Report by Paul Lemmon

With only a few minutes to go before the start Jo, Stephanie and Becky were getting worried, no sign of a 4th runner to complete the team. Thankfully, having got lost trying to find the venue, Angela turned up just in time, so the Bingley women's hopes of a top 3 finish this season were still alive. Showing no ill effects from her late arrival Angela was side by side with Jo, also showing no ill effects from having done the open race at the Masters International at Roundhay the previous day. Stephanie started steadily as usual a bit behind them, while Becky was close behind her as they approached the first hill. From then on, every time Angela and Jo came into sight they seemed to have swapped places, but there was never more than a couple of metres between them. Having checked with me while heading down the hill on lap 2 that she only had to climb it once more, Angela made the decisive move on the final lap and ended up edging it by 3 seconds. Behind them Stephanie was steadily picking up places, Becky likewise, and the team ended up a solid 6th on the day, a lot better than had been feared. Even better they remain 4th overall and will hope that either Leeds or York, both of whom also had just 4 runners on the day, slip up at one of the remaining 2 races. Results as follows:

Senior Women, 5.5k approx:

1st Charlotte Van Zelst (Leeds) 20m 49s
17th Angela Curtis 23m 20s
18th Jo Buckley 23m 23s (1st F45)
35th Stephanie Robson 25m 36s (4th F50)
52nd Becky Weight 29m 17s (1st F65)

Team Results:
1st Holmfirth 44
6th Bingley 122

Fewer Bingley men were on show than at the first race too, but there was never any doubt that we'd have the necessary 6 and indeed there were 13 of us in the end. As I was running I can't say much about how things changed as the race went on, but I can say with a fair amount of certainty that Ben paced it rather better than he had at Guiseley which led to him being first home for the club. Next came the ever improving David and not far behind him the also ever improving Nick. There was a rather larger gap then before Connor and Steve finished 1 place but a full 20 seconds apart and then Mark completed the scoring team. Just behind him was Jonathan and then I was first of a plethora of Pauls, interspersed with Stephen, Samuel and Richard, the latter being the only one who was behind me from the start, so I must have started as steadily as Stephanie for once! The team finished 9th on the day but, as with the women, didn't drop any places in the league overall and remain 6th. Results as follows:

Senior Men, 9.5k approx:

1st Abdimajiid Darood (Skyrac) 31m 03s
58th Ben Rees 38m 51s
66th David Norris 39m 30s (3rd M50)
75th Nick Chapman 39m 59s
99th Connor Dlugosz 42m 15s
100th Steve Webb 42m 35s (1st M60)
107th Mark Chatterton 43m 44s
109th Jonathan Williams 43m 58s
117th Paul Lemmon 44m 47s (4th M60)
120th Paul Allwood 45m 09s
122nd Stephen Fry 45m 53s (5th M60)
123rd Samuel Jeffrey 45m 57s
125th Richard Bass 47m 17s
131st Paul Spencer 49m 08s

Team Results:

1st Leeds 44
9th Bingley 505