Report & Results 2021

Weather:  A bright, sunny and cold morning

Ground:  Generally firm – slippery in places

Some Simple Stats:  137 people took part: 49 Solo and 44 Pairs.

Organiser’s Notes and Comments:

What a difference a year, and a day, makes! Last year was supposed to be my first year of organising this wonderful event, which sadly had to be cancelled due to the Covid lockdown.

When the weather storms hit us on Saturday, I feared the worst and thought I might have to cancel the event again as a safety measure, but when I woke up early Sunday morning I couldn’t have wished for a better day.  A cold and frosty morning, but the sun was out thawing the top of the Long Mynd – just enough to make the short tarmac descents a little less treacherous.

Not knowing how many people would enter as a consequence of Covid, I was delighted to hear from our friends at Boulton’s a couple of days prior to the event that the bus was nearly full. 

We had a total of 137 entries, including 44 pairs, which I was delighted with.

Sara Willhoit (Mercia) gets first mention on this year’s race report with a fantastic run and time of 1:07:28 which knocked 2 and a half minutes off Polly Gibb’s record which has stood since 2007.  A new prize of £50 for breaking the record is yours Sara, and very well deserved.  In second place was Mina Jones-Walters with 1:17:39 and in third was Becky Griffiths with 1:31:50

Fastest lady F50 was previous winner (and member of the elite Sub 77 group) Anna Bartlett with a time of 128:56 which is a F50 category record.  Fastest F60 was Janet Hill with a time of 159:59 which was also a category best time.

First male, and his first-time taking part in the TT, was Daniel Connolly (Mercia) with an equally impressive run and time of 1:00:45 which takes him straight into the elite Sub 66 group and into the top ten fastest male times of all time, where he joins Tim Davies (fastest ever time of 56:52), Rob Baker, Andrew Davies and Richard Roberts.  I hope that you return next year Daniel to challenge the record.  In second place was Oliver Perratt with 1: 04:07 and third was Tom Arthur with 1:08:21

Fastest male M40 was Mike Frost with 1:18:09, and closely behind him was M50 John Atyeo with 1:18:55 – a category which was strongly contested by Paul Bowes.  Mark Pearson got fastest M60 with a time of 1:26:53 and fastest M70 went to Dave Nichols with 1:59:15

Fastest male pair were brothers Kris and Richard McKenna with a time of 1:11:06 – a great run bearing in mind Kris wasn’t sure he’d be able to run a couple of days ago with a knee injury.  Fastest female pair were Mel Price and Deb Millington with 1:29:37 and fastest mixed pair were Oli Cox and Joules Toone with 1:26:54

Spirit of the Time Trial was split this year, with a prize going to Helen Corrin for making the effort to come back to the Shire for the day which meant starting off in the car at 4:30am.  Helen is well known to many local fell runners and it was great to have her taking part this year.  The other prize went to Amy Aldridge and Graham Adey who had mistakenly thought that the bus brought them back after the race, rather than before it, but instead of not racing they ran back as well.  I know some other participants choose to do this, but when it’s not intentional, it showed great commitment – so well done both.

There were a few competitors who took “different” routes – one pair completing just shy of 12 miles and ending up down at Snailbeach before having to take the road back up to Stiperstones.  It’s easily done with the various path choices/junctions up on top of the Stiperstones.  Ed Beards’ route was equally impressive by all accounts, with other runners seeing him disappearing off into the distance in various different directions!  This what makes the TT special, but maybe also why so many people choose to enter as a pair!

Thanks:  Many thanks to Jenny Henn, Dave Nichols, Jim Tinnion and Dom Jones for processing the entries in the village hall (3 of them then taking part in the race itself afterwards) and to Dave Clarke and Charlie Leventon for manning the start line – Dave having no sympathy by keeping the runners back in the shade, whilst Charlie basked in the sunshine!  A second thank you to Jim for then downloading the dibber times at the finish to give us the results that afternoon and for use of the Mercia dibbers, which helped enormously.   A massive thank you also to Sue Johnson and Jan Stuart for stepping in at the last minute to do the finish and for staying on until the bitter end, especially when the weather started to turn for the worse.  Thanks to the Stiperstones Inn for fitting us in and to John Sproson for allowing us to use one of the chalets to download the times, and a personal thanks to the WFRA who were extremely helpful with getting my insurance in place very last minute, and to Dave Farrow for helping me complete the Risk Assessment.

The final thanks go to former ROs Phil Clarke and Charlie Leventon, for all the help in making the transition of organising the event so smooth – hopefully we might get to see Phil take part as a runner next year.

Summary Accounts: Income: £655; Expenditure: £281; Reserve £374 (a portion going to improve rights of way access).

And so …. My first time “in charge” and I really couldn’t be happier.  Fantastic weather and a great turnout and support made my part in everything very easy and more importantly very enjoyable.  I’ve always loved taking part in the TT and am delighted to have taken over such a unique event.  It was good to see so many walkers and runners out enjoying themselves and I very much look forward to seeing you all next year (Sunday 27th November) when I might look to close the time window for entry on the day slightly, from 11:15 to 10:30am, in the hope that more people will still be at the finish for the prize giving. In the meantime, I’ll be distributing this year’s prizes via the forthcoming Callow and Cardington Cracker races.

Cheers all; Craig

Craig Henn – E: craighenn@googlemail.com)

The Results

(ranked by time taken)

PosNameClubCategTime
1stDaniel ConnollyMerciaM01:00:45
2ndOliver PerrattLudlow RunnersM01:04:07
3rdSara WillhoitMerciaF01:07:28
4thTom ArthurChorlton Runners Black SheepM01:08:21
5thRichard McKenna / Kristan McKennaShrewsbury AC / Avalanche RCM-PAIR01:11:06
6thMatthew MarstonMerciaM01:11:33
7thChris AthertonAmblesideM01:11:40
8thPhillip WilkinsonMerciaM01:15:48
9thVirgil Barton / Carl AveyardBarlick FR / MerciaM-PAIR01:17:09
10thMinna Jones-WaltersMerciaF01:17:39
11thMike Frost M4001:18:09
12thJohn AtyeoMerciaM5001:18:55
13thPaul BowesShrewsbury ACM5001:19:57
14thJared Forte / Tom TreasureMerciaM-PAIR01:23:39
15thMark AgnewMerciaM5001:24:39
16thStJohn Ashworth / Peter JonesOswestry OlympiansM-PAIR01:25:35
17thDave FarrowMerciaM5001:25:53
18thJim TinnionMerciaM5001:26:17
19thMark PearsonMerciaM6001:26:53
20thOli Cox / Jules TooneMerciaX-PAIR01:26:54
21stAndy WatkinsMerciaM01:27:15
22ndGuy HollowayBayston Hill Salad DodgersM4001:27:21
23rdRobin BaconMerciaM5001:27:41
24thAnna BartlettShrewsbury ACF5001:28:56
25thKevin JonesMaldwyn HarriersM4001:29:15
26thDeborah Millington / Mel PriceMerciaF-PAIR01:29:37
27thMark Bramall / Simon CranmerShropshire ShufflersM-PAIR01:30:21
28thRyan Griffiths / Philip Thomas M-PAIR01:30:41
29thLawrie JonesMerciaM6001:30:49
30thDavid EgglestoneShropshire ShufflersM5001:30:57
31stKeith Burgess M5001:31:25
32ndBecky Griffiths F01:31:50
33rdFrank Atherton M5001:34:55
34thAndy Reynolds M01:35:38
35thEddie Pomfret M5001:35:53
36thEleanor Hartley F01:36:09
37thAdrian PicklesWREM6001:36:11
38thSteve AthertonAmblesideM6001:36:37
39thGiles CareyShropshire ShufflersM01:36:41
40thHuw Williams M5001:37:06
41stCalvin Wright / Charlie SandellsShropshire ShufflersM-PAIR01:37:32
42ndPaul Cadman / Emma HorneMerciaX-PAIR01:38:44
43rdMike Bastow / Peter de Boer M-PAIR01:39:04
44thMartin GreenMaldwyn HarriersM6001:39:21
45thDave HillsMerciaM5001:39:41
46thChris Harvey M4001:39:44
47thPeter Holmse / Robert SharamWhitchurch WhippetsM-PAIR01:42:24
48thJan Jeffreys F5001:44:20
49thNickie JonesBridgnorthF5001:46:13
50thRichard Grindle / Sarah Grindle– / Shropshire ShufflersX-PAIR01:47:04
51st=Tim Hockley M6001:47:09
51st=Nigel Pritchard / Charlie HollandShropshire ShufflersM-PAIR01:47:09
53rdEdward BeardsMerciaM5001:48:06
54thLaura Gale / Alex Snow F-PAIR01:50:07
55thTom Cart / Dave Cragg M-PAIR01:50:24
56thLindsay Turner / Nina WalmsleyLudlow Runners / –F-PAIR01:50:35
57thStephen RileyShropshire ShufflersM4001:51:12
58thRyan Foulkes / Callum MaGill M-PAIR01:51:36
59thSteve BajicMerciaM6001:52:00
60thHeather KieniewiczMerciaF01:54:20
61stJohn WilliamsPennine Fell RunnersM6001:58:19
62ndMelanie Bermingham / Charlotte BerminghamChase Harriers / Bristol & WestF-PAIR01:58:32
63rdJenny NortonBRCF01:59:04
64thDave NicholsMerciaM7001:59:15
65thCheryl Higgins / Sarah Cole X-PAIR01:59:34
66thDarren Waters / Jennie WatersNewportX-PAIR01:59:55
67thJanet HillLudlow RunnersF6001:59:59
68thHelen Yates / Victoria FennellLonely GoatF-PAIR02:00:16
69thAnn Perry F02:02:34
70thCharlotte White / Sam JonesMerciaX-PAIR02:04:54
71stMaria SpurlingMerciaF5002:07:49
72ndHenry Pomeroy M6002:08:17
73rdKatie Brick / Jenny Henn F-PAIR02:09:22
74thAmy Aldridge / Graham AdeyLawley Running ClubX-PAIR02:09:45
75thSally Tongue F5002:17:21
76thSharon Davies / Dianne SpencerDolly MixturesF-PAIR02:19:14
77thPhilip Hadland / Michael HadlandMerciaM-PAIR02:23:03
78thMatthew Foulds / Tuchi Luong X-PAIR02:24:53
79thAlastair Mitchell / Humphry DunnSYTRIM-PAIR02:26:22
80thKatie Mitchell / Beth ThomasSYTRI / –F-PAIR02:37:27
81stSarah Clayton / Jennifer Ball F-PAIR02:38:32
82ndJack Agnew / Molly LaycockMerciaX-PAIR02:38:45
83rdAnthony Marston M5002:40:03
84thJayne Atkins / Gail BywaterShropshire Shufflers / Shrewsbury RRF-PAIR02:41:14
85thGeoff SprosonMarches LDWAM7002:43:52
86thEd Stuart / Andrew Jones M-PAIR02:48:31
87thRachael Bollom / Naomi Watson– / MerciaF-PAIR03:06:16
88thPhil Chilver / Ursula Chilver X-PAIR03:16:19
89thStuart ChetwyndMerciaM5003:19:37
90thOwain ap Gruffydd / Helen Corrin Caernarfon TouristsX-PAIR03:19:50
91stMallie Newbury / Phil Bamber X-PAIR03:21:29
92ndDave Clarke / Alice ClarkeRun Free FR LlangollenX-PAIR03:21:56
93rdBecky Haydock / Steve Cole– / MerciaX-PAIR03:30:39

A full (and up to date) list of all category records and all Sub 66 (male) and Sub 77 (female) category can be seen on the official TT website (www.timetrial.org.uk).

For more information on Fell Running go to the Mercia FR site at www.merciafellrunners.org.uk/

Or visit the Shropshire Fell Running Facebook page: Shropshire Fell Running | Facebook

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