The Skipton Cup

The Skipton Cup is back (yet again)

The Skipton Cup is a series of 5km Handicap race series for club members held at Frenchfield, Penrith, in the late summer. We start with a scratch event and then move on to a series of hotly contested handicap age category races, all across four weeks. All abilities are in the running to win!

Age Group categories for the Skipton Cup series are –

  • Age Group 18-34 = Open
  • Age Group 35-39 = v35
  • Age Group 40-44 = v40
  • Age Group 45-49 = v45
  • Age Group 50-54 = v50
  • Age Group 55 -59 = v55
  • Age Group 60-64 = v60
  • Age Group 65-69 = v65
  • Age Group 70& over = v70+

Event Dates

Race #1 – 5k mass-start
Date – Wed Sept 4th 2024, 6pm start
Further info – see below

Race # 2 – 1st 5k handicap
Date – Wed Sept 11th 2024, 6pm start
Further info – see below

Race #
Date
Further info

Race # 3 – 2nd 5k handicap
Date – Wed Sept 18th 2024, 6pm start
Further info – see below

Race # 4 – 3rd 5k handicap
Date – Wed Sept 25th 2024, 6pm start
Further info – see below

Race #
Date
Further info

The 2024 Skipton Cup will be held on the perimeter of the main field at Frenchfield – see ‘Rules’ below. 

Skipton Cup Rules

🟢🔵The Skipton Cup – a 5k Competition 🏆🟢🔵

 The Skipton Cup competition is a series of 5km handicap races for club members, held at Frenchfield, Penrith

 

🗓The first event will be held on Wed Sept 4th 2024 at 6.00pm. It will be a mass start 5km, 3-lap clockwise (ie opposite direction to parkrun 🥴) race around the perimeter track of the main field at Frenchfield, with trophies (awarded on Club presentation night in Nov) for the first three men and first three women finishers.

 

IMPORTANT – You will need to wear a race number – so you’ll need to register and collect your number before the start – we aim to be at Frenchfield from around 5.15pm so please be as early as you can – we aim for a 6pm start. Please bring safety pins if you can – we have a limited supply. And that race number should be worn for each subsequent handicap event you attend – see details below

 

On each of the 3 subsequent Wednesdays (ie 11th, 18th, 25th), there will be a 5k handicap race on the same course– details are given below. There are awards in the various age categories for runners with the top 3 fastest times across any/all of the 4 events in each of the following age categories –  Open (ie 18-34),  v35, v40, v45, v50, v55, v60, v65 and v70+ for both men and women – so even if you can’t make all of the events, there will still be something to aim at. We will be publishing a leaderboard covering these age cats after each of the 4 races. Category Age applicable is as on the day of the initial Skipton Cup race – Sept 4th 2024.

 

Note:

  • Age Categories will apply across all 4 events – your best time at any of them will be used to establish prizewinners.

 

  • If you are a prizewinner (ie first 3 male and female) in the initial Skipton Cup 5k mass start race, then you will not be eligible for series Age Category prizes.

 

  • Your initial starting time for Handicap Race #1 (Sept 11th) will be based on your Skipton Cup 2024 (ie Sept 4th) time. If you miss that event, we’ll work out your handicap start time using next-best estimates based on fastest ‘recent’ parkrun times, ‘etc’ .

 

  • You need to be a member of Eden Runners to take part.

 

 

 

HANDICAP RACE SERIES (11th, 18th and 25th September, all 6pm start)

 

Handicap race #1 – Sept 11th.  The runner with the slowest 5k time will start first, and the fastest-timed runner will start last, separated by the time difference in their respective run times in the preceding race(s). The Handicap times will be adjusted after each Handicap Race as improvement is achieved. Please note your Handicap time cannot decrease! Points are awarded at each race for finishing position i.e. first place 1 point, second place 2 points etc.

Handicap races #2 and #3 (Sept 18th and 25th) are then run on subsequent weeks and points will be  awarded in the same way.

 

The overall winner of the handicap series will be the person (male or female) with the lowest total points over the three Handicap Races.

 

Prizes will be awarded to the three runners with the lowest number of total points. The lowest wins The Skipton Cup trophy itself

 

If you miss any of the three Handicap Races, then points equivalent to the last placed finisher  plus one point will be added to your total points for that event.

 

Can’t stress this enough – the whole point of this competition is to promote friendly competition whilst rewarding genuine improvement across the series….and if you win a prize in the process, well, great!  Participation is also at the core of the Skipton Cup race series so please try to attend as many as you can – they are great fun!

 

The events will be available to book on TeamApp – booking yourself on would be greatly appreciated so that we know who’s coming along.  Runners are encouraged to wear club colours please

 

Apologies for the necessarily and long post. If you’ve got this far and have questions, please go back to the start and re-read these notes, have a bit of a think, and perhaps a quiet word with yourself. Then, and only then 😬, if you’ve STILL got questions, comment on here or send me a pm 🙂 . I’m always happy to answer any queries. No, really 😬

 

 Get your running shoes on – it’ll be great to see a good turnout – these events really are for ALL MEMBERS OF ALL ABILITIES, so come and have a go! Your support is really appreciated

 

🍀Good Luck! and remember …..anyone can win the Skipton Cup!

 

The first Skipton Cup handicap competition at Eden Runners took place in 1997 – just a year after the club formed.

Previous winners – 

  • 1997 Alex Heron
  • 1998 Dave Barclay
  • 1999 Sarah Spencer
  • 2000 Andrew Bell
  • 2001 Sally Spence
  • 2002 Karen Heaviside
  • 2003 Paul Saager
  • 2004 Alison Turnbull
  • 2005 I McMillan
  • 2010 Steve Patterson
  • 2011 Craig Harding
  • 2012 Steve Impey
  • 2013 Sally Spence
  • 2014 Mary Chapelhow
  • 2015 Kathleen Taylor
  • 2016 Andrew Richardson
  • 2017 Alison Walker
  • 2018 Andrew Richardson
  • 2019 Tony Brooke
  • 2021 Anna McCombie
  • 2022 Roy Bottomley
  • 2023 Lisa Askins