 Matthew Briggs, ahead of Sam Hancox, on his way to victory in the Senior Men's race. Picture: Stuart Whitman Morpeth Harriers Men retained the Sherman Cup at Temple Park, South Shields on a blustery Saturday afternoon while the club’s Women finished fifth in the matching Davison Shield competition.
An annual test of the overall strength of a club’s resources, the Sherman Cup, for male Seniors and Juniors, and the Davison Shield, for female counterparts, offers opportunities for competition over cross country in some five categories: Under 13s, U/15s, U/17s, Senior and Veteran athletes, with the first three in each category for each club to count. Holders of the Sherman Cup from the last time it was held in 2020, Morpeth were looking to repeat their success but faced as expected some stiff opposition from many of their local rivals, including Gateshead Harriers, Sunderland Harriers, North Shields Polytechnic and Gosforth Harriers. In the event there were two individual and two team victories, which, when added to other scores, meant the club triumphed by a narrow margin over nearest challengers Elswick Harriers with Gateshead finishing in third place. The first individual victory came in the U15 boys, with Joe Close first home and supported by Oliver Tomlinson in 3rd and Elliot Mavir in 17th, the team finishing in 2nd place behind North Shields. Stephen Craske offered further support in 20th. The first team victory came as expected in the U17 boys, with Bertie Marr heading the Morpeth charge this time in 2nd place, Ryan Davies in 4th and Matt Walton 7th, with James Tilley also 9th. There was a good turn out in the U13 boys, with a number of individuals running their first cross country of the season while also at the bottom of the age category. Daniel Vermaas was first home for the club in 23rd, with good packing from Thomas Roche in 24th and Evan Laude 25th. Ben Moll was 33rd, William Hawkins 45th and Jamie Ellis 47th, with the scoring count putting the team in 6th place. After so few U13s have run in the NEHL, it was great to see so many out to support the club. Earlier, the first run but non-counting U11 fixture saw Jacob Thompson (11th) and Eli MacSparrow (53rd) have their first exposure to this kind of event. The Senior Men’s race saw a dominant performance from the club’s Senior Men, with the club’s second individual victory coming from Lancaster University student Mathew Briggs with a gun to tape victory. Mathew was chased for much of the race by club colleague Sam Hancox until an unfortunate collision at half way saw Sam take a tumble and him subsequently caught by a small group who had been working to close him down. He did well to maintain 4th position but did unfortunately finish outside of the medals. The team’s final counter was Thomas Innes in 12th, with further supporting runs coming from Connor Marshall in 14th, Joe Anderson in 20th, Liam Roarty in 34th, Jake Parmley in 84th and Shaun Land, 109th. In the same race, Lee Bennett led the club’s Veteran Men’s effort, finishing in an excellent 53rd place, with the scoring count completed by Richard Glennie, 119th, and Stephen Johnstone, 207th. Paul Brown was 219th and Richard Kirby 231st, with some 364 athletes finishing the course in the biggest field of the day. Missing several of our more experienced veterans, the Veteran’s team finished down in 16th but did enough to guarantee the final result, and it was great to see the scoring three picking up a team medal. With the aim to score the lowest total of points, Morpeth finished on 24 ahead of Elswick Harriers in 2nd on 31 and Gateshead Harriers in 3rd on 40. Despite not fielding full teams in all five categories, there was the consolation at least of one team victory in the Women’s Davison Shield competition, with a strong turn-out from the club’s Senior Women producing a comprehensive triumph. Perhaps surprisingly, North East Counties Champion Cat Macdonald was beaten into 2nd for the first time this season over the country by Elswick’s Amy Fuller, who finished some thirty seconds ahead with a strong run. It was very much a family show for the club, however, with sisters Lindsey in 10th and Lorna in 11th. A powerful run by Gemma Floyd, who finished 7th, saw her also pick up an individual bronze medal in the Vet’s. Behind these four, Lizzie Rank was 26th, Sarah Lawson 34th and Tayla Murdy 65th. The club’s Veteran numbers were complete with runs from Anna Walker, 47th and Margaret Macdonald, 184th, with the club’s Vets finishing in 16th. The other complete team came in the U13 girls, where no less than eight youngsters turned out for the club and the team finished in 6th. Emma Tomlinson was first back in 9th, with Molly Roche in 13th and Iris Dungait 16th. These three were backed up by Megan Potrac (20th), Grace Cunningham (22nd), Sophie Pledger (29th), Faye Heatley (30th) and Rosie Heaton (34th). Disappointingly, the club missed one scoring counter in the U17/20 Women, with Abi Leiper running well for 5th and Kate Gaffing in 10th, but there was no U/15 team. These absences meant the club was unable to finish higher than 5th, one place higher than the 2019/20 season. The competition was, perhaps surprisingly, run by Tyne Bridge Harriers, the only outfit able to field complete teams in each category. Great to retain the Sherman Cup then, but the moral overall is clearly that complete teams win medals, and that should certainly be a target for next year. Meanwhile in news from America there were three fine runs by Morpeth Harriers who all attend American universities. Perhaps the most noticeable was by San Francisco Academy of Art student James Young, who ran a remarkable 3 minutes 55.20 seconds for the indoor mile at the Music City Challenge in Nashville, Tennessee. Tulsa University student Scott Beattie ran 7:49.43 for 3 kms at the Badgers Windy City Invite in Chicago. Over the same weekend, Oklahoma student Rory Leonard also ran a PB of 8:12.52 for the same distance at the Husky Classic in Seattle. (In passing, I can’t help note that American races all seem to have much better names!). Comments are closed.
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