Make mine a double!

The English Championships 2011

The series started with a Medium category race in Church Stretton on the Long Mynd with a win for Lloyd Taggart and a second for Chris Steele. The runners shifted to Mearley Clough, on the back of Pendle Hill, in May for a short fast up and down, a win for Simon Bailey and second for Ben Abdelnoor. Picture by Andy Holden - Lloyd at Sedbergh August 2011

Quite a few runners decided to opt out of the Lakeland Classic Duddon in June hedging their bets to be fit for the Sedbergh Hills Long counter in August. Just three weeks after Duddon, they met in the heart of the Lake District for a Medium at Ambleside’s Loughrigg & Silverhowe. Rob Jebb won Duddon with Ben Abdelnoor second, Jebby was second to Ian Holmes at Loughrigg.

July came and the next stop was Whittle Pike in the Rossendale Valley (incidentally where ‘Survivors’ a cult TV series was filmed, about a group of nuclear holocaust survivors who formed a weird kind of community - but not so weird, as no episode featured a jog up Whittle Pike). It wasn’t a good day for Rob Jebb, he fell and dislocated his shoulder, he didn’t complete this race or attend the last counter. Ian Holmes, who suffered an injury at Borrowdale Fell Race, did not attend the last counter of Sedbergh either, leaving the door open for Lloyd Taggart, Ben Abdelnoor and Chris Steele to get a look in on the medals.

Lloyd Taggart shot to the top of the table with his second place to Morgan Donnelly at the Long Sedbergh Hills race. Ben Abdelnoor finished fourth, Chris Steele, whose legs weren’t having a good day, jogged in with a team mate in 35^th. Lloyd’s second place put him at the top of the MV40s table too – the fist time, according to published records (that’s back to 1986!), anyone has done this in the Fell Running English Championships.

That’s not the only ‘making history’ event this year, as never before has one club doubled up and won the Open and the MV40 Team prizes in the same year. That honour has gone to 90’s super club Borrowdale FR who have proved they shouldn’t be written off just yet!

2011 English Championships

Men’s Open

1	Lloyd Taggart	Dark Peak FR	200 points
2	Rob Jebb	Bingley Harriers	194
3	Ian Holmes	Bingley Harriers	190
4	Ben Abdelnoor	Ambleside	189
5	Chris Steele	Borrowdale FR	188

Male Vet 40s

1	Lloyd Taggart	Dark Peak FR	168 points
2	Ian Holmes	Bingley Harriers	162
3	Darren Kay	Pudsey & Bramley	154

Under 23s

1	Tom Addison	Helm Hill	36 points
2 =	William Neill	Staffs Moors	26
2 =	Sam Tosh	Rossendale	26

Male Vet 45s

1	Ian Holmes	Bingley Harriers	168 points
2	Mark Palmer	Mynydd Du	154
3	Mark Roberts	Borrowdale FR	151

 Male Vet 50s

1	Dave Neill	Staff Moors	125 points
2	Steve Oldfield	Calder Valley	118
3	Mick Stenton	Dark Peak	117

Male Vet 55s

1	Dave Neill	Staff Moors	128 points
2	Steve Oldfield	Calder Valley	119
3	Andy Hauser	Holmfirth	116

Male V60s

1	Ben Grant	Harrogate	88 points
2	Pete Booth	Clayton Le Moors	77
3	Mike Walsh	Kendal AC	74

Male V 65s

1	Kieran Carr	Clayton Le Moors	88 points
2	Dennis Lucas	Rochdale Harriers and AC	75
3	Peter Covey	Bingley Harriers	72

Male V70s

1 =	John Parker	Clayton Le Moors	33 points
1 =	Peter Covey	Bingley Harriers	33
3	Raymond Brown	Penistone Footpath Runners and AC	25

Open Team

1	Borrowdale FR	48
2	Pudsey & Bramley	40
3	Dark Peak FR	34

V40s Team

1	Borrowdale FR	48
2	Dark Peak FR	39
3	Calder Valley	30

V50s Team

1	Dark Peak FR	48
2	Clayton le Moors	39
3	Pennine FR	33

Ladies

1	Lauren Jeska - Todmorden Harriers	123
2	Helen Fines - Calder Valley	114
3	Lou Roberts - Kendal AC	109