There were only eight of us that made the trip down to Saddleworth to visit the Saddleworth Runners. Howard Chambers had organised the weekend visit to his home club and had booked the excellent Boarshurst Out-door Centre as our accomodation.
I set off at 6:50 having fed my passengers with enough pasta to last the journey and we drove at a good pace till we got to Oldham. All the signs around Oldham seem to point to the centre and then disappear. so after an extra 15 minutes touring the red light distict we headed out of town on a compass bearing ansd eventually found our way to Greenfield. We met Howard and a few of his club mates in the King William and had a few pints before heading off to the hut. Andy, Hilary and Jane turned up about 15 minutes after we got there having also found the centre of Oldham rather enticing. A good few beers and a couple of whiskies were consumed before we headed of to bed.

The next moning we had a large breakfast in preparation for the run. Howard produced some laminated maps of Saddleworth moor and had chosen about 20 points on the maps for a score event. We were to go out for four hours and collect as many points as possible. Some time was spent marking up the maps and thinking about routes till Howard arived. By 11 oclock there were about 20 Saddleworth Runners waiting to be teamed up with the Carnethies. Howard should open a dating agency as he managed to team each Carnethy up with a perfect match of one or two Saddleworths, then there was a short time to peruse the maps and make route choices before heading off.

The sun was shining and it was rather warm as I headed off with Tim and Bruce towards the Moors. The first 10 points were ticked as we [passed the Sailing Club and then it was off up Indian Head ( a rocky outcrop that is meantto look like the head of a native American).Then we were up on the moor and running across surprisingly dry terrain. We seemed to take in most of the Map and even managed to pass the famous Snoopy's caravan where we got some well earned sustenance. Snoopy's seeemingly had a "As seen on TV" sign when the moors were being scoured for Bodies during the Moors Murders investigations and the local police were kept well fed.

The running was good, though I found the slabbed walkways rather hard with Walshes on. But for a "fun" event we did seem to be trying quite hard! Apart from the food and photo stops we were running fairly hard for 4 hours. We made it back to the Centre with about 5 minutes to spare and got 460 points. Somehow Andy managed 590 points with his partner and Keith came in rather late looking extremely fatigued. I gave him a good slagging till I realised that the extra 50 points that his team gained whilst making themselves late, were only slightly diminished by the penalty , leaving his team in second place with 478 points.

Team	No. of CP visited	Deductions	Total Points
Andy Spenceley / Tony Radcliffe	18	0	590
Keith Burns / Ray Green	15	22	478
Willie Gibson / Bruce Bridgestock / Tim Lord	14	0	460
Moira Stewart / Jim Barrott / Mike Elwell	14	0	420
Gordon Cameron / Tony Winter / Bob Waterhouse	15	0	410
Hilary Spenceley / Roy Bradley / Terry Eckersley	13	0	370
Jane Roberstson / Ian Barber	12	0	300
Calli Ingram / Sue Kiveal / Sue Gordon	13	0	280
Howard Chambers / Gill Batber / Tony Shanley*	9	0	130
* Only had two hours due to organisational commitments

Everyone had a great time running with nice people in wonderful weather, what a good day out.

After a few beers, or cups of tea, depending on inclination, the Saddleeworth Runners headed off for baths at home and we all showered and headed into the local town for a wander and a beer before returning to the centre for a short sleep.
There was an outside caterer organised to provide food in the evening and by 7 pm ther were about 40 people gathered in the hall for the festivities. The first thing on the menu was Howards quiz. We were again mixed in with the Saddleworth runners and had a good laugh enjoying the repartee and the food. There was a chicken curry and a vegetable curry and lasagne served during the quiz. Then we all thought that Gordon had choked, but discovered that the quiz page with Anagrams of carnethy or Saddleworth worthies included a certain "Condom Groaner" and Gordon had just worked out the answer. He spent the rest of the evening telling us that romance was a beter anagram of Cameron.

 

The whole evening was a great laugh and all the people were really friendly, very much like our Club. We continued telling stories and drinking whisky into the wee small hours, Howard and his family stayed the night at the Centre and helped us finish a good few bottles.

The next day we went for a two Hour run with the Saddleworth Runners, and visited more local viewpoints and heard many stories about their exploits. This was a far less competetive run that the day before (thank goodness) and we had a lot more time to look around and take in the views. We climbd up the Indians nose and basked in the sun and also ran over some very dry peat, before heading back the the Centre for the leftovers from the meal.

Howard and his Clubmates made us all feel really welcome and we all had a really good weekend. We drove up the road wondering how we can put on something similar for them in Scotland. They may be coming up for the "Two Breweries".

A Big Thankyou To Howard and Saddleworth for making the weekend such fun.