Annual Lyke Wake Race
In 1963 a group of Osmotherley residents wanted to revive Osmotherley Summer Games, this village sports day, of ancient lineage was traditionally held on the nearest Saturday to July 10th, the fixed date came about by the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in the 1700's but the 'Games' (originally a three day event) had not been held for many years. The organisers asked the former Lyke Wake Club to have a race from Ravenscar to finish in Osmotherley village during the event in 1964.
This proposal was opposed by Bill Cowley as he was against the idea of the walk becoming a time trial, but he eventually relented. In 2014 we celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the annual Lyke Wake Race, little did we realise that the event would continue for so long. However, in 1976 the event started and finished in Osmotherley, running half way and back - due to serious fires on the moors, and in 2001 it had to be cancelled due to Foot & Mouth Disease.
Eventually Osmotherley Summer Games lost interest in this unique race and in 1998 the former Lyke Wake Club decided to turn it around and run in the traditional direction from Sheepwash to the Raven Hall Hotel.
For the past decade it had become a problem keeping the event going, not only low numbers of entries making it financially unviable but a continual problem of getting reliable long term staff (about 40) needed to marshal the race. Many of the existing staff had been involved for upwards of thirty years and some were well into their eighties. Reluctantly it was decided that the Golden Jubilee race would be the last, fifty years was a good point at which to cease.
The company had been interested in allowing a running club or similar organisation to organise the annual race under licence - enabling them to use registered trademarks, trade names, badges etc. An agreement had been reached with a running club in November 2014, they reneged on the commercially sensitive agreement during their organisation of the 2015 race; the company cancelled this agreement. Please advise us of event purporting to be the 'Annual Lyke Wake Race'.
Over thirty runners, marshals & RAYNET staff were presented with engraved glassware after the 2014 race in appreciation of their long-time commitment, the full list can be seen here.
Many trophies were presented over the years to winners of various classes, the full list of previous winners are:-
Masterman Rosebowl
(first to finish - handicap winner)
George Ward Rosebowl
(first to finish of the opposite sex - handicap winner)
Lyke Wake Shield
(fastest time)
Margaret & Eric Toyne Memorial Cup
(fastest time of the opposite sex)
Ben Hingston Memorial Plate
(fastest veteran - over 55 years of age)
Alan Waller Trophy
(oldest competitor to finish)
Bill Hardcastle Memorial Cup
(team winners - aggregate time)
The results of the last eight races are available in PDF format.
2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014
Entries in Bold are veterans (over 55), entries in italic are ladies, underlined entries are under 18. Entries marked 'd' are disqualified (from winning trophies) because they started earlier that their official start time.
