gutsy effort all-round at birtley relays

Rachelle Falloon in action at Birtley. Photo: Stuart Whitman

Held in the grounds of Lord Lawson of Beamish School under some splendidly sunny skies, Sunday morning’s Birtley Relays featured three separate races and again included the North East Masters Athletics Association Championships for male and female athletes Over 35.
 
Those of us somewhat longer in the tooth will remember fondly the event’s predecessor from a number of years ago now, the Durham Cathedral Relays, which, as well as a stunning setting on the University’s cricket fields by the snaking River Wear, also featured some top notch Sunday morning scran for those who’d finished.

​Sadly, the event was kicked out of there and subsequently decamped for a couple of years to the Maiden Castle Sports Centre a little further downstream; this was never a happy marriage however, and the move to Birtley has seen new host Birtley AC organise with great competence and provide at least a more challenging 3k course, which now contorts itself round the school’s playing fields.
 
First race of the day was for all Male Masters Over 35, and there was one team Gold, one Silver and four Fastest age category legs.
 
A mix and match Over 35 team pulled off a Silver medal, remarkable in that two of the team were actually O/50s or 60s!
 
Lee Bennett got the club off to a strong start with a clocking of 11:10, fastest 0/50 of the day, with Adam Pratt running the team into the lead with Race 1’s fastest time of the day of 9:52, a clocking which shows that he is very much back to his best.
 
Not the place 0/60 Neil McAnany, carrying a dodgy leg, was expecting or perhaps hoping to find himself in, but to Neil’s credit he applied himself very sensibly to record 11:57, an 0/60 fastest, with the team’s final cumulative time 32:59.
 
By then winners Heaton Harriers had got noses in front with 32:06, with Elswick’s 0/45s in 2nd (32:40).
 
The club’s 0/45s were 15th overall and 7th in their category, in what was actually the most keenly contested age range in the race. Dave Marshall clocked 13:51, Jamie Johnson 11:57 and, on last leg, Ed Hillier the team’s fastest of 11:51.
 
As last year, there was a resounding win for the club’s Over 65s, with Dave Nicholson (12:41) and Gavin Bayne (12:24) running the day’s fastest category times, but it was a new experience for Les Cavill, roped in with some reluctance after team manager Scaife’s arm-twisting, but whose 13:40 clocking certainly didn’t disgrace anyone. Les – you’ve got the gig!
 
Second race was the combined Women’s Seniors and Masters, and featured perhaps the day’s most remarkable victory, by the Women’s Masters team of Jane Kirby, Morag Stead and Jane Hodgson, an all the more remarkable win in that two of the team were actually 0/45s.
 
Jane Kirby had a terrific ding-dong with colleague Julie Vermaas on leg 1, a tussle in which it was clear no quarter would be given by either side (both were eventually credited with the same time of 12:30, with Jane K’s the day’s 3rd fastest 0/45 time).
 
Jane came in in 4th and passed on to Morag Stead, who got her nose in front of the three ahead of her before the end of the first lap, and whose 11:35 was far and away the fastest 0/45 age category time.
 
With a lead of a minute and a half and the form she has been in all season, Jane Hodgson was never going to be caught, and it was really only a question of how fast she could go with no one to beat and the margin of the overall victory.
 
In fact, she ran the race’s fastest time of 11:01, with the team’s cumulative time of 35:06 nearly three minutes faster than that of nearest rivals Crook AC in 2nd (38:02), with Gosforth a few seconds behind them in 3rd (38:10).
 
Lizzie Rank had brought the club’s Seniors back in 3rd place on leg 1 with a time of 12:29 and she handed on to Tayla Douglas, back racing only a few weeks after giving birth to daughter Mia. Tayla clocked 15:12 and with Rachelle posting an excellent 11:22, the fastest Senior time of the day and one only bettered by Jane H, the team picked up a deserved Bronze (39:03).
 
There were medals for both O/45 and 55s team also, however, with the O/45s of Julie Vermaas (12:30), Fran Naylor (16:57) and Claire Calverley (14:16) a decent 3rd in 43:43 behind Tynedale and Washington in, again, a keenly contested category.
 
Meanwhile the O/55s were both winners in their category and featured, like the Men’s O/65s, the day’s two fastest legs.
 
Sue Smith ran 15:59 on leg 1, with Shuna and Gwenda recording 15:01 and 14:03 respectively for a cumulative time of 45:03.
 
Last race of the day had the smallest field, with only a  disappointing eleven full teams out, but was also the closest, with Morpeth and Sunderland Harriers going toe to toe in a fixture Morpeth had previously won several years running.
 
Sunderland got their noses ahead at the end of leg 1, with Peter Smallcombe for Morpeth coming in 2nd some seven seconds behind Sunderland’s experienced Stephen Jackson (9:19)
 
That changed on leg 2, however, with Carl Avery, looking in very good form a couple of weeks away from the Northern Cross Country Championships, reeling in Sunderland’s Joe Armstrong (late of this parish) to post the day’s fastest time of 8:40 and establish a 15 second lead.
 
A gutsy run for Morpeth by Ali Douglas on the final leg in which he was always there to be shot at saw him stay ahead of  closing Sunderland Harrier Stephen Armstrong for three quarters of the way, but he was finally reeled in with just under half a mile to go, with Sunderland taking the victory in the end by a ten second margin (27:16) and the team having to settle for Silver.
 
Congratulations to all who ran, and to team managers Rachelle Falloon, Claire Calverley and Peter Scaife, who worked might and main to get teams on the grid.