Greg Hopkinson reports
On Saturday a team of five strong Matlock lads, and one wannabe fell runner captain, headed off t’ Yorkshire for the British Fell Relays.
Starting from Teds farm in Appletreewick, this race involves 4 legs across the finest hills Gods own county has to offer.
Leg 1 was a 5 mile solo leg, with Toby Gill running up that hill for team Matlock. Toby dug in after feeling a bit iffy on this leg and put in a great effort to get round.
Leg 2 was a longer pairs leg with the experienced duo of Harry Holmes and Joe Oldfield putting in a cracking effort to pull us back up the field over the 8 mile leg. As always Harry went off like a train, still thinking the win might be possible despite starting in 89th place. But old timer Joe managed to calm down his enthusiasm with a few choices words to put in a fantastic time, the 8th fastest on the day.
Leg 3 is where the fun really starts with the paired Nav Leg. After climbing the first hill you are given your map and told to find a range of different checkpoints dotted at what felt like at the top and bottom of every hill possible. Max Wainwright had the unfortunate task of dragging me around and we thought we had put in a solid effort right until we got back, where the controversy erupted. An overly enthusiastic marshall directed us to the wrong checkpoint which ultimately resulted in our final result not being officially counted!! Outrage ensued when we returned, with Harry ultimately having to be restrained and finished the day with a night in a Skipton police cell (only joking).
Dan Haworth stormed around Leg 4 completely unaware that his efforts were ultimately in vain. What a shame and as you can imagine, Dan didn’t really care that much and was more interested in finding the free food and cheap pints.
In the end we finished 17th team, but with an unwelcome non-competitive mark against our name. However it was a great day out in the Yorkshire sunshine, and we went home with our heads held high. Bring it on again next year, we’ll show you who’s non-competitive!!
