​For the very first time, the Linden Homes sponsored
Morpeth Harriers Athlete of the Month Award left judges
in a position of indecision between two excellent performers,
who just could not be parted in terms of quality.

Under 15 stars Daniel Dixon and Holly Peck produced results
that were so high and of similar standard, that it was decided
to give the award for October 2016 to both.
​
Each are pictured above receiving their respective Certificates of Achievement
from Club Secretary and Coach Mike Bateman,
and now join Ruaridh Lang (May 2016), Andrew Knight (June 2016),
Kieran Hedley (July 2016), Bobbie Griffiths (August 2016),
and David Thomas (September 2016)
as candidates for a more lucrative award in early 2017.

The third Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League fixture at a brand new venue
at Thornley Hall Farm, in County Durham, near Peterlee on Saturday 26th November,
saw runners facing the toughest of courses they will probably face this season.
​
Nevertheless despite this fact, there were still some good performers on show,
especially from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers, who had two individual race winners,
and no less than four of the fastest times of the day on the ten event programme.

One of those fastest times was produced by Sam Hancox, who had a superb run to finish
ninth overall from the Fast Pack,and was third counter in a Morpeth Senior Men’s squad
who finished second on the day to a very strong Tyne Bridge squad in their Division 1 challenge.

Running his first Cross Country of the season, Lewis Timmins led the Morpeth squad home,
finishing fifth overall from the Medium Pack, posting the sixth equal fastest time.

The clubs second scoring count came from Robert Balmbra, who finished seventh
overall from the Medium Pack, clocking the tenth fastest time of the day.

Club newcomer Matt Collison showed great promise for his
future with Morpeth, when he finished 20th from the Slow Pack.

Completing the six counters were Tim Miley (64th) (Medium Pack), and Steve Patterson (82nd) (Medium Pack).

Other club Senior Men’s performances came from Rob Hancox (96th) (Medium Pack),
Alistair MacDonald (98th) (Slow Pack), Paul Brown (134th) (Slow Pack),
Paul Bellingham (156th) (Slow Pack), Mark Cockburn (206th) (Fast Pack),
and Richard Kirby (225th) (Slow Pack).

450 Senior Men completed the tough three lap course.

Running from the Slow Pack, Taylor Glover won the Under 17 Men’s event from
Durham City’s Ryan Watson, by a margin of two minutes and twenty two seconds.
Glover emerged as the second fastest overall in the two lap race, only surpassed
by club colleague Kieran Hedley, who produced a superb run to finish in third place overall from the Fast Pack.
Hedley’s time proved to be sixty three seconds faster than Glover
​on the given handicap of three minutes and twenty seconds.

Next Morpeth finisher, and closing the scoring count for second place
on the day to Durham City was Matthew Waterfield, who had an excellent run
from the Fast Pack when finishing ninth overall, posting what was the seventh fastest time of the day.

Not far behind Waterfield in eleventh and twelfth places were his club colleagues
Joe Ramshaw and Connor Marshall, both from the Fast Pack.
They produced what were the eighth equal and tenth fastest times in the event.
Morpeth scored exactly the same number of points as Durham,
however lost out on countback two places on the count of the third finisher.

Holly Peck was again an individual winner in the Under 15 Girls one full lap event from the Fast Pack.
She won by a margin of fifteen seconds from tough rival India Pentland of Darlington,
in what will probably serve as a taster for the forthcoming North Eastern Cross Country Championships,
scheduled to be held at Aykley Heads, Durham City on Saturday 10th December.

Peck’s fifteen second margin also gave her the fastest time of the day,
as she led Morpeth to second team place on day behind Houghton Harriers.
She has now set the fastest Under 15 Girls  time at all three Harrier League’s so far,
plus the previous week’s Davison Shield competition,
which is a true testimony indeed to someone well on top of their form.

Accompanying Peck in her club’s scoring count were Lily Heaton,
who finished twelfth from the Fast Pack, and Lauren Cummings
who finished 21st, also running from the Fast Pack.
​
Morpeth’s other runner in the Under 15 Girls event was newcomer
Hannah Pountney, who ran well to finish 26th from the Slow Pack.

Another Morpeth Under 15 athlete in top form is Daniel Dixon,
who finished second from the Fast Pack in the Boy’s one lap event.
He only lost out for individual victory to Arun Summerfield of Gosforth Harriers
by a mere five seconds, as he posted the fastest overall time.
​
Morpeth did take the team race however, by sixteen points over Northumberland rivals Alnwick Harriers.
Supporting Dixon in the excellent team effort  were Daniel Melling and Ross Charlton,
who each worked their way through the field in the Fast Pack, to finish in eighth and twelfth places respectively.

The combined Under 17/Under 20 Women’s event, run over two medium sized circuits,
saw Morpeth Harriers finish in second team place behind Gateshead Harriers.

Alison Brown led the scoring three home, finishing an excellent sixth from the Medium Pack,
and as seventh fastest in the total finishing field of 40 runners.
​
Supporting Brown in the team effort were Abby Sheldon (8th) (Slow Pack),
and Gracie Hufton (19th) (Medium Pack).

Mia Belton ran a strong race in the Under 13 Girls one full lap event to
finish sixth from the Slow Pack, leading her club to fourth team place.

Further team support came from Rhiannon Hedley (8th) (Fast Pack), and Laura Melling (31st) (Slow Pack).

Other Morpeth Harriers competing in this event were
Fay Smith (40th) (Slow Pack), and Molly Ions (43rd) (Slow Pack).

​The clubs Senior Women finished as sixth team in Division 2 in the two full lap event,
being led home by Gemma Floyd, who finished 39th in a 300 plus strong field from the Fast Pack.
She was fifteenth fastest overall, and was joined in the team count by Lindsay Turnbull (48th) (Slow Pack),
Jane Kirby (136th) (Slow Pack), and Sue Smith (174th) (Slow Pack).
Not far behind Sue was Carol Parry, who finished 188th from the Slow Pack.

Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Boys finished in fifth team place behind Gosforth Harriers in their one lap event.

They were led home by Ben Walker, who finished seventh from
the Fast Pack, and was third fastest overall on the day.

Sixth fastest was club colleague Dylan Davies, who worked his way through
in the 60 plus strong field to finish in eleventh place from the Fast Pack.

Completing the clubs scoring count was James Tilley, who finished 43rd from the Slow pack.

Ryan Davies, younger brother of Dylan was his clubs first finisher in the 1k Under 11 Boys event.
He finished an excellent third in a 67 strong field, who were running on a modified course
because of the appearance of a lake on ground that was due to be part of the route,
due to the heavy rainfall experienced earlier in the week.

Three places behind Ryan was club colleague Dylan Walker.
​
Other Morpeth Harriers in the Under 11 Boys event were
Harry Jackson (15th), and Joe Dixon (66th).

Two Morpeth Harriers faced the starter in the 1k Under 11 Girls event.
Maisie Dickinson continued her excellent run of form when finishing sixth in a 43 strong field.
Keira Peck, younger sister of Holly finished in 30th place.

That was the final North East Harrier League to be held in 2016,
the seasons programme gets underway again on
Saturday 7th January 2017 at Herrington Country Park.

Five Morpeth Harriers were in action at the UK Cross Challenge meeting
held at Sefton Park, Liverpool on Saturday 26th November.
Incorporating the European Trials, strong top class fields as expected took part.
​
Under 20 and Under 17 Men Scott Beattie and Rory Leonard were undoubtedly the clubs best performers.

After being always in the top four in a talent filled Under 20 Men’s 6.7k event,
Beattie finished a well accomplished seventh, and only twenty-five seconds adrift
of race winner Alex Yee of Kent AC in field of 118 finishers.
​
Beattie can certainly take a great deal of credit and positivity from this performance,
in that he was “one of the best amongst the best”.

The same can be rightly attributed to Rory Leonard’s performance in the
Under 17 Men’s 5.5k event, where he finished 26th  out of 129 finishers.
​
Leonard is still very much in a learning curve and will also take a lot of credit and
experience from the fact that he was very much mixing it with top class opposition.
He was forty-six seconds adrift of race winner Joe Pollard of Charnwood AC.

Life was not so good to Morpeth’s Carl Avery and Emma Holt however.
Both will feel disappointed in that they finished 55th and 56th respectively
in the combined Under 23 and Senior Men’s and Women’s 9.8k and 8.1k events,
however both should bounce back in time for their next outings in the
forthcoming North Eastern Cross Country Championships at Durham.

Avery, fresh from an excellent Sherman Cup victory at South Shields, lost ground as he tried to stay
with the leaders, describing the fact that there was no petrol in the tank when it was needed.
​
Fellow Morpeth Harrier Phil Winkler finished 219th in the Men’s event.

Emma Holt, who finished second to club colleague Laura Weightman in the Senior Women’s event at
​South Shields, couldn’t quite get on level terms with a strong set of front runners in the Women’s event at Liverpool,
and will feel that her performance was certainly a little below par, and adrift of what she would have hoped for.

All photos courtesy of Adrian Royle​

Sponsored by Linden Homes, the well-known housing provider and developer,
Morpeth Harriers & AC held their annual Fundraising and Presentation Night
at Bar Luga in Morpeth on the evening of Sunday 20th November 2016.

Guest of honour for the night was Steve McCoy, Managing Director of the sponsor,
who came along to present the awards, bringing along with him ten-year-old son Oscar,
himself an enthusiastic gymnast, who was eager to meet his young athletic counterparts.

McCoy indicated that his company was very honoured to be involved with one of the country’s top athletic clubs,
and marvelled at achievements that they had made, especially working within a tight catchment base.
​
He also declared himself a member of one of the clubs’ rivals Sunderland Strollers,
however did not find enough time to toe the start line as often as he wished,
however was very aware of the high calibre of competition that Morpeth Harriers engaged in.

​He also declared himself a member of one of the clubs’ rivals Sunderland Strollers,
however did not find enough time to toe the start line as often as he wished,
however was very aware of the high calibre of competition that Morpeth Harriers engaged in.

In addition to the club’s Road Championship awards, which also received
a direct line of sponsorship from Linden Homes, various club awards
were presented for both competitive and performance, and service achievements.
​
The final major awards of the night were that of the Most Improved Athlete and Most
Improved Young Athlete which went to Mark Snowball and Matthew Waterfield respectively.

​In non – competitive fields, awards for Long Service
and Promoting the Club in the Community
went to event organiser Kevin Bray, and Josie Goodfellow for establishing
and organising a club training group in outlying Amble.

Following the main presentation, event organiser Paddy Paulsen, who had worked tirelessly
around the clock to ensure that the function went successfully, presented personal prizes
to Club Secretary Mike Bateman, and Club Coach David Thomas for their Service
and General contribution throughout the year,
and many thanks to her for once again organising a superb event,
helped on the night by son Hans, and husband Egil.

Throughout the proceedings, all those present were treated to a
video show of some of the clubs’ year long achievements,
put together by webmaster Hud Stoker from a collection
of photographs that he had taken, which was well received.

Many thanks go to the management and the very attentive staff
at Bar Luga for the superb food and splendid hospitality.

Thanks also to John Beynon for the provision of PA equipment,
albeit at last minute, with additional help and assistance from
Club President Jim Alder, and Committee Member Bob Appleby.
​
Finally, many thanks to Club Sponsors Linden Homes for their continued generosity,
and to their Managing Director Steve McCoy for his kind attendance, and making presentations.

Here’s to the next one in 2017.

The first of the new WINTER HANDICAP RACES was held on Wednesday 23/11/16
in really good conditions on the traditional 2 lap circuit of Lancaster Park estate.

Many thanks to all who turned out and supported the idea of reviving
the monthly handicap – a chance for club members to compete on a (supposedly!!)
level playing field and mix with members of other training groups.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it and as the results show there were some standout performances
across all age groups and gender – congratulations to all prize winners on the night.

First time I’ve organised a handicap so a bit of a learning experience for me –
thanks to Linda, Gordon Dixon, Dave Taylor, Paul Waterston
and George McDougal (for the numeracy wizardry)
for their support on the night.

Also thanks to Carol Parry for the prize contributions !

I didn’t give the prize list enough thought beforehand and  I realise I didn’t award
a prize for the fastest ladies – apologies for that oversight and Helen King,
Lindsay Turnbull and Jane Briggs will find their prizes in the hut
as will Pam Woodcock & Gavin Bayne for their  %age effort ! 

I’m working on one prize per person !

I will adjust handicaps for the next race, the CHRISTMAS HANDICAP
on Wednesday 14/12/16. For that race spend £5.00 on a prize,
wrap it up and it goes into the prize pot.

Winner of the race gets first pick..........!!

If you want to take part and haven’t given me your details please e mail me
with a current 5k time or go and blast 2 laps of Lancaster park
and I will add you to the list –
​
[email protected]

See you in December......ho ho ho !!!