Events

A stunning day on the hills as the Trigger Race gets off to a successful start

January 27th, 2012

The morning of Sunday 15th January dawned bright clear and cold, very cold, however this was not enough to stop 169 fell runners lining up on the start line in Marsden for the inaugural running of The Trigger.

This new event in the fell running calendar was the brainchild of Nicky Spinks together with husband Steve Burgess and Andy & Amanda Heading at http://www.racekit.co.uk/ who sponsored the race. Wanting to provide a challenging mid winter race on the classic Marsden to Edale route, they devised a route that took in the Dark Peaks three highest and most remote hills, Black Hill, Bleaklow and Kinder Scout. The organising team very generously decided that the race would be run to raise much needed funds for Woodhead Mountain Rescue Team, with all race proceeds to go to the team.

The race derived its name from the three main hill top checkpoints, Black Hill, Higher Shelf Stones and Kinder West Trig points, two roadside checkpoints were also included, Crowden and Snake Summit. A huge amount of hard work on the part of the organisers together with the very generous co-operation of land owners allowed for a free reign of route choices between the main checkpoints, setting the scene for a classic race with lots of choice for the competitors.

The day was a stunning day to be out in the hills, the usual knee deep bogs of Bleaklow and Kinder were frozen hard allowing for some very fast running. Woodhead Mountain Rescue team were out in force providing race safety cover and tracking the progress of all competitors as they made their way from Marsden to Edale.

The race was won in a very fast time of 3hrs 13mins by Oli Johnson, while in 25th place and first lady Heather Catherine Marshall came home in 4hrs. Both received the new trophies made for the event comprising an Ordinance Survey Trig Point Flush Bracket, obtained through the generosity of the Ordnance Survey, mounted on a hardwood plinth funded by Andy Plummer – organiser of the Trunce race series. Further prizes were supplied by the race sponsor Racekit, Bradfield Brewery and The Huntsman Pub in Thurlstone. After the race all competitors tucked into a hearty meal supplied and cooked by Pete Sparks, owner of Bank View Café at Langsett and also a Woodhead Team member, Pete had a long day having first prepared all the food then being deployed onto the hill to marshal the race!

Due to the generosity of local businesses and community groups who donated everything from prizes to the use of the start hall at Marsden, finish campsite and Edale Village hall the race has raised £2502 for the mountain rescue team, providing much needed funds to enable the team to continue it’s life saving work on and around the moors of the region.

Team Leader Keith Wakeley says “On behalf of the team I would like to thank the race organisers and all sponsors in the local community for the time and effort they have put in to getting this race off the ground and making it such a success both as a classic fell race and a fund raising event for the team. I am humbled by the generosity of both funds and time that people are willing to commit to raising money for the team, without their assistance it would be far more difficult for us as a team to operate.

Race sponsors and suppliers :

 

 

We literally made a ‘bomb’, when we Put on the Blitz

November 23rd, 2010

St Johns Community Centre in Penistone was transformed into a ‘Blitz’ era dance hall with sandbags for the stage, blast tape on the windows and music played by a live band to get people ‘In the Mood’. Many dance goers took the opportunity to dress in period clothing and outfits ranged from a US Army Colonel to a Spiv selling nylons.

Local schools & businesses came out in support of the team. Two schools, Cowlersley Junior and Infants in Huddersfield and St Johns Junior and Infants from Penistone, assisted with some artwork for the event as part of their studies into World War 2 and the Blitz. Andy Plummer, Woodhead team member and landlord of The Huntsman at Thurlstone ran and staffed the bar free of charge, he also arranged the free supply of bar equipment from White Rose Brewery in Sheffield and a barrel of beer from Clarks of Wakefield.

Phil Newing, team secretary commented  “This has been a great example of community spirit, just like in the Blitz. We raised our profile, peoples awareness of what we do and, more importantly, lots of smiles with the added bonus of £1,900 towards replacement kit”

Lady Mayoress Carol Bradbury was the guest of honour who opened the evening with a rousing speech praising the team for its community based efforts, and Stocksbridge & Penistone MP Rt Hon Angela Smith was also on hand to lend her support.

Later in the evening our friends at 95.7 Penistone FM popped in to record the proceedings and took  interviews; playing them on air shortly afterwards.

The originators of the idea were Woodhead team members Andy Simpson and Wayne Thackray.

Wayne said “We wanted an idea that was different and wasn’t as labour intensive for team members as some other fundraising events” he went on to add “we are really pleased that the event was so successful. We sold all the tickets prior to the event, so we may need a bigger venue next time”

Andy added “There are so many people who help with these things, from the seemingly endless amount of planning and preparation, through to the delivery, attending on the night and the cleaning away afterwards. It’s not just team members that get dragged in either, it’s wifes, husbands, partners, kids….. The amount of support and goodwill always amazes me. I’m extremely proud to be involved with such a great group of people that extends way beyond the immediate Woodhead Team Members. Our combined efforts have raised a very satisfactory amount. I’ve already got ideas for the next two events!

Did you Grin ‘N’ Bear It?

October 5th, 2010

This year saw the 8th annual Grin ’N’ Bear It, and it was one of the best ones yet!  A gap in the weather brought near perfect conditions for the competitors as over 200 people set off to run or walk to help Woodhead Mountain Rescue.  Continuous rain the day before did make the ground a bit wet, but temperatures of 16c and light SW winds made a welcome change from the gales of last year.

All pictures courtesy of Gordon Gibbons, see the full album & order your full size copies  with all profits going to the Team.

Fell Race

 The Fell Race saw a field of 47 competitors with Mick Stenton coming home in a fantastic time of  2 hours 16 minutes and 30 seconds for the 25.3 km course.

Grin ’N’ Bear It Fell Race 2010

1st      Mick Stenton      02:16:30

2nd    Ozzy Kershaw     02:26:47

3rd     Kevin Holmes     02:27:02

Nicky Spinks was the first female runner with an extremely impressive time of 2 hours 28 minutes and 22 seconds, which was good enough to see her placed 4th overall!

Grin N Bear It Fell Race Results 2010

The results are in PDF format and can be opened using the free adobe reader software. If you have any problems or questions, please send us a message »

Walkers

Those preferring a slightly more easy going pace were able to enjoy a walks of 34.3 km and 23.2 km taking routes through woodlands, open moorland and quiet countryside paths.  With not a single drop of rain falling all day, everyone was able to enjoy the sunshine and make the most of the fine Yorkshire weather. With hot soup and drinks being served at just over half distance by Woodhead supporters, and a welcoming choice of  hot dishes to warm everyone at the end, there was plenty of good cheer throughout the day. And even those unfortunate enough to succumb to the clutches of the smelly, soggy peat (affectionately known as the ‘Bog Monster’) managed to keep a smile on their faces.

 

Family Walk

A new addition to Grin ’N’ Bear It this year was the  Family Walk of 6 km. This short walk aimed at those with children took a gentle stroll through the countryside and conveniently passed public houses to ensure that refreshments were available for those in need. With lots of positive feedback received from those who took part in the Family Walk, the Team have been encouraged by its popularity to include it again in 2011 with  more activities and things to do while en-route.

 Our Sponsors & Supporters!

Woodhead Mountain Rescue would like to give their heartfelt thanks and gratitude to everyone who took part, gave sponsorship, made donations or simply gave up their time to support us. Grin ‘N’ Bear It takes a lot of preparation and behind the scenes many hours of work are required in order to make the day the success story which it is. There will be a special feature on Grin ‘N’ Bear It in the Autumn edition of Woodhead News together with a huge “Thank You” to all those who helped. So far we have collected over £2800 which is an extremely welcome addition to Team funds and with more sponsorship money yet to arrive we hope this will increase even more.

Grin ‘N’ Bear It will be back again on October 1st 2011, we hope to see you there.

Look out for the Bog Monster!

Read about the Grin ‘N’ Bear It routes

All pictures courtesy of Gordon Gibbons, see the full album & order your full size copies with all profits going to the Team. 

Mountain Rescue Awareness Day – May 3rd 2010

May 6th, 2010

The End.

It all started bright and early on May 3rd – Bank Holiday Monday. The team assembling at 08:00 at Headquarters. A sense of anticipation, excitement and rain in the air, but wait, that’s only part of the story……

The Beginning.

It actually started way back in early February with an unassuming email. “It is an all day event where there will be National MR press coverage a bit like a RNLI flag day” said the email. “This is an opportunity to raise the profile of WMRT and MREW locally, regionally and nationally” it added. “Volunteer to organise, needed”.

The National Park Ranger had already confirmed that we could use Langsett, I figured all the hard work had already been done, so I volunteered.

Then I told my wife.

“..but we’ve got the whole of March and April and most of February to get it sorted” I said. “Better get started then” she replied.

Being a professional Project Manager, used to running multinational, multimillion dollar projects, this looked like a walk in the park (pun intended). I unleashed my years of experience and took stock of my scope, budget and time frame.

  • Scope: Design and run an award winning event to raise public awareness of Woodhead Mountain Rescue specifically and Mountain Rescue in general. Do this in the full glare of local and national media. Raise as much money for the team as possible.
  • Budget: None
  • Time frame: May 3rd – 11 weeks away

Ok, so perhaps more like a walk up a reasonably steep hill. Against the wind. With full hill kit. And the stretcher. With someone on it.

What followed was really quite amazing.

Plan, re-plan and plan again.

Ideas of the things we could do started coming in from the team. People took responsibility for key aspects of the day and sponsors started to come forward.

  • John Simpson offered to run a plant stall
  • Greenacre School allowed us to use their orienteering course
  • Hade Edge band agreed to come and give a performance
  • Tony Sturdy and friends agreed to come and play for us
  • Cubley Hall provided a bottle of wine
  • Simon Blyth Estate Agents provided the balloons
  • Penistone Co-op gave us 4 tins of sweets
  • J&R Gases provided half price helium
  • Community First Responders agreed to come and train people in basic first aid
  • Penistone FM promoted the event, ran articles about the team and attended for most of the day
  • Yorkshire Water made a very generous donation to cover costs and provided some more balloons
  • Bank Side Cafe provided Team butties, tea and coffee and the prize cake
  • The Huntsman (Thurlstone) provided a prize of a family meal for 4

I think the best advice I received was to “keep it simple”. As a team we bounced around loads of ideas for the things we could do and dismissed some of the more extreme suggestions; “..but why can’t we lower the public in stretchers down the quarry?”, “..what about a water rescue demo, with a real volunteer victim?”.

About 100,000 texts, countless emails, 100′s of hours on the phone (and that was just from Wayne) and several team meetings “down the pub”, we eventually got to a point where we had a workable list of events, mainly with owners!

We unleashed Wayne on the media, handed out roughly 3 million posters and flyers, everything and everyone was in place and finally the day dawned, cold, slightly dull and overcast.

The Day Arrives!

Thanks to planning and team work, the set up went very smoothly and we were up and running, as planned, by 10:00. Now all we needed were people to appreciate all the hard work.

People started to arrive and actually take an interest in what we were doing.

The team was working well, talking to people and showing them what we do. The weather was being kind. One of my biggest fears, that people wouldn’t know to go into the barn, was turning out to be unfounded with a steady stream of people coming through the doors.

Penistone FM were really plugging the event with live broadcasts which were sounding excellent on the radio.

The Community First Responders were receiving a steady stream of people. They issued over 50 certificates on the day.

The map reading and compass work inside the barn was receiving a steady steam of people, you never know, we might have fewer people to go look for in future!

and then it rained.

and did a bit of hail-stoning.

but it didn’t seem to matter, and it stopped eventually.

Dr Spencer Pitfield, local Conservative parliamentary candidate (this was written before the election) came to visit and offer his support. He gave us the chance to bend his ear with the issues we’d like to see addressed by the next Government (whoever that may be).

The Observation Test was showing people the skills required to spot things that “don’t belong”, an essential skill when searching. It was made up of the sort of things you should take with you onto the hills. This was teamed with the Search Dog demos that are always well received. It’s fantastic watching Dodge at work and he was looking smart in his best dress uniform.

The outside display area was working well too. “Find the Walker” looked great in it’s new format. In a change from tradition, the “lost walker” was on a photo rather than a map, along the same lines as “spot the ball”.

There were loads of people who had a bash at the orienteering courses. We handed out loads of balloons and painted 100′s of faces. Face Painter Sandra eventually lost feeling in her hands due to the cold and switched to doing Mountain Rescue logos rather than full faces, but no one seemed to mind.

In the end there were hundreds of people who came to see us. The Bank Side Cafe was buzzing with people talking about Mountain Rescue, so I guess that’s the best sign you can get that we achieved our goal of raising awareness.

The buckets were heavy with the generous donations made by the people who came and enjoyed the day with us. Second part of the objective achieved.

We kept to the budget (£0) and delivered on time. To use a Yorkshire habit, all in all I’d say the day was “not bad”.

Penistone FM Recordings


The Thank-yous.

I know I’m going to miss someone, for which I apologise. I know there were many more people involved than this but I’d specifically like to thank:

  • Sandra (my wife) for putting up with me, running the house and kids while I lived the Awareness Day for 11 weeks, and for blagging quite a lot of sponsorship
  • John Smith for the posters and flyers
  • Darren E-B for the loan of his gazebo
  • John Halstead and Duncan for the Map and Compass workshop
  • Gordon for pulling together the presentation boards, providing the ropes for knots and owning the Observaiton Test
  • Brian for sorting the merchandise
  • Pete Stott for sorting out Find the Walker
  • Sandra Roberts for the face painting
  • Mog for getting the Community First Responders
  • Cafe Pete for putting us in touch with Yorkshire Water
  • Andy P for setting up the “slightly harder” orienteering course
  • Wayne for loads of stuff, keeping me going and some brilliant videos

Planning for the next one starts NOW!