Organiser's Report

The sun shone on Alva on Sunday as 93 teams from all over the UK took part in the 17^th British Fell & Hill Running Relay Championships. The teams faced 4 tough legs over the Ochil Hills with the route covering over 10,000ft of climbing in 26 miles.

The outstanding performance on leg 1 came from Joe Symonds of Kendal AC who completed the very tough 6 mile and 2500 ft of climbing in a staggering 46 minutes, nearly 2 minutes ahead of English international Danny Hope of Pudsey & Bramley and Sean Bolland of Bowland. Joe is obviously on great form at the moment having followed up his 17^th place at the World Mountain Running Trophy in New Zealand with a convincing win at the Pentland Skyline race last weekend, where the course record could have been threatened had he known the best route.
First vet home was Alan Bowness of CFR who led the field for a while on the first climb. He obviously has a liking for Alva having run the fastest leg 2 at the 1999 relays. Jackie Lee of Welsh club Eryri Harriers finished first lady with home favourites Carnethy Ladies lying in 4^th.

Leg 2 saw a shorter, more runnable route over the Nebit Hill. Defending champions Dark Peak seized their chance to take the lead with Rob Little running the fastest leg and pulling them up 5 places to first with Pudsey consolidating their position in second.
In the vets race, CFR and Pudsey were now well clear in 3^rd and 4^th overall with British vets Champions Carnethy slowly gaining some places to move up to 6^th vets. Angela Allen of Horwich posted the fastest ladies leg moving them up 5 places to 4^th, with Jane Lloyd posting the second fastest ladies time to retain the Eryri lead.

The runners had to engage their brains as well as brawn for the navigation leg 3. Luckily for the runners the sun was now out so there were no problems with visibility. Dark Peak consolidated their lead, running the second fastest leg behind Mercia. The Mercia pairing of Andy Yapp and Pete Vale moved the midlands team up 9 places in the open category into 4^th.
The stand-out performance of the leg came from Carnethy Ladies Angela Mudge and Lyn Wilson who ran the 12^th fastest leg overall, 15 minutes faster than the next fastest ladies team Helm Hill, giving them a lead of 7 minutes over Eryri. Carnethy also did well in the vets category with Adam Ward and Adrian Davies running the fastest vets leg moving them up to 3^rd vets behind Pudsey and CFR.

The final leg saw the runners face 3700ft of climb with the ascent of Wood Hill, The Law and Ben Cleuch. Dark Peak were never going to be caught with English internationals Tim Austin and Lloyd Taggart posting the fastest leg time by nearly 3 minutes to finish in a total time of 3hrs 42mins, ahead of Pudsey & Bramley and Ambleside.
First Scots to cross the line were Lothian in 5^th with junior orienteer Oleg Chepelin joining Carnethy 5 winner Murray Strain on the anchor leg. In the vets race, Carnethy were pipped by Pudsey and Bramley with only 40 seconds separating the teams after 4 hours of racing.
In the ladies race however, Carnethy went one better with Jill Mykura and Lucy Colquhoun running the fastest leg to secure victory over Ilkley and Keswick. There was also an outstanding performance from World silver medalist Tracey Brindley who ran with fellow international Alasdair Anthony of local club Ochil Hill Runners to post the 8^th fastest leg time, only 6 minutes down on the Dark Peak pairing of Austin and Taggart. Cosmic Ladies from Aberdeen brought up the rear of the field finishing in 6hrs 44mins.

Prizes were presented by local Councilor McGill, Provost Stewart, Sports Council Chair Enid Barton, in recognition of the great support the race received from the Clackmannanshire Council and Sports Council.

Thanks

A huge thank you to all those who helped the event run successfully (in no particular order and apologies for any omissions!!)…

Sponsors : Clackmannanshire Sports Council, Clackmannanshire Council, Pete Bland Sports
Clackmannanshire Council : Karen Kirkwood, Marjorie MacFarlane, Sheila Bulloch (Admin assistance)
Clackmannanshire Army Cadets : Sgt. Jim Brown & team (Marshalling)
Clackmannanshire St Andrews Ambulance Corp (First Aid)
WRVS (Catering)
Staff at Dalmore Centre and Cochrane Hall
Presentation Guests : Provost Stewart, Councillor McGill, Enid Barton (Sports Council), Alan Barlow (FRA), Robin Morris (UK Athletics), Dave Armitage (scottishathletics HRC)
Harvey Maps : Marcus Pinker, Susan Harvey
Ochils Mountain Rescue : Kevin Mitchell

Help was received from members of the following clubs :
Carnethy, Ochil, Fife, City of Edinburgh, HBT, Ilkley, Westerlands, Falkirk VH and Lothian

Doing these jobs…

Entries : Moira Stewart
Results : Andy Spenceley, Jane Robertson
Changeover : Keith Burns
Controller : Ken Daly
Access Permission : Ron McCraw
PA : Bob Fray
Presentations : Gordon Cameron, Adam Ward
Course Markings : Martin Hyman, Richard Robertson
FRA Radios : Jon Broxap
Marshals : Dave Francis, Frank Cation, Joe Holden, Alex McEwan, Andy Laycock, Ian Nimmo, Anne Nimmo, Ailish Nimmo, Hilary Spenceley, Barbel Burns, Helen, Eddie Dealtry, Derek Robertson, Alex Menarry, Nigel Rose, Kate Friend, Steve Fallon, Keith
Helpers : Tracey Brindley, Megan Priestley, Andrea Priestley, Mark Priestley, Joanne Anderson, Cali Ingham, Bob Waterhouse, Denis Bell, Robin Thomas, Willie Gibson, Angela Mudge, Janice Mudge, Pete Buchanan, Jamie Thin, Colin Pritchard, Karen Meikle, Lars Ottemoller, John Blair Fish, Willie Mykura, Paul Ritchie, John Stevenson, Pete Baxter, Mark James