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06
Jul
Long Course Weekend Yorkshire: a timeline
When North Yorkshire was selected to host England's first ever Long Course Weekend, the announcement generated a buzz.
But hopes of the event following in the Great Yorkshire Show’s footsteps seem a distance memory now.
The Stray Ferret last week revealed the event, which was held in Masham for the first time last September, has been cancelled this year due to a lack of "community buy-in".
We attended a media event at Nidderdale Showground, where the three-day sports festival was originally set to be held, in September 2023.
It was then Matthew Evans, founder and chief executive of the Long Course Weekend, pledged to bring the area a “different sports event to anything you have had here before”.
North Yorkshire Council, which agreed a £75,000 deal with the organisers to host the event over a three-year period, promised thousands of athletes and spectators to descend on the area, and expected it to generate £2 million for the local economy.
However, an email to Masham’s steering group for the event sent by Scott Powell, of organiser Activity Wales Events, said this year’s event was scrapped for “operational reasons".
Mr Powell told the group the event relied heavily on community buy-in, but this could not be achieved in Masham and the surrounding areas.
Although the council told the Stray Ferret it is working with the organisers to find a new location for 2026, the event has proved divisive from the outset.
Some people raised concerns over the lack of communication between the organisers and residents, with one local pub owner claiming the event’s road closures “heavily impacted” on trade.
The Stray Ferret has covered the event more than any other media organisation over the years, despite little information being released by the council or the organisers since it was announced.
We’ve collated a timeline to look back on the Long Course Weekend Yorkshire saga, which you can read below.
Mike Holrtof Nidderdale Plus, Cllr Derek Bastimam, Harrogate GB triathlete Emma Robinson and Matthew Evans, founder of Long Course Weekend.
September 2023: Long Course Weekend Yorkshire is announced during a media event at Nidderdale Showground. The event was originally supposed to be held there and the showground converted into an athletes' village.
Gemma Rio, former head of council-owned tourism body Destination Harrogate, said she hoped the event would become a “significant annual event like the Great Yorkshire Show”.
North Yorkshire Council said it expected between 18,000 and 25,000 people to visit the area for the Long Course Weekend.
Cllr Derek Bastiman, who was the Conservative-run council’s executive member for open to business at the time, acknowledged the weekend could “come with challenges” when asked if Pateley Bridge’s infrastructure could cope with such big crowds.
February 2024: Long Course Weekend moves to Masham due to, as described by the council, “difficulties over using the Nidderdale Showground”.
The council released little detail at the time, but Long Course Weekend chief Mr Evans said Masham’s “enthusiasm for hosting events is clearly evident”.
But Martin Smith, chairman of Nidderdale Agricultural Society, which organises the annual Nidderdale Show, later told the Stray Ferret hosting the Long Course Weekend raised “too many questions” about what condition the showground would be left in ahead of the agricultural show, which was scheduled to take place just weeks after the sports festival.
He said at the time:
The show is our absolute priority.
We were initially told the Long Course Weekend could be held in May. We avoid hiring out the showground in September completely due to the show — and the infamous weather we usually get with it — as we have to make sure the showground is in the best condition it can be to go ahead.
However, it was then moved to September. We provided the Long Course Weekend with some terms and conditions, which we do when the ground is being hired out, because we wanted assurance the ground would be left in good order ahead of the show.
We agreed to hosting the show this September on the basis it would be brought forward to earlier in the year — like May or June — the following years. This was in the hopes of better weather or, if the weather was poor, that there would be sufficient time to get the ground in good condition again in time.
Hannah Angell was the first woman to cross the line of the 1.2-mile swim at Grimwith Reservoir.
Masham Parish Council welcomed the move at the time, as vice-chairman Ian Johnson said the Long Course Weekend would be a “huge boost to the local and indeed wider economy in the dales”.
July 2024: With just two months to go until the event, little information had been released to the media, including road closures. The Stray Ferret tried to find out more.
Andrew Murday, a Lib Dem councillor who represents Nidderdale, expressed concerns over road safety and told executive councillor Mark Crane he was “anxious to know” what measures were being taken.
Cllr Crane, executive member for open to business, said the event routes had been “carefully selected” to limit disruption to residents and businesses during the event, whilst still trying to showcase the scenery.
A spokesperson for Long Course Weekend Yorkshire told the Stray Ferret all focus had been on the Welsh event at the time, but assured people “everything was all on track”.
However, we did not receive responses to our subsequent enquiries.
August 2024: A lengthy list of road closures was released.
Christopher Duke, owner of the Galphay Inn between Ripon and Masham, expressed concerns over the impact road closures could have on local businesses.
Mr Duke said he “had no idea” about the event, nor did he know about the 26.2 miles of road closures it entailed, until he saw someone putting up road closure signs just weeks before.
The event was held over three days, but only the final day – the Sunday – saw roads shut entirely.
Mr Duke told the Stray Ferret at the time the event “raised questions over the viability of even opening” his pub. He added:
The roads are closed, so people will struggle to even get to the pub. My staff might not even be paid because they won’t be able to get here – and that’s not their fault.
We serve lunch from midday until 5pm on a Sunday. We tend to do around 60 to 70 servings in a day — that’s money I can’t afford to lose.
Mr Duke said he and other residents felt “very frustrated that no one had the common decency to speak to us” ahead of the event and subsequent road closures.
Event goes ahead
September 2024: England’s first Long Course Weekend was held in Masham and the surrounding areas from September 6 to 8.
The event kicked off with swimmers braving the depths of Grimwith reservoir – around 20 miles from the registration area in Masham Market Place – and battled strong and chilly winds.
The Stray Ferret made the windy trip up to Grimwith to see the event, where competitors appeared to have mixed feelings towards it.
One woman, who had previously competed in the Long Course Weekend Wales, made the three-hour trip from Leicestershire to North Yorkshire to take part in the cycling event.
She praised the organisers and said they had “a lot of experience” in putting on sports tourism events.
But not everyone was smiling from ear-to-ear after the swimming race, as one man from Liverpool told the Stray Ferret he had to be “pulled out of the water” three quarters of the way round.
“It was rough – I swallowed a lot of water. I’ve done three Long Course Weekends in Wales, but this was far too rough for me. They had to pull me out of the water”, he said.
Last year's swimming event.
September 2024: Figures showed only about a third of the number of expected athletes took part in the Long Course Weekend Yorkshire.
Around 1,500 people competed in the event, despite the organisers' website advertising "5,000 athletes and 20,000 supporters" were expected.
You can read the full story and breakdown of the figures here.
We also published an analysis of how successful the event was, which you can find by clicking here.
April 2025: Details of the county’s second Long Course Weekend were revealed.
The event was scheduled to return to Masham from August 29 to 31 this year.
The organisers’ website said they expected more than 3,000 athletes to take part and 10,000 spectators from 30 nations.
The swimming event was moved to Elleterton Park in Richmond – around 18 miles north of Masham – but the structure of the event, which is based loosely on a triathlon, appeared mostly the same.
Long Course Weekend cancelled
June 2025: As the Stray Ferret has been reporting, this year’s Long Course Weekend Yorkshire was recently cancelled for “operational reasons”.
North Yorkshire Council’s head of tourism, Tony Watson, told the Stray Ferret the council was disappointed by the move, but pledged to support the organisers in finding an alternate location.
July 2025: The search for a new location to host Long Course Weekend in North Yorkshire got underway.
The council said the agreed £25,000 hosting fee will not be paid to the organisers this year, as the event has been cancelled, and would not be released if a new location could not be agreed.
The Stray Ferret has contacted Activity Wales Events and Long Course Weekend for comment numerous times, but we have not received a response to any of our enquiries.
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