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Amerdale Hall News Page

This year’s Fete was a scorcher, and competitors and fete goers arrived in Arncliffe in their droves.

The afternoon began with the Littondale ‘4’ Road Race. There was a record entry of 231 runners this year and despite the heat, 201 finishers.  The men’s race was a battle between three experienced Leeds City athletes and U20 Ewan Wilkinson of Keighley and Craven.  Ewan used his superior speed to kick away over the last 800m to win the race by 8 seconds in a time of 20.21 and second place went to Nathan Marsh (20.29).

Leeds City provided the winner in the women’s race,  Rachel Friend, who also finished 12th place overall in a time of 24.12, and ahead of a multiple former winner, Helen Smith  in 24.48.

The programme of fell races started at 2pm with races for U9’s, U12’s, U14’s, U17’s and concluding with the Seniors.  There were 124 junior runners and 150 senior entries.  The senior race was closely fought with Sam Bentham (Ilkley Harriers) winning in 11.07 and local legend, Ted Mason (Wharfedale Harriers) coming a close second in 11.27. First lady was Izzy Rowe (Wharfedale Harriers) in a time of 13.50.

Skipton Brass Band provided the traditional musical accompaniment to the afternoon’s entertainment that also included children’s fancy dress judged by Carol McKenzie and Wendy Moor.  The fabulous winners were:
1st.  Harrison Cowan-Richards as Kaleb Cooper
2nd.  Mollie Metcalfe as Outlander
3rd.  Archie Middleton as the Yorkshire Vet

 And for the dog show, 39 dogs of all shapes and sizes entered, making it a difficult job for the esteemed judge (Indu Smith). Meg (owned by Sarah) won best Big Dog and Betsy (owned by Liz) won the best Small Dog section.

The Children's races were also hotly contested with too numerous winners to mention. Congratulations to one and all!

Once again Ripon Runners came to Arncliffe for their 4-race challenge.  They started the day with the Fountains Abbey Park Run before coming to Arncliffe to take part in the Littondale ‘4’ road race, Senior Fell race and finally the sack race.  The sack race winners were Fraser Quince (men’s race) and Angela Brown (women’s race).

The afternoon concluded with the strongmen and strongwomen competition among 16 teams. Our 2026 Strongmen winners were John Miller and Andrew Price and the Strongwomen winners, Jo Buckley and Marie Osbourne.

For a full selection of fantastic photos of the day, please see the photo page in the menu. 

Over £5000 was raised for Amerdale Hall, the Village Hall for Littondale. The Committee would like to thank everyone who supported the Fete and especially those who helped make the day run smoothly – the car parkers, marshals, safety officials, judges, cake bakers and servers, barbeque chefs, stall holders and all those who set up and took down.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH EVERYONE!  SEE YOU NEXT YEAR.