Snow drifting to waist height and the near impossibility of laying a clear route - let alone following it - made this shortened first running of this South Wales Winter League race a great leveller with less than two minutes covering the first 14 runners.

Full body cover was prescribed, and those hardy souls who chose to carry theirs suffered painful nicks on their legs when ploughing through the ice-coated drifts in the highest regions.

Stressed organiser Rich Johnson’s plans to arrive early enough to do a thorough job of flagging the white wastes of the Abertillery mountain were thwarted by his car getting stuck fast in the compacted snow in the steep streets of Six Bells. He did his best in the time available and then joined the race from the back in time to catch and show the main bunch the way!

Chris Atherton in just vest and shorts finally prevailed on the slushy run-in just nine seconds before M50 Max Suff and M40 Peter Sowerby.

Katie Beecher followed up her come-back win atTor-y-Foel by pipping Niki Morgan by less than half a minute, with Anne Auchterlonie taking third.

Steve Littlewood finally won the tight battle of the 60 year-olds over close rivals Les Williams and Steve Herington.

Before distributing the prizes, Organiser Johnson rightly paid due homage to the intrepid marshals for their reassuring and encouraging work in the frozen wastes.

Dick Finch

The Mercia Hill Trial is a new navigation and fell running challenge based on the successful Kinder Trial. Competitors start at intervals and have to visit a number of checkpoints in any order and return to the event centre. We launched the event to encourage runners to learn better navigation skills and show how much fun this kind of event can be. Competitors either run solo (with previous experience of similar events) or in pairs.

The days before the event had seen some heavy snowfall over Shropshire and those placing the checkpoints had a chilly couple of hours work late on Saturday afternoon. Sunday dawned without further snow and it seems that everyone who tried to travel successfully reached us including Robert Taylor (Pennine FR), a welcome visitor from up north.

The early starters definitely had the best of the conditions as heavy snowfall from 10:30am made both the navigation and the underfoot conditions progressively more difficult. Kristof Nowicki was one of the first to go out, setting a time which proved impossible to beat. SLMM veteran Brian Crowther navigated superbly to claim second overall paired with Chris Atherton, a local runner who has improved greatly in the last year. The remaining prizes were taken by Mark Bollom and Anna Bartlett (first mixed pair), Susan Howarth and Lucy Aphramor (first lady pair) and Joanne Dodd of Wrexham Tri (first solo lady). It was great to see Emma Clarke, one of Mercia’s promising juniors, navigating the course with her dad Phil, and also local farmer Roger Lloyd combining a bit of fell running with a check on his sheep!

In view of the conditions we’d asked all the runners to take special care and look after each other and were pleased to see the event was very much run in a competitive but friendly spirit. Thanks to Zoe Owen, Mark Agnew and Ian Vann for helping place and remove checkpoints, the event centre team of Charlie Leventon and Keith and Pauline Richards, Wrekin Orienteers for their mapping, Al Tye for his excellent photos, and most of all to John Taylor for sitting through a snowstorm for four hours in a tent at 1,600’ to provide safety cover on the hill. The event was a great success which we hope to repeat next year with a 2014 Mercia Hill Trial.

Jim Tinnion Coaching and Development, Mercia Fell Runners

Another Day on the Bare Mountain

Just one runner short of the century for the second running of this South Wales Winter League race, despite Met Office warnings of thick fog, blizzards and strong winds. There was a snow flurry on the 550 metre top, but visibility was crystal and the wind barely noticeable.

Race Organiser Les Williams was delighted with the extra 40 runners that last year’s initial running had attracted. Starting and finishing on Talybont dam wall, Tor y Foel offers plenty of flat running along the ancient dram road as well as the steep climb and descent to and from the bare mountain’s summit.

Last year’s winner Ben Moon was eventually squeezed into second place by Mynydd Du’s Sean Taylor with Jason Rowley over from Somerset just four seconds back.

After a few months’ absence from the fells, Katie Beecher returned to head Katie Roby by just 24 seconds with Sharon Leech a further 3 6 seconds away and first F40.

Other age group winners were Alice Bedwell, Patrick Wooddisse, Paul Jeggo, Steve Littlewood and Rob West. Thanks to all marshals and the supplier of the tasty post-race refreshments.
Dick Finch

Local schoolmaster Huw Evans led Cardiff’s Les Croupiers club in their race-within-a-race mob match against Chepstow Harriers in this now well established early year opener to the fell season.
Huw said after that he was pleasantly surprised to get to the finish line ahead of Chepstow’s Paul Murrin after a neck-and-neck contest that saw Huw inch away as he reached family support at the top of the final climb to the Kymin Naval Temple and Round House. Chepstow’s Matt Stott took third place setting the stage for a ding-dong inter-club battle, 70 of the 121 entrants belonging to either club.
Jane Horler led the women’s race from start to finish with Chepstow colleague Niki Morgan and Les Croupier’s Claire Beatty and Marcia Smith following.
Pete Ward, Max Suff, Steve Herington and Alice Bedwell left the Mayhill pub with age category prizes after helping to demolish the sausage and chips post-race spread.
And the mob match? Well Chepstow outnumbered and outpointed Les Croupiers on this occasion. But next year ...?
Dick Finch 6 Jan 2013.