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Out in force at Barnsley 10K
The club enjoyed a busy week of racing across road, trail, fell and parkrun, led by a huge club turnout at the Barnsley 10K. Forty-four Penistone runners completed the popular local race, with Sean Pitt leading the club home in 18th place in 36-02. Richard Heppenstall followed in 24th place in 36-44, taking second in the men’s over50 category, while Martin Ball was 53rd in 39-06 and Alex Harris 60th in 39-26. Jade Crosby produced one of the standout runs of the day, finishing seventh lady overall in 41-19 with a course personal best. Daniel Rushforth, Alex Crosby and Ian Neville were all close behind, with Neville placing fifth in the men’s over60 category. Rachael Mayston and Suzanne McGill both ran strongly, taking second and third respectively in the ladies over50 category.
Further down the field, there were notable performances from Nick Pepper, who recorded a personal best, Alex Crosby with a 58-second course best, Dan Cooper with his fastest time on the course, and Ian McNulty, who broke 50 minutes again. Sara Wolstenholme also improved by more than ten minutes on last year’s time, while Sue Hall won the ladies over65 category and Barbara Haigh won the ladies over75 category.
We were also strongly represented at the Midsummer Mad Dash, where Flynn Rogers led the club home with an excellent 12th place overall in 37-08, placing fifth in the senior men’s category. Hannah Shaw was first Penistone lady and fourth lady overall, clocking 40-41. Robin Clough finished 41st in 42-51 and was fifth in the men’s over55 category. There was further age-category success through Jill Scrivens, who was second in the ladies over55 category, Sara Wolstenholme, who was third in the ladies over50 category, and Amelia Cottam and Mandy Mallinder, who were both fourth in their categories. Barbara Haigh claimed victory in the ladies over75 category in 1-00-19, while Raymond Brown won the men’s over85 category in 1-05-35.
Earlier in the week, at the Trunce Race 5, Richard Cottam taking overall victory in 26-49. Oliver France was next back for the club in 21st place in 32-16, followed by Daniel Rushforth, who ran 32-43. Ash Howlett finished 34th in 33-23, with Steve Sanders recording 33-48. Hannah Shaw was third female overall in 34-19, just ahead of clubmate Josie Smith in 34-22, while Jon Hallam, Phil Hinchliffe, Shaun Swallow and Chloe Hinchliffe were also among the club’s leading finishers. Kim Rogers finished in 50-14.
At the Round Sheffield Run, the popular multi-stage trail event linking the city’s parks and green spaces, Flynn Rogers produced a superb performance to finish tenth overall in 1-13-49, seven minutes quicker than last year. Gareth Irvine followed in 1-41-30, with Russell Lynam 1-52-32, Ben Thorogood 1-54-45, Harriet Drouin 2-12-27 and Kirsty Rogers 2-25-12 also completing the event. Flynn also capped an excellent week by winning the 2025/26 South Yorkshire Schools Orienteering League in the year 12/13 boys’ category.
On the fells, Damian Kilpin and Steve Sanders represented Penistone at Tom’s Bransdale Fell Race in the North York Moors, held under the Esk Valley Fell Club and Let's Run banner. The race covered eight hard miles in hot conditions, with Damian producing a strong run to finish 19th overall in 1-09-13 and second in the men’s over45 category. Steve followed in 27th place in 1-13-03, taking third in the men’s over50 category. Chris Hodgson tackled the Blencathra fell race in the Lake District, a demanding 13km English Championship race with 825m of climb. Chris completed the tough course in 1-39-32, finishing 271st overall and 69th in the men’s over50 category.
At parkrun, 50 Penistone seniors ran across 15 venues. Ashley Firth led the way with first place at Penistone in 18-45, where Oliver France completed a Penistone one-two in 19-21 and Suzanne McGill was second female in 22-03 on her 150th parkrun. Joanne Sammon also marked a milestone at Penistone, completing her 100th parkrun, while Andrew Taylor volunteered for the 50th time. Richard Cottam was first at Rotherham in 16-56, with Martin Ball also first in the men’s over50 category. Dawn Godley was second female at Barnsley, while there were away category wins for John Broom and Dawn Broom at Birchall Playing Fields, Keith Gordon at Brueton, Julia Johnson at Huddersfield, James Fryers at The Pastures, Kelvin Bowskill at Waverley Lakes and Matthew Coldwell at Middleton Woods. The weekend’s leading age-graded performances came from Julia Johnson (83.78%), Richard Cottam (82.48%), Dawn Broom (81.22%), Dawn Godley (76.80%) and Suzanne McGill (76.04%).