Otley's Mawson is third in Ackworth 10K

The next day18 club members gathered in East Keswick for the sixth event in the handicap series.

Jennie McKenzie won by 50 seconds with a time of 40:23 (34:23 net). Trevor Lambert was next (33:13 net) followed closely by Tony Allen (33:16 net) and Antonio Cardinale (32:18 net).

The fastest time of the night was recorded, as usual, by Ian Fisher who finished in 15th place with 43:52 (23:52 net).

Three members, Chris Carver, Paul Clifford and Neil Cayton, did not have their times recorded as they finished so long after the rest due to navigational difficulties!

After six events Antonio Cardinale has opened up a six point lead over Paul Clifford (73 points to 67) with Malcolm Court third with 59 points.

Three days later eight members took part in the Harewood Chase, a 10k off road event almost entirely within the grounds of Harewood Estate.

First finisher for Otley was Chris Carver (making a welcome return to racing) with 38:45 for 22nd position.

He was followed by Carl Walsh with 41:21 for 38th and Colin Best with 43:13 for 47th.

Other Otley finishers were Peter McGouran in 44:31 (55th), Antonio Cardinale in 47:17 (73rd) and Peter McManus whose time and position is unknown at present.

In the separate ladies race Ursula McGouran ran 47:28 for 19th place and Clare Kellett 54:35 for 37th.

National Juniors

A gloriously warm, but breezy, Moorways Stadium, Derby, was the scene for the second round of the Pennine Division of the National Junior (U-20) Athletics League.

Here 16-year-old Horsforth athlete Andrew Staniland of Leeds City AC, consolidated his position in a top three spot in the Athletics Weekly National Junior League Grand Prix individual competition. His day began well with a victory in the long jump with 6.84m and this was closely followed by another victory in the high jump, equalling his outdoor personal best with 1.90m.

Since the NJAL is an under-20 competition, he was then obliged to throw the 800g javelin and duly set a personal best with this weight of 47.46m for second place.

At the same meeting 15-year-old Fraser Davies mixed it well with older age group competitors.

He was second in the U-17 discus (1.75kg) with a personal best throw of 32.85m. He was also third in the pole vault with 2.80m and third in the B string javelin (800g) with 28.17m. He produced a pleasing 6.04m when he guested in the long jump.

Finally, he ran a fine leg of the winning Leeds City 4 x 100m relay team in 45.3sec.

In the junior women's match, Leeds City finished in third equal position with Horsforth's Bethany Staniland winning the B string of the shot (4kg) with a putt of 9.96m, a performance that placed her fourth overall.

She then went on to win both the A javelin (600g) with 29.56m and the B 400m with 62.1s.Finally she ran a 60.7s relay split for the second placed Leeds 4 x 400m team.

Skyrac AC's Alex Merrill also had a busy afternoon with her second claim club, Spenborough AC, in the A string throwing events. She was second in the hammer (4kg) with 35.30m, third in discus with 31.30m and fourth in the shot with 9.50m.

At Trafford, three local athletes produced creditable performances in the Senior North of England AA Champ-ionships. Sixteen-year-old Amy How-ard, of Skyrac AC, came fifth in the women's discus (1kg) with 34.92m and club-mate, Nicky Jackson, finished seventh in the hammer with 32.22m.

For the men, Horsforth's Simon Deakin (Leeds City AC) ran well for seventh place in the final of the 1500m in 3 mins.54.99s.

Track and Field League

Menston's Leeds City AC member Richard Ettenfield gave a very good account of himself competing for the A team in the North of England Men's League Division One at Jarrow.

A fifth place in the A string pole vault (3m) and a second position in the B string javelin (800g), with a personal best throw of 40.51m, earned valuable points for his third placed team.

The 3000m steeplechase saw Martin Roscoe and Andy Beevers gain maximum points. Roscoe won the A string with 9 mins.43.6s and Beevers took the B event with 9 mins.55.7s. Simon Deakin was also in impressive form, winning the A 5000m (14 mins.53.1s) and then achieving fifth place in the A 800m in 1 min.57.5s.

Andrew Staniland, of Horsforth, made his senior league debut in the B team in Division Three Central of the North of England Men's League at the South Leeds Stadium.

Here he achieved three pleasing second places as Leeds finished second behind City of Sheffield AC.

In the pole vault he had a personal best of 3.20m. He equalled his outdoor personal best of 1.90m in the high jump and had a second best ever javelin throw of 43.73.

Leeds City B teams tend to be a mixture of young athletes and veterans but nobody expected Andrew Staniland senior to make a comeback in a club vest after 18 years. He did but not in the 100m or 200m, as was once his wont, but in the shot (7.26kg) where a mighty 9.15m saw the 46-year-old come fifth in the A string and sixth overall.

At Bolton, first year under-17 woman Bethany Staniland made her debut for Leeds City AC in the senior leagues, in the Northern Women's League Division Two West.

In the long jump she had a season's best 4.98m for third in the A string. In the discus 29.95m gave her victory in the B event and a second place overall.

By the time of the javelin, the rain had eased to heavy drizzle and a throw of 29.36m saw her achieve fourth in the A string.

The sun came out for the relays and Bethany led the Leeds 4 x 400m team home to second place. She produced a pleasing 400m split of 63.3s as Leeds finished the meeting in fourth position.

Skyrac fellrunners

At the half way stage in their Championship Skyrac fellrunners should have been preparing for the 21 miles Dockray Helvellyn race but after nine years the race organiser has pulled the plug on the event in the same month that the 35 year-old, 23 miles Ennerdale race was cancelled because of low entries.

The prescient warning given by Graham Breeze and Brian Martin, when launching the Lakeland Classics Trophy two years ago, that the super long fell races were under threat appears to be coming true even sooner than they feared. Whilst the cancellation of Ennerdale has prompted hand-wringing amongst fellrunners the fact is that only four runners had pre-entered the event prompting the organiser to cancel.

When amateur status fellrunning started around 30 years ago far fewer fell races were organised and if one wanted a race it was only the, now classic, races that were available. However the subsequent decades have seen a plethora of easier and less worthy events seduce fellrunners away from the events that created fellrunning's heritage.

A run round a few fields near a village gala may be very pleasant: but it is not fellrunning. The 18 mile Kinder Trog in Derbyshire is maintaining its entry levels but it only claims 3,500 ft of climb (Ennerdale has double that) and much of the route involves easy running over the flagstones of the Pennine Way.

In scorching weather 116 runners completed the race last Sunday, won by Nick Leigh (Altrincham) in 1.57.36 and Skyrac runners were: 21st Duncan Asquith (2.11.35), 75th Malcolm Coles (2.38.31) and 77th Graham Breeze (2.40.26).

The day before saw Ian Holmes (Bingley) rack up a routine win at Buckden Pike in 33.37 and for Skyrac Nigel Kirkbright was 36th in 46.43 with Martin Farrar close behind in 40th on 47.45. For 21 years this race had been organised by Bingley's Pete Jebb but Alan Greenwood has now taken over the organisation. Perhaps Allan could be prevailed upon to pick up the baton for Dockray Helvellyn?

Skyrac can be contacted via www.skyrac.org.uk or 0113 2290924.