The local cross-country season gets under way this Saturday at Thornley Farm, just south of Peterlee. With several cancellations last year, the league have juggled the fixtures round, scheduling Thornley – where car parking has at times been an issue in the past – early to get it out of the way.
Registrations for Morpeth Harriers are now in and there are NO on-the-day registrations, unfortunately, for the first fixture. However, if you’re not yet registered you can be for any future fixtures: the next one is at Druridge Bay on Sunday 13 October with Lambton falling hard on the heels the following weekend, also on a Sunday this time.
If you’re new to the league, please make sure you bring a change of clothes for afterwards, some pins for your number (which you will need to retain for all future fixtures – please note that, having paid for registrations, the cost of which has gone up, the club will not pay for lost or misplaced numbers, which have gone up to the princely sum of £10!) and suitable footwear: Thornley might be suitable for trail shoes or spikes, maybe even road shoes, but the course will need looking at on the day.
Can we please remind all runners of the importance of getting there in good time – ideally an hour beforehand – and also to bring £3 IN CASH for parking. Best route is via A19 then A181 just south of Peterlee. The venue is on the left after crossing back over A19 onto A181, about ten minutes up the road – it is a sharp left turn and there should be signposts and marshals present. Sat Nav is DH6 3LY.
Club tent will be in normal spot, first on the left as you access the field, just past the house.
Refreshments are normally available, and portaloos. I’m told the bar at the farm will also be open, although whether this is to provide dutch courage or to drown sorrows isn’t clear.
Link to registered runners and packs here (a number against your name – but not a zero – indicates you have been registered): List of registered runners for Morpeth Harriers & AC (harrierleague.com)
Link to NEHL page is here. Course map is on their facebook page. Start Fitness North East Harrier League

Something of an anomaly this, of course, the rearranged National XC  Championships from last February – when they had had to be cancelled due to a waterlogged car park – being uncomfortably sandwiched in at the end of the track season and before regional leagues had got under way.
Held at Weston Park, near Telford in Shropshire, it was clear that there wasn’t the interest that would have been expected from what is arguably the jewel in the crown of XC, at least nationally, with numbers significantly down and very few travelling from the North East in particular, so well done to the four who did make the journey.
Nevertheless, there were good runs for Morpeth by Elliot Kelso, 15th in the Under 17 Boys and Oliver Tomlinson, 82nd, with Oliver’s sister Emma 98th also in the U/15 Girls.
Phil Winkler was the club’s only Senior to turn out (although he also somehow managed to forget his vest!), having a strong run to finish in the Men’s race in 30th position. The race was won by Hugo Milner of Derby AC with club colleague Ben Connor in 2nd place. Gateshead’s Calum Johnson, a past winner, was 5th.
The Women’s race was won by Aldershot Farnham and District’s Niamh Brown with Cambridge and Coleridge’s Holly Dixon in 2nd.
Full results here: MYLAPS Sporthive Event Results
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Runners from across the North of England converged on Blackpool at the weekend to take part in the prestigious Northern Athletics Relays, held in the fading Victorian splendour of the city’s extensive Stanley Park.
 
The event features team races for Young Athletes over a flat, one-lap, 2.8-kilometre course, with Seniors completing two laps (5.6k) of the same course, all runners having a grandstand start and finish on the Sports Centre track.
 
Morpeth Harriers were represented in the Junior races by the Under 13 squad of Jacob Thompson, Jack Dhawar and Mason Gaylor, all new to an event of this size but not at all fazed by the quality of the competition and giving a highly respectable account of themselves.
 
Jacob posted a time of 13 minutes 11 seconds for the sharply contested mass start, with Jack recording 12:31 on leg two. Fastest leg was by a new recruit to the club’s ranks, Mason, clocking the team’s fastest and final leg of 11:21, with the team finishing just outside the top 20, with just short of 50 teams finishing. 
 
After further races for U/15s and U/17s (where NSP were very well represented, by the way, medalling in several categories) a rather unpromising and gloomy morning had given way to a rise in temperatures by the time the Senior relays got under way - where the action could certainly be described as red hot.
 
Finn Brodie took his customary first leg for Morpeth where he put the blue and white vest right in the thick of the action after a furious tussle, coming back in 16:17 for 4th place behind early leaders Clayton le Moors and City of York AC.
 
Carl Avery went out on leg two, the seasoned club racer, now a veteran, showing outstanding form to move Morpeth into the lead with a storming charge for 16:13.
 
Third leg runner Alex Brown kept the club in the medals on leg 3 with 17:02, handing over to the team’s youngest member Joe Dixon, younger brother of Team GB triathlete Daniel.
 
It was a baptism of fire for the teenager, who found himself up against Leeds City international Philip Sesemann, who had competed for Team GB in the Paris marathon only weeks ago, and Derby’s Ben Connor, who had placed 2nd in the previous week’s National Cross Country Championships.
 
Joe held his own, however, and manfully stuck to his task, keeping the squad in contention with a time of 17:25, only losing one place, although the race’s strongest outfits, Leeds City and Sheffield’s Hallamshire Harriers, were now up at the sharp end, Sesemann clocking 16:01 and Ben Connor the day’s fastest time of 15:37.
 
George Lowry’s run of 17:00 dead meant the club were still in 4th at the end of leg five – ‘the worst possible place to finish’, as Club President Jim Alder MBE always describes it – but there was a further twist still to come, with final leg runner for Derby, then in a medal position, starting to feel the heat over the last kilometre and beginning to struggle.
 
Sensing an opportunity, Ellis Hetherington was on the charge, reeling in the Derby runner shortly before entering the final section on the track, his time of 16:54 meaning Morpeth took a hard-fought but richly deserved team Bronze with an overall time of 1 hour 40 minutes 53 seconds, behind Hallamshire Harriers in 2nd (1:39:42) and expected winners Leeds City AC (1:38:44).
 
In fact it was a double victory for the Leeds outfit, with their Women also taking the title in the four-stage relay contested at the same time, finishing in 1:16:36 ahead of Salford Harriers in 2nd (1:17:19) and Vale Royal AC (1:17:49).
 
Good to pick up the medal certainly – but the U/13 lads have clearly shown the way in terms of getting there and competing: we need to get more teams to these fixtures.
 
Northern 6 & 4 Stage Relays and Young Athletes Relays 2024 (racetimingsolutions.co.uk)

Vitality Westminster Mile
 
There was another high-profile medal won at the weekend by a Morpeth Harrier, James Young contesting the Vitality Westminster Mile in the capital over a show-stopper of a royal route along the Mall that finished right in front of Buckingham Palace.
 
Returning to competition after a spell out with injury, Young had to settle for a Silver in a time of 4 minutes dead behind winner Joe Wigfield (3:58) from Liverpool AC.
 
Redcar Running Festival
 
Back in the North East, Mark Banks was another Silver medallist, finishing 2nd in the Half Marathon at the Redcar Running Festival with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes 51 seconds behind North Shield Polytechnic winner Joe Anderson (1:11:36).
 
NEMAA 5 and 10k Track Championships
 
In his first race since competing at the World Masters Championships, Gavin Bayne finished first Over 65 in the North East Masters 10,000 metres Championships at Jarrow, clocking a time of 40 minutes 5 seconds.
 
A great year on and off the track sees Gav as a champion over every distance from 800m up. Congrats to him.
 
Thropton Show Fell Race
 
Meanwhile, off the tarmac, Cat Macdonald was a clear winner of the Women’s title at the Thropton Show Fell race with team mate Robyn Bennett in 3rd, the race won by Northumberland Fell Runner Nick Swinburn, late of this parish and always a class act, but in his first race for some time. 

It was a busy three days of competitive action for many from the club over the Great North Run weekend.
 
Events were kicked off on Friday night down at the Quayside, where the elite UK Athletics 5k Road Championships were quickly followed by the GNR 5k race over the same course, and last year’s winner, Morpeth’s Scott Beattie, was once again at the forefront of the action in the UKA Championship race.
 
This time however he couldn’t quite repeat last year’s victory, having to settle for 2nd place in a sprint finish behind Richmond and Zetland Harrier Marc Scott, with Scott clocking 13 minutes 56 seconds and Beattie 13:58. Sheffield athlete Calli Hauger-Thackery was 1st female athlete in 15:35.
 
The following mass participation 5k race was won by ex-Olympian Chris Thompson in 15:23 - with the popular Thompson going on to announce his retirement from elite racing a few days later - and Houghton Harrier Charlotte Dillon 1st female finisher in 17:39.
 
There were four Morpeth finishers this time, with Adam Pratt 9th in 16:32, Richard Deathe 20th in 17:16, Stephen Cessford 94th in 20:22 and Laura Mclean 284th in 23:24.
 
Saturday saw the Junior GNR races, again on the Quayside, but set off in age-related waves along a 4k course.
 
Edward Roff was 53rd in 18:07, Sofia Gibson 49th in 20:31, Emily Vermaas 145th in 23:52 and Charlotte Johnson 141st in 23:50 in their respective races.
 
Main event of the weekend was of course Sunday’s half-marathon from Newcastle to South Shields, run for the 43rd time this year and featuring a record entry of no less than 60,000.
 
Organisers were less lucky this year with the weather however, last year’s sunshine and clear skies replaced this time by lowering grey skies and a persistent drizzle that intensified as the day went on, with thick mist down at the finish area seeing competitors emerging out of the fog.
 
2024’s GNR winners were both Kenyans, Mary Ngugi-Cooper taking the Women’s race in a closely contested finish in a time of 1 hour 7 minutes and 40 seconds and compatriot Abel Kipchumba the Men’s, which he had led from the off, in 59:52. (Remarkably, Friday night’s winner Marc Scott was 2nd to Kipchumba in 1:01:11.)
 
Rory Leonard, whose efforts over the track season have been very much focussed on 5000 and 10000m races, made his competitive debut over the half marathon distance, clocking a highly respectable 1:05:16 for 16th place, with Carl Avery, a regular at the fixture, only three places behind in 1:05:27.
 
Also making the top 50 were Alex Brown, 37th in 1:08:12, and Tom Prentice, 47th in 1:11:32.
 
Other leading finishers for the club were Sam Hancox, 62nd in 1:11:32; Rob Balmbra, 76th in 1:13: 07 and Andrew Lawrence, 93rd in 1:13:51, but there were a host of other good runs: Dave Stabler, 279th in 1:19:46; Shaun Land, 355th in 1:20:56; Jimmy Dixon, 559th in 1:23:31; Dave Swinburne, 1527th in 1:30:26; Rob Hancox, 1567th in 1:30:30; Anna Wright, 2776th in 1:35:54; Julie Vermaas, 5337th in 1:43:07; Roderick Bruce, 5575th in 1:43:37; Tiago Soares, 6262nd in 1:44:58; Kate Kennedy, 6819th in 1:46;13; Sophie Ward, 8475th in 1:49:34; Jake Parmley, 11947th in 1:54:41; Gary Mason, 16777th in 2:02:32 and Arjan Piet, 31015th in 2:27:46.
 
Perhaps the most remarkable story here is that of incorrigible fell runner Gary Mason, who had taken part in the Ben Nevis race less than 24 hours beforehand, where he had finished in a time of 3:28:52, returning to the North East on Saturday night to complete the GNR in just over the two-hour mark with a clocking of 2:02:32. Hopefully Gary will have given himself Monday off…