more support needed as club struggles to compete in track and field leagues

The club faces the prospect of relegation from Division One of the North East Senior Development League after a shortage of athletes again left the team managers short of options in the second round of fixtures at Shildon.
Having finished bottom of six clubs in their opening fixture at Whitley Bay, George Patterson and Poppy Buck were determined to achieve a better result this time around.
But two late withdrawals among the men on the eve of the match and a no-show by one of the selected female athletes was compounded by the absence due to injury of experienced thrower Claire Reid.
What did help however, was North Shields Poly fielding a much weaker squad, which eventually led to them occupying the sixth placing on the day, with Morpeth eventually finishing fifth.
The cumulative finish, however, still sees Morpeth in sixth place, with relegation looming, unless fortunes can be turned round over the final two fixtures in June and July.
At Shildon, the club had a total of 16 athletes - 11 men and five women - in action, hardly enough to mount a meaningful challenge.
However, it must be said, that those who had chosen to take part, did their level best to achieve some relatively positive results.
A great deal of praise goes to Under 20 sprinter Ellie Wickens, who competed in five events, (her maximum allowed).
She finished fourth in the A races of both the 100m and 200m, posting respective clocking’s of 13.4s, and 28.6s.
Unfortunately, having no B race competitors to accompany her cost the club dearly.
Wickens also gave much-needed support in the Women’s Field events, finishing fourth in the A String Javelin (13.6m), sixth in the A String Discus (17.0m), and second in the B String Triple Jump (9.3m).
Olivia Gent finished third in both the A String Long Jump (4.71m), Triple Jump (9.82m), and fifth in the Shot Putt with a best of 5.59m.
Vina Desai, also competed in no less than four Field events for Morpeth during a hard day, where she also officiated on behalf of her club.
Her best result came in the B String Javelin, where she was third with 7.53m.
She also finished fifth in the B String Shot Putt with a best of 4.36m, fifth in the B String Discus with 11.4m, and sixth in the A String Hammer with 14.4m.
Other Women’s track duties were shared between Women’s Team Manager Poppy Buck, and Holly Lawrence.
Lawrence achieved Morpeth’s sole Women’s win when she took the 1500m in 5m08.27s.
She also finished third in the 3000m in 11m03.57s.
Meanwhile Buck finished second in the 800m in 2m22.82s, and third in the 400m in 67.3s.
There were some good results achieved by Morpeth in the Men’s Track events.
In the 1500m, Ethan Bond finished second in the A Race in 4m08.11s, and Under 20 athlete Ollie Tomlinson, making his Senior debut, took the B Race in 4m14.88s.
Another Morpeth competitor in the Men’s 1500m was Tom Innes, who posted a time of 4m38.24s.
Innes also finished third in the Men’s 3000m in 9m47.71s.
Tom Balsdon finished second in the Men’s 800m A Race in 2m01.46s.
Veteran athlete Jason Dawson finished second in the B Race in 2m10.56s, and Andrew Lawrence also finished in 2m32.18s.
Alistair Douglass ran a superb 51.8s, when finishing second in the A Race of the 400m.
Ben Harding also ran well to take the B Race in 56.6s.
Another Morpeth finisher in the 400m was Paul Bellingham, who clocked 70.45s.
It was good to have seasoned sprinters Harrison Scott and Sean O’Hara back in action for the club.
In the 100m A Race, Scott finished second in 11.3s, just missing out for victory, and he also placed second in the 200m A Race in 23.2s.
Meanwhile O’Hara was second in the B Races of both the 100m and 200m in respective times of 11.8s, and 23.5s, only missing out by a hairsbreadth for victory in both.
Other 100m and 200m performances for Morpeth came from Alistair Douglass (12.37s), Ben Harding (13.0s), and Paul Bellingham (30.87s).
Morpeth managed to finish second in both of the Men’s Relays to Gateshead Harriers.
In the 4 x 100m they clocked 47.7s, and in the 4 x 400m they managed 3m48.73s.
The Men’s Field events saw Harrison Scott finish fourth in the Long Jump (4.47m),
Fellow sprinter Sean O’Hara finished fourth in the A String Shot Putt with a best of 7.24m, and Tom Innes was fifth in the B String with 4.65m.
In the Javelin, Jason Dawson was sixth in the A String with 25.1m, and throwing the Senior Weight for the first time, Ollie Tomlinson was fourth in the B String with a best of 22.5m.
Also in the Javelin, Tom Innes managed a best of 15.57m.
Tomlinson also threw Senior Weight for the first time in the Discus, managing a best of 17.5m for sixth in the A String.
Alistair Douglass threw 16.4m for sixth in the B String.
It’s going to be an uphill battle to maintain divisional status over the remainder of the season unless more support comes on board from within the club.
More athletes of both genders will be required in both A and B sections at Whitley Bay on Sunday 15 June, and once again at Shildon on Sunday 19 July.

MATCH RESULT
1st Gateshead Harriers 472pts, 2nd Darlington Harriers 391pts, 3rd Wallsend/Blyth 377pts, 4th Blaydon/Elswick 288pts, 5th Morpeth Harriers 264pts, 6th North Shields Poly 251pts.

Twenty athletes - 11 male and nine female - turned out for Morpeth Harriers second round North East Youth Development League fixture on Sunday 18 May at Whitley Bay, on a day which yielded eight individual wins.
New Under 17 Man throws specialist certainly performed to expectations, winning both the Javelin and Discus competitions by comfortable margins, with on the day best efforts of 18.20m and 26.50m, respectively.
He only just missed out on a hat-trick of wins in the Shot Putt, to New Marske’s David Banks, producing a best Putt of 7.99m.
It was good to see Under 17 Male sprinter William Hodgson back in action.
He finished second in both the 100m and 200m, clocking 11.9s and 24.2s, respectively.
Hodgson’s Twin Sister Alexandria was the pick of the Under 17 Women performances, winning the Hammer with a best throw of 51.20m.
Mya Young did well in both the Under 17 Women’s 200m and 300m A Races, finishing second in respective times of 28.4s, and 45.1s.
Emma Tomlinson finished second in the 300m B Race in 50.4s.
Tomlinson also finished third vin the 800m in 2m34.71s.
In the Under 17 Women’s 1500m Charlotte Marshall finished third in 5m50.25s.
Marshall also finished second in the Shot Putt, producing a best of 5.5m.
One of Morpeth’s best results of the day came in the Under 15 Boy’s Javelin, where Mason Gaylor won the A String by producing a best throw of 23.10m, and club colleague Jack Dhawar won the B String with a best throw of 16.80m.
Another Morpeth performance in the Under 15 Boys Javelin came from Jacob Thompson, who produced a best of 9.71m.
Under 15 Boy sprinter Charlie Townsend made an excellent choice to compete in the Long Jump, which he just won by two centimetres over Blyth’s James Floyd, with his best of 4.47m.
Jacob Thompson finished third in the B String with 2.91m.
Townsend also finished second in the 100m in 12.9s.
He also went on to finish second in the B Race of the 200m in 27.2s, giving good support to Mason Gaylor’s A Race performance of fourth in 27.0s.
Other Morpeth 200m performances came from Hector Beere (28.98s), and Jacob Thompson (34.99s).
Beere also finished fourth in the 300m in 46.5s.
Gaylor completed an excellent personal day, by finishing third in the 1500m in 4m32.50s.
Jack Dhawar was fifth for Morpeth in the A Race of the Under 15 Boys 800m, posting a time of 2m36.44s, and Jacob Thompson was fourth in the B Race in 2m45.92s.
Heidi Wilkinson and Sophie Peace were both winners amongst the Morpeth Under 15 Girls performances.
Wilkinson, who won a Silver medal in the 3000m, and just lost out for Bronze in the 1500m in the previous weeks’ County Championships was a clear front runner in the three and three quarter lap event this time round, winning the race in a time of 5m06.41s.
Meanwhile Peace had a true zest for hard work, as she competed in no less than three events herself.
She won the Long Jump with a best of 3.99m, winning by 3cm over Blyth’s India Gorvett.
Peace went on to finish third in the Under 15 Girls 200m A Race in 29.2s.
Zoe Tomlinson finished fifth in the B Race of the 200m in 33.8s.
Tomlinson also finished sixth in the 800m in 2m45.47s.
She also threw 11.6m in the B String Discus for second place, supporting Lucy Raper’s A String placing of third with 14.7m.
Raper also finished fifth in the A Race of the 300m in 53.6s.
Four Morpeth Harriers took part in the Under 13 Boys events.
Joseph Clasper finished second in the A Race of the 200m in 30.2s, and Luke Thompson finished fourth in the B Race in 34.8s.
Clasper also finished third in the 800m A race in 2m45.41s, and Joseph Fawcett finished second in the B Race in 2m49.99s.
Younger brother Will Fawcett also competed in the 800m, posting a time of 2m52.88s.
Luke Thompson finished fifth in the 100m in 16.1s, and eighth in the Long Jump with a best effort of 2.95m.
Morpeth Harriers had only one competitor in the Under 13 Girls events.
Izzy Cromar finished sixth in the 800m in 2m44.19s.
Clearly a great deal of hard work was put in by the squad from Morpeth Harriers who turned up and competed on the day, however, more needs to come from within the club to improve on a current lowly position over the two remaining fixtures.
MATCH RESULT
1st Blyth/Alnwick 782pts, 2nd South Shields/Elswick 631pts, 3rd Chester Le Street/Durham City 624pts, 4th New Marske 491pts, 5th Blaydon/Wallsend/Gosforth 436pts, 6th Morpeth Harriers 383pts, 7th Tynedale/Prudhoe 345pts, 8th Heaton/Tyne Bridge 204pts.
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Two Morpeth Harriers were in action at the BMC Meeting held in Bury, Manchester on Saturday 24 May.
Alistair Douglass produced a personal best time of 1m53.44s in the fifth fastest of a series of 800m events.
In the fastest 5000m, Finn Brodie produced a season’s best of 14m18.44s, when finishing seventh of thirteen in the race.