The first of the season’s club events, the Summer Handicap was expected to be a pleasant evening dash through some mid-May sunshine … but instead it wasn’t far off the temperature of the previous Winter Handicap!  That didn’t stop 28 runners complete the course up to Netherton and back.  An amazing turnout, saying that the club membership only just touches 50, and with several members either time-keeping, supporting or pretending to be local paparazzi.

Summer Handicap 2010 - Club Photo

The event was won by new-boy Sam Philpot by a massive margin of over 2 and a half minutes, making sure his future handicapping will be much more punishing.  However, the club were delighted to gain another excellent prospect for the upcoming Joe Percy event – ample compensation for an easily won trophy.  Ruth Thomas came home 2nd in a personal time of 33.30, with similarly-handicapped Helen Hunter 3rd.

Summer Handicap - Winners

Full results:

The excellent evening was rounded off with pie and peas at the Community Centre with eyes now looking forward to a strong showing at the Joe Percy event, now with over 20 team members signed up for this annual invitational event.

Sunday 2nd May saw the annual Bluebell Trail Race take place, encompassing a challenging loop through Greetland, Halifax and Southowram.  The event, organised by Stainland Lions, was also part of the Club Championship and was well attended by many Meltham AC runners, seeing as so many have either just completed the London Marathon, or are in training for the Edinburgh Marathon.   

Although the morning was a bit on the chilly side, all the runners were brought to boiling-point by the demon climb up Trooper Lane.  This part-cobbled lane, situated around the 4 mile marker, scaled 570 feet in just over half a mile, and didn’t spare much for the remainder of the course.  At the bottom of the climb, Dave Watson of Holmfirth Harriers already had about a 2 minute lead on the rest of the field and he went on to comfortably win the 10.3 mile race in a time of 1:05:20.  Andy Whitworth was the leading Meltham AC runner in 8th in a time of 1:12:14, with Matt Dillingham two and a half minutes behind in 12th.   

The race had an excellent turnout with over 400 finishers and each and every one completing the final challenge of traversing the River Calder just before the finish line.  Full results can be found here and the Meltham finishers were as follows:     

• 8 1:12:14 380 Andy Whitworth M Meltham AC M40 M 4 07:00.8 4/53 8 4 – M40
• 12 1:14:50 332 Matthew Dillingham M Meltham AC M M 6 07:15.9 6/91 12 6 – M
• 56 1:23:26 26 Raymond McArthur M Meltham AC M55 M 2 08:06.0 2/27 56 2 – M55
• 113 1:29:50 70 Mick Lunn M Meltham AC M40 M 26 08:43.3 26/53 109 26 – M40
• 159 1:35:13 399 Fran Whitworth F Meltham AC F40 F 6 09:14.7 6/23 16 6 – F40
• 214 1:41:59 95 Sue Heap F Meltham AC F45 F 5 09:54.1 5/28 30 5 – F45
• 217 1:42:17 363 Jeffrey Taylor M Meltham AC M70 M 1 09:55.8 1/3 187 1 – M70
• 229 1:43:55 25 Fiona McArthur F Meltham AC F55 F 2 10:05.3 2/8 35 2 – F55
• 254 1:47:49 89 Martin Sturdy M Meltham AC M50 M 29 10:28.1 29/41 210 29 – M50
• 325 1:58:06 39 Alison Hargreaves F Meltham AC F45 F 19 11:28.0 19/28 80 19 – F45
• 359 2:04:11 292 Anne Tinsdeall F Meltham AC F40 F 18 12:03.4 18/23 106 18 – F40