Denstone College Successfully Hosts the Midlands 30:30

The fourth Midlands 30:30 took place on Saturday 19 March in glorious sunshine, with 12 teams taking part.

The event was hosted by DenstoneCollege and was a major fundraiser for the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), which recently relocated from Headley Court to Stanford Hall near Loughborough. The event consists of navigating round a 30-mile, or 30km course, with each team member carrying 30lbs; just to add to the fun, part of the course is run in the darkness! Once all the teams had registered on the Friday night, it was early to bed for a 3am start for some of the teams.

Despite the recent rains, a week of sunshine had dried the ground up nicely. The 30km route takes the teams up the Weaver Hills and around Cauldon Quarry before dropping onto the Staffordshire way into Oakamoor, to Alton and then back into Denstone College. The 30-mile route takes the teams up into the Peak District and up Bunster and Grindon Hills, before re-joining the 30km route.

After completing the course the competitors were able to enjoy a welcome rub down from trained sports masseuses from Stafford and Derby University before attending the presentation event, at which Major (Ret’d) J Perryer presented awards to the winning teams.

Those receiving awards were:

30km route: POWs, which consisted of staff from the Cadet Training Team who support our CCF every week with a fabulous time of 4hrs and 46 minutes.

30 Mile route: a team of Gurkhas from 22 Signal regiment at Stafford with an amazing time of 6hrs and 58 minutes won this leg. They were chased round the course by a team of officers from Harrogate Apprentice College led by OD, Rannoch Linnell.

30 km Senior route was won by a team captained by our very own Ms Furnival.

The 30km all female team was won by a team of staff from the College including Head, Lotte Tulloch, Lucinda Hill, Sarah McDowell and Kathryn Watson.

Checkpoints were staffed by serving and ex-military personnel with Derby Mountain Rescue providing the medical cover for the event. JCB loaned two loadalls which made an impressive finish line for the teams to pass under.

The event was a great success with well over £15,000 being raised for DMRC.

The 30km results for the College teams were:

Female staff - 5hrs 36mins

CCF team - 7hrs 53 mins

L6 team - 9hrs 42 mins