THERE was Millennium mayhem at Haworth as the Auld Lang Syne Fell Race on New Year's Eve attracted 537 athletes.

Twice the usual number of runners were drawn to the last race of the millennium, and each competitor was presented with a unique souvenir, a bottle of specially brewed strong beer named Old Lang Syne, with a label designed by Alan 'Boff' Whalley, lead guitarist with Burnley band Chumbawamba. To add to the novelty, the race was run in the opposite direction, and although it was for safety reasons to avoid an icy descent, the new route proved so popular that it may be used again.

The race was started by 18-month-old Louie Lloyd Holmes, son of Ian Holmes who had won all six previous races, and the Bingley ace duly won again despite being pushed all the way by Matthew Whitfield.

There was joy for Clayton supervet Ross Jaques who won the over-60 class, but bad luck for team-mate Andrew Austin from Barrowford, who slipped and broke an ankle. Geoff Newsam sacrificed his own race to help carry Andrew off the hill. Gary Wilkinson, of Clayton, in eighth, was the highest-placed East Lancastrian, although four more finished within 20 seconds - Jon Wright (Todmorden), Dave Walker (Clayton), "Boff" Whalley and Martin Lee (Rossendale). Darwener Graham Schofield was second M40 for the Horwich club, Rossendale's Ken Taylor was third M50, Doug Brown of Clayton was second M60 and Sally Newman from Rossendale was third lady.

Race organiser Dave Woodhead is a great innovator, and had videotaped the race so that it could be replayed at the presentation in the pub. New Year celebrations continued with the half-a-yard of ale contest won by Clayton's David Maguire with a time of seven seconds.

Half-a-yard results: 1 Dave McGuire 7secs, 5 Dave Walker 8.00, 7 Gary Wilkinson 8.68, 8 Jim Hickie 9.06, 10 Mark Brown 10.00, 14 Andy Orr 33.01 - all Clayton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.