morpeth miss out on team victories at temple park

Lizzie Rank in action at Temple Park. Photo: Stuart Whitman

The annual Sherman Cup and Davison Shield competition, moved this year from the first weekend in January to the first Sunday in February and held at Temple Park, South Shields instead of the customary venue of Wrekenton, saw Morpeth collect three individual and one team Gold but narrowly miss out on winning both competitions.
 
With all competitions straight races with no packs, the first of those individual Golds was in the Under 13 Boys, where a very much in-form Mason Gaylor finished some 20 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
 
Mason was backed up by Jacob Thompson, 24th, and Joseph Fawcett, 33rd, the team finishing in 5th place.
 
In the matching U/13 Girls, Heidi Wilkinson was 6th, with good support coming from Lucy Raper, 14th, and Izzy Cromar, 35th, the team in 6th position.
 
The second individual Gold came in the U/15 Girls, where a delighted Faye Heatley showed a clean pair of heels to all her rivals. Support came from Emma Tomlinson in 10th, although sadly there was no third counter.
 
There were no Morpeth vests out in the U/15 Boys race, but there was a complete team in the next age group up, the U/17s, where Harry Armstrong was 5th, Ben Moll 9th and Daniel Scott 19th. Good to see Daniel back – and after playing a morning game of football to boot! The team were 2nd.
 
Charlotte Marshall was 10th and Lucie Todd 12th in the U/17 Girls, though again there was one counter missing.
 
First race of the day, the U/11 Boys had seen three good early runs for the club, with Mason Ellison 9th, Luke Thompson 21st and Will Fawcett 24th.
 
Penultimate race of the day, the combined Senior and Masters Women, saw the club’s third individual and only team Gold, with an excellent showing by the squad as a whole.
 
Catriona Macdonald was a clear winner, with team mate Lizzie Rank in 3rd, Robyn Bennett 7th and Holly Lawrence 10th.
 
These results don’t tell the whole story, however, with Holly running very well on the first lap and holding a strong third place behind Elswick’s redoubtable Justina Heslop. Sadly, however, she then took a hefty fall on the next lap and did well to even finish the race thereafter.
 
There were plenty of other Morpeth vests out too, with Lindsey Quinn 21st, Sophie Ward 68th, Jane Briggs 82nd, Nicola McCoy 88th, Laura Mclean 95th, Leah Scott 127th, Lydia Moreno 130th, Frances Naylor 173rd, and Margaret Macdonald 189th. The Veteran Women placed 15th overall.
 
Last race of the day was the Combined Senior and Veteran Men, with a disappointingly thin showing by the Senior Men but a good smattering of Vets.
 
In a race won by Gateshead’s Matt Linsley, Ethan Bond was the club’s first counter in 10th place, with support coming from Jake Parmley, 103rd.
 
Thankfully, there was a better turn-out by the Vets, who finished 3rd team on the day to Sunderland and NSP.
 
James Deathe was first back for the team in 21st place overall, Lee Bennett 65th and Jason Dawson 75th for the three to count.
 
Further support came from Richard Glennie, 128th and Steve Johnstone, 225th.
 
The Men finished in 3rd place overall with Elswick winning and NSP in 2nd. However, Elswick were the only club who filled all five race categories. They were also winners also in the Davison Shield, with Morpeth 2nd. But this time not one club filled every race category. Looking at the evidence of the day, it very much looks like these competitions are in trouble.