The Dogs of War win The Oxfam Cup

The 2011 Oxfam Cup was won by The Dogs of War after beating the SSC 2-0 in the final at Sandylands on Sunday.

Defence proved to be king with only 10 goals scored in the group stages. The Q-Team did their best by conceding 5 of these! In fact in our group Bayer Neverlusen conceded the only other goal, something that probably cost them their place in the semi-final and allowed The Dogs to progress.

SSC - Finalists

In the second group The Ice Cream Scoopers can count themselves even unluckier not to have progressed. The were pipped to second spot by Club Com First Madrid on goals scored. The all important goal came in the final group game and secured a 1-1 draw against Franks Tanks.

The Dogs of War - Winners

In the Semi-Final SSC progressed with realtive comfort against Club Com First Madrid, 3-0, and The Dogs of War edged past Franks Tanks 1-0.

As with the 2009 tournament the same group (the one The Q-Team happened to be in) produced both finalists. The opening minutes of the final were even but then The Dogs managed to score a goal which took the wind out of the SSC sails.

SSC get a shoot away during the final

The SSC seemed to struggle to regain their composure that had seen them totally untroubled in the tournament to date. In the second half both teams pressed for the crucial next goal but it was The Dogs who eventually settled the tie and win the trophy with their second goal.

Jonathan Endersby shoots during the final

Despite me being the organiser the tournament seemed to pass by without major incident. Hollie did a great job refereeing pitch 2 for the tournament, as did Ady when he took charge of the fiesty second semi final.

I am indebted to Ady, Nick, James and Emma for the photos taken (some of which appear in this story).

The Q-Team (minus Emma (behind the camera), Simon and Ben)

Team T-Shirt has arrived!

Just a quick post to say a massive thank you to Eclipse-Sports (http://www.eclipse-sports.co.uk/) for printing out t-shirts for free. They have arrived and they look totally awesome :o)

Please say hi to us if you see us - we don't bite :o)

Ouch!

After sleeping off the immediate aches and pains, i realised my ankle was hurting more than it should be so off i popped to the doctors. When she asked how i'd done it my reply ''walking 23 miles in the dark over the dales'' wasn't really what she had expected. Then i told her i was walking 100km overnight in 2 weeks time...

Anyhow, it turns out that i have torn a ligament and it takes 6 weeks to heal. I told her i had 2 weeks so she's given me some pills and told me to use my bike instead of walking. Clearly my main worry now was what i was going to wear to my daughter's [fake] wedding reception at the school. I opted for the trainers with the dress look, i completed the outfit with a limp.

I will cross the finish line even if i have to crawl!

'Night-Time in the Dales' part Three

OK, we realised we are severly lacking in the training department for Trailtrekker 2011, so we decided to walk the last three-eighths (or so) of the route we'd be taking on the day. Nick's early start as a volunteer for Skipton Race for Life meant that he was unavailable for overnight support, but we were grateful for his time in dropping us off at Hubberholme, which would be the start for our Saturday night stroll!

The weather forecast led to a sombre mood in the car as we also realised again how far we'd be walking back in it. To summarise, the forecast was for heavy rain and wind all night!

At roughly 7pm, we set off from the small hamlet of Hubberholme which is tucked away at the top of Wharfedale, waving goodbye to Nick and all secretly wishing we'd stayed in the car! It was still quite light at this time so we set off to Buckden, some 2 miles down the valley, and onwards to Kettlewell. Making good time, we arrived at the village of Kettlewell at about 9pm and availed ourselves of the shelter, to have a bite to eat, use the loos and dry off a little.

From Kettlewell, the route quickly turns into a steep uphill climb onto the tops that continue along to Conistone. A couple of years before Ady and I had been doing a similar walk and were attacked by Lapwings defending their young! This time, however, it seems it was too windy even for lapwings! Here, darkness descended fully and we all turned on our headtorches.

By this time, the rain was starting to die down and spots that were sheltered from the wind were actually quite pleasant! I had opted for lightweight clothing and only included a jacket as an afterthought - this was to prove a very wise decision!

We descended into Conistone which evoked memories of my last visit here, in Trailtrekker 2010 where I had only minutes to arrive at and leave the final checkpoint or I would have been forceably retired from the event. This time it was pitch dark and we stopped here for a bite to eat and to dispose of some rubbish in a bin. I took the opportunity to change my headtorch batteries, as it had got noticeably dimmer as we descended.

Leaving Conistone, we felt optimistic about the walk over to Skipton as the weather conditions certainly felt more benign than they had as we set off. How wrong could we be!! Ady and Hollie had decided to remove their waterproof overtrousers as the rain had reduced to a slight drizzle (I wasn't even wearing any in the first place!). Almost without us noticing, the rain grew harder as we climbed out of Conistone, reaching a sudden Crescendo as we crossed Boss Moor heading towards what will be the final Water Stop at Hetton.

I have few memories of this time other than shivvering as the cold rain started to penetrate my 'waterproof' jacket and soak my two t-shirts and the squelching of my socks in my waterlogged boots! Oh and the numbness of my hands as I grimly gripped my walking poles. I had opted for lightweight three-quarter-length trousers since I have an aversion to full-length trousers, but of course, this just means the rain goes straight onto your socks and wicks down nicely into your boots!

The rain also presented further problems as the ground in many places was saturated with water and puddle-dodging became problematic! The path down into Hetton seemed to go on forever, but we arrived, somewhat disheartened, at 2am.

Hollie was battling on with water-soaked trousers, so I suggested she change into her water proof ones before we carried on. The only suitably dry place for this was in the phone box, so Hollie completed her transformation in there!

From Hetton, the route follows the river Aire down to Flasby, and proceeds over the top of Sharphaw (a small peak just outside Skipton). As we climbed up and up, we were all starting to feel umcomfortable in various ways. For me, I felt the familiar sharp pain of tendonitis that I had experienced whilst training in 2009, but not at all in 2010. This was particularly painful as we crossed over the top of Sharphaw, so I took some co-codamol and we pressed on across the fields and down into Stirton.

Passing the HML offices at 5:30am on a Sunday morning was slightly surreal, but it felt good that we were nearly home! After what seemed like forever, we arrived at the bottom of Gargrave Road (a main road), having been passed by a total of one car!

Arriving back at mine, I flopped into bed, and slept until 3pm! It was another epic adventure for the team and I know we all enjoyed it - we just don't know it yet :o)

I just hope this is enough to allow us all to complete Trailtrekker 2011! Good luck to all the other Trailtrekkers! It's going to be a toughie!!

P.S. I noticed that the weather forecast is for 'clouds and sun' for both days, which would be ideal as long as any rain holds off!

Night-walk.

So on the 21st May James and I were child-free, so we did what all child-free parents do and went to the pu..no wait a second, we didn't, we went for a 24 miles trek through the night in the Yorkshire Dales. What can i say? James certainly knows how to treat me! :)

We set off at 7pm from Hubberholme, i have never heard of this place before but it is now etched in my brain for evermore. Walking in the daylight was relatively easy, i could see where i was putting my feet. We stopped in a bus shelter (as any self repecting female does when out on a Saturday night with 3 blokes) for some rest and the trudged on and on and on, then we got to somewhere else but by this time it was dark and rainy but i kept going.

At some point i must've jumped in a swimming pool or something because i was soaked to the skin and it's very hard to walk when your trousers are sticking to your legs. So i decided (again because i'm a self respecting female) to change in a phone box at 2am, so that makes me either superwoman or crazy. But the plan had worked because i was now able to walk without looking like i had a disease!

The sun came up and i could see again, however, i really don't like up hills or stiles. I felt like a zombie but James and I made it home and thankyou to Joel and Ady for the laughs and thankyou to my fantastic fiance, James, for keeping me going when i could've just curled up and gone to sleep.

All in all it was an Epic Pass :D

Nightwalk - mission completed

With a forecast of heavy rain The Q Team set off for the first time as a complete team on a training walk.

At the request of James, and with no dissenting voices, Nick dropped us off at Hubberholme (about 2km further than we had planned) at 7pm on Saturday night and we began the trek back to Skipton. I was the potential fly in the ointment as I needed to be back in Skipton by 6:45am Sunday at the latest. I was pretty confident we'd make that but other predictions weren't quite so optimistic. With the prospect of navigating the moors it was easy to see where time might be lost.



It appeared James (the most experienced Trailtrekker in the group) had decided to ignore the weather forecast and turned up in his beachwear (I'm glad to report that shortly after this picture James did remember he was wearing his trainers and made a quick change. The 3/4 length trousers stayed though!)


The early part of the walk was relatively simple as you follow the river through Buckden and Kettlewell and then the road as far as Scargill House before heading up for the first challenging climb of the day to take you above Conistone. Below, Hollie negotiates a stile and we seem to have adopted Kenny from South Park!


By the time we reached Conistone at 11pm we weren't yet halfway but were still looking good for a 5am finish. Darkness had descended and due to the weather conditions about to hit us this was the last photo of the night!

As we negotiated Boss Moor we were subjected to the worst conditions of the night. As the wind blew and the rain fell we steadily got wetter and started to feel the aches and pains more. The water found a way through to my skin via every seam on my coat and through my hood and down my neck!

Incredibly after Hollie's quick change at Hetton we ploughed on and though slowing we still made pretty good time through Flasby and on towards Skipton.

For the last section from Bog Lane Ady and I pressed on - Ady was planning to walk to Steeton and I was looking to have a quick bath before the children got up. I arrived home at 5:45am and got that bath and Ady made it half way to Steeton before his feet got the better of him.

All in all I'd say this was a pretty good exercise (if maybe too little too late) and hopefully Hollie, James and Ady recover from their respective niggles in the next day or so. If nothing else we all had a good reminder of what it will feel like on the day.

As for me: No blisters to report, sore feet like the sort you get after going shopping with the wife, knees feel well and truly worked over and I could sleep for England.

I think (and I stand to be corrected) we walked between 24 and 25 miles.

Pre-nightwalk warm-up

Tonight (Saturday 21st May) we tackle the Buckden to Skipton leg of the trailtrekker route. Although we shouldn't admit this, it is our first training session as a complete team.

Last night I decided to do a longer run than normal so I ran a route similar to the Skipton Tough 10 from the previous weekend (a race that I toyed with the idea of running but thankfully the children came to my rescue....Next year maybe!).

I'd done a shortened version some weeks previous but this time I tagged on a bit at the end to make it a full 10 miles. My time of 1:16:07 was okay. It felt harder on the downhills than last time - feels like you've had all cushioning removed from your shoes.

Below is a rough breakdown of my mile splits, spot the (most) uphill section!

Mile 1 - 06:58
Mile 2 - 06:25
Mile 3 - 09:23
Mile 4 - 08:14
Mile 5 - 06:47
Mile 6 - 06:29
Mile 7 - 07:25
Mile 8 - 06:10
Mile 9 - 06:46
Mile 10 - 06:28

And here's the route I followed:

Team T-Shirt for 2011 - Thanks to our sponsors!

Hi there. As last year, we decided to get a t-shirt printed and ask for sponsors, who would pay a small fee towards our fundraising total. Here is the t-shirt design for this year. Please say hi if you see us on the day!

We have again been overwhelmed by the response and goodwill of our corproate sponsors for 2011. Special thanks go to the following companies who have helped us raise nearly £200 through this year's t-shirt:

Col Smith Car Sales

Based in Northallerton, Col Smith are a family business with 28 years experience in the motor trade.

All cars are sold with a 12 month MOT and Col Smith specialise in cars under £5000. Over 40 models in stock at any time.

http://www.colsmithcarsales.co.uk

Eclipse Sports

Eclipse sports, based in Lancashire, are sports equipment specialists and offer a wide range of sporting equipment nationally, through their website:

http://www.eclipse-sports.co.uk/frameset.asp

HML (Homeloan Management Limited):

Skipton-based HML has 20 years experience and would sit comfortably in the top 10 UK lenders based on having assets under management of approximately £45billion.

HML works for over 30 UK and Irish lenders and has over 45,000 different financial products on its system, ranging from straightforward loans through to complex niche products such as equity release. Check their website at http://www.hml.co.uk

Aramark:

 A major sponsor for the second year running,

ARAMARK Limited is a food service partner to organisations across a range of sectors, including business and industry, education, healthcare, offshore and defence and employ 12,500 people in the UK

Oxfam Open Tennis 2011

Sunday 8th May 2011 saw HML's budding tennis greats take to the courts to fight out the 2011 tennis tournament. Last year saw Joel Dalby beat Emma Yiu in a very entertaining final.

With Emma and Joel seeded, The first round draw for 2011 was as follows:

Joel Dalby v. Adrian Stokes

Hollie Burgin v. James Robertson

Emma Yiu v. Jez Lamb

Sian Jones v. Selvah Rasappah

Worried about the prospect of sleeping on the sofa, James kicked off the tournament by narrowly beating his fiancée, Hollie 6-1, 6-0 who put in a gutsy performance. Emma eased past Jeremy, who was struggling a little from a recent 40 mile Trailtrekker training walk (you can see their donation page here!!). A shaky start saw Joel progress through into the semi finals, overcoming Ady 6-4, 6-0. Unknown quantity, Sian, gave Selvah a run for his money, but ultimately lost out 6-2, 6-1.

Sian returns one of Selvah's shots:

Ady :

Jeremy:

Hollie:

By this time, the sun had burnt through the morning cloud and the competitors were bathed in sunlight for the rest of the day. The first semi final saw Joel breeze past James 6-0, 6-0 and Emma progressed through to the final after beating Selvah, setting up a tasty repeat of last year's final.

Joel lunges:

An exhausting three-set 3rd place playoff saw Selvah overcome James 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to take the bronze medal.

James serves:

Selvah stretches to return the ball:

Nervy at times, the final saw Joel repeat his triumph against Emma, who was carrying a knee injury from her badminton/running activities, comfortably taking the gold medal.

Joel concentrates whilst preparing to receive Emma's serve:

Emma:

 

The Q-Team would like to thank all those who supported this year's competition, specifically the 8 entrants and Nick Cave who kindly volunteered to help on the day! Big thanks also to Aireville School for lending us the tennis courts again in 2011.

Ever-present Nick helps with the smooth running of the tournament:

The medal winners - Emma (silver), Joel (gold) , Selvah(bronze) :-



Peak performance key for 100km Dales’ trek - Business News - Yorkshire Post

The Q Team have hit the headlines (for the right reasons) with a featured article in the Yorkshire Post last month. Enjoy!

Peak performance key for 100km Dales’ trek - Business News - Yorkshire Post

Spot The Q Team 2010

Sponsorship

Thankyou so much to everyone who has read our blog, if you would like to sponsor our efforts then please use the Virgin Money Giving link on the right hand side down the page a bit. It really helps to know that by doing this challenge we are raising money for a good cause.

Alternatively, you can click here -


http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=theqteam

Mayday Exertions

To warm up for TT, Hollie and I thought we'd have a crack at the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge - a 26 mile walk, covering three mountains (Pen Y Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough) and taking in some of the finest scenery in the Dales.

We set off at 7:10am and made great progress towards the top of Pen Y Ghent past a veritable army of other walkers, mainly for a charity I'd never heard of called 'SEWA'.

Making good time, we hit the top of our first peak after 1hour and 23 minutes - good going so far!!

Not wanting to stop for long, we started off towards the Ribblehead Viaduct and Whernside beyond. In past attempts at this challenge, there has always been a bit where your feet are almost guaranteed to get wet, but after weeks of very little rainfall, the ground was more spongey than muddy!

We made great progress, and arrived at Ribblehead around 11:20am

We reached about halfway up Whernside, where the ridge startes, when we suddenly plunged into a howling gale. Never experienced wind like it, so it was exciting to me, but Hollie just wanted to get to the top and go down!

Awesome scenery, awesome weather! From the top of Whernside, which we reached at around the 6 hour mark , you could clearly see The Irish Sea and many of the lake district peaks including Scafell Pike! We then set off to Ingleborough, our last peak of the day, with it's distinctive flat top...

Ingleborough always seems to look scary and I really started to struggle up the zigzags, having to stop and rest a couple of times! As we neared the top, we were exposed to the wind again, which must have been at least 60mph! Great care was necessary as we moved up the last bit to avoid being blown over and landing on the jagged rocks, which is where Hollie cut her hand!

We made it to the top of this, our final peak, after 8 hours and began the long descent back to Horton, and the Pen Y Ghent Cafe, where our challenge began. The view from the top of Ingleborough was superb and we could see the sun shining off the Irish Sea as seen in the pic below where Hollie is touching the trig point.

After a very long walk, with Hollie and I both in pain from various minor injuries, we managed to get back to Horton in a very respectable 11 hours and 15 minutes, leaving us a full 45 minutes spare (The challenge is to complete the route in 12 hours!).

A truly heroic effort from Hollie and she deserves much respect having never tackled a walk like this before! I hope it stands us in good stead for Trailtrekker in a month's time!!



The Pulse Radio

Whilst posting about my acheivements on completing the Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge on facebook, a friend told me about the radio station she DJ's for. They have let me ramble on about TrailTrekker in their chat and on their forum. They have also been mentioning it on the radio. Huge thanks to everyone at The Pulse Radio.

To listen go to www.thepulseradio.com

Yorkshire 3 Peaks

So, my first blog and also my first training walk.

We set out, 'childfree' i might add which is rare hence this being the first training walk, at about 7.10am from Horton In Ribblesdale. We followed the crowds along the path towards Pen-Y-Ghent. I was quite surprised how suddenly we were climbing, and i mean climbing as in using hands too, to the top. We made it to the top in about an hour and a half. We then thought it'd be a great idea to run down from the top of Pen-Y-Ghent to ''make up some time'' as James put it...so we ran for a bit, queued to get over the stiles, ran a bit more, walked a bit, queued some more and then saw the viaduct and, more importantly, the pub. So i put one foot in front of the other and just kept doing that until we made it to the pub. We stopped for a coke and a change of socks and then plodded on towards Whernside.

There was no climbing with hands on this one but there was a lot of wind. And i mean a lot, the type where you hope your fleece is tied on securely. It's also the type where people are walking at 45 degree angles. I had spent at least 10 seconds doing my hair but this was ruined by the wind so clearly i wasn't happy. We didn't stop at the top, this was mostly due to me saying ''No, get me off this ****** hill". So then we survived the top of Whernside and began the desent. I did use hands for this bit because i wanted to get down in 1 piece. Once down safely, we had a rest and more food and then plodded on towards Ingleborough.

James informed me that getting to the top of Ingleborough was "over quite quick". He was wrong. The path is fairly smooth and flat until you get to the zig-zag bit, which requires hands again (note to self, don't have a manicure before climbing the 3 peaks). After conquering the zig-zag bit, the path is relatively flat until you get to some stones. Quite large stones. So not only is my hair a mess and my nails chipped but i also cut my thumb. However it didn't matter as the wind made sure it didn't hurt by numbing my hands. We touched the stone thing (not quite sure what it was as i didn't like to stop and check as i might've been blown off the top) and then plodded on down. That's down!! No more up's, just down!

Whoever put the signposts between Ingleborough and Horton In Ribblesdale needs to walk it themselves, they are clearly wrong. We passed a sign saying 2.75 miles to civilisation... after walking about 2 miles, there was another sign saying 1.5 miles to go... hmmm. So we put one foot then the other then the other and just kept going like that until we saw the cafe, where i was promised the biggest slice of chocolate cake. When we got to the cafe it was shut.

Our time for completing the 3 peaks is 11 hours 15 minutes.

I am still waiting for my chocolate cake and i need my hair re-doing and my nails are chipped. What will my housemates think?!

Stage 1 complete!

Continuing my far from perfect preparations I decided to comfort myself by sticking in a longer run AND use the Trailtrekker route as inspiration.

The plan (if such a thing ever exists in my world) was to run to Malham and get a lift back home to Skipton.

Setting off from Skipton at 9:07am my support crew had instructions to pick me up at 11am - giving me an estimated hour and a half to get to Malham and then half an hour to doss around (or a full 2 hours to get to Malham if it all went pear shaped).

Along the canal I got to Gargrave in less than 41 minutes and stopping briefly to check my time I plughed straight on up towards Malham. I took the track as per the 2009 route rather than crossing the fields from the first Pennine Way sign. From the end of the track you cut across and join the Pennine Way for a gentle downhill section to the river and then a pleasant run alongside the river until you get to Hanlith.

Once at Hanlith you meet the road and have a 200 yard slog up the hill. Once you've conquered that it is almost all downhill to Malham. I reached Malham in 1 hour 34 (measured at 12.2 miles) so not too disappointed. Feeling fairly fresh and with the support crew nowhere to be seen I tagged a bit on and carried on towards the Cove, stopping at the sign for the Cove so I didn't have another climb to do!

Returning to the village there was still no sign of support but being before 11 still I thought I'd run along the road and meet them. I rang them once I got to Kirkby Malham School and as they were still in Skipton I carried on.

At Airton I had to stop! After 16 miles my legs were beginning to hate me and so I took their advice and hung around on the green until the cavalry arrived.

I stopped running at 11:20am having been on the road (tracks/fields/towpath) for 2 hours 13.

Having done way over what I'd set out to do I made myself feel a bit better about not actually putting on the walking boots in months.