Team success at Ambles Revenge caps busy festive period

Penistone Footpath Runners brought 2025 to a close with a packed festive programme of racing, cross country and two sets of parkruns across Christmas and the final weekend of the year. Sunday saw the latest running of the club’s traditional Amble's Revenge, an eight-mile multi-terrain race starting and finishing in Oxspring. Held between Christmas and New Year, the clockwise course mixes trail, road and fell with over 1,200 feet of climb and again provided a stern test in muddy and demanding conditions. Penistone runners featured prominently throughout the field, led home by Tom Fryers in seventh place in a net time of 55-41, with James Fryers tenth in 57-49 and George Parr 16th in 59-36. Graihagh Turner produced an outstanding run to finish first female overall in 1-02-38, while Ian Neville claimed victory in the men’s over60 category with 1-03-39. There were further age-category successes for Lesley Parker, first over50 female in 1-14-34, Bill Phillips, first over75 male in 1-32-11, and Barbara Haigh, first over75 female in 1-42-03. Penistone Footpath Runners completed a clean sweep of the team prizes, winning both the men’s and ladies’ competitions, with the men’s team of Tom Fryers, James Fryers and George Parr, and the ladies’ team of Graihagh Turner, Suzanne McGill and Josie Smith.

Earlier in the festive period, John and Dawn Broom competed at the East Hull Boxing Day 10K, run over three laps of East Park in Hull. John finished 55th overall in 41-22 to place second in the men’s over55 category, while Dawn was 104th overall in 45-09, taking first place in the women’s over60s. Fell running also featured at the Totley Two Turtle Doves, where Mark Crossley led the Penistone trio home in 52-57, with Jill Scrivens finishing in 54-48 and Gemma Nutton completing the course in 57-41 on the scenic winter route. The final fixture of the South Yorkshire Cross Country League took place at Graves Park in foggy and muddy conditions, marking the end of the league season. Nichola McNally rounded off the campaign in fine style, finishing first in the over55 female category in 29-03.

The festive period also brought a rare double set of parkruns. Christmas Day saw a record turnout of 88 Penistone seniors across 12 venues, including what is believed to be the club’s largest ever single-event attendance, with 56 runners at Penistone. Graihagh Turner led the celebrations there with first female place, Suzanne McGill was second female, and Sean Pitt finished third overall. Dawn Broom celebrated her 600th parkrun at Penistone, capping a carefully planned milestone. Elsewhere, Tom Fryers took second place at Riverside Walk, while the strongest age-graded performances on Christmas Day came from Julia Johnson (84.30%), Dawn Godley (80.04%), Flynn Rogers (79.42%), Ian Neville (78.21%) and Richard Heppenstall (78.04%).

The final parkruns on 27 December saw another strong showing, with 79 seniors represented across 22 venues. Suzanne McGill took first female at Penistone, while Hannah Shaw led the women home at Sherwood Pines. Second gender places went to Dawn Godley at Barnsley, Richard Heppenstall at Princes, Tom Fryers at Riverside Walk and Flynn Rogers at Black Rocks, with third gender finishes for Elizabeth Deacon at Penistone and James Fryers at Riverside Walk. Oliver France marked his 150th parkrun at Penistone, while the highest age-graded performances across the weekend came from Julia Johnson (88.60%), Dawn Godley (81.57%), Richard Heppenstall (80.99%), Flynn Rogers (79.81%) and James Mumford (78.29%).