morpeth contingent fly flag for region

The victorious Senior Men's team

Eleven Morpeth Harriers had the honour of representing the North East region when the annual Inter Counties Cross Country Championships took place at a relatively dry, sunny but breezy Wollaton Park in Nottingham on Saturday.
Although the recent postponement of the English National Cross Country in Staffordshire had cast doubts on the event taking place at all, with onsite parking the major issue, fortunately organisers managed to secure extra parking across the City to allow the ten-race programme to go ahead.
In the opening event for Under 20 Men, the North East team included four members of Morpeth Harriers who all made the scoring count, with the team finishing in sixth place out of 21 finishing outfits.
First to show for the region in the total field of 155 finishers was Morpeth Harrier Joe Dixon, who finished strongly in 18th place, with next home club colleague Will Devere-Owen, who finished 31st.
Bertie Marr was 39th with Ethan Phillips completing the region’s scoring quartet when in 61st place.
Best result for the North East however came in the day’s final Senior Men’s event, where Northern Champion Calum Johnson of Gateshead Harriers took victory and the individual Gold Medal, winning by seven seconds from Leicester and Rutland’s Tom Evans, with Scotland East’s Scott Stirling getting the Bronze.
It was also a team Gold for the North East Counties, with a win by 116 points over second placed Yorkshire, with a Northern Ireland Team finishing third, a further eight points adrift.
Morpeth provided two members of the winning six to count team, with regular pick Carl Avery 13th and debutant Will Johnson 60th.
The team count was made up by 10th placed Cameron Allan and 30th placed Chris Coulson, both of Houghton Harriers, with Adrian Bailes of Birtley 68th.
Just outside the scoring count was new Morpeth acquisition Ellis Hetherington, who finished ninety third in the day’s largest field of some 285 finishers.
Second largest field of the day was the Senior Women, where the North East were just pipped for a podium place, finishing fourth behind winners Surrey, with Yorkshire and Kent claiming second and third team placings, respectively.
Catriona MacDonald was the second counter of the six for the region, finishing in 44th place, with the region led home by North Shields Poly’s Charlotte Penfold in 26th.
Morpeth’s Millie Breese led the North East Under 20 Women home to tenth team place, when she finished in 28th.
Three Morpeth Harriers lined up in the Under 17 Men’s event, where the region finished in eleventh team place.
Elliot Kelso led the squad home when he finished in 32nd place, with Joseph Close and Ollie Tomlinson both receiving late call ups to the squad. Close was third team counter in 92nd place, and Tomlinson 137th.
The North East had an excellent individual result in the Under 13 Boys event, where North East and Northern Champion Thomas McCartie of Middlesbrough AC finished third, and gained a Bronze Individual medal, and led the region to fifth team place. Sadly Morpeth’s Ewan Line was unable to run, however.
There were podium places for the North East’s Under 13 Girls and Under 17 Women’s squads, who both secured Bronze medals.
The Under 13 Girls were led home by Birtley’s Olivia Murphy, who finished in twelfth place, with further team support coming from New Marske’s Gabriele Pinder (16th), Birtley club colleague Poppy Phillipson (36th), and Alnwick’s Emilia Waugh (54th).
Houghton’s Charlotte Dillon led the Under 17 Women home, when finishing eighth, with further team support coming courtesy of Darlington Harrier Zara Jones (16th), Blaydon Harrier Ellie Fellows (38th), and Gateshead Harrier Aoife Bell (41st).
The region's Under 15 Boys and Under 15 Girls squads finished in 13th and 17th places, respectively.

Joe Dixon in action on Saturday