The morn dawned grey, but largely dry, as the cream of Dark Peak stirred around the city. Your correspondent had the dubious pleasure of a 7am rendezvous with Messrs Fulton and Barber at Rivelin Dams followed by a mildly uncomfortable journey to the Don Valley Stadium, in the company of power drill and bubble wrap, in the back of Jim’s van (Chris having pulled the age before beauty card and occupied the front passenger seat).
It became apparent, upon arrival, that the rest of the mixed and women’s teams were taking the option of an earlier 7.30am start. Sadly, the relatively early hour and collective intake of beer the day before mitigated against quick thinking, so we stuck to the original “plan” and our very own Likely Lads set off at 8am with just three other teams. With an early toilet stop, however, our valiant boys were soon enough left with only their photocopied maps for company.
Had I known beforehand (as I am now told), that Jim and Chris are both former holders of the Pertex Trophy, and had consumed 18 or 20 pints between them the previous evening (thanks to the Smiley Paces for this belated intelligence), I may have pressed harder for the earlier start option. Perhaps I should also have been a little more active in encouraging Chris to take an OS map to supplement the organiser’s rather dubious hand traced copies of an antique version of the same.
Be that as it may, Jim and Chris contrived between themselves a stirring rearguard action, fending off the attentions of Totley’s finest on the climb through Grenoside Woods to hand the baton to Tony Woodard and myself at the start of leg two in virtual last place, and a mere twenty six minutes behind the next placed team. For those interested in the rather idiosyncratic route they chose through said woods, feel free to peruse the attached tracks.
Many thanks to the solitary marshals who, at various points between Oughtibridge, Dungworth and Wyming Brook, had sat out patiently awaiting the chasing Dark Peak and Totley pairs as we clawed back, well a few minutes at least, on the majority of those ahead of us. Thanks also to Tony, not only for knowing the way, but also for leading me more or less humanely by the nose as I laboured somewhat in his wake.
Karl Marshall and Paul Elliott then ran our star leg of the day, up Wyming Brook to Totley via Stanage and Burbage Edges. By the time they handed over to Ruth Hambleton and Yvonne Beckwith on leg four, Paul was looking a little perhaps like I had an hour earlier, and the gap to the next teams had been reduced to a mere five minutes or so.
Our women, following the example of our Likely Lads before them, were running leg four blind. Unlike our valiant boys, however, Ruth is an orienteer, so negotiated the intricacies of the route rather more adeptly then our MV50s before them. That said, our valiant girls didn’t quite manage to fend off the attentions of the pursuing Totley pair, who finally caught them somewhere on Dore and Totley golf course. It appears Ruth’s orienteering pride meant she was determined to navigate the route in its purest form, rather than “straight-lining it” through an assortment of vegetation and land boundaries, as had been the Totley approach.
Hats off in particular to Yvonne, who’d travelled up especially from Leicester, fresh from her participation the previous weekend in the Round Leicester Relay, arriving a good two hours in advance of her leg start time (as revised following the Grenoside variation). Only sorry that, due to the imposition of a “mass” start at 2.10pm, there were only four people to see you and Ruth in to the Bridge Inn at Ford. Meanwhile, at the sharp end of said mass start, Richard Hakes and John Snowden were doing battle with Totley Ladies and the Smiley Paces B teams; I am led to believe that they won at least half of this battle, in large part it would seem due to John also having done some prior reccying. This was all the more important, I have no doubt, since Richard was another ten-pinter from the previous eve.
Notwithstanding the challenges of the route – prior recces in future years might be a plan – a good time was had by all. Provided our esteemed Chairman finally gets around to paying the team fee to the organisers, I have little doubt we’ll be back again next year to improve upon our, all things considered, rather creditable 11th place. We achieved my pre-relay target (not to come last), beating fully five other teams, and – most importantly perhaps – Totley (OK, Totley Ladies).
Finally then, many thanks to John Crossland of Steel City Striders and his race marshals, for having us along and waiting patiently for us and Totley at the changeovers … and to my fellow team members for doing us all proud. Next year we’ll be leaner, meaner, organised rather further in advance – hey, we might even know where we’re going. Oh, and if anyone’s interested in getting it organised, Jim’s really rather keen to get a relay team entered in the Round Rotherham race too.
Willy