2015 Successes for Morpeth Harriers & AC Senior Men

Morpeths Senior Mens squad at Sutton Park

As 2015 draws to a close, we can pause to reflect on the years successes for Morpeth Harriers & AC,
particularly that of their Senior Men’s Road and Cross Country squad.
At the end of January they began their year very well when they
won the Northern Cross Country Championships at Pontefract.

A month later they finished as fifth team in the English National Cross
Country Championships, at an extremely muddy Parliament Hill in London.

End of March saw them finish second to Leeds City in the
Northern 12 Stage Road Relays at Sefton Park, Liverpool.

They followed this up however, fourteen days later, with what was their greatest,
and very much long awaited victory, when they lifted the
English National 12 Stage Road Relay title,
for the very first time, at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield.

Another English National title came their way at the beginning of November,
when they won the Cross Country Relays at Mansfield,
by a margin of one second from Highgate, courtesy of Lewis Timmins,
Jonny Taylor, Ian Hudspith, and Nick Swinburn.

Timmins, Taylor, Swinburn, and World Duathlon Champion Carl Avery
all finished well in the European Trials Cross Country at Sefton Park,
bringing about an excellent club victory in the event.
They beat of stern challenges from Swansea Harriers (Wales),
and Central AC (Scotland), to win a trip to Kastamonu in Turkey,
to represent Great Britain in the European Champions Club Cross Country
Championships, scheduled to be held on Sunday 7 February 2016.

The club however has to meet costs to fund travel,
accommodation, visas, and event entry from its own resources.
As the club is totally reliant upon member’s yearly subscriptions,
it can only meet a certain proportion of these costs itself,
and is currently appealing for any would be sponsors to help if possible,
to enable them to compete on such a world stage, an honourable occasion indeed.
A Just Giving page has also been set up on the clubs behalf,
which has already attracted a number of interested donors;
this can be found on the following link,   

https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/morpethharriers

Since the European Trials success, the club has also triumphed
at the North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships,
thus signing off a superb competitive 2015, and it eagerly looks forward to 2016,
when they will be competing on what will be their biggest stage ever,
something which the club is very proud of, as it is their sport’s equivalent
of competing in the Champions League, which no other North East
Sporting body is anywhere near achieving at present.