Pig Racing Night and a final training walk!

Wednesday evening saw a repeat of last year's Pig Racing evening, as organised by Ady, which was a great success and raised £381 towards our cause. A big thank you also to all our generous colleagues who attended and helped make the night a success!!

Two weeks to go until the big day now! We took the opportunity to fit in a final training walk to get used to a bit of night walking - the section we're hoping to do in the dark if we stick to our planned 28 hour schedule. If we can pull it off, this would improve our time last year by around 2 hours!

We set off from Hubberholme at 8:55pm, walking along the river Wharfe.

Darkness fell...















...but the adventurers carried on!















...into the night...















Trying not to step on one of the hundreds of frogs on the riverbank















Stopping in Kettlewell briefly for a refuelling stop.

We met this strange looking fella in Kettlewell.

Finally arrived in Conistone at around 1:00am - Made fairly good time!

Now just got to finalise all the preparations for the main event! Getting quite scary now...

21 days to go!

Saturday saw us pass the 'three weeks away' point, so a last long walk was planned to help build up our stamina for the big day!

We learnt a couple of weeks ago that Ady was dropping out of the team due to other commitments which were affecting his ability to train. As luck would have it, we found somebody willing to take Ady's place - The Q-Team would like to welcome Dan King onboard for this year's event!

On a pleasant, sunny morning, Dan, James S and James R set off from just outside Skipton, walking the route to checkpoint two at Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

A family of ducks seen on the way to
Gargrave
















James and Dan on the climb out of Gargrave. We'd reached Gargrave after only an hour! We had missed out the first mile or so of the route so, on the day, we're hoping we can do this bit in 1 hour and 20 minutes :-)

James and Dan stop to take on some water at Airton.















Due to family commitments, I had to be back in Skipton earlier than the others, so I turned back at Malham. We'd made very good time getting to Malham in around 3 hours! This was around 10 miles and equates to over 3 miles an hour! 

James and Dan continued on to Horton.

I arrived back in Gargrave 2 hours later.
















On the way back to Skipton, I fed the remains of my sandwiches to this swan! It swam alongside me for a while whilst I tried to convey the idea that I didn't have anymore bread to give!

Back in civilisation at last, I arrived back in Skipton at 3pm. 20ish miles in 6 hours - result :-)

Later on, I went to pick up Dan and James in Horton - they'd made it in only 9 hours, which was very impressive given that they had to overcome Fountains Fell and most of Pen Y Ghent also. A time like this on the day would be a great result.

Next week, we switch back to the fundraising side of things with the Pig Racing happening on Wednesday! We've raised around 900 pounds so far and we're hoping that will push us past the £1000 barrier :-)

Dalby triumphs to win the inaugral Oxfam Open!

On 9th May, the great and the good in the tennis world of HML gathered together for the inaugural Oxfam Open Tennis Tournament. Ady, Emma and James all received byes through to the semi finals, leaving Joel to overcome Selvah to secure the last semi-final spot.  

 

The first semi-final saw Emma come back from losing the first set to beat Ady 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 whilst Joel breezed past James, winning 6-0, 6-1.

 In the third-place play off, Ady easily beat James 6-1, 6-0 to secure the bronze medal.

 

 

Meanwhile, on centre court, a thrilling three-set final saw Joel overcome Emma 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to lift the trophy! 

 

 

 

 

All in all, the tournament went well and we raised at least £50 towards out total :-)

Thanks go to all entrants and helpers (James S and Nick) for a great day and some really enjoyable tennis, and to Aireville School for allowing us to use their facilities.