Report by Jo Daniels
Running in a Winter Wonderland
Todmorden Hit The Slopes at the Stanbury Splash Stoop
As the snow and ice settled created a picture postcard winter scene around the Haworth moors, a score of Toddies toed the line in Penistone quarry for the Woodentops Stanbury Splash race on Sunday morning. The freezing conditions meant that the race was in fact run over the Stoop course – there was simply too much ice on the Splash course to make it viable. The runners were taken on a pan handle shaped route that leads out to the Stoop stone and back, taking in trail, frozen bogs and thick icy mud along the 5 mile course. Dave Woodhead’s customary words of encouragement and advice to ‘stay on your feet on the way down’ were heeded by most, although cuts and bruises from falls in frozen bogs were evident on the legs of some of the finishers. The first runners home for Todmorden were Andrew Worster (4th in 37.56), Chris Goddard (41st in 40.09) and Paul Brannigan (63rd in 42.06). The sole senior lady for Todmorden was Gemma Ford. She finished 5th lady and 84th overall in 43.01. There was stiff competition in the middle order to with Andy Forbes, Martin Roberts and Duncan Ritchie finishing in 97th, 98th and 99th. Matt Annison and Simon Galloway shared a finishing time of 45.41, finishing 126th and 127th respectively. George Daniels was the sole junior on the hills. He finished 14th in the Under 8 race in a time of 3.45.
The full Todmorden results were:
24 Andrew Worster 00:37:56
41 Chris Goddard 00:40:09
63 Paul Brannigan 00:42:06
79 Richard Butterwick 00:42:44
84 Gemma Ford 00:43:01
90 Michael Harper 00:43:21
97 Andy Forbes 00:43:40
98 Martin Roberts 00:43:41
99 Duncan Richie 00:43:46
126 Matt Annison 00:45:41
127 Simon Galloway 00:45:41
131 Joe Daniels 00:45:57
133 Stuart Wolstenholme 00:46:07
154 Guy Whitmore 00:47:31
175 David Leslie 00:49:05
176 Neil Hodgkinson 00:49:07
182 Mark Whittaker 00:49:52
212 Richard O’Sullivan 00:52:50
265 Stephen Corrigan 01:02:04
276 Dave O’Neill 01:11:00
George Daniels 14th Under 8 3.45