 Cat MacDonald, closely followed by Jane Hodgson, on their way to first and second place respectively in the Senior Women's race at Temple Park. Photo: Stuart Whitman 2024 got off to a disappointing start for Morpeth Harriers when, despite several strong individual and team performances, they lost their longstanding hold on the Sherman Cup and proved unable to mount a challenge for the Davison Shield at the weekend.
Decades-long annual competitions which were originally set up to show the overall strength of North East clubs, the Sherman Cup (for male athletes) and the Davison Shield (for female athletes) require clubs to participate across the full age ranges, with three categories that take in Under 13s, 15s and 17s for Young athletes, then two for the Seniors and Veterans, with the first three finishing in each category to count in a club’s overall team score. It proved to be in the younger age groups where Morpeth were found wanting, with only their winning U/13 boys able to show the way forward. Ewan Line had a deserved victory in the U/13s over the same ground at Temple Park, South Shields, where he had so cruelly been robbed of a win in the NECAA Championships a few weeks ago when he was misdirected on the course, with excellent support behind him coming from Daniel Vermaas (13th), Jack Dhawar (27th) and George Moll (29th) for a team win. In the matching U/13 girls race, Faye Heatley was narrowly beaten into 3rd with Lucy Raper 4th, but the unfortunate lack of a third counter, due to illness, meant the team missed out on a likely win. The absence of a final counter cost both boys and girls teams in the U/15s, with Ben Moll 5th and Michael Leeson 26th for the boys and Emma Tomlinson 7th and Charlotte Marshall 25th for the girls. It was if anything worse in the U/17s, with NECAA winner Elliot Kelso forced to drop out of the boys race and leaving Oliver Tomlinson flying the Morpeth flag, but squeezed out of the medals in 4th, and Stephen Craske hanging on for 29th, but no girls running at all. With full teams a pre-requisite for wins in either overall competition, the chances of victory had already gone when Senior and Veteran athletes lined up for the day’s final two races, but there was at least redemption of a sort with much better turn outs and several outstanding performances. Two of these came in the women’s race, where Cat Macdonald was chased all the way round by Jane Hodgson, with Cat taking the Senior and Jane the Veteran titles. Some strong packing behind them saw Poppy Buck, Lizzie Rank and Lindsey Quinn finish 19th, 20th and 21st to finish as first Senior team ahead of Jesmond Joggers, with Nicola McCoy (79th), Jane Briggs (84th) and Shuna Rank (92nd) ensuring the Veteran team were 8th. The day’s final race Senior Men’s race saw Houghton Harrier Cameron Allan reprise his win from the NECAA event with an even more dominant winning margin of nearly a minute and a half. There were three Morpeth runners in the top ten, however, with Lawrence McCourt picking up a Silver in 2nd, Alex Brown looking strong in 5th and Connor Marshall 8th. With James Tilley making the top twenty in 18th, Adam Pratt returning to competitive action in 23rd, Shaun Land 85th, Andriy Volkov 111th and Jake Parmley 119th, the Men’s team, like the Women’s finished as winners, this time ahead of Durham City. In the same race, the Morpeth Veteran men also ran well, with Ian Armstrong first back for the club in 61st, Andrew Hebden 68th and Ben Heatley 74th, Richard Glennie 125th and Steve Johnstone 200th, the team finishing in 5th. Final results showed the Men, with only three complete squads, finishing in 5th (one more complete outfit would have meant them being runners up, given their performances elsewhere), their lowest position for many a year. Similarly the Women, with only two complete squads, were down the tables in 6th. As the only club fielding full teams in both competitions, Tyne Bridge finished as winners in the Sherman Cup but had to settle for second in the Davison Shield, where NSP pulled off a deserved win after a number of years missing out. Morpeth meanwhile, despite the numbers turning up on Monday nights to train, were left sadly having to look ruefully at what might have been. Clearly injured and ill athletes can’t be blamed, but the lack of commitment from others elsewhere is hugely disappointing and must act as a wake-up call in advance of the rest of the season’s XC fixtures and before the Track and Field season gets under way in the spring. Comments are closed.
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