HALIFAX Harrier Geoff Cumber earned the plaudits in the British Masters 5k championships in Horwich following an excellent run that saw him win the V60 title in 18.32min.
His wife Sarah then made it a day to remember by enjoying an equally good run to finish fifth in her age category with a personal best time of 18.35.
Men's fell captain Mick Fryer recently took on the challenge of the man v horse marathon in Llanwrt
yd Wells, mid Wales.
The race is run over 22 miles with 4,000 feet of climbing, using paths, tracks, forest and moorland.
The runners have a 15 minute start on the horses. This year the fastest time was recorded by the winning horse, 2hr 11min, with the winning man finishing in 2hr 20min. Fryer finished 32nd out of a field of more than 500 to improve on last year's time and cracked the three hour barrier in 2.59.01.
A small team of Harriers took part in the three mile fell race at Eldwick Gala, near Bingley. The sweltering conditions made the race a little tougher than usual, with a couple of runners dropping out due to the heat.
Ben Crowther was straight up with the leaders and only dropped back to fifth on the descent, with Mick Fryer in 28th and a good run by Nigel Crossfield in 38th. Carole Fryer ran well to pick up the prize for the first V40 as she finished fifth in the ladies race.
Positions: 5th Ben Crowther 19.12; 28th Mick Fryer 21.57; 38th Nigel Crossfield 22.54. 1st V40 Carole Fryer 24.03.
THE recent Joe Percy inter-club challenge saw Halifax easily retain the trophy with 10 runners in the first 30.
The 10km race is run over two laps of an undulating course near Holmfirth.
There was fierce competition to be the first Harrier back with in-form Ben Crowther managing to hold off marathon ace Ian Whitehouse with just three seconds between the pair.
It wasn't long until Ryan Barker crossed the line with Lee Buckwell behind him.
Once again there was another outstanding run from 16-year-old Michael Gaughan, who continues to show that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Positions: 5th Ben Crowther 35.36, 6th Ian Whitehouse 35.39, 8th Ryan Barker 35.54, 13th Lee Buckwell 36.30, 14th Michael Gaughan 36.31, 16th Andy Thorpe 37.10, 18th Damien Cole 37.22, 30th Adrian Roysten 38.38, 31st Andy Wiggins 38.43, 40th Mark Crabtree 40.01, 41st Craig Empsell 40.02, 49th Paul Berry 40.31, 53rd Gareth Burrell 41.05, 61st Keith Midgley 41.58, 63rd Stephen Hare 42.13, 65th John Greenwood 42.19, 74th Richard Corney 42.53, 76th Mark Gaughan 43.02, 77th Nigel Rigg 43.10, 81st Dene Townend 43.26; 92nd Linda Crabtree 44.04, 94th Sarah Hutchins 44.13; 97th Dave Cooper 44.30; 100th Gemma Buckwell 44.43; 109 Ray Hall 45.22, 118th Mark Rocheteau 45.56, 121st Garth Walker 46.11, 124th Helen Roby 46.17, 129th Bill Sage 46.36, 138th Martin Haigh 47.14, 157th Sue Corney 49.23, 164th Craig Barrett 50.12, 178th Dennis O'Keefe 51.38, 203rd Heath Reilly 55.39.
A PARTY of Halifax Harriers took on the challenge of walking the national three peaks within 24 hours.
Starting with Ben Nevis, which is 4,409ft, the next peak to be scaled is Scafell in the Lake District, which is 3,206ft high. Finally, the last peak to be conquered is Snowdon in Wales at 3,560ft.
The party of 10 and two helpers started the first climb at 6.30am. A long drive to Scafell, saw the group bump into some of the cast of Emmerdale, Sam Dingle, Andy Sugden and Eric Pollard, who were doing the walk for charity.
The final walk up Snowdon, in the dark, saw the Harriers complete the whole walk in 22 and a half hours. Around £500 was raised for Overgate Hospice in Elland.
Those taking part were Chris Burrell, Gareth Burrell, Mick Fryer, Brian Burgin, Mark Gaughan, Mikey Gaughan, Paul Jagger, Gary Traviss, Dean Hemmingway.
