Calder Valley claim team prize double at Lee Mills race
Perfect race conditions and Club Championship points were on offer for the 11 Calder Valley Fell Runners who took part in the Lee Mills Fell race last week.
The medium length, 10.7k route takes in large stretches of fell with sweeping views of Manchester and beyond, all sandwiched between a maze of disused quarry.
It’s the same course, although considerably less boggy than the infamous winter relay version of the event, where racers have been known to find themselves up to their thighs in mud.
The contrast of quarry tracks, gently sloping moorland and a technical yomp before the final quarry scramble make this a fast and fun course and the Valley contingent didn’t hang about as they claimed the first team prize in both male and female categories.
Cat Cannon, Cass Chisholm and Alice Ridley made up the winning women’s team, with captain Chisholm securing full club championship points in the FV40 category and claiming second V40 prize.
After the race, Chisholm said: “Cat raced like a club point-collecting pro. She made good steady progress up the first long drag, I aimed to keep her within eyesight thinking I’d catch her on the down.
"I was also a bit worried that Alice might sneak up behind me. When the downhill did come it was tussocky and although I slowly caught up with Cat I was only just ahead of her as we reached the steep climb up the quarry.”
However, Gannon pulled away towards the end and Chisholm added: “Cat powered up the scramble and then ran off the top as if the climb hadn’t registered in her legs. She took another Calder Valley scalp (Andy Wright) in the last section to the finish. A brilliantly executed race from Cat.”
Tim Sunderland headed the winning men’s team, supported by Andy Collier and George Kettlewell; all finishing within a minute of each other.
A furious final descent saw Collier hanging onto Sunderland, who pipped his team mate at the line by a mere five seconds as they finished fifth and sixth place overall. Collier also celebrated first place in the MV40 standings.
Valley results: 5 Tim Sunderland 53:22, 6 Andy Collier 53:27, 8 George Kettlewell 54:29, 25 Mark Barnabas 1:00:58, 31 Dan Marsden 1:05:01, 37 Catherine Gannon 1:07:58, 38 Andy Wright 1:08:21, 41 Cass Chisholm 1:09:59, 54 Francis Wooff 1:13:55, 56 Alice Ridley 1:14:17, 73 Marc Collett 1:31:34.