The annual awards night for the 2022 North East Grand Prix is to be held at Gateshead Stadium on Monday (3 October).
The event will be held in the hospitality suite from 7pm where the following Morpeth Harriers are due to receive awards:
UNDER 17 MEN: Will Devere-Owen (2nd)
UNDER 20 MEN: Joe Anderson (5th)
SENIOR MEN: Alex Brown (5th) and Connor Marshall (6th)
ATHLETE OF THE MATCH  Meeting 6, Ollie Calvert (3000m 9m15.31s, (Grade 1) )
The main awards will be presented by Under 20 International Joy Eze and the guest speaker will be JOy's coach Michael Donnelly.
For more details click here.

After Saturday's Harrier League action, attention switched to the other side of the Pennines on Sunday, with the club fielding three Junior teams and one Senior in the Northern Athletics Road Relays held at Sport City, Manchester - and being rewarded with a wonderful gold medal and two top ten finishes.
 
The team Gold came courtesy of the club’s flying Under 17 Men, whose hard fought victory after three legs put them ahead of nearest rivals Rotherham and Salford Harriers.
 
Ryan Davies ran the team’s fastest time for the 3700 metre distance, recording 11 minutes 25 seconds, and he was followed by Bertie Marr (11m 37s) and Will de Vere Owen (11m 39s), with the team clocking 34:51.
 
On finishing 1st, Will brandished a Morpeth Harriers flag - leaving a customarily loquacious George Patterson, on announcing duties, almost lost for words!
 
Remarkably, such was the strength of the performance that Davies, Marr and De Vere Owen ran the day’s 2nd, 4th and 5th fastest times of the day.
 
It was a richly-deserved reward for a closely-knit group of athletes who have worked very hard for many years under the guidance of coach Mike Bateman and who were most unfortunate to miss out in a number of competitions as U/15s due to Covid enforced cancellations.
 
Rotherham Harriers, a club who enjoyed a very successful day all round, were in 2nd place in 35:19.
 
The club’s U/15 team of Ben Moll (12:46), Oliver Calvert (10:54) and Oliver Tomlinson (11:27) also ran well to finish in 6th place in their 3100m race, and were only just over 30 seconds off a medal, with teams from the North West dominating.
 
The U/15 Girls team of Molly Roche (14:34), Megan Potrac (15:01)and Charlotte Marshall (15:20) also performed gamely, finishing in 30th place overall, and will undoubtedly have benefited from the challenge. Rotherham were the winners.
 
Worth a mention also for Emma Tomlinson, who was a sole runner for the club in the Under 13 girls, clocking a highly respectable 13:45 for the 3100m distance, particularly so after competing in the cross country the day before.
 
Penultimate event, the Women’s Relay over 4 legs,  was won by Salford Harriers and AC in 1:32:29, with Leeds City in 2nd and Vale Royal 3rd. North East involvement came courtesy of  NSP, 14th in 1:42:44 with Tyne Bridge 28th in 1:46:45.
 
Last event of the day was the Senior Men’s six stage relay, with Morpeth looking for at least a top ten finish and qualification for the National event in two weeks time.
 
Dominated by Leeds City AC - who, in addition to winning in a time of 1 hour 59 minutes 17 seconds for the 6 x 6.4km distance, also remarkably had teams in 4th and 7th - Morpeth gave a strong account of themselves to come home in 8th place overall in 2:05:46 and were once again first from the North East of England, with Hallamshire Harriers in 2nd place (2:01:54) and Blackburn Harriers and AC 3rd (2:02:17).
 
Sam Hancox got the club off to a decent start, with 20:33 on the keenly contested 1st leg for 16th place.
 
Finn Brodie moved up to 6th on leg 2 with 20:19, and Kieran Reay had the club up to 5th, its highest place of the day after leg 3, with 20:48.
 
Debutant Peter Smallcombe clocked 21:41 on leg 4 for 7th place, with Connor Marshall staying there on leg 5 (21:20) and Matty Briggs on the final leg only losing one place with his 21:05.
 
The team finally finished in 8th position to comfortably make the National event at Sutton Park in two weeks time.
 
Fastest time of the day was run by Hugo Milner of Derby AC with 19:17, although NSP’s Dave Green, currently in fine form, ran the 4th fastest with 19:46. (The Poly A team were 28th, with Gateshead 22nd, Sunderland 26th and Tyne Bridge 40th.)

The first fixture in the North East Harrier League season on Saturday saw over 1,300 runners involved at Wrekenton, with Morpeth enjoying three team and three individual victories over the ten-event programme.
 
First up were as customary the Under 11s races, with some 68 contesting the Boys event and 42 the Girls.
 
Getting their first taste of competition were Jacob Thompson, 1st back for Morpeth in 13th, Jack Thompson (no relation, but enough to confuse the entries) in 17th and Eli McSparron 53rd.
 
In the corresponding Girls race, Lucy Raper was 6th and, in her first race in blue and white, Zoe Tomlinson, younger sister of Emma and Oliver, 12th.
 
The first of the individual victories came in the Under 13 Boys race, with Ewan Line winning from Slow Pack by a narrow margin of only 4 seconds from his nearest rival. Supported by Daniel Vermaas in 25th and William Hawkins in 52nd, with Evan Laude 53rd from Fast Pack running the club’s fastest time of the day and William Mcbryde 54th, the team managed to come in 7th place overall it what looks like it will be a very keenly contested age group, with no less than twelve clubs fielding complete teams.
 
There was also a full team in the U/13 Girls, with Faye Heatley having a strong run to come in 2nd from Slow Pack. Emma Tomlinson made 16th from Fast Pack, with Sophie Pledger completing the scoring count in 26th and Grace Cunningham 46th from Fast. The team made 3rd place and certainly look competitive for the rest of the season.
 
3rd place was also the position achieved by the U/15 Boys, despite the absence of a strong outfit in this category who were down to run in Manchester the next day.
 
Stephen Craske was 13th, and good packing saw Dan Burrow come in 15th and Harry Armstrong 16th, the latter two both rewarded in fact with the same time.
 
The Northern Relays also meant the absence of our U/15 Girls team, many of whom have now moved up from the U/13 category at which they were so successful last season. Hopefully, they can start to play catch-up in the next fixture.
 
The first team victory came courtesy of the U/17 Boys, also missing a whole team down to run the next day, to finish ahead of rivals Gosforth Harriers.
 
In his first outing in this age group, Joe Close led the team home from Slow Pack with Elliot Mavir finishing in 7th from Slow and Elliot Kelso running strongly to come home in 9th  from Fast Pack.
 
Disappointingly, Tabby Robson, having moved up from the U/15s, was the club’s only competitor in the U17/U20 race, coming home strongly in 15th place. With the club having medalled in this division last year, a full team over the remaining fixtures would mean there is every chance of repeating this success, but it is down to the runners to turn out. 

The North East Harrier League returns on Saturday with the first fixture of the new season at Wrekenton.
Ahead of the event, host club Saltwell Harriers have issued a notice to participants and spectators relating to some changes that have taken place to the layout from previous years.
The club said: "Gateshead Council have planted thousands of very young saplings indistinguishable within the undergrowth and we want to minimise any disturbance to the area. The council have worked very positively with Saltwell Harriers to enable this venue to be used for the cross-country and we do not want to jeopardise this for future years."
The area normally used for club tents is now off limits so the tents will need to go to other areas nearby. To avoid the new trees, some of the junior races will be a little shorter than usual for Wrekenton. Pack handicap times will be adjusted accordingly (see map). 
Please can all Morpeth Harriers, parents and friends respect the work done.  
Travel: the best route is usually over the Tyne Bridge and following the signs for Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead; the venue is less than a mile after this. Please park sensibly and don't do anything to jeopardise future use of the venue also. 
Times are on the NEHL website, and also information regarding packs etc. Link is here: http://www.harrierleague.com/
Club tent and flag will be up, and Peter Scaife will have all race numbers. 
See you there and let's look to pick up where we left off last season!

The curtain came down on this summer’s track and field action at Jarrow on Saturday, with both the North East Masters Open Pentathlon Championships and NEMAA 5000m and 10000m Championships being held, and it was a very successful afternoon for all the Morpeth Harriers taking part.
 
In the Men’s Pentathlon (which included Long Jump, Javelin, 200m, Discus and 1500m), Neil McAnany was 1st in the Over 60 category with a jump of 4.19 metres, a Javelin throw  of 19.75m and a Discus of 22.39m. He also recorded 29.24 seconds for the 200m and 5 minutes 9.76s for the 1500m, and broke the existing NEMAA Pentathlon record into the bargain.
 
His success was matched by Over 35 Nisha Desai in the Women’s event, whose busy season finished with a resounding victory in the event, also breaking the NEMAA record which she herself had previously set while up against stiff opposition from athletes from Crook and District and Darlington Harriers.
 
In a slightly different selection of events, Desai recorded throws of 6.90m in the Shot Putt and 21m in the Javelin, along with a Long Jump of 4.95m. She backed this up with a run of 27.06s for the 200m and 2:18:28 for the 800m.
 
The North East Counties Pentathlon took place at the same time, with Mark Snowball finishing in 5th place with Long Jump of 3.86m, throws in the Javelin and Discus of 17.96m and 12.39m respectively, and runs of 27.66s for the 200m and 4:29:26 for the 1500m, the latter two times both personal bests for the distances.
 
Meanwhile in the track 5000m,  Over 65 Gavin Bayne’s clocking of 19 minutes dead also represented a new Championship record, with him finishing well over a minute ahead of his nearest rival.