Off Road Championship

Bored of tarmac? Why not go off road?

The following races make up the championship for 2023.

RaceDateTypeDistance
Silverdale Circuit11/02/23Trail20 miles
Bleasdale Circle18/02/23Fell5 miles
Trotters Trail Race05/03/23Trail4.5 miles
Wardle Skyline08/04/23Fell7 miles
Rivington 10m16/04/23Trail10 miles
Wray Caton Moor25/04/23Fell6 miles
Astley Park Trail Race03/05/23Trail3.7 miles
Pinhaw Moor Trail Race05/05/23Trail5 miles
Yarrow Valley Bluebell 10k14/05/23Trail6 miles
Hutton Roof Fell Race27/05/23Fell7 miles
Leo Pollard Memorial Race01/06/23Fell7.5 miles
Paddy’s Pole06/06/23Fell4 miles
Race the Train18/06/23Trail11 miles
Aggies Staircase22/06/23Fell4 miles
20 Barriers04/07/23Trail5 miles
Harrock Hill26/07/23Trail5 miles
Beetham Sports29/07/23Fell6 miles
Golf Ball23/08/23Fell5.5 miles
Hodder Valley Show09/09/23Fell8 miles
Worsley Woods24/09/23Trail5 miles

Full details of all the races can be found here.

Review of 2023 off road series

THE KING ISN’T DEAD – LONG LIVE THE KING

Forget football – that is won by oil money. Forget F1 – they make the rules up as they go along. Forget Rugby – The All Blacks always win that – and the Olympics – The Chinese have that in the bag. You want real competition…look no further…..

Alek Walker has finally emerged triumphant after a relentless 8 month struggle with Tom Crabtree over the WRR 2023 off road race series. There was only one question on everyone lips in the Beesley Green community centre at 8:30am on a humid Sunday morning in late September – could Tom somehow gain a low enough score to knock Alek off his perch? All he needed was a top 10 finish and for about 300 runners to turn up. Well he got 10th place, but with only 239 runners in the race his score of 0.042 wasn’t quite low enough to make the difference. Even though he won the battle with Alek, it wasn’t quite good enough to win the war, and Alek’s cumulative score of 0.35 has made him the champion.

Alek set the bar high early on, and by May already had his best 3 trail races, all finishing within the top 3% in them all. Not to be outdone, Tom, like a well seasoned poker player, matched his hand then slightly bettered it. It was all to play for on the fells. Aleks “short cut” certainly helped him at Wardle Skyline, but was never ruled out by VAR, so the result stood. Tom came top 11% or better in all his fell races, so Alek still had to put it in on one of his other races. That race turned out to be Golf Ball, on an summer evening so wet and dull you just wanted to turn up, tune out and get through it. Not only did Alek get through it, he managed to finish within the top 10% of the field and substantially reduce his overall score and place one hand on the title. This was the result that may have been a step too far for Tom.

Further down the table, Carl Groome beat Steve Myerscough into third place following his score at Worlsley, Ian Hogg who had a great season and made great improvements on last season came first male under 35, newcomers Kay Twist and Rob Dansons made great debut seasons finishing first woman and first male vet 55 respectively. Sally Deacon used the last race to leap frog Kirsty Holland into ladies runner up and leaving Kirsty with the female under 35 title.

31 competitors took part in the 2023 off road series, and we’ll hopefully see the likes of John Naylor, Finley McCalman, Stuart Grice and Martin Bates a bit more next season. Each race had Wesham representatives with a maximum attendance of 14 at Astley Park. Ian Hogg completed 18 out of the 20 races, completing the most races for a second year in a row.

The final results:

Alek 0.35, Tom 0.37, Carl 1.21, Steve 1.24, Ian 2.39, Kay 3.14, Rob 4.69, Sally 5.17, Kirsty 5.21

2023 Championships

In total there are 10 trail races and 10 fell races – advice on kit for fell races can be found here. Final kit requirements are made by the race organisers but always be prepared with full kit (waterproof top & leggings, map, compass, whistle, hat and gloves).

Prizes are determined by using the following criteria.

To qualify, you must complete a minimum of 3 fell races and 3 trail races.

Lowest score wins – scores are made up by dividing your finish position by the number of competitors in the race – the higher up the results you are, the lower your score.

Results 2023

Race 20 Worsley Woods

Race 19 Hodder Valley

Race 18 Golf Ball

Race 17 Beetham

“Hey everyone, there’s a free bar at the Wheatsheaf!”
Never seen these before
I didn’t realise we rock climbing was involved
Finley emerges…

Race 16 Harrock Hill

Only £4 and with a free shower thrown in

Race 15 20 Barriers

Mick the King Fell Running Champion 2001-2022, Runner of the year 1994-2022, GB athlete 2023

Race 14 Aggies Staircase

Blood, sweat and cheers at Aggies

Race 13 Race the Train

Race 12 Paddys Pole

Race 11 Leo Pollard memorial race

Race 10 Hutton Roof

Race 9 Yarrow Valley Bluebell Trail Race

Pauline, Anne and Jo
Hels Bells
Ian
Tom and Alek

Race 8 Pinhaw Moor Trail Race

Ian is still winning

Wesham’s finest

Race 7 Astley Park Trail Race

Congratulations to Ian Hogg our first qualifier!

Our biggest turnout to date!

Race 6 Wray Caton Moor

Feddie Mercu-Wray
Carmels shrunk
Enjoying the fells
Stuart chasing John
HOW MUCH CLIMBING!
The saint
Help – I’ve no grip on these shoes!
Pretending I love it
Ginger Spice
I have no control over my feet
Don’t stop me now, I’m having a good time

Race 5 Rivington 10

Race 4 Wardle Skyline

Wardle police have advised that this group of dangerous criminals should not be approached

Race 3 Trotter Trail Race

Martin isn’t really here

Race 2 Bleasdale Circuit

The boys are back in town

Race 1 Silverdale Circuit

Lee and Anne showing how it’s done

Archives:
2022 – Off Road Final Standings
2021 – No standings due to Covid
2020 – No Standings due to Covid
2019 – Trail Championship & Fell Championship
2018 – Trail Championship only