaching the finals of the long jump, javelin and 100 metres.

Towards the end of the season James competed in the North of England Combined Events Championships at Hexham.

This was James's first Pentathlon and he was the youngest competitor in this event.

Despite this, he went on to achieve a personal best in the shot and improved on his personal best in the high jump, achieving 1.55 metres.

After a short break James will commence his winter training for the forthcoming indoor season.