Sat 23 Feb 2019
The pretty village of Dufton in the North Pennines was the setting for the second race in this year’s club fell championship. There were 9 Harriers in the large field of nearly 500 for the 9 miles, 1880ft climb, BM category fell race, featuring a run up the valley of High Cup Gill, a scramble up the crags to High Cup Nick and a return along the top of the crags.
First Harrier home was Jon Green (MV40) 51st, 1:15:51, followed by John Rainford (MV50) 98th, 1:22:04, who just stayed ahead of Steve Bamber (MV50) 101st, 1:22:15. Another close finish saw Roger Taylor (MV50) 117th, 1:24:12 and John Griffiths (MV50) 123rd, 1:24:25, both passing Dave Partington (MV50) 132nd, 1:25:23 on the descent from High Cup Nick.
The only Harrier lady running was Robyn Anderson (FV40) 278th, 1:39:49 followed by Mick McLoughlin (MV65), 313th, 1:43:52 and finally Jim Doherty (MV50) 319th, 1:45:19, who lost a lot of time on the descent and did well to finish following a nasty fall. He landed on his arm and banged the side of his head, finishing quite dazed, but thankfully recovering quickly.
We did have one mishap during the race when Jim Doherty took a nasty fall on a stony track around 2½ miles from the finish. He landed on his arm and banged the side of his head. After that he didn’t recall very much until the finish line and wondered where he was. Fortunately, he recovered ok and even managed a pint in the pub later. Probably not the wisest thing to do, but, hey, he’s a fell runner!