IAN CRANE fulfilled a life long ambition to compete in the Tour of Tameside based on the villages of Ashton under Lyne, Stalybridge, Hyde Mottram and Glossop.

The original week long tour was founded in 1983 by marathon legend Dr Ron Hill and was brought back in 2015 as a 4 day event, with races taking place at different venues each day. Ian was born and brought up in Ashton under Lyne and still has strong ties to the area.

Stage 1, the X-Trail 10k, on Thursday evening took place round two country parks in Ashton under Lyne, where Ian took 55.17, coming in 307th out of 534, 4t/11 in his age group. Stage 2 on Fri evening was the infamous Hell on the Fell 6 mile race at Stalybridge when Ian came 286th out of 438, again 4/11 in his age group, in 1 hour, 5 sec. Sat morning saw the Hero Half Marathon, the Stage 3 race, which Ian completed in 2.08.37, 363rd out of 539 and Stage 4 on Sunday morning was the classic Dr Ron Hill 7 mile road race around the town centre of Hyde, which Ian ran in 59.24, 295th out of 645.

Over 1000 people competed over the four days, with 389 comleting all four events, others doing 1,2 or 3 races. Sounds like an amazing event, and many congratulations to Ian on his achievement.

Howard Cross and David Tervit were among the 399 runners who competed in the testing Otley 10 mid week, with Howard finishing 158th in 78.24 and David 331st in 93.48.

Very few members were at Park Runs this weekend. At Catterick, Rob Lickley was 93rd out of 312 in 20.34, Charlotte Wilton 105th in 21.09 and Peter Richardson, acting as sweeper, 311th in 47.55. Andy Butcher achieved yet another PB at Northallerton, coming 15th out of 128 in 21.54.

The previous week, many club members were assisting with the organisation of the Ossy Oiks Fell Race, ably masterminded by Bryan Miller. 101 runners took part with Brett Edgeworth leading the way for the club, 42nd in 51.45, Marc Davies 66th in 58.03, Alan Simpson 68th in 62.49, Hilary Coventry 74th in 65.50, Jill Libby 83rd, and 1st F60, in 69.27, Trudy Morrice 87th in 71.09 and Faith Coy 92nd in 74.20.