best fell runner ever ?

[wheezing donkey]

In the male category, as a true "allrounder" it's got to be Billy Bland; from setting his 13 hours 54 minutes record for the BG ( It's now 26 years old ) to turning out and winning the Fleetwith Pike Race (AS), outright, as a V40. And in between he had multiple wins in all of what are now termed 'The Lakes Classics' and plenty of AS & AM wins.
Joss has a better record in the real ultra stuff and some AL wins, but not much in AS's & AM's
Kenny had a great record in races, but never tackled any true ultra stuff.
JUST GOT TO BE KING BILLY!!
PLUS he could navigate, plenty of Trial & 'O' event wins. Kenny would never have set his Ennerdale record if Billy had not shown him the way round - Kenny's own words at the time!

[Wheeze]

Colin Donnelly was (is) awesome...and was at the top for longer than Stuart.

But I would not argue with King Billy!

[ydt]

Billy Bland and Angela Mudge: not necessarily in that order.

Wyatt will not and therefore cannot run downhill and if you look at his record he only competes in the WMRT in alternate years ie when it is an uphill finish.

If the best fellrunner is the best all round one rather than one who has run some very fast races then Billy Bland is by far the best among all men and women.
Yiannis

[Graham Breeze]

Not 100% true. What about the WMRT in NZ? Did he not win it there and was it not an up and down year?

Good man! Yes he did win there.

I was England Selection Chairman in 2005 and actually went to Wellington when I was on holiday in New Zealand to run the course in the Spring.

It was a multi lap race and a mixture of promenade (start/finish), grassy banks and running through a wood; so very soft underneath. Not a stone in sight.

As Team Manager Mark Croasdale wrote in TFM (Feb 2006, page 20) "the course was different to any World Trophy course I had encountered before".

Given Wyatt's antagonism to running downhill the NZ people designed a course that he would agree to run on. Perhaps Jonathan designed it himself? He was WMRT champion and for NZ to host the WMRT and their own WMRT Champion not run there was clearly unthinkable.

And yes he won and the Senior Women's race was won by, surprise, surprise, a New Zealand woman.

So there you go eh?

[Roadrunner]

Now Graham I didn't need to add the course was totally different to that one would expect of a WMRT up and downhill. I have only ever seen pictures of the race with runners on tarmac!!!!

[IainR]

I think CD, 10 Welsh 1000m Peaks wins, how many did Billy have? :-)

3000ers record too.

For his career longevity, 49 and winner of Knock Du, awesome to stay at the top for so long.

Comparing Donelly, Bland, Mudge et al though is like comparing Cloughie, Shankly, Paisley and the great Sir Alex. All top of their game.

But then Kenny S held and still holds records of so many great races, e.g Snowdon and the Ben.

Yeah Wellington race route, while tough, was basically a hilly trail route, hardest part was probably that road section. Ran it many times when living there.

[ChrisU]

It seems fairly clear that Billy Bland and Kenny Stuart are the greatest ever British fell runners, although probably nobody has run longer at such a high standard than Colin Donnelly, still winning races 23 years after he clocked 1:25:48 at Ben Nevis in 1986.

How about greatest of the current crop of fell runners?

I'd say Rob Jebb, Ian Holmes and Simon Booth.

[Pinchy]

Comparing Donelly, Bland, Mudge et al though is like comparing Cloughie, Shankly, Paisley and the great Sir Alex. All top of their game.

But Clough was just a little bit better than the others - he performed his magic with 2 provincial clubs remember!

[dylan]

Keith Anderson,Ian Holmes,Andy Peace and Joss Naylor.
Mick and Steve Hawkins on the day were invincible.
We have not even seen the best of Rob Jebb.
Carole Haigh/Greenwood,she still holds a fair amount of race records.
Ricky Wilde gave Kenny Stuart a good run for his money.
As to the best fell runner ever,sorry,undecided

[Witton Park]

I don't want to denigrate any of these runners as they were clearly top class Nationally and will be legends of Fell Running.

But were they world class?

How did they do "offshore"? You can look at the likes of David Lewis and Glynn Tromans on the Cross Country who were almost unbeatable at a National level, but in the World Cross never really performed.

Did these fell runners do it on the international stage?