 Senior Women Holly Lawrence, Kay Errington, Lizzie Rank and Poppy Buck Spring sunshine welcomed hundreds of runners to the Elswick Harriers Relays over the Bank Holiday, a much loved fixture of the North East running calendar for several decades and always held on the morning of Good Friday. Now back at the Riverside Business Park on the banks of the Tyne at Newburn after last year’s one off at the old Albemarle airfield, there were once again hotly contested team races for both Women and Men, as well as three individual Junior races on offer. The U/ll combined one mile race got proceedings off promptly at 9 am, with Morpeth’s two representatives Heather Baillie and Jacob Raper both featuring. In quite a large field, Heather was 13th girl and 30th overall in 7 minutes 41 seconds, and Jacob 57th in 8:29. There were three Morpeth youngsters in the next race for U/13s over 1.6 miles, with Jacob’s older sister Lucy first back in 21st and 5th girl (10:08), Zoe Tomlinson 35th and 9th (10:27) and Heather’s older brother Lewis 57th in 11:32. The first team event, for Senior and Veteran Women, was held over three stages of 2.2 miles each, with well over a 100 complete teams turning out. North Shields Polytechnic Harriers were clear winners, with ex GB international Stacey Smith, in her first competitive outing for many a year, running the day’s fastest leg of 11:37 (the race’s only sub 12 minute run), and their team recording a winning time of 36:35. Morpeth’s A team of Holly Lawrence, in her first outing in blue and white (13:19), Poppy Buck (13:23) and Catriona Macdonald (12:44) just missed out on the medals however, finishing in 4th in 39:26 behind hosts Elswick Harriers in 2nd with Birtley Harriers 3rd. The B team of Lizzie Rank (13:17), Tabitha Robson (14:52) and Lindsey Quinn (13:50) also made top 20, finishing in 19th in 41:59 and a further C team of Lorna Macdonald (13:50), Kay Errington (16:32) and Laura McLean (15:44) coming in 40th in 46:06. Meanwhile the 40s and 50s race was unfolding at the same time, and here Morag Stead had an outstanding race to clock the day’s fastest Over 40 time of 12:48. With Jane Kirby on 2nd leg (14:50) and Anna Wright on 3rd (14:08), the team had a really good run to finish as third in their category in 41:46 and were actually 15th overall. In addition, the 50s team of Jane Briggs (15:14), Margaret Macdonald (19:34) and Shuna Rank (16:14) were fifth in the O/50 category and 69th overall in 51:02. Final event of the day was for Senior and Veteran Men, where Morpeth were looking to defend a title they had won several years in a row but up against stiff opposition from across the area, with again over 100 teams competing. Rob Balmbra (11:21) got the Morpeth challenge underway on a keenly contested first leg, with Birtley’s Adrian Bailes setting up an early lead. All was to change however on leg 2, with a flying James Young running the fastest leg of the day of 9:57 (also the only sub 10 minute time) to move Morpeth into a remarkable 1st place, with Gateshead Harriers now chasing. But with Ellis Hetherington recording the day’s 7th fastest time of 10:35 and Tom Balsdon the 8th (10:38), Morpeth were more than able to hold on for the win in a time of 42:31, despite the best efforts of a youthful Houghton Harriers in 2nd (42:42), for whom Cameron Allan ran the day’s second fastest time, and Gateshead in 3rd (43:16). The Morpeth B team featured two youngsters having their first Senior outings for the club, with sixteen year old Oliver Tomlinson on leg 1 clocking 11:41 and Ralph Robson 11:08 on leg 2. With Jake Parmley on leg 3 (12:44) and Andriy Volkov (15:11) on leg 4, the team made top thirty with a 28th placed finish (50:44). Special mention for Andriy, only drafted in with less than two hours notice and still on his way back from injury. Meanwhile strong Over 40s and 50s race were unfurling at the same time, with NSP’s O/40 outfit taking the title in 46:49 and James Anderson, a winner of the North Tyneside 10k the following Sunday, recording the day’s fastest O/40 time of 10:55. Morpeth’s team of Tony Lewis (12:58), John Butters (11:38, 4th fastest O/40), Dave Stabler (12:57) and Andrew Ball (12:14) did well to come in 23rd overall and 5th category team in an overall time of 49:47. The Over 50s of Jason Dawson (13:09), Gavin Bayne (14:01), Lee Bennett (12:38 and 4th O/50) and Rob Hancox (13:02) also had a productive morning, picking up a 3rd place category prize behind winners Crook AC. A mixed third vets team of two 40s, a 50 and a 60 also ran, with Anthony Jannetta strong on leg 1(12:36), O/60 Dave Nicholson (14:44), O/50 Mike Winter (14:24) and Dave Swinburne (14:05), the team finishing 56th. Good to have you back Dave!
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