A remarkable run by Laura Weightman was perhaps the stand-out moment at the North East Counties Athletics Association Road Relays on Saturday, where Morpeth Harriers retained the Senior Women’s, Senior Men’s and Men Over 50’s titles they had won last year. The fixture was now back in its traditional place in the calendar having been rearranged for late August in 2021, and provides a break from cross country with a good chance for a hard, fast, two-lap run over a distance of 2.2 miles round the lake at Hetton Lyons Country Park. Race 1, for teams of four, again combined Senior and Veteran Women and Men Over 50, with the club looking to repeat its successes from the early autumn. This time, the Senior Women’s team featured teenagers Abi Leiper and Millie Breese, as well as seasoned competitor Lindsey Quinn, who has been in good form over the cross country this winter, along with two-time Olympian Weightman. A keenly-contested first leg saw a battle for the early lead between Sunderland Strollers’ own Olympic representative, marathon specialist Alison Dixon, and teenager Imogen Bungay of Elswick Harriers, with Bungay clocking 12 minutes 22 seconds and Dixon only a few seconds behind. Bungay and Dixon recorded the 2nd and 3rd fastest legs of the day. Meanwhile, a measured run by Quinn on what is always a challenging 1st leg saw her come home in 13:47 for 8th place with Leiper out next for the club. Working hard on the athletes ahead of her, she ran a very sensible 13: 29 to move the team up in the standings. Weightman went out on leg 3, with the Leeds-based athlete looking in outstanding early-season form as she swept aside the whole of the field ahead of her to establish a lead even before commencing her second lap. Completing her leg in what proved to be a new course record of 11 minutes 1 second, it was now down to Breese to defend the lead she had been given, and this she was confidently able to do, in fact running the day’s 4th fastest time of 12:54. The team’s overall time was 51:11 with early leaders North Shields Polytechnic Harriers 2nd - but over a minute behind - in 52:39 and Elswick Harriers 3rd (54:30). With broad smiles on faces afterwards, it was certainly a day Abi and Millie will remember for a long time and the best possible start to half-term week. The club’s B team of Lizzie Rank, not far behind Quinn on leg 1 (13:50), Kate Gaffing (14:37), Julie Vermaas (14:48) and Sarah Lawson (14:56) also combined well and placed 10th in the same race. They were also second Senior B team home behind NSP’s outfit. Meanwhile the Men’s Over 50 race was going on at the same time, and again it was a case of Morpeth working their way past early leaders. This time Jason Dawson had gone out on leg 1 in a time of 13:05 with Rob Hancox on leg 2 clocking 13:16, but some fast early legs by New Marske, for whom Martin Murray’s 12:02 was the fastest Over 50 leg of the day, and NSP meant a gap had already opened up to chasing teams behind. Once more it was a case of all change on leg 3, with this time O/60 Guy Bracken chasing down all ahead of him when recording the 2nd fastest O/50 time of the day, 12:27. Like Weightman, he put the team’s last leg runner in a commanding lead, and with Lee Bennett clocking 12:32 on leg 4, the team finished only a few seconds behind the Senior Women in 51:20. 2nd place Elswick were over two minutes behind (53:25) and New Marske 3rd (53:32). Morpeth’s B and C teams also had decent runs. Alistair Macdonald (13:31), Gavin Bayne (14:09), Paul Bellingham (15:16) and Gordon Dixon (15:44) combined for the first B team home ( 58:40) in 13th place in the Over 50s. The C team of Kevin Bray (16:01), Andrew Dippie (15:41), Paul Brown (14:59) and Bill Tilley (15:13) recorded 1:02:04 and weren’t far behind in 18th. (Team manager Scaife later noted, ‘I can’t remember organising teams where so many vets all came out with the same phrase: ‘’I’m happy not to run.’’) Also in Race 1, a hard fought Women Veterans competition saw Elswick Harriers triumph in 56:18 with Justina Heslop recording an impressive fastest female vet time of 12:28. NSP were 2nd and Sunderland Strollers 3rd. In the following race for the Royal Signals Trophy, run this time over 6 legs, Morpeth’s Senior Men not only defended their title but set a new course record into the bargain, with their B team just missing out on a 3rd place finish too. A gun-to-tape lead was never seriously challenged after George Lowry (10:35) had held off Gateshead’s Josh Blevins and NSP’s Dave Green on leg 1 and Sam Hancox on leg 2 had consolidated the lead further (10:57). With George Rudman running 10:45 on leg 3 and Finn Brodie 10:36 on leg 4, the icing on the cake was the day’s fastest leg by the 5th place team member Alex Brown who recorded 10:28. Carl Avery (10:35) brought the team home with a combined time of 1 hour 3 minutes 56 seconds. This was over three minutes ahead of Sunderland Harriers in 2nd with their 1:07.00. Meanwhile the B team, with three teenagers on board, only missed out on a 3rd place when Birtley’s last leg runner Adrian Bailes caught Morpeth’s Connor Marshall over the half mile. (Ironically, Jim Alder was in a way responsible after he had, in his own inimitable fashion, told Birtley their leg order was wrong at the recent Birtley Relays, and, heeding his advice, they had put their fastest runner Bailes on leg 6.) This time the club’s strength in depth was reflected in fine performances from Joe Anderson (11:23), Alistair Douglas (11:02), Joe Dixon (11:05), Tom Innes (11:27), Ryan Davies (11:26) and Connor Marshall (11:02) for a final combined time of 1:07.25, a mere nine seconds off 3rd, although the club could only have claimed one set of medals anyway. The C team was hit by a late withdrawal on Friday night and were one runner short, otherwise would themselves have probably challenged for a top ten place. In his first race back after injury, Andy Lawrence recorded 12:06 on leg 1 and Mark Snowball 11:36 next. Shaun Land clocked 12:42 on leg 3 and Jake Parmley 13:05 on 4. O/50 Gary Hall, running in his first race since the Marathon des Sables and only asked to run on Thursday to make the team up, recorded 14:49. The only downside of the day for the club came with a mix-up and subsequent disqualification in the Men’s Over 40 race, run in conjunction with the Seniors. This was won by Elvet Striders in 1:15:27 with NSP in 2nd less than half a minute behind and Darlington Harriers 3rd. For Morpeth, Graeme Thorpe on 1st leg ran the team’s fastest time of 12:57, with subsequent legs by first timers Richard Glennie (13:38) and Dave Stabler (13:02). Andrew Hebden clocked 13:13 and Jamie Johnson 13:45 on legs 4 and 5. Confusion then arose when Gary Hall came in for the C team on leg 5 and the official overseeing the changeover pen called out the next Morpeth runner – of course, there was no leg 6 for the C, but there was for the O/40s, and the official sent out Ed Hillier, who should have gone out later (after Jamie had come in), on last leg for the 40s, at the wrong time. This led sadly to a team disqualification; cruel, especially for Glennie, Stabler and Hillier, all competing for the first time, but sadly just one of those things. Hopefully it won’t have put them off turning out in the future. All thoughts now return to XC, with the National in London at the weekend and the final NEHL fixture at Alnwick on 5 March Comments are closed.
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