Tails of Trigs, Tracks and Cross Country

With there being no races in the RHAC Road Championships for a couple of months, Saturday 9th May 2026 again saw the focus on the fells. Six Harriers made the short journey to Delph, to run in the beast known as the Five Trigs Fell Race. The race is the fifth out of eleven races in the Run the Moors Fell Grand Prix and the Rochdale Harriers Fell Championships. Starting at the Castleshaw Centre, it’s 19 miles (31.5km) with 3,000ft (900m) of ascent, so a serious fell race. This year going in an anti-clockwise direction, it visits five local trig points, with the Standedge trig point being the first. Following the Pennine Way, it then visits the White Hill Trig point. Staying on the PW, the race proceeds to the trig point on Blackstone Edge, before heading down to Piethorne Reservoir, before climbing up to the Tame Scout TP. From there, it makes its way to the Bishops Park trig point, the last on the route. Finally finishing at Castleshaw.

It was a successful day for the Harriers, as Dave Parton ran a superb race, finishing fourth from 111 starters in a time of 2hrs, 46m, 19s. It must have been the thought of watching Rochdale at Wembley that spurred him on. Not to be outdone though was the impressive performance by Kay Welsby, finishing in a time of 3hrs, 16m, 5s. Kay was 1st lady for much of the race, but was disappointed to lose the lead in the run in after the final checkpoint to Helena Buttler (Saddleworth) by just 24 seconds. Pete Butterworth had an excellent race to finish 30th in 3hrs, 31m, 29s.

Lee Meadowcroft ran without electrolytes and suffered badly in the final 10km. He finished 38th in 3hrs, 46m, 3s, in 38th place. In 39th position was Jennie Ransome in 3hrs, 49m, 14s, finishing 1st in her FV60 category, an excellent result for Jennie. Jack Liddle was the final Harrier to finish in 6hrs, 4m, so well done to Jack, that is a long time to be out on your feet.

Meanwhile, on a slightly flatter course, Juliet Smith and Danny Bennett competed in the Greater Manchester Track and Field County Championships at Leigh. The total number of athletes from the area attending this track event was remarkably low.

Saturday saw three Senior ladies competing in the 3,000m race. Juliet Smith was pleased to finish 2nd in 12m, 06.92s.

Sunday saw both Juliet and Danny competing on the track, respectively in the ladies and men’s 1,500m races. Juliet finished 2nd from the three ladies competing, posting 5m, 32.62s, and just narrowly missing out on 1st place by under 6 seconds. Surprisingly, Danny Bennett was the one and only competitor in the Senior Men’s 1,500m race. He posted an excellent time of 4m, 47.37s.  

Let’s hope we see more Greater Manchester athletes taking part in track events over the coming year.

Meanwhile, away from the racing, the Harriers had a joint bowling social and cross country presentation on Saturday, held at Ten Pin Bowling, with 20 Harriers attending. Many thanks to Juliet and Mark Smith for organising the event. A fun evening was had by all. This year’s overall Senior winners of the RHAC Cross Country Championships were Andy Whitehouse and Danielle Dignan.

Andy and Danielle, this year’s Senior winners at the RHAC Cross Country Championships 2025/26.