best fell runner ever ?

[scott baistow 93]

It is a good point there Harry H.

I think that (say) Fred Reeves' record at Grasmere which is his biggest moment is great.

Rob Jebb ran 10 seconds slower in recent years - the time you and I battled our way to the top of the hill and you left me on the way down. In a two mile race, and assuming similar conditions 10 seconds is a massive difference.

Fred Reeves and Tommy Sedgewick probably trained exclusively for those kinds of races. For Rob I guess it was just another challenge amongst all kind of running and cycling races and in the context of what he did over the season it was fabulous.

There is too little appreciation of short steep fell races; by that I mean they are a bit marginal in the calendar or indeed not in the FRA calendar at all.

im glad to see im not the only one who thinks like this ido think the fra seriously consider some short steep classics as championships

[sirgordonzola]

I volunteer myself as the Worst fell runner in the world, can i have a prize

[Fleeter]

I volunteer myself as the Worst fell runner in the world, can i have a prize

I'll buy you a pint if you want

[sirgordonzola]

I'll buy you a pint if you want

I prefer cake, which might help with the fact that im the worst.
Bring on the Lads leap to prove the point.

[MorganW]

it's on another level dont get me wrong,billy is something else,but there is more to fell running than the bob graham round,and the lake district

Quite right.

But I think that this achievement on top of all the other remarkable records, results and performances which Billy achieved in his career in all sorts of race types and lengths gives him my vote.

[ydt]

it's on another level dont get me wrong,billy is something else,but there is more to fell running than the bob graham round,and the lake district

There is more to Billy Bland than 'the bob graham round,and the lake district'. He has excelled in all parts of the country.
Yiannis

[Toots]

Its always hard to make these sort of comparisons.Its tried with boxing and football.When I first started doing a bit...,ok,little bit!,Billy Bland's dominance was coming to an end and Colin Donnelly was in his pomp,I think Kenny Stuart had left the 'scene' more or less by then.The thing about Donnelly was that he went onto everyone else's patch and annihilated the local champion and more often than not broke the record.In the late 80's early 90's there were a lot of good runners around,yet he would turn up at their races and beat them,he was simply outstanding.The only real competition outside the lakes for Colin was Keith Anderson,who I remember reading could virtually fly downhill.
Taking everything into account,it has to be Colin Donnelly,he is the best fellrunner ever.

[TimW]

TBF though if I was a good enough runner I'd do road over fell, that's where the best runners are, the highest level of competition. I love the fells, but 'generally' bad runners fell run.

Iain a few years ago I'd have agreed with you but the standard of road running is so shit now in this country, has the standard on the fells dropped at the same rate if at all?

You look at half marathon results now they're won in good times by Africans but hardly any Brits seem to break 70 minutes or 31 mins for 10K! In the 80s (90s even) no one would have heard of you if you hadn't run faster than that!

I invite someone to start a thread whereby the stattos can decide whether fell standards have dropped. Meanwhile rather than spend time on the Forum I'm going to take a leaf out of Billy Burns' book and GO ON FACEBOOK

[TimW]

Its always hard to make these sort of comparisons.Its tried with boxing and football.When I first started doing a bit...,ok,little bit!,Billy Bland's dominance was coming to an end and Colin Donnelly was in his pomp,I think Kenny Stuart had left the 'scene' more or less by then.The thing about Donnelly was that he went onto everyone else's patch and annihilated the local champion and more often than not broke the record.In the late 80's early 90's there were a lot of good runners around,yet he would turn up at their races and beat them,he was simply outstanding.The only real competition outside the lakes for Colin was Keith Anderson,who I remember reading could virtually fly downhill.
Taking everything into account,it has to be Colin Donnelly,he is the best fellrunner ever.

Someone said it depends on the criteria. Absolutely, do you go on who was the best on their day or who's been the most consistent over a period of time? Are significant wins against other great runners more important than breaking (and keeping..) records? Granted the two may be one of the same, as with Andy Styan's Langdale record, Wild's at Burnsall and Kenny's at Ennerdale and the Ben. Performances must surely be considered over the full range; championships, classic races (long and short) and long distance rounds, they all have their place under the umbrella of 'fell running'.

One person's view on how the above criteria should be 'weighted' is always going to differ slightly from that of another. All of the runners mentioned are legends! But based on all these criteria I find it hard to argue against Donnelly too.

I'm surprised that John Wild isn't more highly rated on this thread, he wasn't around for very long compared to the likes of Donnelly and Holmes but was pretty invincible at his best and has, I believe, ran Ben Nevis only ONE SECOND slower than Stuart. No one ever mentions that, and when you're talking seconds who is to say they finish the race in the same place every year? It finishes in a field next to no obvious landmark, do they get a tape measure out?!

[TimW]

I wonder if any of the aforementioned themselves are bothered about which one of them was the best?