The teams selected to compete for the North East Counties at the annual UK Inter Counties Championships, to be held at Prestwold Farm, near Loughborough, Leicestershire on Saturday 12 March, have now been finalised, and amongst those selected to run, are no less than twelve athletes from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers.
Those names are as follows:
Ollie Calvert, Oliver Tomlinson, Joseph Close (all Under 15 Boys), Will DeVere-Owen, Joe Dixon, Bertie Marr (all Under 17 Men), Joseph Anderson (Under 20 Men), Finn Brodie, Carl Avery, Alex Brown (all Senior Men), Millie Breese (Under 17 Women), Catriona MacDonald (Senior Women).
In addition, the following Morpeth Harriers have been named among reserves, who may be selected should there be any late withdrawals.
Ralph Robson (Under 17 Men), Sam Hancox (Senior Men), Kate Gaffing, Olivia Katory (both Under 20 Women).

Charlotte Earl of Morpeth Harriers won the Under 20 Women’s Gold Medal in the Triple Jump, at the first day of activity at the 2022 NECAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead College on Saturday 19 February.
She recorded an excellent best jump of 10.97m, which although was just a little short of her personal best of 11.11m, it was her best ever Indoor recording in the event.
The first day was devoted to field events, and Earl was the only Morpeth athlete in action.
There were two athletes from the club attending the second day on Sunday, who both eventually reached finals of the 60m Sprints; however, they finished a little outside the medals.
After working her way through heats and semi-finals, where she finished third and second respectively, posting times of 8.37s and 8.35s, which were fractionally adrift of her personal best, Under 17 Woman Freya Caygill finished fifth in the final, again posting 8.37s.
Morpeth Harriers other competing athlete Owen Omoigui, finished third in his heat of the Under 17 Men’s 60m Sprint, posting 7.80s, in what was his first ever attempt at the distance.
He qualified for the later run final, finishing sixth in 7.84s.

A remarkable run by Laura Weightman was perhaps the stand-out moment at the North East Counties Athletics Association Road Relays on Saturday, where Morpeth Harriers retained the Senior Women’s, Senior Men’s and Men Over 50’s titles they had won last year.
 
The fixture was now back in its traditional place in the calendar having been rearranged for late August in 2021, and provides a break from cross country with a good chance for a hard, fast, two-lap run over a distance of 2.2 miles round the lake at Hetton Lyons Country Park.
 
Race 1, for teams of four, again combined Senior and Veteran Women and Men Over 50, with the club looking to repeat its successes from the early autumn.
 
This time, the Senior Women’s team featured teenagers Abi Leiper and Millie Breese,  as well as seasoned competitor Lindsey Quinn, who has been in good form over the cross country this winter, along with two-time Olympian Weightman.
 
A keenly-contested first leg saw a battle for the early lead between Sunderland Strollers’ own Olympic representative, marathon specialist Alison Dixon, and teenager Imogen Bungay of Elswick Harriers, with Bungay clocking 12 minutes 22 seconds and Dixon only a few seconds behind. Bungay and Dixon recorded the 2nd and 3rd fastest legs of the day.
 
Meanwhile, a measured run by Quinn on what is always a challenging 1st leg saw her come home in 13:47 for 8th place with Leiper out next for the club. Working hard on the athletes ahead of her, she ran a very sensible 13: 29 to move the team up in the standings.
 
Weightman went out on leg 3, with the Leeds-based athlete looking in outstanding early-season form as she swept aside the whole of the field ahead of her to establish a lead even before commencing her second lap.
 
Completing her leg in what proved to be a new course record of 11 minutes 1 second, it was now down to Breese to defend the lead she had been given, and this she was confidently able to do, in fact running the day’s 4th fastest time of 12:54.
 
The team’s overall time was 51:11 with early leaders North Shields Polytechnic Harriers 2nd - but over a minute behind - in 52:39 and Elswick Harriers 3rd (54:30). With broad smiles on faces afterwards, it was certainly a day Abi and Millie will remember for a long time and the best possible start to half-term week.
 
The club’s B team of Lizzie Rank, not far behind Quinn on leg 1 (13:50), Kate Gaffing (14:37), Julie Vermaas (14:48) and Sarah Lawson (14:56) also combined well and placed 10th in the same race. They were also second Senior B team home behind NSP’s outfit.
 
Meanwhile the Men’s Over 50 race was going on at the same time, and again it was a case of Morpeth working their way past early leaders.
 
This time Jason Dawson had gone out on leg 1 in a time of 13:05 with Rob Hancox on leg 2 clocking 13:16, but some fast early legs by New Marske, for whom Martin Murray’s 12:02 was the fastest Over 50 leg of the day, and NSP meant a gap had already opened up to chasing teams behind.
 
Once more it was a case of all change on leg 3, with this time O/60 Guy Bracken chasing down all ahead of him when recording the 2nd fastest O/50 time of the day, 12:27. Like Weightman, he put the team’s last leg runner in a commanding lead, and with Lee Bennett clocking 12:32 on leg 4, the team finished only a few seconds behind the Senior Women in 51:20.  2nd place Elswick were over two minutes behind (53:25) and New Marske 3rd (53:32).
 
Morpeth’s B and C teams also had decent runs.  Alistair Macdonald (13:31), Gavin Bayne (14:09), Paul Bellingham (15:16) and Gordon Dixon (15:44) combined for the first B team home ( 58:40) in 13th place in the Over 50s. The C team of Kevin Bray (16:01), Andrew Dippie (15:41), Paul Brown (14:59) and Bill Tilley (15:13) recorded 1:02:04 and weren’t far behind in 18th. (Team manager Scaife later noted, ‘I can’t remember organising teams where so many vets all came out with the same phrase: ‘’I’m happy not to run.’’)
 
Also in Race 1, a hard fought Women Veterans competition saw Elswick Harriers triumph in 56:18 with Justina Heslop recording an impressive fastest female vet time of 12:28. NSP were 2nd and Sunderland Strollers 3rd.
 
In the following race for the Royal Signals Trophy, run this time over 6 legs, Morpeth’s Senior Men not only defended their title but set a new course record into the bargain, with their B team just missing out on a 3rd place finish too.
 
A gun-to-tape lead was never seriously challenged after George Lowry (10:35) had held off Gateshead’s Josh Blevins and NSP’s Dave Green on leg 1 and Sam Hancox on leg 2 had consolidated the lead further (10:57). With George Rudman running 10:45 on leg 3 and Finn Brodie 10:36 on leg 4, the icing on the cake was the day’s fastest leg by the 5th place team member Alex Brown who recorded 10:28. Carl Avery (10:35) brought the team home with a combined time of 1 hour 3 minutes 56 seconds. This was over three minutes ahead of Sunderland Harriers in 2nd with their 1:07.00.
 
Meanwhile the B team, with three teenagers on board, only missed out on a 3rd place when Birtley’s last leg runner Adrian Bailes caught Morpeth’s Connor Marshall over the half mile. (Ironically, Jim Alder was in a way responsible after he had, in his own inimitable fashion, told Birtley their leg order was wrong at the recent Birtley Relays, and, heeding his advice, they had put their fastest runner Bailes on leg 6.)
 
This time the club’s strength in depth was reflected in fine performances from Joe Anderson (11:23), Alistair Douglas (11:02), Joe Dixon (11:05), Tom Innes (11:27), Ryan Davies (11:26) and Connor Marshall (11:02) for a final combined time of 1:07.25, a mere nine seconds off 3rd, although the club could only have claimed one set of medals anyway.
 
The C team was hit by a late withdrawal on Friday night and were one runner short, otherwise would themselves have probably challenged for a top ten place.
 
In his first race back after injury, Andy Lawrence recorded 12:06 on leg 1 and Mark Snowball 11:36 next. Shaun Land clocked 12:42 on leg 3 and Jake Parmley 13:05 on 4. O/50 Gary Hall, running in his first race since the Marathon des Sables and only asked to run on Thursday to make the team up, recorded 14:49.
 
The only downside of the day for the club came with a mix-up and subsequent disqualification in the Men’s Over 40 race, run in conjunction with the Seniors.
 
This was won by Elvet Striders in 1:15:27 with NSP in 2nd less than half a minute behind and Darlington Harriers 3rd.
 
For Morpeth, Graeme Thorpe on 1st leg ran the team’s fastest time of 12:57, with subsequent legs by first timers Richard Glennie (13:38) and Dave Stabler (13:02). Andrew Hebden clocked 13:13 and Jamie Johnson 13:45 on legs 4 and 5.
 
Confusion then arose when Gary Hall came in for the C team on leg 5 and the official overseeing the changeover pen called out the next Morpeth runner – of course, there was no leg 6 for the C, but there was for the O/40s, and the official sent out Ed Hillier, who should have gone out later (after Jamie had come in), on last leg for the 40s, at the wrong time. This led sadly to a team disqualification; cruel, especially for Glennie, Stabler and Hillier, all competing for the first time, but sadly just one of those things. Hopefully it won’t have put them off turning out in the future.
 
All thoughts now return to XC, with the National in London at the weekend and the final NEHL fixture at Alnwick on 5 March

​Morpeth Harriers Men retained the Sherman Cup at Temple Park, South Shields on a blustery Saturday afternoon while the club’s Women finished fifth in the matching Davison Shield competition.
 
An annual test of the overall strength of a club’s resources, the Sherman Cup, for male Seniors and Juniors, and the Davison Shield, for female counterparts, offers opportunities for competition over cross country  in some five categories: Under 13s, U/15s, U/17s, Senior and Veteran athletes, with the first three in each category for each club to count.
 
Holders of the Sherman Cup from the last time it was held in 2020, Morpeth were looking to repeat their success but faced as expected some stiff opposition from many of their local rivals, including Gateshead Harriers, Sunderland Harriers, North Shields Polytechnic and Gosforth Harriers.
 
In the event there were two individual and two team victories, which, when added to other scores, meant the club triumphed by a narrow margin over nearest challengers Elswick Harriers with Gateshead finishing in third place.
 
The first individual victory came in the U15 boys, with Joe Close first home and supported by Oliver Tomlinson in 3rd and Elliot Mavir in 17th, the team finishing in 2nd place behind North Shields. Stephen Craske offered further support in 20th.
 
The first team victory came as expected in the U17 boys, with Bertie Marr heading the Morpeth charge this time in 2nd place, Ryan Davies in 4th and Matt Walton 7th, with James Tilley also 9th.
 
There was a good turn out in the U13 boys, with a number of individuals running their first cross country of the season while also at the bottom of the age category. Daniel Vermaas was first home for the club in 23rd, with good packing from Thomas Roche in 24th and Evan Laude 25th. Ben Moll was 33rd, William Hawkins 45th and Jamie Ellis 47th, with the scoring count putting the team in 6th place. After so few U13s have run in the NEHL, it was great to see so many out to support the club.
 
Earlier, the first run but non-counting U11 fixture saw Jacob Thompson (11th) and Eli MacSparrow (53rd) have their first exposure to this kind of event.
 
The Senior Men’s race saw a dominant performance from the club’s Senior Men, with the club’s second individual victory coming from Lancaster University student Mathew Briggs with a gun to tape victory.
 
Mathew was chased for much of the race by club colleague Sam Hancox until an unfortunate collision at half way saw Sam take a tumble and him subsequently caught by a small group who had been working to close him down. He did well to maintain 4th position but did unfortunately finish outside of the medals.
 
The team’s final counter was Thomas Innes in 12th, with further supporting runs coming from Connor Marshall in 14th, Joe Anderson in 20th, Liam Roarty in 34th, Jake Parmley in 84th and Shaun Land, 109th.
 
In the same race, Lee Bennett led the club’s Veteran Men’s effort, finishing in an excellent 53rd place, with the scoring count completed by Richard Glennie, 119th, and Stephen Johnstone, 207th. Paul Brown was 219th and Richard Kirby 231st, with some 364 athletes finishing the course in the biggest field of the day. Missing several of our more experienced veterans, the Veteran’s team finished down in 16th but did enough to guarantee the final result, and it was great to see the scoring three picking up a team medal.
 
With the aim to score the lowest total of points, Morpeth finished on 24 ahead of Elswick Harriers in 2nd on 31 and Gateshead Harriers in 3rd on 40.
 
Despite not fielding full teams in all five categories, there was the consolation at least of one team victory in the Women’s Davison Shield competition, with a strong turn-out from the club’s Senior Women producing a comprehensive triumph.
 
Perhaps surprisingly, North East Counties Champion Cat Macdonald was beaten into 2nd for the first time this season over the country by Elswick’s Amy Fuller, who finished some thirty seconds ahead with a strong run.
 
It was very much a family show for the club, however, with sisters Lindsey in 10th and Lorna in 11th.  A powerful run by Gemma Floyd, who finished 7th, saw her also pick up an individual bronze medal in the Vet’s.
 
Behind these four, Lizzie Rank was 26th, Sarah Lawson 34th and Tayla Murdy 65th. The club’s Veteran numbers were complete with runs from Anna Walker, 47th and Margaret Macdonald, 184th, with the club’s Vets finishing in 16th.
 
The other complete team came in the U13 girls, where no less than eight youngsters turned out for the club and the team finished in 6th. Emma Tomlinson was first back in 9th, with Molly Roche in 13th and Iris Dungait 16th. These three were backed up by Megan Potrac (20th), Grace Cunningham (22nd), Sophie Pledger (29th), Faye Heatley (30th) and Rosie Heaton (34th).
 
Disappointingly, the club missed one scoring counter in the U17/20 Women, with Abi Leiper running well for 5th and Kate Gaffing in 10th, but there was no U/15 team.
 
These absences meant the club was unable to finish higher than 5th, one place higher than the 2019/20 season. The competition was, perhaps surprisingly, run by Tyne Bridge Harriers, the only outfit able to field complete teams in each category.
 
Great to retain the Sherman Cup then, but the moral overall is clearly that complete teams win medals, and that should certainly be a target for next year.
 
Meanwhile in news from America there were three fine runs by Morpeth Harriers who all attend American universities.
 
Perhaps the most noticeable was by San Francisco Academy of Art student James Young, who ran a remarkable 3 minutes 55.20 seconds for the indoor mile at the Music City Challenge in Nashville, Tennessee. Tulsa University student Scott Beattie ran 7:49.43 for 3 kms at the Badgers Windy City Invite in Chicago. Over the same weekend, Oklahoma student Rory Leonard also ran a PB of 8:12.52 for the same distance at the Husky Classic in Seattle. (In passing, I can’t help note that American races all seem to have much better names!).

The second meeting of the Gateshead Indoor Series, organised by Gateshead Harriers, and held over two evenings at Gateshead College, took place on February 2 and 3.

Five Morpeth Harriers were in track action on the first day. Three athletes were from the Under 17 age group. They were Sam Dent, Freya Caygill, and relative newcomer Jack Dinning, all coached by Morpeth Sprint Coach Eddie Hedley, who also had Under 13 and Under 15 siblings Kyle and Conner Phillips tasting action, the former for the first time indoors.

Events were over 60m, and Dent, began his evening well by producing a personal best of 8.1s, which was seventh fastest of the first round. He went on to finish sixth fastest of the second round with 8.16s.

Caygill was seventh fastest in her first-round effort of 8.54s and progressed to be fifth fastest with her later effort of 8.46s.
​
Dinning, enjoying his first taste of competition, was fifth fastest with his first-round effort of 7.86s, and his second-round effort of 7.85s saw him emerge as fourth fastest. Kyle Phillips was fourth fastest from his Under 13 age group, with his debut clocking of 9.48s, and elder brother Conner was sixth fastest Under 15 Boy with his effort of 8.06s.