THIRD-PLACE FINISH CAPS FINE SEASON ON TRACK

Morpeth Harriers Senior Men and Women’s Track and Field squad brought a good season to its end when they finished a close third in their final Northern League Premier Division match, held at Middlesbrough Sports Village, on Saturday.
Just 63 points divided the first three clubs, with Gateshead Harriers winning the match to take the overall title, with the days hosts New Marske getting second place, only twenty-seven points adrift.
The end result sees Gateshead as league champions, New Marske second, and Morpeth third, with Wallsend/Blyth and North Shields Poly tying in the match with the same number of points in fourth place.
Middlesbrough AC (Mandale) are relegated after many years in top-flight competition.
Morpeth Harriers Men’s squad were dealt a heavy blow before the action got underway, when their only recognised sprinter Evan Logan felt a muscle twinge at the top of his leg in warming up, and was forced to withdraw as a precaution - frustrating for both him and his club, having made the journey down the A19, following a short family holiday.
Added to that, the club’s only recognised Male thrower Hayden Richards, competed in restricted fashion in the Hammer, Discus, and Javelin events, because of a slight injury affecting his action.
The Women’s squad were also missing leading thrower Claire Reid, because of holiday commitments.
Nevertheless, they did have the services of Masters medallist Nisha Desai who once again competed in no less than seven events on the day, including the 4 x 400m Relay, all to the cause of her club, winning four events in all, three A String, and one B String individually.
Her A String victories came in the 400m (61.2s), 400m Hurdles (61.6s), and 100m Hurdles (15.7s), her B String victory being the Triple Jump (10.29m), supporting Charlotte Earl’s excellent A String victory with 10.88m.
In the Women’s 400m, Nisha’s winning efforts were well supported by Laura Kincaid’s second in the B Race in 74.1s.
Desai’s 400m Hurdle win was extremely well supported by Kay Errington’s B String victory in 78.6s.
In addition to her excellent Triple Jump A String victory, Charlotte Earl also won the A String Long Jump, producing a best of 5.13m, which was a new personal best, an improvement of 20cm.
Olivia Gent finished third in the B String for Morpeth, with 3.64m.
In addition to her individual victories, Nisha Desai also finished third in the A String 800m in 2m33.5s, third in the B String Javelin (19.11m) and was very instrumental in helping Morpeth Women’s 4 x 400m squad finish second in 4m50.2s, along with Sarah Routledge, Laura Kincaid, and Kay Errington.
Morpeth Women’s 4 x 100m squad finished second in 54.0s, courtesy of Ellie Wickens, Olivia Gent, Charlotte Earl, and Victoria Hodgson.
Earlier Hodgson enjoyed her first taste of Northern League 100m competition, when she finished third in the A String in 13.4s.
Fellow Under 17n athlete Ellie Wickens finished second in the B String in 13.9s.
In the later run 200m, Under 20 athlete Mia Belton was second in the A String in 27.1s, and Victoria Hodgson won the B String in 27.2s, another excellent result to cheer Team Manager Vina Desai, who more than played her own part supporting the club’s Field Events.
Vina’s best result was undoubtedly the B String Discus, where she finished third, with a best of 11.89m, as support to A String athlete Olivia Gent, who finished fourth with a best of 15.23m.
Gent and Desai also lined up in the Women’s Shot Putt, finishing fifth in the A String (5.72m), and fifth B String (4.36m) respectively.
Vina also found time to finish fifth in the A String Hammer (14.27m), whilst also once again doing some of the share of the club’s officiating duties.
On to the Men’s events, where Morpeth, already somewhat reeling from the early withdrawal of their only recognised sprinter Logan, and the injury restricted throwing abilities of thrower Richards, also were forced to reckon without 400m and 800m specialist Alistair Douglass, and Hurdler and Steeplechaser Mark Snowball, which meant some reshuffling of duties for Team Managers Tom Innes and George Patterson, who are most grateful to those athletes who tackled, in some cases, unfamiliar events.
There were some bright spots however, and the club achieved two excellent double victories on the track, plus an additional A String victory.
That A String victory came for Adam Pratt, where the former North East, Northern, and National 3000m Steeplechase Champion very clearly dominated the seven and a half lap barrier event from the gun, and came home to win, posting a finishing time of 9m49.1s.
As an individual, Pratt certainly gave his all in the search for vital points, when he finished third in the 200m B String in 26.6s, supporting Connor Marshall’s sixth in the A String in 27.3s, also supporting Marshall in the 400m B Race (58.1s), where Marshall finished third in the A String (57.7s).
He also finished second in the B String Triple Jump (9.02m), with Ryan Davies finishing fifth in the A String (9.16m).
Pratt also competed in both the Men’s 4 x 100m, and 4 x 400m Relays where Morpeth finished fourth and third respectively, posting times of 58.4s and 3m57.0s.
In the 4 x 100m Morpeth had Pratt, Matthew Briggs, Connor Marshall, and Andrew Lawrence in their line up, and in the 4 x 400m, Pratt was joined by Matthew Briggs, Joe Anderson, and Connor Marshall.
Morpeth’s two double victories on the track, came in the 1500m and 5000m events.
In the 1500m event, Joe Anderson and Ryan Davies formed the perfect front running partnership, with the former taking the A String in 4m13.3s, and the latter taking the B String in 4m16.2s
Matthew Briggs won the 5000m A String easily in 15m43.6s, and Andrew Lawrence,, on the way back from injury, likewise easily enjoyed a win in the B String in 16m50.0s.
Connor Marshall was another who showed a real zest for hard work, when he finished second in the A String 800m in 2m01.7s, and Under 20 athlete James Tilley finished second in the B String in 2m09.8s.
Despite carrying a slight injury, Morpeth throws specialist Hayden Richards threw 39.01m, to be just edged out for victory in the A String Javelin by Wallsend/Blyth’s Matthew Fairhurst, who threw 39.20m.
Team Manager Tom Innes gave good support in the Javelin B String, finishing third with 21.86m.
In the Hammer, the first throws event of the day, Richards threw 31.33m for third place in the A String.
Richards threw a low key 23.36m for fifth place in the A String Discus.
David Marshall finished fifth in the B String with 16.25m.
Marshall finished fifth in the A String Shot Putt, producing a best of 5.92m.
He was backed up by son Connor in the B String, who finished fifth with 4.90m.
The Morpeth Team Managers Tom Innes, Mark Snowball, George Patterson (Men), and Vina Desai (Women), would want to thank all athletes who contributed over the four matches this season: to finish third is a fine achievement, however if more from the club had shown competitive commitment, the end result could very easily have been better. If we could only bottle the commitment of those who have regularly turned out and competed way beyond the level of what might have been expected, we’d be flying very high.
Also, of course, thanks to officials who turned out for the club throughout the season.

​MATCH RESULT (Subject to further scrutiny)
1st Gateshead Harriers 398pts, 2nd New Marske 371pts, 3rd Morpeth Harriers 335pts, 4th = Wallsend/Blyth 265pts, 4th = North Shields Poly 265pts, 6th Middlesbrough AC (Mandale) 83pts.
OVERALL, LEAGUE RESULT (Subject to Final Scrutiny)
1st Gateshead Harriers 21pts (1,350pts), 2nd New Marske 18pts (1,276pts), 3rd Morpeth Harriers 17pts (1,302pts), 4th North Shields Poly 14.5pts (1,199pts), 5th Wallsend/Blyth 9.5pts (1,108pts), 6th  Middlesbrough AC (Mandale) 4pts (223pts).