The Northumberland Schools Championships Cross Country Championships were held at Temple Park, South Shields last Tuesday, with pupils representing schools from across the region and competing for the areas of North Northumberland, East Northumberland, Tynedale, North Tyneside and Newcastle.
Once again there was a strong presence from runners attached to Morpeth Harriers, most of whom represented East Northumberland, and several notable individual victories. The first of those victories belonged to Ewan Line in the Boys Minor Championship race for pupils in Years 6 and 7. Line’s fine run was backed up by Ruben Jones, 7th, Evan Laude, 27th, and Daniel Vermaas, 31st, with the team from East Northumberland finishing 2nd. There were also four Harriers out in the matching Girls fixture, with Faye Heatley 4th, Abi Potrac 10th, Sophie Pledger 11th, all representing East Northumberland, and Cecily Findlay, running for North Northumberland, 40th. The East Northumberland went one better than the boys with the team overall winners. In the Junior Boys race, for pupils in Years 8 and 9, George Mavir was highest place in 4th, while Ben Bowen was 45th, Michael Leeson a place behind in 46th, and Thomas Roche 53rd. The East Northumberland team were 3rd. Emma Tomlinson was 6th in the Junior Girls, Megan Potrac 13th , Charlotte Marshall 26th and Iris Dungait 29th , with the team this time 2nd. The second individual victory of the day came in the Intermediate Boys race for Years 10 and 11, where Oliver Calvert pulled off a fine win, with club colleague Elliot Kelso also ensuring selection for the next round in 3rd. Oliver Tomlinson was 4th, Harry Armstrong 34th and Stephen Craske 39th, with the team unfortunately however only able to finish in 5th. One of the day’s most pleasing wins came in a keenly-contested Senior Boys race for pupils in the Sixth Form, where Joe Dixon marked his comeback after a long spell of injury-enforced absence with a tremendous run to come in 1st, ahead of North Tyneside’s Josh Blevins, who had won the U/20 race in the North East Championships on the same course in December, and no less than eight other colleagues from Morpeth Harriers. James Tilley was 3rd, Will De Vere Owen 4th, Matthew Walton 5th, Liam Roche 6th, Ethan Philips 7th, Ryan Davies 8th, Bertie Marr 13th, all representing a dominant East Northumberland team, and Ralph Robson, running for Tynedale, 16th. Duchess High School triathlete Millie Breese had to settle for 2nd in the matching Senior Girls race, where she lost out to North Tyneside runner Holly Waugh, while Caitlin Flanagan, running for Newcastle, was 11th. The first three in each category will go forward to the next round of the Schools Inter Counties competition. Sunday morning saw the running of the Fell Em Doon festive 5k, organised by Ashington Hirst Running Club, through Ashington Community Woods at Lintonville with over 250 finishing the annual trail race despite some very chilly conditions.
Ali Douglas was 1st back in 15 minutes 49 seconds, with youngster Liam Roche 2nd in 16:12 and Heaton Harrier David Young 3rd (16:39). Some thirteen other Morpeth Harriers completed the race, with Dave Stabler 7th and 1st Over 45 in 17:41 and Mark Snowball just outside the top ten in 11th (18:37). Andriy Volkov was 15th (19:26), Ed Hillier 24th (20:19), Jamie Johnson 25th (20:23), Julie Vermaas 26th (and 3rd Female finisher) in 20:28, Richard Glennie 28th (20:41), Kevin Shanahan 29th (20:51), Kate Gaffing 30th (and 4th Female), Linzie Quinn 35th (and 5th), Harry Armstrong, running with his father Ian, 37th, Robyn Ferguson 58th (and 9th), and Sue Smith 104th and 1st Female Over 55. NSP triathlete Steph Maclean Dann was 1st female finisher in 19:16, with local ‘Hirstie’ Samantha Gair 2nd in 19:50 and Julie 3rd (20:28). Great turn out in a local race and good to be able to support AHRC too. Morpeth Harrier Charlotte Earl achieved her best-ever Triple Jump performance at Sheffield Arena on Saturday, when she took a well-earned Bronze Medal in the Under 20 Women’s Final at the combined Senior, Under 20, Under 17 Northern Athletics Indoor Championships.
Within her new improved best of 11.32m, she actually improved on her previous figure of 11.20m, on no less than four occasions during the course of competition, a factor which also pleased her watching Morpeth Coach Vina Desai, who spoke very highly of the work and commitment shown by her young charge in preparation for this level of competition. Remaining with Indoor Competition, Morpeth Under 17 athlete Amelia Hamlin produced a new personal best of 8.5s in her heat of the 60m which she won at the third meeting of the Gateshead Harriers Series, held at Gateshead College on 12 January. In other heats, fellow Morpeth Harriers Freya Caygill, and Jasmine Emolaga, also both Under 17 athletes, clocked 8.33s, and 8.89s, respectively. With a start and finish on York Racecourse and one of the flattest and fastest courses in the North, the Brass Monkey Half Marathon remains hugely popular with runners and has always sold out well in advance, with 2023 no exception.
The race itself was won in a time of 1 hour 6 minutes and 21 seconds by Spenborough and District AC runner Joe Sagar with Georgia Malir of Leeds City 1st female finisher in 1:15:10. Some five Morpeth Harriers travelled, with Andy Lawrence first finisher for the club, 38th in 1:12:46. Mark Banks continued his welcome return from injury with a good time of 1:14:58 for 68th, while an under the weather John Butters was 288th in 1:24:16. Jake Parmley was 324th in 1:25:00 and Laura Mclean 1189th and 46th O/35 in 1:53:56. Some 1625 finished. Closer to home, Dave Stabler was the club’s only representative in the Run Northumberland 10 miler out of Matfen. Dave had a great run to come in 4th overall and 1st O/45 in a time of 1:00:57. The race itself was won by Elswick’s Luke Hilliard in 57:32 with Tynedale’s Amanda Banks 1st female finisher in 1:07:49. Some 78 ran. Finally, although we don’t often report on parkruns, worth mentioning that one Connor Marshall ran the fastest parkrun time in the UK on Saturday with his 15:33. Not a pb, but worth congratulations all the same. Held in the grounds of Lord Lawson of Beamish School under some splendidly sunny skies, Sunday morning’s Birtley Relays featured three separate races and again included the North East Masters Athletics Association Championships for male and female athletes Over 35.
Those of us somewhat longer in the tooth will remember fondly the event’s predecessor from a number of years ago now, the Durham Cathedral Relays, which, as well as a stunning setting on the University’s cricket fields by the snaking River Wear, also featured some top notch Sunday morning scran for those who’d finished. Sadly, the event was kicked out of there and subsequently decamped for a couple of years to the Maiden Castle Sports Centre a little further downstream; this was never a happy marriage however, and the move to Birtley has seen new host Birtley AC organise with great competence and provide at least a more challenging 3k course, which now contorts itself round the school’s playing fields. First race of the day was for all Male Masters Over 35, and there was one team Gold, one Silver and four Fastest age category legs. A mix and match Over 35 team pulled off a Silver medal, remarkable in that two of the team were actually O/50s or 60s! Lee Bennett got the club off to a strong start with a clocking of 11:10, fastest 0/50 of the day, with Adam Pratt running the team into the lead with Race 1’s fastest time of the day of 9:52, a clocking which shows that he is very much back to his best. Not the place 0/60 Neil McAnany, carrying a dodgy leg, was expecting or perhaps hoping to find himself in, but to Neil’s credit he applied himself very sensibly to record 11:57, an 0/60 fastest, with the team’s final cumulative time 32:59. By then winners Heaton Harriers had got noses in front with 32:06, with Elswick’s 0/45s in 2nd (32:40). The club’s 0/45s were 15th overall and 7th in their category, in what was actually the most keenly contested age range in the race. Dave Marshall clocked 13:51, Jamie Johnson 11:57 and, on last leg, Ed Hillier the team’s fastest of 11:51. As last year, there was a resounding win for the club’s Over 65s, with Dave Nicholson (12:41) and Gavin Bayne (12:24) running the day’s fastest category times, but it was a new experience for Les Cavill, roped in with some reluctance after team manager Scaife’s arm-twisting, but whose 13:40 clocking certainly didn’t disgrace anyone. Les – you’ve got the gig! Second race was the combined Women’s Seniors and Masters, and featured perhaps the day’s most remarkable victory, by the Women’s Masters team of Jane Kirby, Morag Stead and Jane Hodgson, an all the more remarkable win in that two of the team were actually 0/45s. Jane Kirby had a terrific ding-dong with colleague Julie Vermaas on leg 1, a tussle in which it was clear no quarter would be given by either side (both were eventually credited with the same time of 12:30, with Jane K’s the day’s 3rd fastest 0/45 time). Jane came in in 4th and passed on to Morag Stead, who got her nose in front of the three ahead of her before the end of the first lap, and whose 11:35 was far and away the fastest 0/45 age category time. With a lead of a minute and a half and the form she has been in all season, Jane Hodgson was never going to be caught, and it was really only a question of how fast she could go with no one to beat and the margin of the overall victory. In fact, she ran the race’s fastest time of 11:01, with the team’s cumulative time of 35:06 nearly three minutes faster than that of nearest rivals Crook AC in 2nd (38:02), with Gosforth a few seconds behind them in 3rd (38:10). Lizzie Rank had brought the club’s Seniors back in 3rd place on leg 1 with a time of 12:29 and she handed on to Tayla Douglas, back racing only a few weeks after giving birth to daughter Mia. Tayla clocked 15:12 and with Rachelle posting an excellent 11:22, the fastest Senior time of the day and one only bettered by Jane H, the team picked up a deserved Bronze (39:03). There were medals for both O/45 and 55s team also, however, with the O/45s of Julie Vermaas (12:30), Fran Naylor (16:57) and Claire Calverley (14:16) a decent 3rd in 43:43 behind Tynedale and Washington in, again, a keenly contested category. Meanwhile the O/55s were both winners in their category and featured, like the Men’s O/65s, the day’s two fastest legs. Sue Smith ran 15:59 on leg 1, with Shuna and Gwenda recording 15:01 and 14:03 respectively for a cumulative time of 45:03. Last race of the day had the smallest field, with only a disappointing eleven full teams out, but was also the closest, with Morpeth and Sunderland Harriers going toe to toe in a fixture Morpeth had previously won several years running. Sunderland got their noses ahead at the end of leg 1, with Peter Smallcombe for Morpeth coming in 2nd some seven seconds behind Sunderland’s experienced Stephen Jackson (9:19) That changed on leg 2, however, with Carl Avery, looking in very good form a couple of weeks away from the Northern Cross Country Championships, reeling in Sunderland’s Joe Armstrong (late of this parish) to post the day’s fastest time of 8:40 and establish a 15 second lead. A gutsy run for Morpeth by Ali Douglas on the final leg in which he was always there to be shot at saw him stay ahead of closing Sunderland Harrier Stephen Armstrong for three quarters of the way, but he was finally reeled in with just under half a mile to go, with Sunderland taking the victory in the end by a ten second margin (27:16) and the team having to settle for Silver. Congratulations to all who ran, and to team managers Rachelle Falloon, Claire Calverley and Peter Scaife, who worked might and main to get teams on the grid. |
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