 Alistair MacDonald on one of the descents at Lambton Castle. Picture: Stuart Whitman A big turn out once again for the cross country, as the club recorded one individual and two team wins as action resumed in the third round of the Start Fitness-sponsored North East Harrier League on Saturday. Held this time in the splendid setting of the Lambton Castle Estate in County Durham, there was at last some proper mud for aficionados of xc following the wetter conditions of Autumn. That, allied to a more demanding course taking competitors through the attractive woods on the estate, steeply down to the River Wear, and sharply back past the castle, meant a proper cross country challenge – with, as ever here, difficult decisions to be made over footwear (those who didn’t wear spikes struggled to stay up on some of the downhills, by all accounts). The individual win came courtesy of in-form Oliver Calvert in the Under 15 Boys race, who made light work of his Fast Pack handicap to overtake all those in front of him, and also run the day’s fastest U/15 time of 12 minutes 8 seconds. He was backed up by teammates Oliver Tomlinson in 4th who ran the day’s 2nd fastest time (12. 28, also from Fast), Harry Armstrong in 13th (15:05), Stephen Craske in 19th (15:15) and Dan Burrow 20th (15:1), all from Slow. The team finished 2nd to a North Shields Polytechnic team that included the Maley twins, but remain ahead of NSP and Durham City overall in a keenly-fought division. The first team victory was supplied once again by the club’s apparently all-conquering U/17 Boys, with this time Elliot Kelso 1st back in 6th place (19:05) ahead of Liam Roche in 10th (19:27), Will de Vere-Owen in 12th (19:40) and an under-the-weather Bertie Marr 19th (20:07), all from Fast of course. Their 3rd consecutive team victory in the league means that the boys have already opened up a big gap at the top of the table, and they will no doubt be hoping for further success on the national stage at the England Cross Country Relays at Mansfield on Saturday. The second team victory was in the day’s final Senior Men’s fixture that also saw the day’s biggest field, a remarkable number really given the weather and the course. In a race that saw a battle at the front between England Youth Internationals Josh Blevins of Gateshead and Chris Perkins of Birtley, both from Slow Pack - with Blevins finally winning out in 36:12 (although apparently Perkins took a tumble at one point), Sam Hancox was 1st back for Morpeth this time out with a fine run to come home in 19th place overall in 36:58 (and also 2nd from Fast Pack). He was behind the redoubtable Bristol and West veteran and guest Jarlath Mckenna, who amazingly recorded again the day’s fastest time of 35:17, despite giving at least two decades to younger runners! Sam was followed home by Connor Marshall in 23rd from Fast (37:24) and Dave Stabler 24th from Slow Pack (42:39) both making their NEHL debuts for this season. The scoring count of six was made up by Andrew Hebden, 33rd from Slow (43:35), Matty Walton, 35th from Fast (38:22), and finally Andy Lawrence, 46th also from Fast (39:17). A special mention for Matty who has made the counters in all three fixtures so far and from Slow, Medium and Fast packs. There was a commendable 16 Morpeth finishers in all, despite the weather, the half-term and a Newcastle home fixture in what was the club’s biggest turn out for the Men so far. Anthony Liddle, another who was run all three, was 46th from Medium in 39:17; Ed Hillier 45:32 from Slow; JB, 96th in 40:39 from Fast, another who’s done all three; Al Macdonald, 104th from Slow (46:04); Mark Snowball, another ever present (who’d also managed running as a parkrun pacer at Blyth in the morning), 167th from Fast; Lee Bennett, a 5th ever-present, 168th in 42:06; a slip-sliding-away Andriy Volkov, 212th in 48:08; Dave Nicholson, 297th in 50:17 (and commendably still choosing to run in the Seniors race); Rob Hancox, 303rd from Medium in 47:54 and Paul Turnbull, 468th in 58:17. Remarkably, some 548 finished the course. With the team finishing comfortably ahead of nearest challengers Sunderland and Gateshead Harriers on the day, the team division now shows a healthy four point gap to our nearest rivals Tyne Bridge Harriers and Gateshead, tied in 2nd place on 10 points each to our 6. The individual Grand Prix tables are now also taking shape: Matty is upto 2nd and Mark 7th, with JB 2nd and Lee 4th in the Vets. Morpeth’s Women also maintain their place at the top of their team division with an even clearer margin of seven points over nearest rivals Tyne Bridge and Tynedale. On the day, they placed 4th with Morag Stead running their fastest time of 29:13 from Medium Pack to come home in 3rd (fastest time of the day was Wallsend’s returning Danielle Hodgkinson, 27:35). She was supported by Kirsty Burville in 13th (32:02) who, in only her 3rd fixture, has now been promoted to Fast Pack and is going from strength to strength. The club’s two other counters were Robyn Bennett, coming back more strongly with each race, 75th from Medium (34:18) and Gemma Floyd, building on last week’s NECAA XC Relays, 82nd from Fast (31:47). But like the Senior Men, there was another excellent turn-out once again with some 11 finishers for the club: Gemma Turnbull made her NEHL debut with a good run for 92nd (37:06 from Slow); Lizzie Rank was 101st from Fast (31:58); Mhairi Line was 104th from Medium in 34:49; Robyn Ferguson 128th (37:42 from Slow); Julie Vermaas 174th from Fast (33:28), despite struggling with a nasty virus; Linzi Quinn, another ever present, but also another a bit under the weather, 227th from Fast (34:41); and Margaret Macdonald, digging in as ever for 346th (44:47). With an even clearer lead at the top of the table with half the fixtures run, it certainly looks Morpeth’s to lose. Worth noting also that Lizzie and Linzi are also now at 9th and 11th in the individual Grand Prix tables, and Julie at 20th in the Vets. In the opening U/11 races, there was a blue and white debut for Julie’s daughter Emily Vermaas in front of both proud parents and her grandmother. Emily was 40th with Zoe Tomlinson having a good run in 9th and Lucy Raper 11th. In the matching U/11 Boys there were also three blue and white vests with Jacob Thompson 10th and Jack Thompson 12th having another great battle and Eli Mcsparron 45th. Moving up the table were the club’s U/13 Girls and Boys. A super run by Emma Tomlinson of 15:15 from Fast, the quickest of the day, spearheaded the Girls challenge, with her 7th place supported by Sophie Pledger in 14th (17:30 from Medium) and Faye Heatley 21st (16:38 from Fast). 3rd on the day, the team have moved up to 2nd overall in the table. There were no less than six U/13 Boys running altogether, with Daniel Vermaas in 5th place and moving up a pack (15:45 from Slow), Ewan Line 16th from Fast (14:34 from Fast) and Thomas Roche making up the team count in 41st (17:36 from Slow). Evan Laude was 42nd from Fast (15:52), William Mcbryde 51st (18:41 from Slow) and William Hawkins 53rd (18:49 from Slow). The team were 6th and in a pretty tough division moved up one place to 5th overall. The club’s U/15 girls finished in 4th, with Megan Potrac their first finisher in 9th (16:53), Charlotte Marshall 17th (17:27) and Molly Roche 21st (17:42), all from Slow. The team have moved up the overall table to 9th place now in another tight division. An excellent day all round for the club then, and particularly good to see so many parents and their children running for the club too. Action moves on to Aykley Heads in County Durham on the last weekend in November, the 26th. I do believe there’s what they call a ‘killer hill’ there too… Full results are available here. View Stuart Whitman's gallery of images from the event here.  U15 Oliver Calvert wasn't the only one wearing mud after the race Comments are closed.
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