THE weekend saw the 35th staging of the Jack Bloor fell race, named in honour of Jack Bloor the acclaimed Yorkshire sportsman, pioneering climber and fell runner, who helped to establish the classic Three Peaks Fell Race.

In addition to his own sporting accomplishments, Jack Bloor was renowned for encouraging young people to engage in outdoor sport.

This 8.4km fell race with 350m of climbing was held on a lovely sunny evening with 185 runners lined up to start at Darwin Gardens in Ilkley.

This unmarshalled route allows runners to choose their own route, to get to six marshalled check points at relatively well-known features on Ilkley Moor: Badger Stone, Swastika Stone, Cowper’s Cross, Rombald’s Cairn, Poem Stone and finally a small summit near to White Wells.

Ilkley Harriers dominated the field with a top performance from Emily Gibbins who was the first woman to finish in a superb time of 46:13. Jack Wood finished in second place, just seconds behind the first finisher. Harrier Jack Cummings finished in sixth place with Michael Odell the third Harrier to finish in 43:32. These great results meant that the Ilkley men took the first team prize. Ilkley Harriers managed to scoop lots of other prizes too: Alison Weston was the first LV50 to finish, Joyce Marshall the first LV60 to finish, Jeff Green took the first M50 prize and Malcolm Pickering took the first M70M prize.

Ilkley Harrier Matthew Kennedy has just broken the record for the 90-mile Dales High Way Ultra, Matthew beating the fastest known time by 50 minutes, completing this challenging event in a superb 19 hours 37 minutes. This off-road route, organised by Punk Panther events, runs from Saltaire to Appleby in Westmorland and involves 14,600 feet of climbing and links lots of impressive scenery including Rombalds Moor, Malham Cove, Ingleborough, Dentdale and the Howgills.

This weekend saw the staging of Britain’s biggest club off-road event, The Calderdale Way Relay, consisting of six legs, all of varying distances between four and ten miles. Ilkley Harriers entered a men’s team, as well as a mixed team. The Ilkley men’s team came in a superb fourth place in both the ‘overall’ results as well as in the ‘open’ teams section, with the mixed team coming in a great 12th place out of the 25 mixed teams who entered.

The popular Fountains 10k took place this weekend, a trail run along quiet country roads, off-road trails and scenic moorland in Nidderdale. Two Harriers competed in this event with Neil Pomfret finishing in a great time of 49:33 and Mary Jeal finishing in 55:10 with Mary taking second place in her age category.

In Chester, Helen Waddington and Kyle Bethell took part in the 40th Essar Chester Half Marathon, one of the UK’s longest established half marathons, starting and finishing in the historic city of Chester. Kyle ran this half marathon in a great time of 1:30:23, as did Helen who completed the course in 1:38:35.

Ilkley Harriers continued with their successes at the weekly parkrun events. Tom Adams took first place finish at the Conyngham Hall parkrun in a great time of 16:29. Ilkley Harrier Steven Bysouth was also the first finisher at the Chevin Forest parkrun in 19:10.

Lots more top ten places also, including: Steven Gott, who was the third finisher at the Chevin Forest parkrun.