<strong>Dark</strong> <strong>Peak</strong> News <strong>Winter</strong> <strong>2012</strong> page 32sure other members can cite similarly closemargins. But “What if?” won’t close the gap.We will just have to try harder next year.The racing season ends with the relaysin October. With our excellent champsperformances we thought we could do reallywell in the Lakeland Ian Hodgson Relay andthe GB relays, this year hosted by Mercia.At the Hodgsons all the team ran theirbest, but Borrowdale were again just toostrong for us and unfortunately we werejust caught by the excellent run from CalderValley on the last leg. Fifth in 2011; third thisyear. We’re obviously going to win it nexttime! Easier said than done definitely, but wecan make it an aim. Borrowdale’s hold onthis race really needs to be broken, and wecan do that if we get our best team out, (notnecessarily our eight fastest runners, but fourpairs who will be best suited for the differentand varied legs). Particular thanks to DanMiddlemas and Will Boothman on the firstleg, making their debut relay run for DPFR.Great start guys to keep us near the front.The GB relays from Church Strettonwould be very different, covering the shortand grassy, but equally steep, slopes of theLong Mynd area. There was good banter onthe start line, excitingly from the town square.The captain went off first and I finishedsecond, importantly with a small gap overour big rivals. But was it enough? John Huntalso ran strongly, as usual, for the V40’s, andMike Nolan made sure his slide down the lasthill kept the ‘B’ team ahead of the leadingwoman. Oli and Rhys took over on leg twofor the ‘A’ team with hopes they could builda lead. A few longer hills may have suitedthem, but they absolutely gutted themselvesto maintain a small lead over Borrowdale,P&B, and Mercia. Third leg as usual actuallyinvolved a map. But the route wasn’t verychallenging for orienteering experts Neil andPete, or claggy enough for them to makedecisive clever route choices.The fasterBorrowdale and Mercia guys reeled them in.Potential controversy when Mercia reportedthe SI punch box wasn’t in place, but it wasruled this had no effect on the race result. Bynow I was quite excited. Mercia, with Englishchampion Si Bailey, went out in the lead andafter Morgan Donnelly appeared (or not) tobe quite ready, recently returned from injuryStuart Bond was chasing hard, also closelyfollowed by John Heneghan for P&B. Quitea set of runners! And all within 30 seconds.No pressure then Stu. Indeed he didn’t seemto feel any, blasting round behind England’stop two Simon and Morgan to bring <strong>Dark</strong><strong>Peak</strong> home third. I got a bit confused abouthow our other teams were doing, but it wasquite clear Calder Valley were very strongin V40, and we eventually finished third inthis category. However, V50 team managedto win. Great going everyone, including aslightly cobbled together ‘B’ team. Greatopportunity for a run next year if you want to,chaps.<strong>2012</strong> SummaryMen open: second English Champs, secondBritish ChampsEnglish Champs: Lloyd fourth, Rob Bakerfifth, Rhys sixth, Oli twelfthThird GB relaysV40s: third English, third BritishLloyd first English and BritishJon Morgan eleventh, John Huntfourteenth in English seriesThird GB relaysV50s: English ChampionsEnglish Champs: Mick Stenton third,Gavin Williams fourth, Richard Horsfieldseventh, Keith Holmes twelfthFirst “unofficial” GB relaysCongratulations to Dave Tait for finishingfourth in V60s English Champs, and also a
<strong>Dark</strong> <strong>Peak</strong> News <strong>Winter</strong> <strong>2012</strong> page 33big thanks to Dave for running his Carshareblog on <strong>Dark</strong> <strong>Peak</strong> website, always keepingus up to date with events and results.Also I’d like to congratulate 27 year oldStuart Walker for his Alpine adventure thissummer, covering 1100 miles or thereaboutsin 34 days from Vienna to Nice, basically selfsupported. Luckily Stuart’s navigation abilityhas improved in the last year or so!And finally, well done to Neil for finallygetting his hands on the club champs trophyafter a few years of being close.As always apologies if missed anyone offwho thinks I shouldn’t have.So, <strong>2012</strong> has been a very close andexciting year of racing. Thank you toeveryone who raced for <strong>Dark</strong> <strong>Peak</strong> andenjoyed themselves out on a fell. It’s great tosee, and hopefully next year we can do evenbetter. Please do support your club if youcan. As you can see, with such close marginseven just standing cheering on the fellsidecould make the difference. (And come onguys, we’ can’t let the women have all theglory can we?). Indeed many congratulationsto the English and British Champs winningwomen’s team, and to captain Kirsty, who is Ibelieve now handing over the reigns. Nice togo out at the top, hey?See you all at the Skyline in March if notbefore.Train hard and enjoy racing.Rob LittleThe club’s assets, (see p4)