The Club AGM took place at Chapel Stile Village Hall on Saturday 16th November 2019. The minutes will be published here soon. We were pleased to welcome the new President of ARCC to the meeting. With the agreement of the Bishop of Lancaster, the Management Committee has appointed Fr John Moriarty as Club President. Fr John is currently Director of Castlerigg Manor in Keswick. He has been a member of ARCC since 2005. Fr John celebrated Mass for Deceased Members in the club Chapel after the AGM.

A temporary agreement has been made allowing FRCC members to use Little Ground House and ARCC members to use the Birkness at Buttermere. Further details can be found here.

These are the arrangements for Father Elder’s funeral

The funeral will be held at St Mary & St Michael’s Catholic Church in Garstang. There will be a Mass at 7pm on Thursday 5th September for the Reception of the Body. Father Elder’s body will remain in the church overnight, and then there will be a funeral Mass at 11.30am on Friday 6th September. All are welcome.

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Father David Elder, our ARCC President, passed away yesterday, Monday 19th August. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. We will share funeral details in due course, but we know that it will be within the next 2 weeks in Garstang.

As a result of a recent incident during which unauthorised access was gained to the hut, the lock on the front door of Bishop’s Scale has been upgraded and the code has been changed. 
We have sent the new code to everyone on the club email address list. If you have not received an email from us then either we don’t have your email address at all, or you need to update it. Please get in touch with any committee member with your current email address to make sure that you receive important communications about the club. 
Thanks ?

On the 7^th June 2019 John McGonagle completed a month long Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride.  We spent a wonderful ten days touring through Cornwall and Devon using mainly ‘B’ roads.  Very lumpy.    During this section I suffered recurring bouts of dizziness and balance problems necessitating a visit to an ear specialist and two hospitals in Cornwall and taking a course of antibiotics.

John meanwhile rode on and I ended up playing catch-up by taxi.  This put paid to my ride being an E to E attempt. Because of the effects of the antibiotics I abandoned the ride at Newport, South Wales. John carried on up through Wales to home in Blackburn, where he was just in time to plant his spuds and sort out a rebellious swarm of bees in one of his allotment hives! On the whole the weather during the ride up to then had been good, particularly in the south west. 

From here going north it took on a different complexion.  John battled on, day after day in unrelenting driving, cold rain.  He never gave up.  He had a day of 88 miles and one of over 90 miles arriving at the booked B & B after sunset.  At Fort William on a wet day he reckoned he had the ride ‘in the bag’! In a rain storm he made John O’ Groats feeling “Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed”. I never doubted he would do it. Mick Mcgovern.

Congratulations to Dave Jackson who on 22nd June 2019 became the 51st Achille Ratti member to complete the Bob Graham Round. Dave’s report can be found here.

By Mick McGovern

The longstanding Hendersons End Fell Race organised by Lostock A.C. has been renamed ‘The Leo Pollard Memorial Race’ in memory of its late club president Leo Pollard.  This inaugural race was  held on the usual 1st Thursday in June which this year was 6th at 7:30pm from Rivington Upper Barn, nr. Bolton GR SD634145.  Note the race route was shortened by 1/2 mile to 7 miles (1500ft ascent) by routing directly from the Mast to the Pike which introduces a very nice downhill moor section. ARCC Chairman Chris Lloyd said a few words about Leo before the start of the race.

ARCC COMPETITORS

• 15^th         Robert Green      0:53:40
• 140^th      Jessica Slater       1:32:19
• 155^th      Paul Garstang     1:41:05
• 167^th      Diane Green        2:00:08
• 167^th      Elaine Garstang  2:00:08

Other ARCC members ran under other club colours. A full results list is available on the Lostock A.C. website. Also on the Lostock AC website is an interesting video of the 2018 race produced by Pete Revald of Horwich RMI Harriers. Pete is a past winner of the Rivington Pike Race.

The first of the Club’s three annual fell races took place on Saturday 6th April. Thanks to Tony Shanley for organising the event. Unfortunately entries were down due to clashes with several other races but all who attended had a good run in the Langdale sunshine. Thanks to Mark Birbeck for taking some great photos, a small selection is shown below. Click here for a race report. More photos can be found here.

A big thank you to all those who turned up at Bishop’s Scale last weekend and worked so hard. We now have clear gutters and moss free roofs, a clean hut and Chapel, no cut down tree branches in the fields, no logs waiting to be cut and chopped, no parts of a dismantled kitchen in the wood shed, a fence around the water tank, an extended wood shed, a part painted metal container, a heater in the ladies toilets, less mouldy and re-painted walls in the ladies toilet, a brighter lounge and a less cluttered drying room and hallway. Click here to see photographs showing some people at work.