The UK Athletics British Fell & Hill Relays on our doorstep at Appletreewick – how often does that happen? An opportunity not to be missed – not that we would ever, I hope, miss the British Fell Relay! The location meant restricted numbers of entries – if your team did well last year you were given a place – so our W40 (bronze medal in 2023) was in, but an Open Ladies and Men’s teams were another issue and it was just as, if not more, important that our younger runners got the opportunity to run. The next entry window was for teams not already in but expected to do well but you had to supply evidence, which I did for our Open ladies – a strong pacy team, though some not done lots on the fells. My application was not accepted so Bingley Open Men & Ladies teams were in the ‘ballot’ for remaining places. Initally we were given a Ladies place but not a Men’s. After feedback from many clubs, who likewise had missed out on entries, more places were released, and the Men got a place too. So by the end of August three Bingley teams of 6 were in, especially difficult as there was a direct event clash with the Northern XC Relays in Sheffield on the same day. Thanks to other Team Managers and Reps for their support in getting fell teams out.
The British Fell Relay has 4 legs, each a fell race in its own right. In this instance :
Leg 1 Solo, 8.4km, 509m including the Classic Burnsall fell race route
Leg 2 Paired 14km, 914m, including Simon’s Seat and Trollers Gill
Leg 3 Paired 11.3km, 533m – navigation leg, meaning you only get the map after the start 😉
Leg 4 Solo 8.4km, 503m, including Trollers Gill (not the conventional route!)
Legs 1 & 4 are < 10km, flagged and marshalled, allowing Juniors 16 and over to run
The hills are not super high around Appletreewick so Ted Mason (Wharfedale Harrier, local farmer hosting the event) had been super inventive on the routes to make sure there was enough ascent and rough stuff to make it a proper fell challenge. It was my 4th recce of Leg 4 before I found the right route all the way but I had some great days out with lots of people, helping us all get a good feel for the area, and two lovely lunches at the Craven Arms. Thankyou Ted and Wharfedale Harriers for a fantastic event.
So Saturday 19th October arrived, only one late switch in the Ladies teams for ill health which our reserve was able to fill, transport plans in place, club tent, feather flags, chairs and supporters on their way to Appletreewick. By the 11 am race start, the early clouds had broken up, and the sun was out giving us a perfect autumn day in a glorious location in upper Wharfedale.
147 teams out, from all over Britain – 87 Men and 60 Women, the highest Women’s entry ever.
Our three teams were :
Team OpenW W40 Men
L1 Solo Sarah Pickering Jo Buckley Josh Ferguson
L2 Pair Millie Hindle Ruth Thackray Ian Holmes
Suzie Ried Nicola Jones Simon Bell
L3 Pair Amicia Lee Lesley Watson Tom Gomersall
Nav Jo Henry Donna Edmondson-Booker Chris Emsley
L4 Solo Yaz Hannah Small Sarah Flaherty James Hargreaves

All good capable and pacy teams. Our W40 team, after celebrating last year’s bronze medal, was not quite as strong so we did not necessarily expect to repeat the result but were out to give it a go.
Straight into Bingley’s results, overall out of 147 teams :
Bingley L1 L2 L3 L4
30th 04:17:52 9 Open Men 00:47:23 40th 01:24:27 37th 01:15:54 36th= 00:50:08 49th
00:47:23 34th 02:11:50 29th 03:27:44 29th 04:17:52 30th
82nd 05:28:43 10 Open W 01:08:49 145th 01:45:26 91st 01:40:59 89th 00:53:29 68th
01:08:49 133rd 02:54:15 98th 04:35:14 91st 05:28:43 82nd
87th 05:31:37 11 Vet 40 W 00:57:07 95th 01:55:01 113th 01:42:21 94th 00:57:08 94th=
00:57:07 85th 02:52:08 93rd 04:34:29 88th 05:31:37 87th
Sorry – I had ‘formatted’ the results to be readable but Team App does it’s own thing sometimes
, and I haven’t got time to put them in a better format just now!
The winning times were Men 3:28 (Dark Peak), Open Women 4:21 (Dark Peak, 35th overall) and Vet 40 Women 5:28 (Ilkley).
The Bingley Men’s Open team was 30th overall, a good top half result from the 87 Men’s teams, including some M40 and M50 teams, but our Open team included some M40 and M50 too so well done guys.
Only 3 minutes between our two Women’s teams which I had estimated may be similar overall. The Open Women were 19th ladies’ team over all out of 60 teams and just pipped by winning W50 (< 3 mins) and W40 (<10 secs!) teams; we all know that on the fells, where strength and experience are important, that V40 and V50 runners can be a strong force so it is a good result to be matching these top Vets teams.
Our W40 team were 22nd ladies’ team overall, and the icing on cake, the Silver medal W40 team, only 3 mins behind winners from Ilkley. Keswick recorded a similar time but missed a checkpoint so were classed as non-competitive (n/c) in the results. It was notable that two West Yorkshire teams topped the W40 category of 17 teams, maybe benefitting from being ‘local’ and able to do more recces.
The pictures in the headers are Bingley’s Silver medal W40 team – just missing Jo Buckley who was on a train to Scotland by this time trying to catch up with her family holiday, and a few more. Lots more photos on the Team App Gallery : https://bingleyharriers.teamapp.com/clubs/567035/photos/1937695?_detail=v1

The full results are available on Sportident : https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/Wharfedale/2024/BritishFellRelay/

So what how did the runs go? Everyone gave their all on the day, but some were carrying ‘handicaps’.
In the Open team Sarah P discovered that she had clearly not recovered fully from the cold / flu bug that had her bed bound and forced her to pull out of the Hodgson Brothers Fell Relay two weeks earlier, and knew right from the steep start that her lungs were not playing. Millie (back from Switzerland for the event) and Suzie were in good form. Orienteer Amicia made quick work of the nav leg and Jo, our late reserve, did a good job keeping up in the ‘rough stuff’. Yaz had a cracking run working really hard on the last leg with her Running App stating “your most intense workout in the last 3 weeks, with your highest average and max heart rates. You pushed into the anaerobic zone and showed impressive fitness“ and “significant elevation gain of 449m over 10x your typical 30 day average indicating a challenging run”. However she did also admit “lesson learnt to look more carefully for the route flags ;-). It was enough of a challenge without the extra half mile”.
In the W40 team Jo Buckley, with a lurgy in tow, felt she could have done better. In practice she wasn’t far off my ‘guess-timated’ time. Ruth had kept her chesty cough to herself for the week and still didn’t have much of a voice on Saturday morning but was determined to run. And both she and Nicola have been struggling with back issues, exacerbated by steep climbs, of which there were 5 on Leg 2. Nic had to do some back stretches on a couple of occasions during their run to keep herself moving, and by the finish was struggling to stay upright; above and beyond. Lesley, who had been targeting a marathon a couple of weeks earlier had pulled out of that when work and home challenges overwhelmed training plans. Donna was in good health and it was her birthday; she commented later ‘The best birthday weekend ever! Celebrating in my Silver medal from the British Fell Championships” Even her long painted nails survived. Thankyou for sharing your birthday with us Donna. Sarah F is not keen on steep descents; we had a great recce and managed all the descents in good style but race day pressure makes it feel much more scary, so Sarah did really well getting round safely at a good pace.
A fantastic day with fantastic results. Who knows what could be achieved with everyone in good shape and everything going well on the day (it can happen!) so book the day for 2025 British Fell Relay – Sat 18th Oct. Book it now 😊.
A massive thanks to all our runners for giving us these great results and being part of a great day out, to those who would have run if bodies and health allowed – Shona Stone, Vic Wilkinson, Hayley Norse, and to the ‘Safety Net’ of myself, Caren Crabtree and Mary Green who held the day free right up to the last minute, to make doubly sure we got the teams out. Teams don’t happen without you.
If you want to do more on the fells get in touch with Team Managers Becky Weight and Andrew Jebb – look under Disciplines for more info and contacts.