• A full report from the AGM (pages 2-4)
• Max's Coach's Column (pages 9-10)
• The final points and placings in the Grand Prix and Fell Champs (p 6-7 & 19)
• Sylvia's report from the International 100k in Japan (pages 12-14)
• Leeds Country Way results and report (pages 16-17)
• Events lists for 1999 Grand Prix, Cross-country and Fell (back page)
• And more...

• Attendance at Tuesday training is booming - at a recent session there were 24 Striders
• Thursday training returns to Scott Hall from 6th January (contact Kathy on 269-4820)
• Tim Towler writes about "The Sunday Run" in this VS News (page 15)

Attendance Register 34 Striders and 33 Spiders attended.

Steve, Geoff, Sylvia and Bob all mentioned successes of various individuals and teams throughout the year ... and if you, dear readers, refer back to your old VS News you'll find all of these to refresh your memory too!

Danny distributed the accounts and balance sheet - we now have a balance of £2,018 which had increased by £350 during the year. Special items included:

So on 'normal' items (subs received, bank interest received, Leo's payments, North of England AA affiliation fees) we had broken even.

Danny said that membership was 92 for last year, 6 down from last year, but we already had 2 new members for this year. (Bob's count was 91, which was deemed to be an acceptable discrepancy). Bob said that he was pleased that some of the no-longer-active-runners had decided to keep their membership and keep in touch with the Club and noted Ron Kelly and John Umpleby in attendance.

Jon raised for discussion the content of the Grand Prix - should we have some major changes to the events, would events further away (e.g. in Lancashire) be supported? Bob questioned whether there were now too many events. Steve proposed that all Yorkshire Championship events should be included - this was agreed (subsequently it was agreed that the where the Yorkshire and Yorkshire Vets Champs were allocated to different races, it should be the Vets Champs that should be included in our Grand Prix). A "working group" of Jon, Tim and Gary was set up to put together the schedule for 1999 - anyone with any comments or suggestions should talk to any of these three.

Bob (with his Newsletter hat on) reported that he was pleased to have had some new contributors during the year. He is hoping for more variety and maybe slightly less serious content in the future and is looking forward to the various stories of Sunday and Tuesday training which he has been promised.

Paul B (with his Cross-Country hat on) said that we had had men's teams for all West Yorks x-c, for the Yorkshire x-c and for the National. The dates for this season's events are now available (see elsewhere in this VSNews).

Bob summarised that his Striders highlights of the year were the organisation of the West Yorks cross-country last November, the organisation of the Trail Race in April and having mens and wimins teams running the National in March ... for which a large vote of thanks was due to G.W. ... duly given.

It was agreed that we would continue with two separate club affiliations to the North of England Athletic Association.

The 'old' committee survived unimpeached.

New junior ministerial appointments were Tim and Gary to support Jon with the Grand Prix events (starting from January 1999) and Tim to support Bob with the Newsletter.

Subscriptions - Renewals are £6 to Danny - cheques payable to "Valley Striders".

Training Sessions In the "Reports from Committee", Steve, Sylvia and Paul F mentioned the Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday training:

• Tuesday has now reverted to the Winter Schedule - 1^st Tuesday in month is 400m session on Otley Road, 2^nd is fartlek, 3^rd is mile reps on High Ashes and 4^th is hills on Church Lane. All at 18:45 from Leo's.
• Thursday may move back to Scott Hall, but will continue for the time being from Leo's at 18:45 - check with Kathy Kaiser (269-4820).
• Sunday continues at 09:15 from Smithy Mills - contact Gary Shipley (294-1726) or Paul Furness (269-8231) for details.

Showers - There is still no progress on Leos' lottery application for the major extension to the Clubhouse. At the AGM we voted that we should pursue the option to install a shower in the Referees' Changing Rooms for use by the Wimmin and that we were prepared to provide a large share of the finance from our bank balance.

Xmas Meal - Friday December 18th at Leo's - a hot and cold buffet - £8 per person. Contact Steve O to book your place(s) - by 30^th November if possible.

Xmas / New Year Handicap - was agreed to be Sunday December 22nd (not 29th as listed in the AGM Agenda) at 10:30 a.m. from the Res., afterwards at Leo's for the traditional "exchanging" of Xmas presents.

Trail Race 1999 - confirmed that this would be on Saturday March 27th

WAVA 1999 Gateshead - XC on July 29, Marathon on August 8

W.Yorks XC - See back page for dates - £3 to Paul or Sylvia covers all 4 races.

Calderdale Way Relay - is on Sunday Dec 13 - contact Paul F or Geoff.

Best Wishes were forwarded from all at the AGM to George Black to wish him well for his new life in Scotland.

Best Wishes for a Speedy Recovery were sent in particular (and in alphabetical order) to Yvonne Bissitt, Chris Jackson, Ronnie Pannell and Sharon Wright, but also to all currently injured runners - soon may they be back in training!

• Wayne Bentley - a member in the mid to late 80's (no that's not his age!)- is back in training and although now living in Oldham, is threatening to (a) re-join and (b) give us all a scare at the Abbey Dash.
• Andy Blakeley - is the headmaster of Springbank School in Leeds. His main sport is karate, but he also runs to keep fit. Rumour has it that he has been put off coming as he is concerned that he will be left behind by these "hares" - some of our other new members - George and Graham will vouch that this is not the case.
• Jo Catherall and Julie Corrigan - see Sylvia's LCW report.
• Paul Crosse - one Scotsman (George Black) leaves us and another joins. Paul works for the Halifax plc, was living temporarily in Alwoodley and spotted the Striders out training. He has now moved to Wetherby, but has signed up with us.
• Fran Dingsdale - a colleague of Natalie's. They ran as a pair at the LCW and the Calderdale Way. Natalie and Fran are now frequent Tuesday trainees (not the right word, but you know what I mean).
• Graham Firth - is the husband of Jill, the midwife who took Dawn into the hospital when the twins were born. Gary again met Jill and her husband Graham at the South Leeds 5 last year, when he was told of the Valley Striders and was persuaded to come and join us.
• George Little - Tim Towler's brother in law - ran 48 something in the Harewood 10k, but over the last 4 months, with some regular Tuesday training, has brought his 10k PB down by 5 minutes.
• John Sutcliffe - a member in the early 90's - is back in training and has re-joined us. He had entered Guy Fawkes but did not show - hope not another injury!
• Aileen Loftus - Mick e-mailed me to say "Charlie and I had a baby girl on Tuesday 10th November. We have called her Aileen. I'm not sure if she'll be too young to enter the Abbey Dash, I'll have to check... Mother and baby are both doing well. However, I will probably be missing a few more Tuesday nights due to double bath-time and bed-time antics (Ronan is now 2 years old)".

I know people don't like being reminded about their age, but I only do this (to each of you) every 5 years

• 45 - Steve Dixon 13/07/98, Liz Ball 17/07/98
• 50 - Chris Kaye 14/10/98, Sue Midgley 27/11/98, Bill McGrogan 25/12/98, Paul Furness 29/12/98

Grand Prix (from Bob)

Autumn Handicap - There was a 2-line report in the last VS News. Thanks to ever-presents Mike and Eileen Crosfill who were again on duty for the timekeeping and to John Umpleby who handed out the "discs". The cup, first presented by John in Spring 1988, was won by John Hallas, who had a 11/2 minute margin from Bob Jackson. Fastest times were Gary Shipley 34:16, Steve Webb 36:30 and Harry Bates 37:15. Slowest was a certain J.W. for whom our recorders had to wait in the gloom for his return. 20 ran.

Horsforth 10k - Tim Towler's 37.44 was fastest and 40:04 was sufficient for Bob Jackson to secure 99 GP points. Where were the fast boys and girls - young and old? Last year we won 3 individual and 2 team Yorkshire Vets Champs.

This year our only Yorks Vets Champion was Sylvia (W50) with a time of 43.22 - congratulations.

Rowntrees 10 at York - Roy scored his 6th 100-points with a good 60:54, Tim ran 63:06 and Peter 68:05. George Little would have broken his 10k PB on his way to 71:28 in his first even 10-miler. Andy Hinton's 73:46 and Penny Sanders' 78:03 were also good times that have been noted for the next Club Handicap.

Cross Country at Bingley - Steve Webb finished 19th overall, but our next counter was not till 89 (Mick Wrench) and the men finished 15th of 19 teams. In the wimmin's race, Liz overtook Kathy on the final straight and they finished 12th and 13th. Natalie also had an excellent run for 21st, but we had no fourth runner - even if our fourth had finished last in the race, the team would still have finished 5th.

Guy Fawkes 10 at Ripley - (from Bob) The race entry form said "hilly" and it was - maybe not quite so steep as the Otley 10 but there was not a flat piece throughout. Tim was first Strider in 64:08, Steve O (66:05) came past me on the first downhill and I never saw him again, he also overtook Roy (66:43) running after a 3 week layoff and Tony Haygarth (67:23). Kathy (68:16) overtook me (68:24) in the last mile - she could have done with another 200 yards to catch Ken (68:10). My tactical race meant I got my picture in the Harrogate Advertiser at the 8 mile mark (scenic picture of runners crossing single-track bridge over River Nidd)! Just behind me was Peter (69:22) and running his first senior competitive race for the Striders was Paul O'Callaghan (72:08).

Cross Country at Ilkley - a steep climb for the first 200 yards and then we were into the ankle-deep mud for the next 200. The rest of the course was reasonably dry, but the wimmin had to tackle the hill and mud twice, the men three times. Only Kathy and Carole ran for the wimmin - Kathy was 19th and Carole not far behind. Steve Webb was again our leading man and Paul Briscoe made his first competitive appearance since the 3 Peaks.

Roundhay 5 mile - Mick Wrench had obviously not tried hard enough at the cross-country, because he was our leading runner at the Roundhay 5 the next day. Alan Hutch ran his first race after 6 months of injury. Peter Lambert was also a glutton for punishment, having run the Burley Bridge Hike 21 mile LDWA event the previous day. Max was 1st M70 (by over a minute per mile!)

Abbey Dash - This was, as usual, the best-supported race of the year, with 16 or so Striders amongst the record-breaking 2000 runners. Steve Webb must have known about the 400 metres of path (or grass) in the Abbey grounds, because he turned out for his first road race in the GP, and his 34:26 was well worth 100 points. Mick Wrench broke 36, and after him the Striders came in steadily, with slimmer-of-the-year SteveO (36:25), Tim (36:37) and a P.B. for Niels (38:05). Dave Cusack also had a PB (44:15) and making comebacks from injury were BobW and PaulW. It was also good to see two "retired" Striders, Martin Cockerham and Don Wrigley. Martin had obviously been getting in a little training to run his 45mins and Don made his regular single annual appearance, running 49 mins (not bad for 60+ on minimal training and a heart pacemaker).

It has been nip and tuck between Steve and Roy all year, but towards the end Roy's injuries meant he had to miss some races. Steve finished with 7 100's and one 99 to be one ahead of Roy's 6 100's and 2 99's. Actually they were a bit like Coe and Ovett - they only raced against each other twice in the year, with Steve coming out ahead on both occasions, so the better man won, albeit marginally.

Kathy had the wimin's title sewn up by about July and Liz was best wimin's vet. (Roy, of course, won men's vet). Best O-50 was shared by Eric and Peter - Eric drew level by beating Peter by one place at the Abbey Dash. Group winners were Tim, Dick and Max (Max will now have a Striders vest to wear instead of that Birchfield thing).

• 8 races or more (best 8) : SteveW 799, Roy 798, Tim 796, KathyK 791, BobJ 777, Liz 775, Dick 774, Ian 773, Eric & Peter 770, BobW 769, TonyH 762, Geoff 752, Max 748, PaulWhite 747, Carole 746
• 7 races : none!
• 6 : MickW 592, Howard 570, AlanW 564, GeorgeLittle 555, JohnW 538

Grand Prix T-shirts will be "presented" early in the new year - anyone who ran 8 races but didn't win a category or group can order one from me at £5.

Holmfirth 15 - Yorks 15-mile Championships (from Peter Lambert)

Sunday 25th October 1998 saw the staging of the 31st Holmfirth 15 on a day which, thankfully, was slightly drier than the day before of 50mph winds and torrential rain and floods.

The wind had died down to a mere gale and squally showers prevailed, but I was thankful it was not a triathlon with swimming involved!

For the uninitiated the course is 2 laps from a school above Holmfirth, with a downhill start for about 2 miles and the rest seems eternally climbing with a steep climb at the end of each lap. Even the finish is uphill into the school yard.

Because of the weather, times were down as would be expected, which took its toll on some of the "lesser mortals" with 36 retirements out of 220 starters.

Even the indefatigable Gerry Spink suffered, taking over 2 hours to complete the course. There must have been a rush of people that night writing in their race diaries that they had beaten the mighty Gerry. Still a formidable runner at 67.

My effort was 3 mins slower than last year at 1:43:54 - this was enough to earn me first O/60 and with it the Yorks Vets Championship for the 2nd year running. Pity it wasn't in the Striders Grand Prix or I could have claimed my first ever 100 points as no-one else was there from the Striders. Better luck next year!

Corrections to Previous Issue (from Boøb)

Page 2 : The Wimmin's Team finishing 7^th at the West Yorks Road Relays at Wakefield were Kathy K, Lyn (not Liz), Sylvia and Carole.

Page 4 : Correction to correction in previous issue - Ron Pannell is also a sub-2:30 veteran marathoner with 2:29 aged 493/4 at Bristol. (Max calculates this to be age-graded 92.79% worth 2:16:41 in open-class competition).

Page 14 : In the race in Wales where Geoff finished 4th, there were 16 (not 160) competitors.

Page 24 : The narrative about the Fell Championship positions was written by B.J. not G.W. and the metaphor about Liz's challenge would have read better had he written "a final push for the summit".

Coach's Column (from Max)

Vets News - 1999 WAVA Update (from Bob & Max)

As stated in last VS News, the two events which will be of most interest to Striders are the 10km cross-country on July 29 and the marathon on August 8. The dates are the same for men and women and, if the format is the same as previous World Championships, the marathon will be one race for all whereas the cross-country will be divided by gender and by age-group into 8 or so separate races.

The marathon is a 2-lap course based from Gateshead Stadium and taking in a couple of miles (twice) of the Great North Run route. The cross-country is based from Maiden Castle at Chester-le-Street, which is where the "Safeway" races were held in November.

To be eligible to enter, you need to be a member of the Northern Vets, whose (temporary) membership secretary is Derek Howarth at 6 Stonecross Lane, Lowton, Warrington, WA3 2SB. The fee is £6, due annually on January 1st, so wait till 1999 before sending your money!

Now the bad news. Including the WAVA affiliation fee, the cost of entering any one event is £31. But then each subsequent event is only £7. So if you're going to enter the marathon, you might as well enter the cross-country as well (or the javelin or the pole vault). We have copies of the entry form, which then needs to be sent to Barbara Dunsford, 71 Hillside Crescent, South Harrow, Middlesex, HA2 0QU - before 29th April. Let us know A.S.A.P. if you are thinking about entering.

And don't be put off by the £31. The total costs, including travel, for Gateshead will be considerably less than for the 2001 Championships in Brisbane!

Paul Stockburn wrote in The Yorkshire Evening Post Friday 2nd October:

Subsequently we have had voting papers to vote for a new President of Athletics UK, whose only responsibility will be, according to Max, to appoint the new Chief Executive (who we presume to be Dave Moorcroft) and his "main board".

Due to the shortage of time to submit a vote, Striders present on a Tuesday evening in October were involved in a ballot to nominate who our Club vote should support - it was an overwhelming vote in favour of Eddie Kulukundis. As you will have read in the papers, the result of the election was that David Hemery MBE was voted in (and you'll have seen him, still lean and mean, presenting the "Sports Personality of the Year to Michael Owen).

George Black has finally emigrated - to a village called Kingskettle (one farm and 4 houses), near Freuchie in Fife. He's retaining his Striders membership and says he will proudly wear his white and black vest while training.

International News

Japanese News - River Shimanto 100k (from Sylvia)

I joined the Great Britain Team for the World 100k Championships at Heathrow on Sunday afternoon 11th October

• Women : Sharon Gayter, Carolyn Hunter-Rowe, Eleanor Robinson, Hilary Walker, me
• Men : Greg Dell, Stephen Moore, Simon Pride, Don Ritchie, William Sichel
• Managers : Norrie Williamson (overall), Ros Young (women), Dave Walsh (men), Len Cullen (masseur)

Hilary, delayed by a meeting, and Don, travelling on from a trip to India, would arrive on Tuesday evening. The rest of us arrived in Japan on Monday afternoon local time having put our watches forward 10 hours.

Kansai Airport, Osaka, is on an artificial island and we stayed in the airport hotel for 3 nights. This was the only skyscraper around : I was on the 47th floor, breakfast was on the 54th floor and was superb, help yourself to all manner of European and Japanese delicacies.

Tuesday we went by train to Osaka, one group visiting a high tech area and the other (mine) visiting Osaka castle and grounds where we saw the makeshift homes of some of the 10,000 homeless of Osaka (info. courtesy Julian Pettifer, "Crossing Continents", on Radio 4, since my trip). Wednesday was a shorter train trip to an old town with temples. Thursday we flew south 45 minutes to Kochi on the island of Shikoku and from there a 3 hour coach trip took us to Nakamura City, the race venue.

Before we left home we had been sent a booklet containing information about Japan, Nakamura City and the race. The whole town had gone to a lot of trouble to make us welcome and the schoolchildren in particular had got involved illustrating street maps and painting stones from the Shimanto River for us.

All meals were eaten in the hotel, self service of a superb spread. I doubt even Don Ritchie felt the need to supplement with muesli sprinkled with Leppin as he had in Osaka.

On Friday we were taken by coach over the last 60k of the race route (the first 40k was on a narrow road, impassable by coach). Lunch was at Towa village where the local townswomen had put on yet another superb spread. We were entertained by the school's brass band. In the cookery class children were wearing face masks in the interests of hygiene which contrasted with the wellies provided for us when we visited the hole-in-the-ground toilets.

Back at Nakamura we were hurried into an informal flag parade in the shopping arcade followed by a display of Hata-Kagura dancing, koto performances (stringed musical instruments) and the tea ceremony. All performed in traditional costume accompanied by a strong smell of mothballs!

The weather thus far had been dull, often drizzling, but above all, extremely humid. I had never experienced such conditions. A TV channel was entirely devoted to the progress of the typhoon and on Saturday evening it passed Nakamura. Had we been directly in its path or had it arrived late the race would have been cancelled. As it was, just 30 minutes delay allowed the course to be checked for mudslides.

On Sunday, we left the hotel at 3am. We were bussed to the start area, arriving about 4am. The start area was lit by huge torches (flames) at the side of the road! We had the luxury of a school room to ourselves and easy access to loos. We were laid out(!) but even in my zombie-like state, having had 2 desperately bad nights, sleep was out of the question, prevented by the noise from the masses outside and the regularly repeated announcements. There were about 1000 Japanese and 120 foreigners running.

The start was at 6am and the skies were clear for the first time so it was sunscreen and sun hat. My memories of the race were hazy - I was out there for a long time!

We followed the River Shimanto with waterfalls flooding across the road. Lots of bamboo and semi-tropical vegetation. Between 15k and 20k we climbed 2000 ft and saw the sunrise just touching the mountain tops. A long downhill (ugh) followed and then the route undulated - almost entirely on minor traffic-free roads through paddy fields and small settlements and never far away from the Shimanto River.

There were 36 drink/food stations including 14 special drinks tables for the internationals, 4 of which were "handling" zones; there was access to toilets at 39 places! The Shimanto River is often called the last pure river in Japan - and they want to keep it that way! The location of the toilets was shown by illustrations on the map of the route. The portaloos in the mountains were not too tempting, but it would certainly have been a novel way to gain access to Japanese homes where most of the toilets were located later in the race.

Even by the first handling zone at 37k it was getting hot and obeyed Len's instruction to put my hat on. He rubbed some cooling gel into my quads to amazing effect and I readily agreed to a second helping at the next handling zone at 62k, but the effect here was zero presumably because my quads were beyond help. This was the only bag drop area so I was able to renew my sunscreen - I was one of the few not to get burnt even though I was out longest. Nanette, Dave Walsh's friend, just managed to hang on for me at 82k before the last support bus left (!) and soon after this I vomited (although Eleanor and Hilary had both beaten me in this sideshow). The drinks were disgustingly hot with sitting in the sun. I'd carried some Leppin sachets in a bum bag (never trust the support) and had attached more to some of the bottles I'd sent to the special drinks stations. The water supplied was ice cold and in hindsight I should have drunk that with my Leppin sachets and abandoned my pre-mixed bottles. I never fully appreciated how hot it was as I took every opportunity to pour water over my head/hat. I thought this was cold but was surprised later to find ice cubes in the water. They'd gone to such trouble. Apparently it got up to 30^oC and there was little shade. At the last handling zone at 94k Dave told me the wonderful news that Carolyn had won.

I finished. Simon and William had superb runs to finish 6th and 22nd but they were the only ones to the finish in time for the awards ceremony! It was a tough course and the weather made it tougher. The women's team all finished, but, except Hilary, we all did PWs - and that included Carolyn. The drop-out rate was high and that included Greg and Stephen.

Norrie produced a bottle of champagne later in the evening to celebrate Carolyn's victory. On Monday we left by coach for Kochi and the flight to Osaka where we stayed one night before the flight home. The typhoon had hit Osaka early Sunday morning (race day) and had moved a 300 ton jumbo jet 7 metres. On Monday morning, on the 40th floor of our hotel, I got up early and sat with my feet up, drinking green tea, reading the Japanese Times and looking down the road towards the airport in sight about a mile away. Makes you think!

I allowed plenty of time for the last breakfast including my fill of lychees. I hadn't risked an egg before the race so, assured it would be hard boiled, I took one to supplement the flight meals .. fortunately it didn't break in my bag and I'd wrapped it well just in case. Well if they eat raw fish why not raw eggs!

The Sunday Run (from Assistant Editor Tim Towler)

Every running club has their own "Sunday Run". Traditionally we have met at Smithy Mills, off the Ring Road. My own training diary shows my first Valley Striders Sunday Run was on the 31^st August 1986, by which time the route which rarely varied was long established. In dry summer conditions it went through Adel Woods, skirting Headingley Golf Club, round Eccup Reservoir and over the country to the Harewood Estate. Onwards through Dunkeswick and on to Arthington on the Pool Road to dash up Creskeld Lane before the weary trek through Golden Acre Park and down Adel Lane back to Smithy Mills. A sixteen mile circuit. In the wet winter months the early off-road sections were substituted by on-road routes through Adel to the reservoir and the Harewood Estate was ignored for the road through Eccup, past the New Inn, "Christmas Tree Lane" or so we called it, past "Dog Bite Farm" to drop down the Arthington-Pool road. A slightly shortened circuit of fifteen miles.

After losing its popularity, thankfully the Sunday Run is back. The routes are certainly less rigid, often decided on the morning though occasionally a bit of planning or even plotting takes place beforehand.

During the last four or five weeks one of our runs took us from Smithy Mills to join the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at Kirkstall, travelling eastwards through the city centre to leave the River Aire at the start of the Aire-Calder Navigation Canal and work our way back through Knowsthorpe, Richmond Hill, Burmantofts and Sheepscar back to home territory of the Meanwood Valley. We have also run westwards along the canal, joining it at Sandoz, near Rodley, and travelling almost as far as Shipley, leaving the canal we skirted Baildon to run through Tong Park heading towards Hawksworth, to drop down into Guiseley where by arrangement we were picked up and driven back to Smithy Mills (thank you Jane and Louise.)

Regulars will also now know the route through Roundhay Park and North Hill Woods, over the Ring Road and the fields beyond to Shadwell and from there again over the fields to Wike. The circuit working its way back to the Harrogate Road, Eccup Reservoir and via Adel Woods home.

Steve O' as club captain and chief scout is to the fore in finding new routes and in his words "You see a little local geography, learn a little local history and hear a lot of bullshit!!!!"

A long Sunday run is a must to anybody wishing to race half marathon distances and longer. All that is required is to be fit and sober enough to run at 9.15 on Sunday morning, to have a 21/2 hour "pass out", to have the ability to run at 71/2 to 8 minute mile pace for two hours (15 or 16 miles) and to have a reasonably broad mind.

See you next Sunday.....................Tim

I reported the overall positions in the last VSNews, so I must first pass on congratulations to Carole and Kathy who won the fastest leg trophy for Leg 5.

The Vets' and Wimmin's Teams both retained their runners-up shields/cups. The vets team were 9^th overall, and the "A" team 10^th - the difference being just 65 seconds! Thanks in particular to (a) the three team captains and (b) the last minute substitutes.

I had asked all the team captains for a full report. Sylvia has obliged (see opposite), but since the men's captains had struggled so hard to get the teams together, I thought they deserved a rest ... until next year.

So here are the detailed results and statistics courtesy of Dave Bath and his Kippax Harriers race organising team.

NB The figure in brackets is the position in which the pair finished for the leg, the other figure is the position of the team at the end of the leg e.g. the two Pauls were the 6th fastest pair on leg 4 and at the end of leg 4 the team were in 9th place.

Leeds Country Way Wimins Team Report - from Sylvia

Leg 1 - Kathy K & Liz had an excellent run to be beaten only by a couple of seconds by Abbey Women. They beat both V.S. men's teams easily.

Leg 2 - Sylvia was dragged along by new recruit Jo, a former 400m hurdler. She leapt the stiles well but a knee problem (contagious?) meant the pace had to ease off. Steady running then saw us to pass Abbey, but not gain much of a lead.

Leg 3 - We handed over to Lyn and another new recruit Julie who had joined us at short notice. We were ensured a complete womens team, but we lost our lead and in fact dropped to 4th.

Leg 4 - Natalie and Fran had a superb run here on the toughest leg and made up a lot of time but there was too much to do to gain any (women's) places.

Leg 5 - Kathy S & Carole set off in hot pursuit and, in spite of Carole's dodgy ankle which had seen a late leg change (did you mean to say this Sylvia? - yes, replied Sylvia, she keeps a spare in the wardrobe!) to this section, they were the fastest women's team on this leg and brought us up to 2nd.

Leg 6 - None of the women's teams made the cut-off so it was a mass start here. Penny & Erica had an excellent run but were unable to pull back the 10 minute deficit, finishing 2nd.

Well done everybody and special thanks to Chief Recruiting Officer Carole and to everyone for mucking in with all the last minute changes. Next year will again be the Sunday after August Bank Holiday - keep it free and WE'LL SHOW 'EM!

Niels Laustsen e-mailed me "Berlin Marathon was very good. I ran in a new PB of 3:09:20. As you may have heard, a new world record was obtained: a guy named Ronaldo da Costa from Brazil ran in 2:06:05. So he was quite a bit ahead of me!!"

Niels then e-mailed me from Roundhay (doesn't sound very Danish) to say he was back in England - could he rejoin the Club (no he couldn't because he had never left). Since October he has been running well regularly at the Tuesday training sessions - which was confirmed by a good run at the Abbey Dash.

American News (from Mark Hoon in Maryland)

It has been a whole year since I last wrote. Part of the reason for my lack of messages is that the Spring season was particularly inactive. I ran 2 races early in the year, a 20k which was hilly local race where I finished second and a 10 mile race which I finished in 52mins 40secs.

Then my problems started, just before a "big" 10k race. I got a really bad case of sinusitis which eventually ended after 2 weeks of zero running and a course of antibiotics. Just as I was starting to run again I dropped a 10lb X-ray cassette on my foot. It cracked the bone in my right big toe clean through. That meant another four weeks of zero running. So much inactivity was so frustrating. Once I was fit again we were in the midst of the Washington heat when there are only a few races.

That meant I waited for the cooler weather of autumn to arrive. I ran a number of small races and then trained for the Richmond Marathon. On November 7th I raced down in the old Confederate capital. The description of the course was "flatter and faster" than previous years, however it was not flat. Even so, I finished 4th in 2hrs 29mins 28secs.

My biggest news of the year though is that my wife and I became parents on November 13th to a baby boy. Now our real marathon begins ...

Best wishes to all in the Club.

Weather cold and wet but not as cold as in 1996 when 5 Spiders turned out. This time only two, Liz and G.W. Liz finished 4th wumin and won a good set of vest and shorts. She should have been 3rd but went for a 1/2mile detour on a scenic bit, but didn't see much due to the thick mist. This enabled G.W. to take maximum championship points by beating Liz by a comfortable 6 minutes. He won some interesting scars on his knees by falling down on a particularly rocky track while watching Liz's back.

The good news about this race was that it was from a new venue and this meant that the big finishing climb was now a long descent. The bad news was that the race was 21/2 miles longer. But the new course seems better than the old one in that there are fewer twists and turns and less chance of getting lost (but some people still manage it).

Fell Championship (Geoff Webster 266-6288)

Tony Foster is the new Spiders Fell Champion. This is the second time he has achieved this great distinction. He had a tough battle for most of the season with Steve Webb and only pulled clear when Steve was absent from the last few races. Steve was overtaken for second place by Liz who has also had a good season and picked up some good prizes. This is the 3rd occasion that one of the wimin has been runner-up (Sylvia twice previously). Tony Haygarth also had a good season of fell running and finished in fourth place his highest ever position. Last year's winner, young G.W. was 5th and Sylvia 6th. Final points:

1. Tony Foster 806

2. Liz Ball 749

3. Steve Webb 692

4. Tony Haygarth 502

5. G.W. 498

6. Sylvia 350

7. Ken Kaiser 230

8. Andrew Tones 228

9. Mick Wrench 201

10. Paul Webster 177

11. Kathy Kaiser 162

12. Lyn Bostock 156

13. Paul Briscoe 127

14. Bob Wilkes 110

15. Peter Lambert 100

16. John Whalley 86

17. Natalie Curtis 79

18. Mick Loftus 52

19. Eric Cusack 48

Tony Haygarth took maximum points here for the first time. It is suspected that the new good path through the forest, where previously it had been a quagmire, told heavily in his favour. The deep mud usually slows Tony enough to allow him to be caught on the final descent. But not this year! He established a long enough lead to be back in Silsden with a couple of minutes to spare over Liz and G.W.

Liz got her revenge on the decrepit old codger for the defeat at Lords Stones. She was at the finish with 30 seconds to spare and still had the strength to carry G.W. back to the car. But the old man is on Phyllosan so he will bounce back next year!

By the way we thought Liz was 3rd wumin but we didn't have time to stay for the prizes.

Sat Jan 9 Yorkshire Championships at Rotherham

Sun Jan 10 Yorkshire Vets Champs at Graves Park, Sheffield

Sun Jan 17 1330/1400 3^rd West Yorks X-C at Nunroyd Park, Guiseley

Sun Jan 30 North of England Champs at Graves Park, Sheffield

Sat Feb 13 1330/1400 4^th West Yorks X-C at Woodside, Bradford

Sat Mar 13 English National X-C at Newark

Good events in January include

Sat Jan 2 Ovenden Fell Race 8 miles from Ogden Res off A629

Sat Jan 16 Boulsworth Hill 61/2 Herders Arms Laneshawbridge Colne

Sun Jan 24 Stanbury Splash 7 nr Haworth (GW for further details)

Sun Jan 31 Scarborough Rock x/c marathon

Sun Dec 20 1030 Xmas Handicap 5 from Eccup Res (Alwoodley Lane)

Sun Jan 17 1330/1400 3^rd West Yorks X-Country at Nunroyd Park, Guiseley

Sun Jan 31 1000 Brass Monkey 1/2 marathon at York Racecourse - increased

race limit but no late entries - incl Yorks 1/2m Champs

Sat Feb 13 1330/1400 4^th West Yorks X-Country at Woodside, Bradford

Sun Feb 28 ???? Huddersfield 10k from ???? Brewery on Holmfirth Rd

Sun Mar 7 1115 South Leeds 5

Sun Mar 14 Spen 20

Tue Mar 30 1845 Spring Handicap 10k

Sun Apr 11 Wakefield City 10k

Sun Apr ?? Rothwell 10k

Mon May 3 Wigginton 10k

Sun May 16 Leeds Marathon AND Half Marathon

Confirmation and full details of events from March in next newsletter.

As usual, I am a little late sending out this Newsletter - please accept my apologies. I'm too late to wish you a Merry Christmas (thanks to Steve for organising another excellent Xmas do at Leo's), but I send you all best wishes for a successful and injury-free 1999.

Bob