Saturday’s Royal Signals Relays saw Morpeth Harriers once again retain their Senior Men’s title while their Senior Women finished in second place.
 
Although conditions were slightly milder than had been previously forecast, it was still a chilly day for both competitors and spectators alike at the longstanding local fixture, which incorporates the North East Counties Athletics Association Road Race Championships, where all runners completed a two lap, 2.2 mile circuit of the lake in Hetton Lyons Country Park.
 
The day’s first race, held over four stages, saw a strong Morpeth Senior Women’s team claim a good Silver medal in a time of 52 minutes 15 seconds behind race winners North Shields Polytechnic Harriers (50:55), for whom Charlotte Penfold ran the day’s fastest time of 12 minutes and 12 seconds.
 
Morpeth’s challenge was headed by Lizzie Rank (13:12) with Catriona Macdonald on leg 2 running the club’s fastest time of 12:49. Robyn Bennett clocked 13:08 on leg three with Holly Lawrence bringing the team home in second place with 13:06, over a minute ahead of nearest rivals Tyne Bridge Harriers in third (53:53).
 
The B team of Lindsey Quinn (14:18), Lorna Macdonald (14:42), Jane Kirby (15:49) and Kirsty Burville (14:25) also placed well, 13th in a total of some 35 complete teams (59:14).
 
Under 17 Charlotte Marshall ran the first leg for an incomplete C time, clocking a respectable time of 15:53 in her first taste of competition with older athletes.
 
Meanwhile the veteran team of Rob Hancox (13:42), Alistair Macdonald (13:57), Lee Bennett (12:48) and Jason Dawson (13:21) were unfortunate to miss out on a medal in the Over 50s race, competed for at the same time, placing 4th in a time of 53:48 with NSP the winners in 52:00 ahead of local club Elvet Striders (52:18) with Darlington in third (52:33).
 
The O/50s B of Gavin Bayne (14:34), Mike Winter (14:51), Neil MacAnany (15:03) and Dave Marshall (14:11) finished in 58:39 for 12th place (and 2nd B team).
 
The Masters Women, competed for in the same race, was won by Jarrow and Hebburn in 55:49 with Elswick 2nd and Sunderland Strollers 3rd. Aly Dixon ran the 2nd fastest O/35 of the day (12:41) to Penfold, with fellow evergreen vet Justina Heslop clocking 12:57.
 
The Senior and Over 35s race that followed, held over some six stages this time, saw an impressive gun to tape victory for the club’s men, despite the absence of a handful of regulars who were absent following the Armagh 5k on Thursday night.
 
On leg 1 Peter Smallcombe, who had raced in Northern Ireland less than 48 hours previously, got Morpeth off to a fine start, his clocking of 10:23 the day’s fastest time, to put them into a lead that was never seriously challenged.
 
Connor Marshall ran 10:56 on leg 2, teenager Eliot Kelso 11:12 on leg 3 and Ellis Hetherington, another who had raced on Thursday, 11:08 with the lead slowly extending all the time.
 
With Sam Hancox clocking a fine 10:57 on leg 5 the Morpeth lead looked unbeatable, and so it proved to be on the final leg, with Alex Brown extending it further with his clocking of 10:46.
 
The cumulative time of 1 hour 5 minutes 22 seconds was a full minute ahead of nearest rivals Gateshead Harriers, with TBH over two minutes back in third.
 
The club’s B team of Ethan Bond (11:13), Dominic Harris (12:51), Dan Melling (11:33), James Deathe (12:06), Liam Ramsay (12:20) and Tom Innes (12:39) also made the top ten with a time of 1:12:42, with some 42 teams finishing in total.
 
In a very keenly contested Men Over 35 fixture, the club were most unfortunate in finishing, like their Over 50s, in 4th place, missing out on a medal this time by a mere seven seconds after over an hour of racing.
 
Ian Harding ran their day’s fastest time of 11:51 on leg 1, with Dave Stabler (12:15), Andrew Lawrence (12:03), John Butters (12:10), Rob Balmbra (also 11:51) and Andrew Ball (12:35) completing the line-up.
 
A strong squad of Gateshead Harriers veterans were the winners this time with Sunderland and Tyne Bridge picking up the minor medals.
 
Well done to all who turned out.

Full results are available here.

Armagh International 5k
 
Eight of the club’s Senior Men crossed the Irish Sea to race in the prestigious Armagh International 5k.
 
Advertising itself with some justification as ‘one of the fastest 5k runs in the world’, in a stacked race Morpeth’s men’s team finished in 2nd place behind local outfit Clonliffe.
 
Middle-distance specialist James Young was first back for the club in 15th place in a time of 13 minutes 55 seconds, with Finn Brodie 41st (14:11), Carl Avery 65th (14:25) and Peter Smallcombe 77th (14:29) making up the team count of four.
 
Josh Fiddaman was 94th (14:30), Ellis Hetherington 100th (14:38), George Lowry 124th (14:47) and Tom Prentice 206th (15:40).
 
Barcelona Half Marathon
 
The club’s Phil Winkler can say ‘I was in a race when a World Record was broken!’ having run in Sunday’s Half Marathon in Barcelona, where Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo took an astonishing 48 seconds of the old record with a time of 56 minutes 42 seconds.
 
Phil also had a good run, clocking a new personal best of 1 hour 6 minutes 15 seconds.
 
York 5k
 
Valentine's Day was also the occasion of the York 5k, held at the University of York Sports Village.
 
Won by Leeds City’s Danny Franks in 14:57, two Morpeth Harriers made the journey South to compete.
 
Teenager Joe Close was 9th in 15:38 and Lee Cuthbertson 20th in 16:10.
 
Farnborough Half Marathon
 
Richard Deathe placed 35th in the Farnborough Winter Half, recording 1:15:26 for 35th place and 6th O/40.
 
Battersea Park 10k
 
Lawrence Mccourt placed 8th in the top flight 10k in London at the weekend, clocking 29:34 in a race won in 28:46 by Cameron Allan.

The annual Sherman Cup and Davison Shield competition, moved this year from the first weekend in January to the first Sunday in February and held at Temple Park, South Shields instead of the customary venue of Wrekenton, saw Morpeth collect three individual and one team Gold but narrowly miss out on winning both competitions.
 
With all competitions straight races with no packs, the first of those individual Golds was in the Under 13 Boys, where a very much in-form Mason Gaylor finished some 20 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
 
Mason was backed up by Jacob Thompson, 24th, and Joseph Fawcett, 33rd, the team finishing in 5th place.
 
In the matching U/13 Girls, Heidi Wilkinson was 6th, with good support coming from Lucy Raper, 14th, and Izzy Cromar, 35th, the team in 6th position.
 
The second individual Gold came in the U/15 Girls, where a delighted Faye Heatley showed a clean pair of heels to all her rivals. Support came from Emma Tomlinson in 10th, although sadly there was no third counter.
 
There were no Morpeth vests out in the U/15 Boys race, but there was a complete team in the next age group up, the U/17s, where Harry Armstrong was 5th, Ben Moll 9th and Daniel Scott 19th. Good to see Daniel back – and after playing a morning game of football to boot! The team were 2nd.
 
Charlotte Marshall was 10th and Lucie Todd 12th in the U/17 Girls, though again there was one counter missing.
 
First race of the day, the U/11 Boys had seen three good early runs for the club, with Mason Ellison 9th, Luke Thompson 21st and Will Fawcett 24th.
 
Penultimate race of the day, the combined Senior and Masters Women, saw the club’s third individual and only team Gold, with an excellent showing by the squad as a whole.
 
Catriona Macdonald was a clear winner, with team mate Lizzie Rank in 3rd, Robyn Bennett 7th and Holly Lawrence 10th.
 
These results don’t tell the whole story, however, with Holly running very well on the first lap and holding a strong third place behind Elswick’s redoubtable Justina Heslop. Sadly, however, she then took a hefty fall on the next lap and did well to even finish the race thereafter.
 
There were plenty of other Morpeth vests out too, with Lindsey Quinn 21st, Sophie Ward 68th, Jane Briggs 82nd, Nicola McCoy 88th, Laura Mclean 95th, Leah Scott 127th, Lydia Moreno 130th, Frances Naylor 173rd, and Margaret Macdonald 189th. The Veteran Women placed 15th overall.
 
Last race of the day was the Combined Senior and Veteran Men, with a disappointingly thin showing by the Senior Men but a good smattering of Vets.
 
In a race won by Gateshead’s Matt Linsley, Ethan Bond was the club’s first counter in 10th place, with support coming from Jake Parmley, 103rd.
 
Thankfully, there was a better turn-out by the Vets, who finished 3rd team on the day to Sunderland and NSP.
 
James Deathe was first back for the team in 21st place overall, Lee Bennett 65th and Jason Dawson 75th for the three to count.
 
Further support came from Richard Glennie, 128th and Steve Johnstone, 225th.
 
The Men finished in 3rd place overall with Elswick winning and NSP in 2nd. However, Elswick were the only club who filled all five race categories. They were also winners also in the Davison Shield, with Morpeth 2nd. But this time not one club filled every race category. Looking at the evidence of the day, it very much looks like these competitions are in trouble.

Many long-serving members of Morpeth Harriers & AC, are currently mourning the recent loss of their legendary coach Bryan Simpson at the age of 95 following a short period of illness.
Bryan was not only a coach, but also a much-loved father figure to many of his young charges, who just happened to come his way, and experienced development, not only as athletes, but also as growing adults.
The very nature and wisdom of Bryan stretched far beyond the training ground, as one of his young products Mark Brown readily testifies in the following account.

Bryan Simpson coached a number of runners over the years as part of Morpeth Harriers. His interest in running started when he was doing National Service and was a talented runner himself.
He started out coaching at Morpeth and had the kids running a loop around the Stanners in Morpeth and back up Newgate Street. He told the tale of finding some of them stopping running to look in the shop windows, so that's where he decided to set up a loop where he could keep an eye on them all and make sure he was getting the best out of everyone.  That loop was on the sand dunes at Seaton Sluice where he made sure training could take place all year round in all weathers by putting up lamps around the course.
He was so committed to his coaching, picking up the runners around Blyth and beyond in his van and making sure everyone was able to get involved and get to the competitions.
He devoted so much time to the club with his coaching and many of us who were lucky to have been part of this have used similar words to describe the impact he had on us all.
Words his runners have all used when his name is mentioned include: Selfless, father figure, devoted, encouraging, committed, kind, caring, dedicated, inspiring, friendly, gentleman, a great man, a great coach. He helped influence and shape many of us. 
Bryan enabled opportunities for kids who otherwise may have been getting up to mischief on the streets. He didn't show preference on ability either and involved everyone and encouraged everyone to give their best for themselves.
Having said that around 30 members of the groups that he coached over the years gained England Vests and he enjoyed friendly competition with another great north-east coach Stan Long with who he became good friends with.  He was assisted for many years with the help of Judith who deserves a special mention and who was a great friend to Bryan and will miss him terribly.
He will be a terrible miss to all his friends and family and when we remember him, we all know we are fortunate to have had this giant of a man in our lives and can smile at so many memories he created for us all.
Rest in peace coach.
 
Bryan’s funeral will take place on Thursday 13 February at 3.15pm at Cowpen Crematorium.
All friends are kindly invited to attend, family flowers only, donations in lieu to Parkinson’s UK, as per his family’s wish.