The latest BOFRA fell race was held at the beautiful village of Kettlewell on Sunday, the best day of the weekend. Appletreewick’s Ted Mason has been getting nearer to the front in recent races and this is definitely his domain.Having won this race last year he was up for it.

The Wharfedale runner excels on these short sharp races, this one is only one and a half miles but the sharp climbs on it rip your lungs out. When the runners turned round at the summit it was last year’s BOFRA champion Alistair Dunn who was in the lead.

He was around 100 metres clear of Mason and must have felt that the race was his for the taking.

However, Mason is probably one of the best descenders ever to put on a pair of fell trainers and proved it once again.

He quickly overhauled the pair of runners between him and Dunn then reeled in the Helm runner crossing the line with a 10 second cushion to keep hold of his Kettlewell crown. West Marton’s Sam Watson, who has been in good form, was the next Wharfedale Harrier home in seventh place with Cobbydaler Jonny Bradshaw in eighth.

He was also the first under-23 finisher, followed by Skipton’s Luke Maude with Hellifield’s Jimmy Craig taking tenth place. The highest placed Wharfedale lady was the in-form Kirsty Hall from Threshfield who finished third lady and not far behind the top two, Pennine’s Edie Hemstock and Holmfirth’s Lucy Needham.

Wharfedale have control in the under-17 boys with James Hall hauling the runners round to finish ahead of last week’s Kirkby winner Ben Johnstone with club-mate Declan Bulmer back in third. The next three runners also Wharfe- dalers were Harry Muir, John Lockwood and Phil Done in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. Keighley & Craven girls had a similar result with Zara Knappy winning from Rossendale’s Leah Williamson. The next three places were filled by Keighley runners Sally Handford, Katie Handford and Holly Carter. The under-14 race saw Wharfe- dale’s Josh Newbold finish four seconds in front of his club-mate Thomas Nelson who in turn was only five seconds up on Keighley’s Robert Thompson.

The girls race was won by Keighley’s Eleanor Robinson who beat Ingleton’s Ellie Lambert by four seconds.

Wharfedale’s Robbie Johnstone won the under-12 race with Ilkley’s Euan Benjamin hot in pursuit. The highest-placed local girl was Wharfedale’s Shona Hastings who took third prize.

The BOFRA series continues on Sunday at Hawkswick in Littondale.