North East Youth Development League Division 1 Match 4 Middlesbrough

Unfortunately Morpeth Harriers hardworking squad of Young Athletes
just missed out on a victory on the day in their final round
North East Youth Development League Division 1 fixture
held at Middlesbrough Athletics Village on Sunday 17th July 2016.

Provisional results show that they lost out by the slender margin of eleven points to Blaydon Harriers,
who were also declared provisionally as league champions pending final results scrutiny,
although early indications of scrutiny may well prove more favourable to Morpeth Harriers. 

The fielding of either one or two more athletes on the day,
was possibly the only difference between winning and losing,
which ultimately was all the more frustrating for the Morpeth Team Management,
especially after the hard dedicated work throughout the season,
it was largely down to some unexpected no shows,
that prevented the club from confirming a clinching of the title
for the third time since the league was formed in 2013.

On the day Morpeth managed a total of 23 A string victories, and nineteen B string wins,
with eleven of those wins resulting in maximum points.

The best of the clubs performers were their Under 17 Men and Women,
who had the lion’s share of the wins, and in the case of the latter,
they produced the clubs sole 4 x100m Relay victory on the day, posting a time of 50.8s.

Under 17 Woman sprinter Jessica Young-Rogers was certainly in fine form
as she won both  the 100m and 200m in respective times of 12.5s and 25.8s,
the latter breaking her own league record, even if only marginal, and also a new personal best.
Young-Rogers also celebrated an excellent victory in the B string High Jump with a clearance of 1.40m,
which gave good support to Harriet Priest’s similar A string clearance, which saw her finish second.

Morpeth Harriers took maximum points in the 100m and 200m,
courtesy of B string wins for Katie Hilton and Naomi Arkle,
who clocked 13.1s and 27.5s respectively.

Hilton also produced excellent wins in the Long Jump and Triple Jump
with best performances of 4.48m and 10.24m.

Under 17 Woman thrower Bobbie Griffiths completely smashed her own Javelin record,
when she won with a best throw of 36.33m, and Ellie Burt won the B string with 22.90m.
Griffiths also had a B string victory in the Discus with 27.59m,
and she finished second in the A string Hammer with 31.23m, a new personal best.
In the A string Discus Morpeth’s Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot finished third, however produced new figures of 31.55m

Harriet Priest and Hannah Brown proved to be a most formidable pairing in the 80m and 300m Hurdles.
Priest won the A string races in 12,6s and 47.6s, the latter being a personal best, and a league record.
Brown had respective clockings of 12.8s and 51.0s for victory in the B races.

Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot of Morpeth smashed her own league record
in the Shot Putt with her best effort of 12.50m, which was also a new personal best,
her second of the day, and Ellie Burt took the B string for an excellent Morpeth double victory with 9.09m.

There were some good Morpeth results produced by their Under 17 Men, including four double victories.
Josh Burton won the 800m A race in 2m06.7s, taking a whole second off his previous figures.
Joe Dowd of Morpeth took the B race in 2m09.3s.
Dowd had another moment of glory when he won the 400m in 53.8s, fractionally a new personal best.

Sean O’Hara very nearly produced two sprint victories in the 100m and 200m events,
however he just missed out fractionally in the 100m with his clocking of 11.3s, which equalled his personal best.
He did win the 200m however, fractionally bettering his previous figures with 22.8s.

Morpeth secured another Under 17 Men’s double win in the 1500m, courtesy of Taylor Glover and Rory Leonard.
Glover won the A race, posting a time of 4m17.4s, and Leonard took the B race in 4m33.2s

Oliver Bultitude won the 400m Hurdles in 66.7s.

David Thomas of Morpeth produced excellent wins in the Long Jump
and Triple Jump with respective bests of 6.18m and 12.25m.
The former was a new personal best and a new league record.

Two excellent Morpeth double victories were achieved by Ruaridh Lang
and Charlie Chisholm in the Under 17 Men’s Discus and Shot Putt events.
Lang won by a margin of around five and a half metres in the Discus A event,
with his best effort of 42.57m, and also enjoyed victory in the Shot Putt with 10.65m.
Meanwhile Chisholm achieved victory in the B string Discus and Shot Putt with bests of 29.83m and 9.17m,

Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Men finished second in their 4 x 100m Relay, clocking 47.7s.

The clubs Under 13 Boys were certainly excellent contributors to the overall result,
by producing two A string and three B string wins, and one double victory to add to the rising tally.
Alfie Ward (4.66m) and Bobby Stone provided the double victory in the Long Jump.
Ward also had a good run in the 75m Hurdles, where he finished second in 14.1s,
plus a second place in the B string Javelin (19.86m), which certainly backed up Daniel Dowd’s
excellent A string victory (32.39m), which was a superb personal best, adding over four metres to his previous best.

Also on the track, Morpeth had another good Under 13 Boys result in the 1500m,
when Ben Walker finished second in the A race in 5m03.3s.
Dylan Davies won the B race in 5m09.9s, which bettered his previous figures by around eight seconds.

Back to the Under 13 Boys Field events, where Koffi Avornyo and
Adam Willoughby produced an excellent Morpeth result in the High Jump.
Koffi cleared 1.38m, bettering his previous figures by 3cm to finish second in the A string,
and Adam won the B string with his best clearance of 1.30m.

Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Boys 4 x 100m squad finished a close third in 58.0s.

Holly Peck and Lauren Cummings provided Morpeth Harriers with a double victory in the Under 15 Girls 1500m.
Peck won the A race in 5m01.6s, and Cummings took the B race in 5m35.0s.

Another good track result for Morpeth Harriers in this age group came in the 800m,
with Lily Heaton finishing second in the A string in 2m30.9s, which was fractionally outside
her personal best, and Ellie Coxon took the B race in 2m32.4s.

Lottie Hume was very much Morpeth Harriers strength in the Under 15 Girls Field events,
achieving a victory in the Discus with 25.09m, finishing second in the Shot (8.98m), and third in the Javelin (20.16m).
Holly Peck produced a new personal best of 13.51m, adding just under a metre
to her previous figures, to finish second in the B string Javelin.

Morpeth Harriers Under 15 Boys managed to produce two A string wins and two B string wins.
The two A string wins belonged to newcomer Ethan Stephenson, who made his debut
even more impressive by winning both the Long Jump (5.34m) and High Jump (1.71m),
the latter of which is probably one of the best regionally at the moment,
and considering he has only just begun his Under 15 Boy level, was quite formidable.

Stephenson also tried his hand on the track by finishing fourth in the A string 100m in 12.4s,
and Sam Yates provided good B string backing when placing third in 12.8s.

Another excellent Under 15 Boys track result for Morpeth Harriers came in the 300m,
where Owen Priest finished second in the A string in 40.0s,
and he had excellent B string backing  from Matthew Heslop, who finished second in 43.4s.

Heslop also had a superb B string win in the 800m in 2m29.1s,
backing up Brad Brown’s fourth in the A string in 2m23.2s.

Ross Charlton finished second in the Under 15 Boys 1500m in 4m50.7s,
and Andrew Hudspith posted 5m09.0s, when finishing as third B string.

Luke Haxell and Daniel Common shared the honours in the Under 15 Boys throws for Morpeth.
Haxell finished fourth in both the A string Javelin (25.10m) and Discus (21.67m).
Meanwhile Common enjoyed a B string victory in the Discus (18.65m),
a third in the B string Javelin (23.23m),  and a third in the A string Shot Putt (9.42m).

Despite their small number, Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Girls still managed to turn in some respectable results.
As expected Amy Lott proved to be the best from this age group,
winning the 70m Hurdles in 11.6s, which was marginally a new personal best.
She also finished second in the A string 200m, where she achieved another personal best time of 29.2s.
Not content with two personal bests she went for the Hat-trick,
posting a new time of 14.1s, when placing fourth in the A string 100m.

B string 100m and 200m events saw Morpeth performances from Sophie Young (15.7s), and Mia Belton (32.6s).

Rebecca Bradley of Morpeth did well to finish second in the Under 13 Girls 1500m in 5m44.9s,
which bettered her previous figures by five seconds.

FINAL MATCH RESULT (Subject to further scrutiny)
1st Blaydon 775
2nd Morpeth 764
3rd Harrogate & Wetherby 677
4th New Marske 627
5th North Shields 558
6th Darlington 331

Complete Results