The Todmorden Harriers Fell Championships took a rare trip to Wales last Sunday for the Clwydian Hills Fell Race, the penultimate race of the Championships. The race was a tough Category A Medium race of 9 miles and 3000 feet of climbs. This culminated in a hands and knees scramble up an impossibly steep gully to the top of Moel Famou, the highest hill of the Clwydian range at 1821 feet. At this late stage of the season there were 3 of the Men left with a chance of this year’s Fell title and they all turned out. The sun even came out just before the start so conditions were ideal, if a little muddy in parts. Before the race Craig Stansfield led the way 6 points ahead of Ben Crowther. Ivan Gee was waiting in the wings as he had only done 5 of the 6 races which can count and so could catch up with a good result. The 3 set off fast from the start with Craig and Ivan, slightly ahead of Ben. Ben struggled on the runnable climbs in the middle of the race and the 2 others stretched their lead. At the top of Moel Famou Craig wasn’t far ahead, but flew down the 2 miles to the finish for 7th place and second Vet 40 in 81 minutes 18 seconds. Ivan was just under a minute behind with Ben a further 2 minutes back. Darren Tweed continued the form which has made him Trail Champion this year, with a time of 86.56 for 26th place, this qualifies Darren for the Grand Prix. Dan Taylor was next Harrier to finish followed by 5 within2 minutes, led by Andrew Bibby.
In the ladies fell champs Lucy Burnett looks to have it sewn up and didn’t take the trip to wales. Kath Brierley had a great run for 1st Vet 50 and 76th place and Mandy Goth finished in just under 2 hours.
So with the results in Craig scored 1.1 points more than Ivan (93.3/92.2) and now leads the Championship by 0.7 points from Ivan. Ben is now a further 6.2 points behind and barring a miracle now out of contention. To add a further twist to this Ivan has a lower worst score to discard. So if he can score over 86.4 points and his score is within 2 points of Craig at the Harrier V Cyclists race on Saturday 15th he will take the championships.
Tod Results
7 Craig Stansfield 81.18
13 Ivan Gee 82.13
21 Ben Crowther 84.45
26 Darren Tweed 86.56
43 Dan Taylor 92.32
56 Andrew Bibby 96.20
59 Phil Hodgson 96.40
62 Simon Galloway 97.12
66 Guy Whitmore 97.39
67 James Riley 98.19
76 Kath Brierley 101.23
121 Mandy Goth 119.15
