 The Senior Women after their victory at Temple Park Morpeth Harriers signed off their competitive year in style, winning no less than four team Golds to go along with some eight individual medals at the 116th North East Counties Athletics Association Championships on Saturday. Held for the first time since 2013 at Temple Park, South Shields in temperatures that struggled to get above freezing for much of the day, many runners reported frozen ground that barely gave under their spikes, but even the club’s Under 11s, the day’s earliest competitors, managed to make the best of the challenging conditions. With the original venue, the Town Moor, being unavailable Temple Park was the only option for the date available, although organisers did their best to spring a surprise by running the course in the opposite direction from its usual orientation and thankfully put start and finish lines close to the tent village. Those U/11s included Erin Burns on her club debut, coming home in 21st, with Lucy Raper again near the front in 5th place and Zoe Tomlinson 11th. In the matching U/11 Boys, the club’s only representative was George Moll in 9th, also making his debut for the club. With the Sherman Cup and Davison Shield just around the corner in January, it was pleasing to see full competitive teams in both Boys and Girls U/13 and U/15 races. Ewan Line narrowly missed out on a medal when finishing 4th in the 4 kilometre U/13 race, with Evan Laude 24th, Thomas Roche 26th, Daniel Vermaas 36th, and William McBryde 48th. The team were 5th overall with Darlington Harriers and AC taking the title. Emma Tomlinson was first back for the club in the U/13 Girls in 8th place, with no less than five other team mates running. Faye Heatley was 19th, Abi Potrac 22nd, Grace Cunningham 33rd, Faye McAlpine 46th and Sophie Ingram 52nd in an excellent turn out. The team were 4th with a dominant Birtley AC team filling the first three places overall. In the U/15 Boys race over 6km, Harry Armstrong was 30th, Daniel Scott 35th and Steven Craske 40th, with the team finishing in 7th and NSP the winners. These three did well to make sure the club had a team out despite the unfortunate absences of all three of last year’s team. The U/15 Girls also finished in 7th, with runs by Molly Roche in 26th, Megan Potrac 29th and Charlotte Marshall 34th. Darlington were again the winning team. The club’s first medals came in the Under 17 Boys 6 kilometre race, where Liam Roche won both an individual Silver medal and also led his team mates to a team Gold. Roche, only 9 seconds off race winner Joseph West of Middlesborough AC, was well supported by fellow Harriers Elliot Kelso in 4th and Bertie Marr in 5th for a comfortable win to retain their trophy from last year. The club’s only individual Gold medal came from Duchess High School, Alnwick triathlete Millie Breese, who took the U/20 title by a margin of some fifteen seconds over her nearest rival Holly Waugh of NSP to add to the U/17 title she had won last year. In the U/17 race, run concurrently, Tabby Robson also had a good run to come home in 7th, although the absence of a third counter for the club put them out of team contention. Durham City’s Charlotte Dillon was 1st home in the fastest time of the day. Next up were the club’s U/20 Men, who were comfortably able to retain the Sloan Cup they had won in 2021 with Matty Walton and James Tilley also picking up individual Silver and Bronze medals behind Gateshead’s Josh Blevins. Adding to their 3rd place finish in the English Schools Cross Country Cup in Leeds the previous weekend, it crowned a profitable eight days of hard racing for the pair. Peter Smallcombe battled with niggling injury worries to make it round in 8th place for 3rd team counter to secure the Gold medal.  The Senior Men with their trophy The Senior Men also turned in a dominant performance with the biggest squad of the day and in the process claimed their 10th title in a row. Led by Carl Avery, who picked up a fine Silver in 2nd place behind winning Gateshead Harrier Calum Johnson, the club were also able to draw on the services of Team England and GB triathlete Dan Dixon, who looked very strong when claiming his Bronze medal in 3rd, and this despite the leading group (who did not, at that time, include Johnson) being misdirected by a marshal. Carl graciously conceded afterwards that he didn’t believe, however, that this would have affected the overall result.
The club’s Men looked in good shape with Sam Hancox 6th, Leeds based Phil Winkler made the journey North to compete in 8th, and Connor Marshall 11th . The team’s final counter was Daniel Melling, who also had a good run to finish in 15th overall and in the process added to the U/20 team Gold he had won with Dan Dixon last year at Sedgefield. With no less than four other athletes in the top 50, the performance saw the club finish on 45 points, over a hundred points less than nearest rivals Gateshead Harriers with Sunderland Harriers a distant third. Behind the scoring six Ali Douglas was 23rd, Jordan Scott 34th, Andy Lawrence 46th, Rob Balmbra, in his second comeback race, 48th, Mark Snowball 86th and Rob Hancox 116th. Final race of the day was the Senior Women’s race over 8 kms, with the club looking to go one better than last year’s team Silver. Cat Macdonald once again headed the Harrier charge, and, although she was unable to retain the individual title she had won last year, claimed this time by a flying Philippa Stone of Middlesborough AC, she did have the satisfaction of seeing the team pull off a memorable victory over nearest rivals Gateshead and North Shields Polytechnic. Cat was chased every inch of the way by team mate Jane Hodgson, who picked up an excellent individual Bronze and showed once again a clean pair of heels to some much younger competitors behind her. Rachelle Falloon in 8th and Michelle Thompson in 32nd finished the scoring count, with further support from Linzi Quinn in 34th, Lizzie Rank 40th and Margaret Macdonald 162nd, Rachelle, Michelle and Lizzie all making light of some injury worries in the club’s cause. In the end the team count of 45 points was a relatively comfortable nine points less than, once again, Gateshead, with NSP in 3rd. A memorable way to see 2022 out then, with competition returning to the same venue on January 7th for the Sherman Cup/Davison Shield fixture. Put it in your diary now! Comments are closed.
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