Otley Athletic Club

Can you believe it’s twelve months today since this revised OAC website launched? Have a look back through the Archives section on the right.

Hope everyone is enjoying the new format and particular mention and thanks to Neil Charlton who set it all up and maintains it behind the scenes!

And thank you to everybody for all the news and comments – keep these coming.

1910 – Reproduced by kind permission of Otley Museum.

2010 – click on each photograph to enlarge

Although Otley A.C. was formed as late as 1983, a previous running club existed in Otley some time earlier and the top photograph is of some its members in the late Edwardian era.

OAC’s Nick Hodgkinson reports,

“The last Committee meeting (that I attended) was held at the White Swan on Boroughgate and I was reminded of a photograph (now reproduced above) that I had seen a few years ago showing Otley Harriers outside the same pub in 1910. I have since obtained a copy from Otley Museum which shows the Otley Harriers team with some of the Committee Members and supporters, circa 1910.

Some say that many of the 1910 Committee Members never made it into the photograph because they could not be dragged out of the pub – nothing changes.

The original photograph in the Library identifies the following people as being in the photograph but there is no way of knowing who is who.

Team
Dobson, Keech, Lawson, Hall, Mitchell, Schultz, Redman, Hodgson, B Davies, Lawton, Fieldhouse, Winfield.

Of the twelve Team members only eight appear to have survived the First World War since regrettably four appear on the First World War Memorial in Otley Parish Church.

Committee and Supporters
J .Whitaker, E Waddington, S Dean, H Waite, L Coupland, C. Robinson, S Lawson, J Hancock, S Baldwin”.

To celebrate the photograph’s Centenary, current club members met at the same venue for a new version of the photograph.

For one of our members, David Hainsworth, there is further poignancy in that his grandfather (on his mother’s side) is in the original photograph – being the young man on the far right of the front row seated (not kneeling).

Simon Anderson reports:

I was one of two club members to turn up and I did alright finishing eighth in 39.35.

Tim Midgley (Bingley) won the race in 35.17 in the absence of Darren Bilton. Enough said really except perhaps that it was a well organised event set in a delightful location and on a beautiful summers day. A bit of good light hearted fun not to be taken too seriously. Worth doing once but not a big fixture in the calendar.

Richard Knoults finished 129th (53.52).

Results from ukresults. A Club Runner of the Year event.

Report from Chris Carver:

This morning I ran the Leeds Hyde Park version for a change.

I finished eleventh out of 209 and my time was 18:17 (this represents an age graded time of 16:27 which easily betters my previous best of 17:28 from June 2009).

18:17 also betters easily my previous M45 pb of 19:15 also form June 2009.

In fact I have only once ran faster than 18:17 and that was in November 1998 on a hilly route around Bowling Park, Bradford when I managed 17:53.

From parkrun, the race was won by Dan Garbutt (Leeds Carnegie AC) in 15:43.

As is quite normal for this event Otley members struggle to count down from 7!! The adjusted table is shown below…

Simon got his first handicap win with an excellent time. Updated 2010 Handicap Table available from Club Handicap Championship.

A grand total of four club records on the night for Racheal, Karen, Mark & Phil.

Thanks to Abbey Runners for accommodating us in the middle of their track session.

Thanks to Kath Robertshaw for the updated Runner of the Year table available here.

Also thanks to Chris Carver for locating the missing Otley 10 results from 1997 and to Andrew Robertshaw for uploading. The full set of results from 1989 to date now available from the Otley 10 Mile page.

A round-up including a report on Burnsall’s races in the Telegraph & Argus.

From fellrunner, the race (14 miles / 6,000′) was won by Jon Morgan (Dark Peak) in 2:18:55.

For OAC, Martin Smillie finished 118th in 3:26:56.

Race report included within the Telegraph & Argus.

The Classic Burnsall Fell Race 1.5 miles / 900′, details from burnsallsports.

A feature in CountryWeek from today’s Yorkshire Post details,

“It is a hundred years since Ernest Dalzell from Keswick descended the fell in 2 mins 42 seconds – a record time for this race which had first been staged in 1850 and Dalzell’s time of 12.59.8 for the entire course was not to be beaten for the next 67 years until another special race, the Silver Jubilee Challenge, on June 18th 1977.

On this occasion, Fred Reeves shaved 12.6 seconds off Dalzell’s record (12.47.2) – a time ratified by five timekeepers”.

Anyway, this year the race was won by Rob Hope (Pudsey & Bramley) in 13.59.

For OAC, London-based Tony Cunningham finished 21st (17.55), Huw Illingworth (number 85) 24th (18.02), Andy Hunt (number 130) 30th (18.36), Simon Anderson 36th (19.04), Ben Cousen 41st (19.33), Adam Baird 59th (20.52), second claim member Sharron Smith 60th (20.57), Karen Best 86th (22.16), Mick Jeffrey 87th (22.26), Michael Fryer 111th (25.08) and Richard Hamer 119th (26.32).

Results from race-results. Race start photograph courtesy of Terry Lonergan.