 James Tilley in action at the Gordon Smith Relays The popular Gordon Smith’s Relays were held at Cobalt Business Park, Wallsend, with each team requiring at least one Over 35 (the age for the Men changing from 40 this year).
With some 78 complete Women’s and 94 Men’s teams out, this is always a popular event and once again spectators were treated to a good standard of competition across the evening’s two separate races. Featuring a flying Stacey Smith, whose 10:30 was the fastest time of the night in Race 1, NSP were unsurprisingly big winners, with their cumulative time of 33:10 (veteran Charlotte Penfold 11:19, Jacqui Penn 11:21) over two and a half minutes ahead of 2nd place Tyne Bridge (35:55) and their B team 3rd (36:01). Nevertheless Morpeth’s three Women’s outfits performed creditably, with two squads in the top 15 and a blue and white debut in the C team. The A team of Poppy Buck (12:23, but having moved heaven and earth to make the race after an accident on the way in), veteran Kirsty Burville (13:11) and Lizzie Rank (12:14) were 7th in 37:48. The B finished in 14th in 38:45, with legs by Lorna Macdonald (13:06), Jane Kirby (13:39) and Rachelle Falloon, whose 12:00 was the club’s fastest time of the night. The debut was by Sophie Ward for the C team, who certainly didn’t look out of place when running 14:08 on leg 1. With Margaret Macdonald on leg 2 (17:31) and Laura Maclean on leg 3 (14:21), the team were 44th in 46:00. The Men’s race got off to the customary eyeballs out start, with Sunderland Harrier Liam Taylor first back in 9:43. With Stephen Jackson on leg 2 (10:04) and Joe Armstrong on leg 3 (9:14, the evening’s fastest time), the Wearside outfit were always going to be hard to live with, and in the end their time of 29:01 saw a winning margin of exactly a minute ahead of Morpeth’s A. It was good to see the mercurial Ian Harding back in blue and white action however, taking the first leg in 10:09, and thereafter a flying James Tilley, looking in excellent shape, got the club up to 2nd place with a clocking of 9:52. In his first competitive outing for many months, Sam Hancox gave his all as ever, but race rustiness and a day’s hard graft meant he could make little impression on Sunderland, although he did well to stay ahead of Gateshead Harriers in 3rd (30:10). Morpeth’s four other teams also performed well, with two also making the top thirty. The B of Andrew Lawrence (10:46), Andrew Ball (11:03) and Richie Hughes (11:30) finished 22nd in 33:19, and the C of Louie Cummings, 11:27 in his team debut, Anthony Jannetta (11:25) and Jake Parmley (11:21) 25th in 34:13. Ian Armstrong ran a strong 11:20 for the D on leg 1, Andriy Volkov 12:18 on leg 2 and Richard Glennie 12:31 on leg 3 for 36:09 and 43rd place. Meanwhile, although finishing 51st in 37:08, the E of Rob Hancox (11:53), Dave Nicholson (13:15) and Jason Dawson (12:00), claimed a moral victory, largely on account of a seriously high combined age tally of well over 175! Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League | Thanks to everyone who took part and supported our annual Gordon Smith Memorial Relays 2024 | Facebook * The previous evening saw disappointingly low numbers turning out at the Les Allcorn 10k in Alnwick Pastures, with only some 38 finishers in what’s always been a popular race, though clearly a congested fixture calendar hasn’t helped. Catriona Macdonald found the course, perhaps unsurprisingly, to her liking, with a 6th place overall in 37:16 and a big category win. Lee Cuthbertson was 8th in 37:44, but it was also good to see Mark Snowball back in action, 11th in 40:24. The race was won by Alnwick Harrier Liam McDonough in 34:57. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
December 2025
|
