EVENTS AND RESULTS ROUND-UP

The Morpeth team at the NEMAA relays

It’s been a busy few weeks of action for the club, with a number of Track and Field fixtures taking place, including the North East Championships, the NEGP series and the Senior and NEYDL leagues. See reports below for these.
 
Elsewhere, the relay season has continued apace, with the Gordon Smith Relays following hard on the heels of the NEMAA Road Relay Championships. Locally, the Les Allcorn 10k multi terrain was followed by the popular Sunderland City Runs.
 
Les Allcorn 10k
 
Held in the grounds of Hulne Park on Tuesday 6 May, this year’s Les Allcorn was won by local lad Liam McDonough in a time of 34 minutes and 47 seconds.
 
Morpeth’s Cat Macdonald was 1st female finisher and also 6th overall in a time of 37:16.
 
Lee Cuthbertson was not far behind, 8th in 37:44, with Nicola McCoy 21st in 47:37.
 
Sad to see numbers falling off (and results hard to find) for what had always previously been a popular fixture, not least with Morpeth Harriers. Hopefully there’ll be a pick-up next year, although proximity to other races clearly hasn’t helped.
 
North East Masters Athletics Association Road Relays
 
Bedewell Park was once again the venue the following night for the annual NEMAA road relay championships, with two races, the first for women and male vets over 65, the second for male vets 35 and over, with Morpeth fielding six teams across the two fixtures.
 
Race 1 was won by Wallsend Harriers in a time of 31 minutes 42 seconds, for whom Jennifer Berry ran the day’s fastest time of 9:49.
 
Houghton Harriers 0/65s were the surprise winners of the Men’s, finishing in 34:50 with Morpeth’s team of Gavin Bayne (11:13), Richard Sill (12:59) and Stephen Land (12:45) clocking 36:57 for 2nd place. Gavin’s 11:13 was however the fastest O/65 time of the night, with Richard also recording the fastest O/70.
                                                                                
The club’s O/45 team of Jill Bennett (13:35), Margaret Macdonald (15:22) and Nicola McCoy (12:34) were 31st overall, clocking 41:32 for 7th in their category.

If anything, competition seems to be getting tougher at the sharp end in these races, and Race 2 was no exception, with Sunderland Harriers (26:51) seeing off Gateshead by only two seconds in O/35s.
 
Morpeth’s team of Jimmy Dixon (9:25), Tom Straughan (9:07) and James Deathe (9:36) finished 6th in a cumulative time of 28:08.
 
There was further medal success for the club, however, in both the 45s and 55s, both team and individually.
 
The O/45s team of Andrew Ball (9:33), team manager John Butters (9:44) and Ian Armstrong (9:47) finished 8th overall in 29:04, but were fastest O/45 team, with Ball 3rd O/45 (and Butters and Armstrong 4th and 5th O/50s).
 
The O/55s of Rob Hancox (10:10), Tony Horsley (11:32) and Lee Bennett (10:06) were 23rd overall but 2nd O/55s to Sunderland Harriers by the narrowest of margins – one second! Bennett and Hancox were 1st and 2nd O/55s however.
 
Sunderland City Runs
 
Sunday 11 May saw the staging of the Sunderland City Runs, with both a half marathon and a 10k being run.
 
The half marathon was won by Highgate Harrier Monte Watson in 1 hour 9 minutes 33 seconds, with South Shields Harrier Jackie Murdy 1st woman home in 1:28:57.
 
Morpeth’s Jake Parmley was 26th in 1:21:05.
 
The 10k was won in 30:44 by New Marske’s Lewis Gamble-Thompson in 30:44, with NSP’s Stacey Smith clocking 36:23 as 1st female finisher.
 
Gordon Smith Relays
 
The popular Gordon Smith Relays took place on a slightly amended course at Cobalt Business Park, Wallsend the following Wednesday, with the usual requirement for each time of three needing to include one Over 35 runner and Morpeth putting out some seven teams this time.
 
In the women’s race, Morpeth’s A team of Holly Lawrence (12:23), Kirsty Burville (12:51) and Poppy Buck (12:37) ran winners NSP close, coming in second place and finishing in 37:51 to the Poly’s 37:39, with Molly Pace running the day’s fastest leg of 11:51, with TBH 3rd.
 
The B team of Tayla Douglass (13:11), Jane Briggs (14:11) and Lindsey Quinn (13:28) finished in 10th place in 40:50. 
 
The C team of Fran Naylor (16:42), Margaret Macdonald (18:48) and Sophie Ward (14:52) came in 48th in 50:22, with some 63 complete teams running.
 
In the following Men’s race, won by TBH in 31:09 with Zak Kettle running the day’s fastest leg of 10:09, Sunderland Harriers 2nd in 31:25 and hosts Wallsend 3rd (31:34), Morpeth’s A team of Ethan Bond (10:39), Andy Lawrence (11:20) and Tom Balsdon (10:26) came in 6th place.
 
The B team of Rob Balmbra (10:27), Deathe (11:17) and, on debut, Andrew Mirfield (11:22) were 8th in 33:06.
 
The all vets C team of Jimmy Dixon (11:17), Dave Stabler (11:24) and John Butters (11:34) were 16th in 34:15, and the D team of Andriy Volkov (12:47), Richard Glennie (12:57) and Gavin Bayne (13:25) 46th in 39:09.
 
Some 77 complete teams finished.