Birtley Cross Country Relays
Conditions that were the worst ever known at Lord Lawson of Beamish School, Birtley made for some challenging going at the North East Counties Athletics Association Cross Country Relays, incorporating the North East Masters Athletics Association Relays on Sunday 11 January. Heavy overnight snow continued all the way down the A1 for those who travelled south, and although it had thankfully eased when the first race, for Male Veterans Over 35, got under way, it was lying quite thickly in several places with a chilling breeze adding to difficulties around the twisty, turny two lap up-and-down course around the school fields. Good that the club managed to get two teams out then, with Over 45 and Over 65 outfits featuring, both of whom medalled. The O/45s of Dave Stabler, Lee Bennett and Andy Ball did well to pick up a team bronze with a cumulative time of 35 minutes and 52 seconds behind Durham Harriers and Elvet Striders. Dropping down a team age category, Lee was 1st O/55 while Dave picked up an O/45 individual silver. The O/65s of Richard Sill, Stephen Land and Andrew Dippie also medalled, collecting a bronze again, this time behind Ponteland Runners and Sunderland Strollers in a time of 50:22. Richard also picked up an O/70 bronze. Tyne Bridge were fastest on the day, winning the O/35s ahead of Gateshead Harriers and Elvet Striders. Race 2, for Senior and Veteran Women, was won perhaps unsurprisingly by organisers Birtley Harriers, with Darlington in 2nd place, although perhaps sensibly given the conditions Morpeth’s women chose not to travel. Despite having finished in 1st and 2nd last year, Morpeth couldn’t get a complete Senior Men’s team out on this occasion in the day’s final race, with Gateshead winning in 31:41 ahead of Elvet Striders and Birtley. Link to full results here: Birtley Senior XC Relays All Results 2026.xlsx Brass Monkey Half-Marathon There were five senior and masters women from Morpeth Harriers at this 43rd edition of the Brass Monkey Half Marathon; Jane Kirby, Holly Lawrence, Laura McLean, Lizzie Rank and Anna Wright. Senior women Holly and Lizzie ran together for the first ten miles, slightly faster than their target pace. Lizzie maintained this pace for the last few miles, but soon after rejoining the Appleton Road on the way back to the Racecourse, Holly sped up considerably, almost touching 6minute miling. As this was her first half, she can be very pleased with her 6th place and time of 80min 39s. Lizzie attained a pb of 80min 49s in 7th place , some 12minutes faster than her previous time in 2024. Morpeth’s masters women ran very well, albeit a little slower than their best performances over the last couple of years. Jane was 10th W50 in 96min 0s, Anna 20th W45 in 97min 8s, and Laura 47th W35 in 111min 41s. Brass Monkey results Newcastle 10k Distinctly chilly early morning conditions greeted the well over 2,000 runners who took part in RunThrough’s latest North East venture at 9am the previous Saturday down on the Quayside. With an elite A race of just short of 250 and a B race of over 2000, there was clearly an appetite for the fast course nonetheless and some speedy times on show, not least from those in blue and white. Won by Kevin Campbell from over the Border in Cambuslang in 29:18, Chris Coulsen got his year off to a flying start with a 2nd place time of 29:35, Cambridge and Coleridge AC’s Dominic Jones 3rd in 29:47. Megan Stenhouse (Rugby and Northampton AC) was 1st woman back in 34:30, with Border Harrier Rachel Brown 2nd (34:39) and Eve Pannone of Hallamshire Harriers 3rd (34:41). Peter Smallcombe was 6th in 30:18, Ryan Mcleod 11th and 1st O/40 in 31:10, James Tilley 14th (31:31), Lee Cuthbertson 31st (33:21), Dave Stabler 83rd and 1st O/45 (35:17), Andrew Mirfield 100th (35:46) and Bobby Hagan 120th (36:12). Kirsty Burville was 1st O/45 in 39:56. Andrew Dippie was the club’s only finisher in the B race, 767th and 9th O/65 in 52:23. The race was won in 34:59 by Chris Townsend with Ellie Reed 1st woman home in 40:06. Newcastle 10k results Chichester 10k A fortnight after the half marathon at York, Holly Lawrence lined up for a 10k race in Chichester, much closer to her usual competitive distance. In the meantime she had gone down with a cold which prevented any meaningful training, and it hadn’t cleared by the time of the race. Despite this, she went through the first 5k of this fast and flat course only a few seconds adrift of her pb for that distance. Unfortunately, and no doubt as a consequence of this fast pace, her cold took hold soon afterwards and took the edge off the performance. Holly finished with a hard earned pb of 36min 47s, a full minute faster than her previous best from Heaton in November 2025. Comments are closed.
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