Unfortunately, the 2020 club championship has inevitably been abandoned due to cancellation of races during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Standings for 2020, including all races that did take place, are here.
The 2020 Club Championship
The 2019 Club Championship is all over and the final standings are here.
The format of the Championship in 2020 has a few tweaks, but in general is similar to that of recent years.
The competition involves races across three main sections (road, cross-country and fell) plus the club mile. The Championship comprises 22 fixed races (7 from each section plus the club mile), but two of the events are local series of races: Spencer’s Dash (road) and Silkstone Shuffle (cross country). Members can run as many of the Spencer’s Dash or Silkstone Shuffle series as they wish, and their season’s best time from each will be counted.
The club mile is an additional event which will not count towards any of the three sections. It will count towards the overall championship and the challenge championship, but it is optional – you can qualify for every part of the championship without doing the club mile, but you might pick up more points if you do run it.
This gives 22 events in the Championship competition, and all the races are listed at the bottom of this page with links for further information, as they become available.
Qualification
Qualification for the section Championships and overall Championship is exactly as in recent years: to qualify for each section you need to compete in at least 3 of the section events (out of 7 events, including, if you wish, the series event, but you don’t have to run the Spencer’s Dash or Silkstone Shuffle).
To qualify for the Overall Championship you have to compete in 9 from the total of 22, with at least 2 of these races from each section. Your 9 best race scores, including the minimum of 2 from each section, will be added together to form an Overall Championship total. If you do the club mile, that can be one of your 9 qualifying events (if it is one of the 9 best scores).
All first claim members are included in the Championship. Juniors running in senior races (where permitted) will be included in the Senior categories. Members joining (or re-joining) during the year will only have results counted from the date their subscription has been paid.
Scoring
Points are calculated based on their time relative to the overall race winner (male and female respectively). This is exactly the same as the Fell League. If a PFR runner is first overall (ie first male or first female), he or she will get 100 points. If your time is exactly double the winner’s time, you get 50 points: the points are calculated on a scale so the faster you run the more points you get. For the series events, the points are based on your fastest time of the series relative to the fastest race winning time of the series.
The main advantages of this method are: 1) it means that every second you run faster will gain you points (not a lot, but something – unless you are the race winner). Beating another Penistone runner (of the same sex) in a race will always mean you get more points than them – but the bigger the gap you get the more points you gain. 2) you don’t get points as a result of other PFR runners not turning up – you get points for your own performance.
The disadvantage of this method is that your points do depend on how fast the winner is – if Mo Farah or Eilish McColgan turn up to Oughtibridge Chase, the points go down – generally, less popular races will yeald more points. This may help boost less popular races, which is no bad thing.
The Challenge Championship will still be as it currently is – the total points from all events completed (including your best Spencers Dash and Silkstone Shuffle, and the club mile).
Prizes
Your age group for the Championship in any year is determined by your age on January 1st. Prizes will be awarded for each age group for both male and female categories for each section winners, eg Fell Lady Vet 40.
- The groups are as follows: Male U20, M Senior, MV35, MV40, MV45, MV50, MV55, MV60, MV65, MV70, MV75, MV80, Female U20, F Senior, LV35, LV40, LV45, LV50, LV55, LV60, LV65, LV70, LV75, LV80.
- The Sections are Road, Fell and Cross Country.
- The Overall Champions will be the Male and Female with the best scores from the 9 races needed to qualify.
- A special prize, and title of Challenge Champion will be given to the runner who acquires the most points from the 18 qualifying events.
- Run as many or as few races as you want but you must compete in the correct number of races to win an award.
2020 Races
| Date | Race | Enter on day | Pre-enter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 16 Feb | Wombwell 5M | No | Yes |
| Sun 1 Mar | Hoppits Hill Race | Yes | No |
| Sat 14 Mar | Silkstone Shuffle 1 | Yes | Yes |
| Sun 15 Mar | Thirsk 10M | ? | Yes |
| Wed 1 Apr | Spencers Dash 1 | Yes | Yes |
| Mon 13 Apr | Ackworth Half Marathon | No | Yes |
| Wed 22 Apr | Herod Farm | Yes | No |
| Wed 6 May | Spencers Dash 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Tue 5 May (TBC) | Club Mile | Yes | Yes |
| Fri 22 May | Hayfield May Queen | Yes | No |
| Wed 3 Jun | Spencers Dash 3 | Yes | Yes |
| Wed 10 Jun | Joe Percy 10k | No | Yes |
| Sat 13 Jun | Silkstone Shuffle 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Tue 16 Jun | Oughtibridge Chase | Yes | No |
| Wed 1 Jul | Hope Wakes | Yes | No |
| Wed 1 Jul | Spencers Dash 4 | Yes | Yes |
| Sat 4 Jul | Thurlstone Chase | Yes | Yes |
| Sun 12 Jul | Barnsley 5k | ? | Yes |
| Wed 5 Aug | Spencers Dash 5 | Yes | Yes |
| Sun 23 Aug | Crowden Horseshoe | Yes | Yes |
| Wed 26 Aug | Higham Hurtle | Yes | ? |
| Wed 2 Sep | Spencers Dash 6 | Yes | Yes |
| Sun 6 Sep | Shelf Moor | Yes | No |
| Sat 19 Sep | Silkstone Shuffle 3 | Yes | Yes |
| Sun 20 Sep TBC | Penistone Hill Race | Yes | Yes |
| Sun 25 Oct | SYCCL | No | Yes |
| Sat 14 Nov | Frightful Furty Furlong | Yes | Yes |
| Sun 15 Nov | Wadsworth Half Trog | Yes | No |
| Sun 29 Nov | Doncaster 10k | ? | Yes |
| Sat 5 Dec | Silkstone Shuffle 4 | Yes | Yes |
Green=Cross Country Blue=Road Orange=Fell Black=Track
All Championship races are highlighted in yellow in the Events Diary.
Past Championship Results
PFR Championship results from previous years can be found from the links below: