 Connor Marshall, Carl Avery and Sam Hancox with the Signals trophy A busy Saturday at Hetton Lyons Country Park saw Morpeth field seven teams in the two races of the NECAA Road Relay Championships, with the club’s Senior Men once again retaining the Royal Signals trophy.
There were four club teams out in Race 1 for Senior and Veteran Women’s teams and Men Over 50, with the competition unravelling over four stages of 2.2 miles each. Winners in 2022, this year the club’s Senior Women were unlucky to finish just out of the medals in 4th behind winners NSP, with Elswick and Tyne Bridge filling 2nd and 3rd slots. Lizzie Rank clocked 14:32 on a feisty leg 1, which seemed to start with a furious scramble more like a formula one race, headed by younger runners keen to get to the first corner! Lizzie was followed by Lorna Macdonald (14:34) on leg 2, with Lindsey (14:22) on the 3rd. Cat took the last leg, recording the team’s fastest time of the day (13:02) for an overall time of 56:30. NSP’s winning time was a strong 51:24, although fastest leg of the day was run by Elswick youngster Poppy Old with an impressive clocking of 12:11. The Poly’s Charlotte Penfold, running in the Senior Team, ran 12:13, which would have been fastest Veteran time of the day had she run in the Vets team. Morpeth’s Women’s Veteran A finished as 8th Vets team, with Morag Stead running the team’s fastest time on leg 1 (13:26), also 3rd fastest Vets time of the day. Claire Calverley ran 16:05 on leg 2, Jane Kirby 15:33 on leg 3 and Jane Briggs 16:43 on the final leg for an overall clocking of 1:01:47. Elswick’s Veteran Women, headed home by Justina Heslop (13:17) were winners in the Vets category, with Sunderland Strollers 2nd and New Marske 3rd. Aly Dixon was credited with the day’s fastest Vets time of 12:27. It was good to see a second Vets team out this year, with the B team of Sue Smith (18:58), Margaret Macdonald (19:47), Pam Woodcock (19:27) and Shuna Rank (18:02) also having a run out, and finishing in 23rd with a cumulative time of 1:16:14. In the Men’s Over 50 competition, held at the same time as the Women’s race, Morpeth battled it out in another keenly contested category and were delighted to come home with team Silvers. Jason Dawson clocked 13:28 on leg 1 with Lee Bennett’s 12:36 on leg 2 reeling in a number of those ahead. Alistair Macdonald kept the club in contention with his 14:07 and Rob Hancox stayed ahead of the chasing NSP and Elswick on the last leg (13:15). The team’s final time was 53:26, with winners New Marske – a bit of an unknown quantity, as they don’t compete in the NEHL of course – recording 52:46 in 1st place. New Marske’s Martin Murray recorded the day’s 2nd fastest O/50 time of 12:27, with Crook’s Wayne Pearson just ahead on 12:24. The day’s second race included both Seniors and Over 40s, with some 54 complete teams finishing. As holders for the last few years, Morpeth’s A string proved, perhaps unsurprisingly, to have too much quality once again for the competition - although it was the performances of some of the club’s teenage tyros, eligible to compete at 15 in this event, that perhaps grabbed the attention. On legs 1 and 2 the Armstrong brothers, Joe and Scott, got Sunderland Harriers off to the best possible start, with Birtley, represented by Adrian Bailes and Chris Perkins, also in contention. For Morpeth, Sam Hancox, always happy to put himself in the firing line on what is usually the toughest leg, came back in 7th in 11:02 and handed over to specialist miler James Young. Making his Signals debut in front of new coach Steve Cram, James recorded 10:57 with the club moving up to 3rd. All changed on leg 3, with Alex Brown back to his competitive best and moving the team into the lead after only the first of the two laps. His time – recorded as 10:06 (though not by Alex himself), a course record – was the fastest of the day and meant that, thereafter, the race was pretty much competitively over. There was still work to be done, however, and it was good to see Chris Parr back competing after a good while out, and recording 11:02 on leg 4. At this point the lead had gone out to well over a minute, and it was really only a question of what the size of the final victory would be. Connor Marshall then ran 11:00 on leg 5 and Carl Avery 10:19, second fastest time of the day, on leg 6. The team’s total time of 1:04:26 was only some thirty seconds off the course record the club set last year, and a winning margin of nearly two and a half minutes over Sunderland, back in a distant 2nd , with Gateshead in 3rd (1:08:35). Remarkably, however, the club’s B team, featuring no less than four youngsters, then came in in 4th place (1:09:32). After Andy Lawrence had recorded 11:47 on leg 1, it was over to Oliver Calvert (probably the youngest runner of the day, having just turned fifteen), but he showed himself in no way overawed by the company, recording a hugely impressive 11:02. He was followed by teenage club mates Elliot Kelso on leg 3 with 11:29, Liam Roche on leg 4 with 11:26 and Ethan Phillips on leg 5, again with 11:26. Mark Snowball, drafted in at short notice to the B team following the late withdrawal of Adam Pratt with a back spasm, anchored the team to a fine 4th place finish with his 12:22 and an overall time of 1:09:32, less than a minute behind Gateshead in 3rd. The late injury meant that, unfortunately, the C team were one short, but nevertheless the combination of youth and experience in those who did run over the first five stages also gave a good account of themselves. Joe Close ran 11:34 on leg 1 with Mark Banks picking up on leg 2 in 11:29. Anthony Liddle ran 12:40 on leg 3 and Elliot Mavir 13:12 on leg 4. With Tom Balsdon recording 11:40 on leg 5, the cumulative time at this point of 1:00:41 saw the team inside the top ten. Meanwhile the Over 40s race was unfolding at the same time, with the organisers at long last differentiating the two competitions with a different set of coloured numbers. Experience has taught that this is a competition it’s hard to medal in, let alone win, without all your fastest O/40s out, and NSP had clearly set their stall out for this one, winning by over two minutes in 1:13:06 from Elvet Striders (1:15:09) and Sunderland Harriers (1:17:15), for whom Michael Barker on leg 1 ran the fastest O/40 time of the day, 11:43. Special mentions then for Morpeth’s three O/60s (two of whom are actually O/65s) who were happy to drop down to make sure the 40s team was complete and who in no way disgraced themselves. The first of those, O/65 Dave Nicholson, ran 15:07 on leg 1 to get the ball rolling, passing on to Richard Glennie who recorded 13:42. The team’s fastest time was set by Dave Stabler, whose 12:19 was one of the ten fastest O/40 times of the day. Gavin Bayne, like Nicholson an O/65, ran an impressive 14:05 on leg 4 with Jamie Johnson clocking 14:22 on leg 5. O/60 Neil MacAnany brought the team home in 14:23 for an overall time of 1:23:58 and 7th place. Well done all who turned out – always good to represent ourselves in numbers at this event, which is the North East’s premier Road Running Championship. Next week action returns to the country, with the last in the NEHL fixtures at Alnwick. Full results Comments are closed.
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