Lancashire County Fell

[Witton Park]

This is just a post for clarification.

On the FRA online Calendar, the 2nd April Pendle race is listed as "Lancashire Championships for over 18 and above".

This is an error (perhaps the FRA website manager can correct it?)

The Lancashire Championships (Juniors and Seniors) will this year be from Sabden on Easter Monday, 28th March and clearly the information is out there for competitors as pre-entries have been coming in steadily.
http://www.lancsaa.co.uk/fell.html

[Tindersticks]

So, how Lancastrian are you?

1. Have you, your parents or grandparents ever worked in a cotton mill or down't pit?
2. Whilst growing up did you keep pigeons, ferrets or terriers....if all three, good on ya!
3. Your town/village had or still does have a Cobblers.
4. Have you had Tripe....if you liked it, seek counselling.
5. Dinner time is around midday...not after 5 oclock, that's tea time.
6. At some point, usually whilst on holiday, your accent has been mistaken for Yorkshire.
7. You know all the words to 'Chippy Tea'.
8. You've experienced the unpleasantness of an outside lav at the bottom of the yard....during winter.
9. Bath night was once a week, usually Sunday night, in already used water.
10.You've seen the Houghton Weavers, Mike Harding and Bernard Wrigley live.
11. Fred Dibnah reminds you of your grandfather.
12. If you're over 40 and live in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire or Furness...do you still consider yourself a Lancastrian.
13. You think Pendle, Bowland and West Pennine Moors are outstanding areas of natural beauty.
14. 'Whistle down the wind' is a fantastic film.....but is Kes better?
15. ITV....will always be channel 3 or Granada.

Now your Lancashire credentials have been checked, what of the race?
The Church Hall at Sabden made for a great registration venue, very welcoming with plenty of cakes and brews.... felt a shame to leave it for the race. A quick warm up had me running passed a row of cottages and the start/finish area is encountered in an open field, blimey that winds a bit fresh.

We're off...81 runners, with clubs of Clayton and Rossendale both being well represented making up almost half the entire field between them. The course is flagged up to the first checkpoint then it's everyone for themselves. It's cold and windy but clear as a bell and route finding isn't a problem.
The slog up Mearley never gets any easier and once at the memorial cairn the trod is found without a problem. Great running down towards the stream and over the Stan Bradshaw route to pick up the main path that runs over Black Hill. Most runners went straight across the path onto the open moor heading towards the wall at the back of Deerstones. I know there's a little trod slightly to the right, which is far better running, so I went for it and couldn't find the bugger causing me to lose a bit of time....sometimes it's better to just follow the masses.

The run back to the finish from Deerstones is flagged and it's a cracker. You can really hammer it down with the odd twist and turn....it's around this time the weather also decided to hammer it down. No hanging around at the finish, a few handshakes and off to get warm back in the Church hall.

Well done to Bowland runner Chris Arthur and Preston's Nichola Jackson on their wins.
Thanks to Richard and his team.... top job with the speedy results from Steve Taylor.

[Lefty]

Definitely enjoyed reading that Darren. Great post.