​In the Scottish Masters Cross Country Championships held at
Camperdown Park in Dundee on Saturday 28th January 2017,
Morpeth Harrier Bob Marshall, now residing in Kelso in the Borders,
finished fifth in the Men’s Over 60 event, run over a distance of 6k,
and was 160 seconds adrift of race winner Andrew McLinden of Glasgow club Hamilton.
He was much closer to a Bronze Medal however, just losing out by thirty-two seconds.

Scott Beattie’s Gold Medal winning performance in the Under 20 Men’s 8k event
was very much a big part of some excellent Morpeth Harriers achievements
at the  Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships,
held for the third time at Knowsley Safari Park,
on Merseyside on Saturday 28th January 2017.

​Beattie grabbed the lead on the second lap to establish an excellent winning margin
of thirteen seconds over fellow race favourite Patrick Dever of Preston Harriers,
with Hugo Milner of Derby taking third place, a further six seconds adrift.
It also saw Beattie clinch his second Northern Championship Individual Gold Medal,
having won the Under 17 Men’s title at Blackburn in 2016.

Beattie grabbed the lead on the second lap to establish an excellent winning margin
of thirteen seconds over fellow race favourite Patrick Dever of Preston Harriers,
with Hugo Milner of Derby taking third place, a further six seconds adrift.
It also saw Beattie clinch his second Northern Championship Individual Gold Medal,
having won the Under 17 Men’s title at Blackburn in 2016.

Unfortunately, Morpeth Harriers only had three runners competing in the Under 20 Men’s event,
so Beattie’s excellent performance could not be matched by a team performance.

Nevertheless, the efforts of James Young (32nd), and Phil Winkler (43rd)
were substantial on an individual front, and another decent run by another
fellow clubmate would have probably seen them amongst the medals.

​Morpeth Harriers Senior Men just missed out for Team Gold by a
mere two points to Sale Harriers in their three lap 12k event.
They were led home by an excellent performer in Peter Newton,
who worked hard throughout to win a superb individual Bronze Medal.
Further excellent team support came from Nick Swinburn (9th),
Carl Avery (13th), Robert Balmbra (44th), Ian Harding (45th), and Sam Hancox (75th).

​Other Morpeth Senior Men amongst the action were Andrew Lawrence (81st),
Thomas Straughan (88th), Steve Patterson (261st), Dave Richardson (271st),
Rob Hancox (272nd), Alistair Douglass (295th), and Steve Haswell (364th).

​Morpeth Harriers Senior Women and Under 17 Men narrowly
missed out on team medals in their respective 8k and 5.8k events.

The clubs Senior Women finishing fourth, were led home by Emma Holt,
who produced an excellent individual effort to finish seventh,
and just less than thirty seconds adrift of an individual medal.
​
Superb additional team support in this event came from Josie Cram (26th),
Jane Hodgson (33rd), and a tenacious Gemma Floyd,
who really gave her all to finish an excellent 64th in a top class field.

Another lion-hearted display of tenacity from a Morpeth Harrier performer was that of Rory Leonard,
who battled away throughout the whole of the two lap Under 17 Men’s event, to finish a well - earned seventh,
and led his club to fourth team place, again just fractionally missing out on team medals.
Leonard was also only twenty seconds adrift of an individual medal.

Excellent Morpeth team support in this event came from a superb effort from
Matthew Waterfield in finishing 29th, Liam Marsh (44th), and Taylor Glover (60th).
Not far behind Glover, and producing a superb run was Joe Ramshaw, who finished in 66th place.

Other Morpeth Harriers performances in the Under 17 Men’s event came from
Connor Marshall (76th), Alex Cunningham (79th), and Kieran Hedley (82nd),
who ran despite being far from fully fit.

In addition to all of those mentioned, the club also had some excellent top ten performers
in Daniel Dixon (Under 15 Boys), and Holly Peck (Under 15 Girls),
who placed fifth and ninth in their respective events.
Dixon led the Morpeth Under 15 Boys home to eighth team place,
with further good support coming from Ross Charlton (38th),
Daniel Melling (51st), and Thomas Cunningham (90th).

Peck led Morpeth Harriers Under 15 Girls home to thirteenth team place,
with further support coming from Lily Heaton (86th), Lauren Cummings (89th),
and Hannah Pountney (142nd), who was running in her very first championship event.

Ben Walker (27th) and Dylan Davies (29th), both produced excellent runs in the Under 13 Boys event,
as did Ben Waterfield (155th) in a field of 213 finishing competitors.

Gracie Hufton did extremely well to finish 51st, as Morpeth’s lone runner in the Under 17 Women’s event.

Rhiannon Hedley was also Morpeth’s lone runner in the
Under 13 Girls event, finishing 72nd in a field of 223 competitors.
​
Conditions for athletes in all events were very heavy, following overnight rain,
which intermittently continued well into the middle of the day’s proceedings.
Finding good ground proved to be difficult in most areas of the course.

​A cool, bright, still evening, perfect conditions for the 26 who turned out
to run in January’s race – thanks to you all and hope you enjoyed it.
Kevin Bray

We apologise for accidentally omitting two excellent performances
by two of our Young Athletes at last week’s Gateshead Indoor
Standards Meeting reported elsewhere on our website.

Sisters Megan and Rosie Winter of Morpeth Harriers & AC,
each produced respective personal bests of 7.41m and 9.05m,
when finishing third and second in the Under 15 and Under 17 Shot Putt event.
​
Both performances reflect excellence, from the athletes, and their Coach.

Entries for the 2017 Northumberland Coastal Run have now closed !! 
1200 places were available for the annual 14 mile run from Beadnell to Alnmouth,
and these were snapped up in a record time of just over 4 hours ! 
​
The race is on Sunday 23rd July and will start at 10.30am. 
The entry list is here