The British and English Championships

2005 was certainly not the most successful year for the men’s team. Our final positions were 8th in the English and 9th in the British. The truth is that we didn’t field, or (in the case of wasdale) finish, a team in half of the championship races this year. This was probably due to a lack of organisation and a driven captain to hassle people on the phone! Hopefully this will get sorted at the AGM. Maybe Simon will be keen to take it on after his successes as captain in recent years.

Next Year

It may well be a good idea next year to pick 4 races from both series to focus on, based around what Nick and Simon are able to do with their Salomon racing commitments around the world (lucky b******s!).

Also, with a prearranged set of races to focus on, there may be more chance of getting the likes of Jon Atkinson and Nick Fish out for the team. With Jon Deegan and Dan Golding both showing what they’re capable of this year and the rapidly improving Matt Reedy there is no reason why top 3 championship finishes aren’t possible.

And that’s not to mention Tom Wild, Chris Waters, Stuart Shuttleworth, Tony Smith, Neil Ashcroft, Ben Ablenoor, Gary Thorpe, Dan Duxbury, Paul Knowles, Aidy Sandman, John Hooson, Chris Speight, Paul Singleton and Brian Clough who are all capable of top 50 positions in Champs races. (Apologies if I missed anyone)

The Relays

If the club needed reminding of what we would have been capable of if we could have got more runners out at Champs races, our A team performances in both of the end of year relays did just that.

The Hodgson

At the Ian Hodgson Relay the club ran its way to an excellent 3rd place behind Borrowdale and Dark Peak, beating a strong Pudsey team in the process.

Outstanding runs by Simon and John A on Leg 1 and Dan G and John D on Leg 3 made the result happen. These 4 were more than ably assisted by Stuart and Tony on Leg 2 and Dan D and ‘rising star’ Matt Reedy on leg 4.

Hopefully this event will continue next year so we can improve on this years result!

The FRA Relays

The club took 3 teams up to Alva, near Stirling, this year and it proved worth the petrol.

The A team got off to a great start with John Deegan coming in 8th on the first and most competitive leg. Dan Golding upped this to 4th after super-fast Leg 2.

Matt Reedy and Tony Smith pulled out all the stops and navigated their way into 3rd place with the run of the day, up against some world class orienteers.

Simon and Nick held off a strong challenge from Mercia runners Tim and Adrian Davies to bring the team home in 3rd place behind Dark Peak and Pudsey.

Dan D