 The winning Morpeth A team with the Royal Signals trophy Saturday saw the NECAA Road Relays Championships held once again at Hetton Lyons Country Park a few miles south of Durham, with the club turning out in numbers for both of the day’s two races and retaining the Royal Signals Trophy. On the weekend’s evidence, competition seems to be getting even tougher and notably in Race 1 (over four legs of the 2.2 mile, two lap course) which again incorporated both Senior and Veteran Women teams as well as Veteran Men Over 50, with Morpeth fielding full teams in all three categories. The race was won commandingly by NSP in a cumulative time of 50 minutes 23 seconds, for whom Charlotte Penfold ran the fastest female time (Senior or Veteran) of 11:55, with Birtley some way back in 2nd (53:35) and Jarrow and Hebburn 3rd (54:03). Morpeth’s challenge was headed by Lizzie Rank, who ran 13:46 on leg 1, with Tayla Douglas clocking 14:40 for leg 2. There was a promising Senior debut for Molly Roche here on leg 3, who despite having just turned fifteen looked not at all out of place when running 14:28, with Poppy Buck recording the team’s fastest time of 13:38 for a cumulative time of 56:32. The team finished as 7th Senior outfit. Meanwhile the Female Vets competition was unfolding at the same time, won this time by Sunderland Strollers in 56:13, for whom evergreen Aly Dixon clocked the team’s fastest time. This wasn’t actually the quickest of the day however, that distinction going to Justina Heslop with 12:45 for Elswick Harriers. For Morpeth, Laura Maclean recorded 15:45 on leg 1, with Pam Woodcock clocking 19:31 on leg 2. There was the welcome sight of Morag Stead back in action in blue and white on leg 3, her 13:14 the team’s fastest time with Fran Naylor’s 17:46 finishing the team’s total of 1:06:16 for 16th place. The Men’s Over 50 race was of similar quality, with a ding-dong battle between Crook and NSP at the sharp end, and all this after New Marske’s Martin Murray on leg 1 had put the North Yorks outfit (last year’s winners) into an early lead with the day’s fastest time of 12:29. With leading Over 60s Greg Penn and Guy Bracken both turning out, NSP were looking good for the win, but it slipped out of their hands on the last leg, with Crook recording a time of 52:11 to the Poly’s 52:55. Elswick were 3rd on 52:37. Morpeth’s Over 50s finished in a respectable 10th, with runs by Paul Bellingham (15:30), Stephen Land - on his blue and white debut - on leg 2 (15:17), Ian Armstrong the team’s fastest on leg 3 (13:06) and Jason Dawson (14:10), the team’s cumulative time being 58:03. Race 2, held this time over the customary six stages, saw Morpeth retain their title once again against the best of the rest from the North East, with their Over 40s also medalling in the same race. In fact the club’s winning time of 1 hour 4 minutes 1 seconds was only five seconds off the record they had set last year, with Gateshead Harriers nearly two minutes back in 1:05:55. The early lead set by Finn Brodie ((10:34) was whittled away however when a flying Calum Johnson for Gateshead on leg 2 recorded 10:01, the day’s fastest time, in overtaking George Lowry (10:46), to put the Tyneside outfit into the lead. It must have been groundhog day for poor George, who had similarly suffered the Northern Cross Country winner hard on his heels at the Birtley Relays a month earlier. However, after Alistair Douglas had chipped steadily away at that lead on leg 3 (10:56), Alex Brown put Morpeth back in the driving seat with a 10:34 clocking, and thereafter, with Connor Marshall recording 10:48 and last leg runner Carl Avery 10:23, the final margin of victory was more than comfortable. Remarkably, the club’s B team of Peter Smallcombe (10:52), Oliver Calvert (11:07), James Tilley (11:01), Elliot Kelso (11:15), Tom Balsdon (11:03) and Mark Banks (11:19) finished in third place in a cumulative time of 1:06:37. It was certainly a pleasing return for Oli Calvert and great to see so much young blood in the team - although with only set of medals available per club, the lads were unable to collect the team Bronze their performance perhaps deserved, the medals going instead to 4th place Sunderland Harriers (1:08:06). A further C team of Tom Prentice (11:10), Adam Pratt (11:46), Lee Cuthbertson (12:32), Shaun Land (12:30), Jake Parmley (13:13) and Dave Marshall (14:15) also made the top twenty, coming in with a highly respectable 1:15:26 for 19th place. Special praise here for the man with the muscles on leg 6, who was only roped in at a couple of hours notice (and after already running that morning), whose efforts meant the team was complete. The Over 40 Veteran Men’s race was as fiercely contested as the 50s had been, with NSP this time taking the Gold thanks to a fine 1st leg clocking of 11:07 by James Anderson, the day’s fastest O/40 time, the Poly team recording 1:14:38 ahead of Elvet Striders in 2nd on 1:16:32. But it was good to see Morpeth’s O/40s picking up a hard won Bronze at the same time, thanks to legs by Tony Lewis (12:59), Andrew Hebden (13:19), Lee Bennett, stepping down from the 50s (12:40), Ben Heatley (13:11), Colin Archer (13:03) and Andy Ball, whose 12:43 despite a week’s illness saw him get ahead of Gateshead’s last leg runner on the final stage for a cumulative time of 1:17:55. Well done to all who took part – always a great day’s racing here.  The Senior Men's B team who finished in third place Comments are closed.
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