Great Urban Fell

Great Urban Fell on Tue 15th Aug 2006

The Club’s 30^th anniversary seemed like a good occasion to reconvene this ‘sporadic [and idiosyncratic] minor classic’, or ‘the people’s race’ as it was dubbed for the millennium celebration of the event. It was last held in the year of foot and mouth. Getting a suitable date proved to be tricky, with so much congestion in the race calendar, holidays, challenge events, etc. filling the calendar. In the end Tuesday August 15 was plumped for following Dave Tait’s advice, because, as he observed, ‘It’ll fit nicely between the Trunce on Monday 14^th and the Alport race on the Wednesday, and that leaves a decent gap before Sedbergh on Sunday the 20th.’ Another good reason for choosing this date was that it coincided quite fortuitously with Richard Hakes’s birthday. A more or less tuneful rendition of Happy Birthday was chanted by the 14 runners just before the off.

The Cobden View pub, located virtually on the established circuit, had been adopted as a new venue for the race. We were made very welcome there, being provided with excellent facilities. The substantial post-race chilli + chips was delicious, and the beer was in its usual fine condition, all making for a most convivial and animated ‘debriefing’. The quiz was just getting into full swing as the last of the runners were leaving.

The hallowed route (viewing platform on Shirecliffe hill top, Wincobank Hill summit, railway bridge in Wardsend cemetery, lamp-post at top of the Bole Hills at end of Longfield Road) supplied once more some top-class sport and fun for all the participants.  Needless to say, it’s an event in which local knowledge (especially for the Wincobank-Wardsend section) gives a distinct advantage. It’s here that the accomplished ‘worseller’ comes into his own: witness my ‘seeing off’ of Mick Cochran, Roger Slater and others in the bushes on Shirecliffe.  There would seem to be little gained or lost in the various route alternatives available. Neepsend gas-works to the first summit vs the Rutland Road approach (extended slightly now that the short-cut round the back of the factories is overgrown) works out about even, for example. George caught me up near the greyhound track (after losing time in some banter with charges of his near Hinde House School and then a  bit of a walk-about in the vicinity of Parkwood Springs). He then opted for the Bradfield Road-Hillsborough Corner line, to use the jennels cutting the big corner in Walkley Lane, while I favoured the B&Q/Hillsborough Barracks route leading directly into the Hamerton Road access to the final stretch of climbing. I was surprised to see him behind me there and, spurred on by the psychological advantage, I worked hard over the Bole Hills to retain the lead. Other technical details of this kind will be carefully recorded and worked into a definitive history of the UFR on which I am currently working.

Phil Winskill, evidently having done his homework, put on a class act to notch up a formidable record for the modified route. David Hakes, repeating the form he showed on his impressive debut at Borrowdale, had also got the route sussed in advance and reaped the rewards. Third-home Rob Smith, on the other hand, took a different approach. I kept coming across him from strange angles in the early sections. Then I enacted a technically perfect Worsell coming off Wincobank. He didn’t catch up again until Hillsborough, and after that he doggedly and patiently kept me in view until after the last lamp-post, with the Cobden View virtually in sight. Similar jousting, ducking and weaving, subterfuge and pairing-up must have been evolving throughout the race, as the results indicate. Paul Iseard, though, seems to have turned out to do some extensive prospecting for future Hash House Harriers meets.

Winner Phil was rewarded with an immense garland of Cumberland sausages, lovingly made that very morning by Crookes’s premier family butcher and friend of the people Ron Hayman. The presentation was performed by Ron himself and his wife Jacky, with the lovely Autumn May, their grand-daughter, assisting. Also handed to Phil was a handsome trophy, a tankard inscribed with the names of previous winners, to be competed for on any future occasions, however sporadic, that the race is held.

Thanks go to Richie and his crew at the Cobden View; to our main sponsor Ron Hayman and his family; to Mike Travis for proposing the idea of the commemorative tankard and to John Cobbing for procuring it; to Paul Iseard of Don Alexander’s Famous Sheffield Shop for arranging the engraving and for joining in the fun; finally, to all participants for actively keeping alive the great UFR tradition.

Alan Yates

Many thanks to Alan for re-instating this excellent event, and the food, the general hospitality from the Cobden View. Phil was impressively home first, followed by David Hakes, fresh after his strong Borrowdale run...Route finding is everything in this, needing the correct side of the ski-slope, the best way through the Northern General, and the best line through Hillsborough.