High Cup Nick Fell Race 22 Feb 2025 - Round 1 Poly fell champs 2025

Victory tastes good. Michael Kane takes his first ever win in the Poly fell champs - finishing in about 1 hr 35m. There's still a long way to go in the champs series until we know whether or not Mike will make the Oscars evening 

The new 2025 season  began again at HCN with  a Spring day  down in Dufton for race 1 of the Poly Champs. Timed perfectly as a  day earlier or later it would not have been Spring. 

A decent turn out of 8 runners comprising 3 newbies ( Jo Adamson  , David Lambert and Rachel Heathcote ), a few yoyo in / out  runners and Team Helen as the hard boiled regulars.  

Helen once again was our first female back in around 1 h 39 mins to open her account with a smile while topping out at around 680m asl. Tracked by a Northern Fellrunner.

Pre race advice from organiser Morgan Donnelly sounded  encouraging .It was the driest he'd ever known in the Nic Valley. A few of us took this at face value. But  hadn't read the small print (where Morgan had  added recent rain had not soaked in and referred to a homeward bound hill being 'interesting' - interesting being one  of the trickiest words in the English language  ) . Alternatively anyone with a  geography O level would have known that Cumbria is England's wettest county .  For some who treated   Geography  as a recovery lesson after double physics and a chance to do some  map colouring -it didn't register either. ( Hopefully Arthur Tiger Pringle won't see this - he detests hills anyway but likes Geography )  . 

Even when it is dry in Cumbria , it is still a good idea to carry a  life jacket  as back up. Dryness is relative . A boozer that tells you he's on day 2 of dry January remains a boozer because he's drunk himself daft on each of the preceding 365 days . Cumbria is still wet when dry.

So it was 'interesting ' to find   that :

a. the 3 mile trek up Nic Valley was not dry (at least not in the east of Pennine  definition  of the word ) ;

b. most of it was either laced with sticky deepish black mud or slicked tracks   that Capt V would call super skitey  .  

c. the few areas - maybe around 20 % - that weren't  mud ,  were under water.  

d. It was interesting. 

There aren't enough words to cover varieties of mud. Sarah Johnson's chirpy  xc bulletins about mud are a world away from  Nic Valley mud . She'd need to get a new re calibrated mudometer to get Nic Valley on the scale .While, Northumberland xc mud is unlikely to  register with Morgan  as anything but a bit of dew  .  Maybe someone needs to work on a colour code system as with those annoying storms the BBC keep threatening us with  - but with colour ranges from fawn to black to give a better risk assessment. But even then I guess what the BBC call a life threatening storm is regarded by locals in the western isles as a light breeze so may not help after all.

It remains to be seen if HCN will prove to be the main mud fest in the 2025 champs. Certainly in the past , the now defunct Kielder Borderer race (credited by NFR as the world's worst fell race ) could have run HCN close on that score.

Those that unwisely did not  fit mudclaws  found they had entered  a free style  skating competition up the Nic valley. If they were lucky they stayed upright. Rachel H may also have some comments to make on all this.

Mike and David  led our attack from the gun  as they reached the Nick first. Followed then by Team Helen while I was spooked  with the  miracle short cut Rachel Inman  had taken to parachute in front of me somewhere . Joanne and Rachel H bobbed around as best possible oblivious as to what the course would throw at them .

Still the conditions in the valley temperature wise were pleasant . That was to change after the scramble to the summit up a block and boulder rise taking out most of the 1500 foot or so of ascent and  requiring all 4 limbs  to get to the top. Nearing the ridge there was a shot of turbulence sucking air out of the lungs and then cold really hit. Quite a few went for cagoules facing the issue then of getting arms into jacket arm holes and mainly failing. 

It is a glide home over the next 5 miles to Dufton using quite a bit of the Pennine Way  but we were throttled by a head / cross   wind over the first mile and a half back before we got shelter. 

A sharp right  brings you across real xc territory reaching the valley bottom with yet another large stream to cross and a welcome from a boisterous  choir of half a dozen local youngsters cheering us on and relishing the idea  that there is an adult sport combining their favourite lifestyle features water , mud , dirty legs and ruined clothes . The only sport to come close is the Club Capt's duck races ( no animals injured in the sport etc) .

Mike accelerated away from David on the way home and covered the ground around a minute quicker . He may have raced on  fast out of confusion than anything else  . The race field was flooded with 30 runners from Northern Fell Runners Club a relatively new club based in  , northern fells. Their shirts were remarkably similar to our own red shirts creating a debate as to how they'd hit on these colours. For sure sport teams like to be associated with success which is why most teams have either blue or red shirts  . It makes it all the more surprising that  Tyne Bridge most recently overlooked the chance of red and blue stripes  and opted to get  black n white shirts cleared (a largely unsuccessful combination of sports colours )  .  Mike saw red ahead with  a flood of potential other Poly runners he hadn't picked up at the start threatening his first ever win in the champs after decades of trying  . As he picked one off another appeared like in a shooting range . Finally as he crossed the line he realised he'd been chasing shadows as he collected his  first 50 points haul in the champs  . David ran in shortly after.

Meanwhile Helen H was the  first Helen  back  and first of the non geography O level specialists. The rest of us shared Mike's confusion applauding every  Northern Fellrunners  as they came into view across the village green in the hope it was the rest of the team - only to be largely disappointed .

All spruced up and ready to go - the full team . Only Rachel and I opting for the double buff look ; pioneered by Mark Smith and Dave Johnson. Unfortunately we don't have a post race / pre washing machine  photo to compare the carnage. 

Then to the post race soups which were a confusing choice of vegetarian and vegan . I'd assumed they were both the same . Apparently not  and it seems  that  the vegans had decided to victimise another ingredient (this time vegetable)  - with possibly  brocolli being the  lead contender.  This was topped off with  a roll (of bread as some had done enough rolling on the course )  and a cake selection - only later out done by Jo's chocolate, date and nuts combination described as healthy - recipe awaited. 

Worth stating the event was well supported by other neighbouring clubs Northumberland FR , Gateshead and Tyne Bridge  . Special mention goes though  to Trevor Wakenshaw - now plying his trade with Blyth RC. Trevor was one of the founding fathers of the fell section before moving on. There is a general misconception that role fell to  Dave Johnson - but he is too old to be the father and is regarded as the founding  grand father . Still DJ's efforts deserve recognition at some point with perhaps a bronze life size  statue ( Greek athletic pose being the most dignified  )  sited  at the clubhouse door . Failing that a blue plaque. We'll get some influencers on to the trustees for that.

So after round 1 , the tables are as below . Last year's shock winner in the men's - the ex Club Capt is already in the relegation zone . He was the unfancied  Leicester City no hope  winner of 2024 fell champs .   Leicester  a few years back   escaped   the attention of the Big Boys and won the Premiership  Football League title  acquiring a fame that had eluded the city   in the previous 1000 years where they had only achieved 3 notable  things :   burying an English king in a car park , the invention of non elasticated socks and (most importantly)  the birth place of S & G Group coach , Graham Hall - representing the 'G' injury prone side of SnG.  It won't escape Capt V that Leicester City  got relegated the season after winning . He needs to watch out.

 In the ladies  Helen H picks up where she left off in 2024 ( and 3 ?) as our best consistent fell runner over the last few years and again pursued by Helen L our 2nd most consistent runner etc etc  . Can she/they  be stopped ? Meantime , mud chick , Sarah J  must seriously  consider a reschedule of  her foot spa days so they don't clash with the championship dates or also face the drop.

Championship Table after round 1 Ladies 

1. HH                                             50 points

2. Helen Lilley                               49    ..

3. Rachel Inman                             48    ..

4. Joanne Adamson                        47    ..

5. Rachel Heathcote                        46   ..

---------------------------------------------------

R  Sarah Johnson                              0   ..

Men's Championship

1. Michael Kane                             50 points

2. David Lambert                           49    ..

3.  BY                                             48    ..

---------------------------------------------------

R  Captain V Hemy                          0 points

R = Relegation zone.

Hannah Russell of Helm Hill Runners took victory in the Female Category with a finish-line time of 1 hour, 12min and 28 seconds.

In the Men's race Hugh Chatfield of Tring won in 1 hour, 2minutes and 56 seconds.

A big thank you goes to Morgan Donnelly and his squadrons of marshals and helpers on the course as well as the Dufton Village Hall. High Cup Nick is a truly spectacular feature - and is the only place in England that looks like Greenland . So with hope that Special K doesn't flog it to the Donald J - then we'll all be back there next year and better prepared .

Thanks to Fellside Photography for the photos.

Full race results should appear here soon as well as any more photos I can retrieve.

Next race will be at Brough Law .

Running up that Hill . The song  acquired renewed fame for Kent Warbler , Kate Bush recently . Meantime the pop intelligentsia  published volumes of  academic  interpretations about the deep  meaning of the song's words  in relation to a perceived psycho analysis of Kate's personal life. But maybe  it was just a song about running up a hill after all. All 450 or so runners can identify with that .