Letter to the FRA Chairman

[Wheeze]

Dom, at the last WFRA AGM, the general feeling was that WFRA would not be interested in reuniting with an (E)FRA that remained affiliated to UKA. The whole reason for WFRA re-forming was to provide a sport in Wales free from UKA influence.
That being said, let us now see how things run. If the promised new, improved relationship with UKA bears fruit, roses bloom and happiness and joy spreads all around, opinions may alter.

XRunner puts his finger on an important point...registration and all that goes with it.

[XRunner]

Which sport? Trail running, mountain running and fell running are not the same thing.

Yes they are.

All involve running by athletes over the countryside.

[Wheeze]

Just as billiards and snooker involve knocking balls around on a table with a stick.
Different sports mate!

And don't call me an athlete! I reject that label!!

[XRunner]

Different sports mate!

Same sport, different name.

I have run some superb trail races in America that would make many of the UK fell races look like cross country.

As far as most people are concerned hills, fells and mountains are just another name for the same terrain.

[Toffer]

Then why did the FRA allow AAW (now WA) and SAL to take over in wales and scotland?

It wasn't really like that.
Part 1
Deep in the mists of fellrunning history FRA was the defacto governing body of the sport in the UK. Well 'ish, in that they governed by consensual assent, certainly with regard to Wales. The then "WFRA" was formalised as a sub-committee of the FRA and we ran the sport in Wales but under the FRA banner, rules of competition and their insurance. Not so sure about how NI fitted in here, but Scotland were always more "seperate".
Then BAF was created and the world changed. At that time Selwyn was FRA chairman and he along with Norman Mathews, Danny Hughes, myself and various reps from NI and Scotland sat on BAF fell and hill running comissions and one of the most vigorously debated subjects was exactly that relationship between BAF, FRA,WFRA, NIFRA, SHRA and how this was to work in this new world, where the powers that be in BAF wanted regionalisation to work and form a pyramid structure to each athletic discipline, fellrunning included.
Actually the sub text to this was that this was a way of moving away from the central funding of athletics, where the route the funding followed was always from AAA outwards. The crux of this was that now regions were now fiscally responsible for themselves, the route the money would now take would be from the periphery in. In otherwards the regions had to generate money themselves in order to function, hence the very first ill conceived attempts at registration fees.
With this background and the harsh reality that no central funding would be available from BAF direct for Wales to compete in international events the FRA, via BAFFHRC encouraged liason with AAW. At the same time AAW were making overtures and inducements to come into their fold and independantly run our sport under their umbrella. Now, did WFRA secede from FRA? Was the subcommittee ever dissolved? Did the FRA dissolve it? Did the FRA constitution at this time reflect that it actually governed the sport in Wales(and NI and Scotland)? Was it ever changed? I don't know the answers to these questions but I do have a feeling that it was changed around this time.
So, given that the governing structure that we had been using until the arrival of BAF had been swept aside by that very arrival and that was now no place for Wales(or NI or Scotland) in the FRA within this regionally viewed(from BAF's perspective) system there was no choice but to strike a deal with AAW(for better or worse). The WFRA sc was no more and the sport drifted without governance for a while, cos AAW didn't know what to do, in fact we were rather like an embarrassing cousin who came and demanded money twice a year to go to the World cup and the like. The rest of the time they weren't interested. In fact this was a two way street, cos though we wanted their money we wern't very interested in them, they knew nothing of our sport and really did not want to know anything about our sport. And in truth we still regarded the FRA as our spiritual home. And then the insurance thing came along, and the world changed again...........
Part 2 to follow......

[Fellhound]

Same sport, different name

I have run some superb trail races in America that would make many of the UK fell races look like cross country.

As far as most people are concerned hills, fells and mountains are just another name for the same terrain.

I think you destroyed your own argument with your middle paragraph there... some trail races that make fell races look like cross country??? So, not the same sport then...

Without rigid definitions the edges are blurred but I have a pretty good idea in my own mind what constitutes a fell race and it's nothing like running round a local park on a Saturday afternoon, which is what most people mean by cross-country!

It's true there's a certain amount of interchangeability between the terms fell, hill and mountain (depending where you come from) but 'trail' is not interchangeable with any of those...

[XRunner]

'trail' is not interchangeable with any of those...

Trail can mean any off-road event in most places in the world.

The majority of fell races in the UK could be classed as trail races.

If one wants to apply a strict definition to a fell race then it should be limited to hills that are called fells within parts of England and Scotland.

However I do like the quirkiness of the English language that allows us to define many off-road races as fell races.

I think that is is unfortunate that the FRA failed to extend its control into all UK off-road races that were not classified as cross country.

[Baggins]

Which sport? Trail running, mountain running and fell running are not the same thing.

Oh no there not

Mountain running

Courses must be adequately marked and marshalled throughout such that complete strangers to the course can follow without difficulty

Trail running

Medium length races, say between 10 and 20 miles, should have waymarks or marshals at all difficult points

A fell runner should be able to get round a race with out markings and whatever the weather

Bill

[david]

Same sport, different name.

That statement demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of fell running.

[Baggins]

If one wants to apply a strict definition to a fell race then it should be limited to hills that are called fells within parts of England and Scotland.
.

I think you have got to apply the definition more to the competitor, for a proper "fell race" you must assume anyone entering has got to be able to look after themselves where as with trail and mountain races you've got to look after them

Bill