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Morpeth’s long hold on the local Weetslade Relays, held at Lockey Park at Wideopen and hosted by Claremont Road Runners - which had seen a five-year winning streak and six overall victories - was finally broken last Wednesday as the club lost out to a determined Sunderland Harriers. The race claims to be the first in the country to have a unique male/veteran (of either sex)/female category, which certainly makes it a difficult one for team organisers to marshall the troops for, but its popularity has soared, with over 100 teams out this time and clubs restricted to a maximum of six each. Having been beaten by Morpeth last year by a matter of seconds, the Wearside outfit looked in determined mode this time as they put out a very strong team who were always out in front. Veteran Liam Taylor headed their challenge, coming home in the evening’s fastest time of 13 minutes 9 seconds for the 2.65 mile, lung-bursting climb of the old Weetslade spoil heap. Behind Taylor, young Tom Prentice, in his first relay outing for Morpeth, came in with a sprint finish in 2nd place in 13:31 with Wallsend in third. Sunderland youngster Jess Fox extended their lead on leg 2 with a clocking of 15:55, with Morpeth looking to Gemma Floyd for vet legs (17:28). For Wallsend, Jennifer Berry ran one of the evening’s fastest times of 15:42 to move them back into 2nd place. (Fastest overall female time of the night incidentally was by Elswick vet Justina Heslop, 15:21). Stephen Jackson’s third leg of 13:24 meant a cumulative time of 42:24 for Sunderland, but George Lowry ran an excellent last leg of 13:13, the second fastest time of the night, to gain a fine 2nd place team finish (44:12) ahead of 3rd place Wallsend Harriers (44:19). Morpeth’s B team of Mark Banks (13:53), Lizzie Rank (16:49, the club’s fastest female time of the evening) and Andrew Lawrence (14:18) also had a fine run and were 4th in 45:00. The C team of Dave Stabler (15:07), Jane Kirby (18:27) and John Butters (14:31) made it three teams in the top twenty with a strong 16th. Jake Parmley, Stephen Cessford, James Dixon and Laura Mclean all made relay debuts for the club, with further teams in 27th, 44th and 46th, all comfortably in the top half of the field. D: Jake Parmley (15:30), Tayla Douglas (18:21), Anthony Liddle (15:55) 49:46 E: Gavin Bayne (17:14), Lindsey Quinn (17:52), Stephen Cessford (17:05) 52:11 F: James Dixon (15:03), Laura Mclean (20:01), Mike Winter (17:26) 52:30 Incidentally, in addition to welcome cash prizes, the goody bags randomly distributed at the end remain among the oddest ever known in races, Morpeth’s including this year: a roll of toilet paper printed with the words ‘Crime Scene’, a copy of the novel Elmet by Fiona Mozley, nominated for the 2017 Man Booker prize, a small boxed icon of the Holy Family and sundry exotic smellies. Hmmm. For Stuart Whitman's gallery of photos from the event click here.  Action from the 2023 Weetslade Relays. Photo: Stuart Whitman Comments are closed.
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August 2024
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