Pennine Bridleway Relay

Todmorden Harriers fielded five teams in the Pennine Bridleway Relay, last Sunday. Over 100 teams of ten runners took part in the event, which was organised by Rossendale Harriers, and followed a full circuit of the 47 mile Mary Townley Loop.

The distance is split into 5 legs, of varying lengths from 5.5 to 12.5 miles, each run by a pair of different runners. A light frost overnight meant the course was firm underfoot with occasional icy patches to negotiate, but the day remained dry and windless to provide for near perfect conditions.

Salford Harriers and Calder Valley set the pace at the front, with Salford holding a narrow 3 second lead at the start of the final leg back to Waterfoot, which they managed to slightly extend to win the event overall in a time of 4:49:10, less than a minute outside of the course record.

Todmorden Men’s A team put in a strong performance, with Sean Carey and Andrew Wrench recording the 3rd best time of the day on leg 4 to move them up from 15th to 12th. Team captain Nick Barber and Robin Tuddenham set the 6th best time on the final leg to gain a further two places as the team finished in 10th place with a total time of 5:17:21, improving on last year’s efforts by 12 minutes.

The ladies A team were in contention throughout but had to settle for second place at the finish, in a highly competitive battle for the ladies title. Lisa Parsons and Kath Brierley put in a solid performance to handover in 4th place, a few seconds behind 3rd placed Calder Valley, with Rossendale leading Clayton at the front.

English Fell Champion Lauren Jeska and Team Captain Sarah May then turned things on their head with Todmorden leading Calder Valley by over four minutes at the end of the 2nd leg.

Ali Richards and Sarah Warburton then put in a blistering run to set a new ladies course record on leg 3, to hand over an eight minute lead to Jayne Williams and Sarah Glyde. Calder Valley managed to claw a few seconds back on leg 4, before a strong final pairing of Jo Waites and Gayle Sugden put in a stunning run to overhaul Todmorden’s Mel Blackhurst and Lucy Hobbs to steal the win in 6:03:02.

The Todmorden ladies were left to console themselves that they had at least improved by 13 minutes on the previous year, to finish in a highly respectable time of 6:09:38, which would have been good enough to win the competition in many years.

For the first time the club also fielded a Ladies B team, who put in a fine effort to finish second placed ladies B team behind Clayton le Moors B, in a time of 7:21:11 and 89th overall.

The Men’s B team finished in 32nd place in a time of 5:55:24, also 13 minutes faster than 12 months ago, with club B records being set on leg 2 by Andy McFie and Peter Bowles and on leg 3 by Marcel Ellison and David Baldaro.

Pictures by Myra Wells

The Todmorden Allstars team also enjoyed a strong performance to improve on their time from 2010 by just short of an hour. They crossed the line in a total time of 6:40:05 and 64th place.


2011 Pennine Bridleway Relay Full Results...

Myra's Photos (leg 3 and leg 4)...

Sports Sunday Pics...   leg 1 | leg 2 | leg 3 |  leg 5 

Pennine Bridleway Relay

Todmorden Harriers Ladies Team were the star performers of the club’s five teams at Sunday’s Pennine Bridleway Relay. The event is organised by Rossendale Harriers and follows a full circuit of the 47 mile Mary Townley Loop. The distance is split into 5 legs which are each run by a pair of different runners, and with over 90 teams entered involved nearly 1000 runners. After some early morning mist, the day was bathed in glorious winter sunshine and light winds throughout the day.

Starting at Waterfoot, the first leg follows the trail to Holme Chapel before a climb to the finish near Coal Clough. The ladies opening pairing of Rachel Skinner and Kay Leigh put in a solid start and the club lay in third place behind Clayton Le Moors and Calder Valley.

Lauren Jeska and Sarah May then set the fastest ladies leg time of the day on the 2nd stage and handed over at Callis Bridge in 2nd place behind Calder Valley’s Helen Fines and Jo Waites who had taken up the overall lead, as Clayton slipped to third.

Clayton then set the fastest time on leg 3 but Chris Preston and Sarah Warburton kept Todmorden in 2nd place with the next best time as the race travelled across to Calderbrook.

A late personnel change on leg 4 saw Kerry Edwards brought in to partner Karen Gray and they worked hard to hold onto their position under a stiff challenge from Clayton on the shortest leg of the day.

At the final handover Clayton were just 3 seconds behind and the final tough stage over Rooley Moor and an icy descent back into Waterfoot saw Clayton overtake final Todmorden pair Mel Blackhurst and Lucy Hobbs to follow Calder Valley over the line.

The men’s’ A team finished the day in 12th place overall, with the 4th leg pairing of Sean Carey and Andrew Wrench setting the 2nd fastest leg time of the day.

The men’s’ B team set the 2nd fastest B team performance to finish in 27th place overall.

The Mixed Team were 68th and Allstars team were 80th.