Book the date in your diary – run, help, volunteer, support, watch, your choice, and enjoy the Gala. Myself (Senior Race Organiser) and the Junior Race Organisers want lots of runners (U9 to V90) and helpers, and the races are in the Club Senior and Junior Fell Championships so there are points to be gained (see under Disciplines or Club Championships for more details on the Championship series).
The Gala fell race, organised by Bingley Harriers (BH), has been running alongside village sports and gala days for over 50 years. For SENIORS a short dash along the main road (road closure in place), down Saltaire Road, across onto Shipley Glen, climbing up to the turn for the Crook Rise caravan site, then steeply up to the top caravan site and on to the final climb up to Hope Hill trig point. And back the way you came until you get to Otley Road, then cross (with care!), past the Acorn and the final little sting in the tail, up across the fields to the Gala field.
For JUNIORS – start in the field at the side of the Gala and run local paths and tracks finishing across the fields, over the stream, back to the start field.
SENIOR RACE RUNNERS : Great first fell race – 2024 times ranged from 18 to 50 minutes so all paces welcome. Please pre-enter, it makes our life much easier. Pre-entry will open towards the end of May on the Event on the Bingley Harriers site. Enter on the Day is really only for local unattached runners – although I will encourage them to pre-enter too :-). You can check out the route so you know exactly what’s coming up and being a short race, Juniors from U15 can run too, experience a Senior race, and see how they fare against the Senior runners. Route map on Events on the BH site https://bingleyharriers.teamapp.com/clubs/567035/events/26683827?detail=v1
Prizes for lots of Junior, Senior and Veteran age categories, teams and local unattached (to a running club) runners.
JUNIOR RACEs (U9 – U15) entry – keep an eye on the BH site for details.
HELPERS – if you can / would like to support this great event please contact Becky Weight beckyweight@btinternet.com (Sen race) or Andrew Coulton drew12kong@gmail.com (Jun races)
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2024 ?
It turns out that I never got to a final 2024 report – the results were posted but that’s all!
91 runners lined up for the SENIOR RACE from U15 to V70 with finish times from 18 to 50 minutes – all welcome. First home was Jake Norris (BH, U17B), chased in by Simon Bell (BH, M40). With James Hargreaves (BH, MSEN) not far behind in 5th place they picked up the Team prize. Juniors (U15 and U17) made a great show taking 5 out of the top 20 places. Yaz Small (BH, WSEN) was first Lady, followed in by Sarah Pickering (2nd, BH, WSEN) and Sophie Edwards (3rd, BH, U15G), and another team prize.
I love to see the BH Blue & White stripes all the way through the field and 2024 was no exception with Harry Atkinson (1st M70) and Mick Ford giving their long experienced fell legs an outing . Mid field saw Isabelle Jebb (GU15), Nicola Jones (W40), Steve Webb (M60) and Mary Green (W60) take the top spots in their age categories. Louise Holt and Scott Watson were first Local Unattached Runners home.
Our great organising team put on two JUNIOR RACES again for U9s (0.9km) and for U11, U13 and U15 ( 1.6km) and got the best turnout yet with 64 Juniors on the start line.
Full results for 2024 are available on the Bingley Harriers site under Results or News :
SENIOR Race https://bingleyharriers.teamapp.com/custom_pages/7745-results?detail=v1
JUNIOR Races https://bingleyharriers.teamapp.com/clubs/567035/articles/8506714-eldwick-gala-bh-junior-champs-report?_detail=v1&expiresat=1751327999
So book the Gala date in your dairy, set a reminder for your pre-entry and / or let us know if you can help out – on the day or in the run up to the event.
For more information, help or any queries about running on the fells contact your Bingley Harriers Fell Team Managers Becky and Andy to chat about how to get going and what would be good for you.
Becky Weight, Ladies : beckyweight@btinternet.com
Andy Jebb, Men & Juniors : andrewjebb2@gmail.com