Thirteen runners from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers competed for Northumberland at the English Schools Cross Country Championships, held at an icy cold, wet, and muddy Temple Newsham, near Leeds on Saturday 17th March 2018. Best individual performances came from Rory Leonard and Kieran Hedley, Northumberland Senior Boys Champion and Silver Medallist, who on this occasion finished an excellent fifth and eleventh respectively, to lead Northumberland home to ninth team place. Also counting in the Northumberland Senior Boys team were Matthew Waterfield and Matthew Briggs, who were third and sixth home. In the Intermediate Boys event three Morpeth Harriers featured in Northumberland’s line up, as they finished as seventh team. Finishing in 70th place, Daniel Melling was third counter. The other Morpeth Harriers in action in this event were Ross Charlton (108th), who was fifth home for the county, and Tom Balsdon (147th), just missed out on being in the scoring six. The best Northumberland Boys result came from their Juniors, who finished an excellent fourth, just missing out for third by one point. Closing the scoring six was Morpeth’s Euan Duffin, who finished 98th. Seventh home for Northumberland in 117th place, was Morpeth’s Dylan Davies. In the Senior Girls event, where Northumberland were ninth finishing team, Morpeth’s Gracie Hufton was fifth counter in 124th place. Despite a low-key performance, where she finished 108th, Holly Peck was Northumberland’s leading finisher in the Intermediate Girls event, and Northumberland were 41st team. Her Morpeth club colleagues Lily Heaton and Kirsty Duffin also competed in this event, finishing as fourth and seventh counters in 170th and 315th places respectively. Morpeth had no competitors featuring in the Junior Girls event.
Northumberland won their section of the Boys events and finished second in the Girls events behind Cumbria overall. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF ADRIAN ROYLE Morpeth Harriers oldest competing member Walter Ryder, currently residing in Scotland, still showed that he has what it takes to win championship medals, when he took Bronze in the annual British Masters Over 80 Men’s Cross-Country Championship, held in Forres on Saturday 17th March 2018. Ryder posted a finishing time of 36m46, behind winner Les Nichol of Metro Aberdeen (32m47s), and second placed Steve James of Southport Waterloo (33m57s). Organisers of the Start Fitness sponsored North Eastern Harrier League
breathed a huge sigh of relief on Saturday 17th March 2018 as they managed to complete the seasons fixtures at Alnwick Castle, amidst prolonged icy wintry showers,following on from Friday’s torrential downpour. Despite that downpour, apart from one or two boggy areas on the already tough course on the Pastures, conditions were relatively good on the testing circuit, and the ten race programme was completed without any major hitches, thanks to the excellent stewardship of organising club Alnwick Harriers, who had already experienced the disappointment of having to call off the original fixture a fortnight previous, due to heavy snowfall. However, all went well on Saturday, especially for Morpeth Harriers, whose on the day efforts secured no less than four end of season team victories, along with a good number of notable individual performances. One very notable individual performer was Jane Hodgson, who defied a 200 second handicap over most of her rivals, to win the Senior Women’s event from the Fast Pack by a margin of 1m43s over her second placed club colleague Helen King, who ran excellently from the Slow Pack. It also meant that Hodgson had a 100% record in the six counting Harrier League fixtures, making her the leading Veteran Women in the Grand Prix competition incorporated into the event. Running from the Fast Pack, Alison Brown finished in an excellent nineteenth place, and closing the Morpeth Harriers scoring count was Susan Smith, who finished 68th from the Slow Pack, which also secured an excellent Division 1 team title into the bargain. Last season, Morpeth Harriers had won the Women’s Division 2 title to secure promotion, and to win the Division 1 title at their first attempt was a superb effort. Other Morpeth Senior Women rallying to the clubs’ cause on the day were Carol Parry (135th) (Slow Pack), Claire Hiscock (165th) (Slow Pack), Frances Naylor (166th) (Slow Pack). Running from the Medium Park, Morpeth’s Karl Taylor came very close to securing his second Harrier League Senior Men’s victory of the season, having won from the Slow Pack at Thornley in the fifth fixture. On Saturday he just couldn’t catch the host clubs’ Daniel Leng, who had a 2m30s handicap advantage. Leng reached the finish line with a 92 second margin over Taylor who finished second, marginally ahead of his Morpeth Harriers club colleague, Sam Hancox, who when running from the Fast Pack, posted the fastest time in the Senior Men’s event. It wasn’t long before Morpeth saw the emergence of their third counter Fergus Bates, who ran excellently to finish sixth from the Medium Pack. The on the day winning team effort, which eventually resulted in Morpeth Harriers Senior Men taking the Division 1 league title, was further supported by Robert Balmbra (21st) (Fast Pack), John Butters (42nd) (Fast Pack), and Paul Waterston (52nd) (Slow Pack). 345 finishers took part in the Senior Men’s event, and it is very much testament to the overall strength of the Morpeth Senior Men’s performance, that all of their finishers were inside the top 100. Other Senior Men in action were Thomas Innes (57th) (Fast Pack), Andrew Hebden (61st) (Medium Pack), Dean Lonsdale (69th) (Medium Pack), Will Clark (85th) (Fast Pack), and Richard Castledine (96th) (Fast Pack). Castledine is the only Morpeth Senior Man to have run in all six league fixtures, and has counted in two of them, and the added fact that none of the clubs leading runners figure highly in the Harrier League Grand Prix rankings, and it has been a good all round club effort by some of their lesser knowns who have brought success. The clubs’ younger age groups were weakened by the fact that several athletes were competing in the English Schools Cross Country Championships in Leeds, nevertheless, their Under 15 Boys finished second on the day behind hosts Alnwick, which still saw Morpeth take the league title. Scoring counts on the day came from Dylan Gooding (3rd) (Slow Pack), Alex Porteous (4th) (Slow Pack), and Ben Walker (14th) (Fast Pack). Other Morpeth Under 15 Boys performers were Jonny Kidd (16th) (Fast Pack), and Andrew Hudspith (17th) (Fast Pack). Finishing third on the day, saw Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Boys finish second for the season, only a mere three points adrift of Blackhill Bounders. Scoring counts for Morpeth came from Bertie Marr (10th) (Fast Pack), Ryan Davies (15th) (Fast Pack), and James Tilley (20th) (Slow Pack). Other Morpeth Under 13 Boys performances came from Joseph Hudspith (24th) (Fast Pack), and Joe Dixon (27th) (Slow Pack). Despite not being able to field any Under 17 Men on the day, due to runners being unavailable because of the English Schools Championships in Leeds, Morpeth still clinched the league title by a margin of four points over Durham City. Morpeth’s Molly Ions finished 29th from the Slow Pack in the Under 13 Girls event, and in his first ever run in the Morpeth colours, Ryan Sample finished 40th in the non-scoring Under 11 Boys event. In summarising Morpeth’s Harrier League for the season, to win four team titles, and be second in another is the result of a tremendous effort, laced with some excellent individual performances, definitely one of the clubs’ best years on the cross country circuit. Seven athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the
fifth and final Gateshead Indoor Meeting,held at Gateshead College on the evening of Thursday 15th March 2018. Two of the seven were making their competitive debuts, and the remaining five all managed to achieve new personal bests. It was good to see long time absentee Harriet Priest (Back Injury), improve her personal best massively from 10.89s to 10.49s in the Under 20 Women’s 60m Hurdles. Other improvements in the 60m Hurdles came from newcomer Kaitlynn Waddell, who was second fastest Under 13 Girl with 11.59s, which was a truly excellent opening effort, and Alice Geoghegan (10.35s), who was second fastest Under 15 Girl. In the flat 60m Kaitlynn Waddell, clocked 9.46s, and was the fifth fastest Under 13 Girl, just ahead of club colleague Olivia Gent (9.46s), which was a new personal best. Another Morpeth newcomer in the Under 13 Girls 60m was Lottie Belton, who was ninth fastest in her age group with 9.57s. Meanwhile older Sister Mia, was second fastest Under 15 Girl, producing a personal best of 8.49s. Third fastest Under 15 Girl was Morpeth colleague Alice Geoghegan, who also set new figures with 8.61s. Morpeth’s Koffi Avornyo produced a new personal best in the Under 15 Boys High Jump, which he won with his best clearance of 1.55m. The superb form since the turn of the year, has resulted in Morpeth Harrier Carl Avery being selected to run for England for the first time in the Home Countries International Cross Country, due to be held at Nottingham’s Wollaton Park, on Saturday 24th March. Eammon Martin, England’s Team Manager, informed Avery of his selection on the eve of the Inter Counties, where he went on to finish fifth, on the back of two other outstanding performances, eighth in the National Championships at Parliament Hill, and his victory at the Northern Championships at Harewood House, thus becoming the first club Senior Man to take the title ever. Avery is obviously over the moon with his selection, having first tasted the Home International competition in Falkirk in 2016, where representing the North of England, also for the first time, he finished an excellent fifth overall. This selection means that his club are forced to reckon being without him for the annual Northern 12 Stage Road Relays, which are scheduled to be held in Birkenhead the following day, however he competes in Nottingham with all best wishes following his recent commitment to their cause. Avery’s Cross-Country season will end immediately after Nottingham, and under the guidance of his coach Lindsay Dunn, he will turn his attentions to the track, also turning his back for the present on a separate Duathlon career, which involves Cycling as well as running, where he had achieved both World and National titles. This move is clearly understandable following his recent form in the running side of his activities, something that is welcomed by Dunn, and his club of course. |
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