Churchill Playing Fields in Whitley Bay played host to the latest double-header of track and field action over the weekend of 29 and 30 June with the seniors in action on the Saturday and the juniors the following day.
In the Seniors' division one match just 23 points divided the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth teams. But a weakened Morpeth squad, not helped at all by two on-the-day injuries, finished in that disappointing sixth place. George Lowry and Dan Melling provided the club with its best result from the Men’s track events by producing an excellent double victory in the 1500m, with Lowry taking the A race in 4m07.03, and Melling finishing second overall in the thirteen strong field, to take the B race in 4m11.54s. The club also saw some good performances in the Men’s 800m, where Ellis Hetherington just lost out for victory to Darlington’s Adam Russell in the final strides to finish second in the A race posting a time of 1m55.50s, and Alistair Douglass won the B race in 1m58.40s, being the third fastest overall. Fourth fastest in the event was Morpeth’s Dan Melling, clocking 2m03.60s. Ellis Hetherington also produced a good performance to finish second in the 400m A race in 55.7s, and Morpeth debutant Ben Harding finished second in the B race in 56.9s. Unfortunately, Harding injured himself in the process, and was unable to later take his place in the 4 x 100m squad. Another Morpeth performance in the 400m came from Jason Dawson, who posted 60.53s. In the Men’s 5000m, Ian Harding, no relation to Ben, finished third in the A race in 16m26.75s, and Andrew Lawrence finished second in the B race in 16m37.18s. Under 20 Men’s sprinter Harry Scott finished fourth in the 100m A race in 11.5s, in a very close finish, and his Morpeth club colleague Trevor Hodgson finished third in the B race in 11.9s. Scott went on to also finish third in the 200m A race in 23.6s. Morpeth were forced to withdraw their 4 x 100m Relay squad due to injuries within the squad, however the club's 4 x 400m squad did manage to finish second to Gateshead Harriers, posting a time of 3m46.78s, and included Mark Banks, who had had to withdraw earlier in the day from the 400m Hurdles, after picking up an injury during his warm up, that had ruled him out of vital Field Events. However, the club only managed to turn out athletes in three of the Men’s Field Events. Dave Marshall finished sixth in both of the A Strings of the Shot Putt (5.68m), and Discus events (15.6m), and Jason Dawson finished third in the Javelin, with his best throw of 22.30m. A great deal of credit for Morpeth’s overall performance, must go to the Women’s section, led by manager Rachelle Falloon. Distance runner Holly Lawrence, in only her second league outing for the club, had a superb win in the 1500m A Race, posting a time of 5m04.84s, the fastest time so far in the league for the distance this season, and was well backed up by the B race performance of debutant Nicola McCoy, who finished third in 6n08.64s. Lawrence also finished second in the A race of the 3000m in 10m31.27s, whilst Morag Stead comfortably won the B race in 10m39.19s. In the sprints, Freya Caygill finished third in both of the A races, posting times of 12.9s for the 100m, and 26.9s for the 200m. Mia Belton finished second in the B races of the 100m (13.0s), and 200m (27.0s). Other Morpeth performances in both the 100m (13.97s), and 200m (29.25s), came from Ellie Wickens. Poppy Buck finished second in the A race of the 800m, posting a time of 2m28.54, and Kay Errington was fourth in the B race in 2m55.37s. Errington was also third in the 400m Hurdles A race in 78.6s. Buck also finished fifth in the A race of the 400m sprint in 69.0s. Morpeth enjoyed a victory in the Women’s 4 x 400m Relay in 4m40.40s and finished second in the 4 x 100m Relay in 52.3s. Charlotte Earl of Morpeth enjoyed excellent wins in both the A String Long Jump (4.99m), and Triple Jump (11.6m) events, being well backed up by Olivia Gent in the B String equivalents, winning the Triple Jump with a best of 9.29m, and finishing third in the Long Jump, with a best of 4.17m. Claire Reid was once again Morpeth’s strength force in the throws events, finishing second in the A String Discus with 29.4m, only losing out for victory by a mere fraction, third in the Shot Putt A String with 9.08m, and also third in the A String Hammer with 22.3m. Reid also finished third in the B String Javelin with a best of 17.2m, backing up Kay Errington’s fourth in the A String, with a best of 19.5m. With the club now threatened with relegation, it’s more than ever important that’s it’s all hands to the pump in the final fixture. We must try and at least fill the field fixtures where we are picking up zero points, as this is where we are losing out in a big way. MATCH RESULT 1st Darlington 405pts, 2nd Gateshead 381pts, 3rd Blaydon/Elswick 304pts, 4th Wallsend/Blyth 292pts, 5th New Marske 291pts, 6th Morpeth Harriers 281pts. ………………………………………………………………. An excellent turnout of 27 athletes from Morpeth Harriers produced the club’s most stable performance of the season so far in their third round NEYDL Division 2 match. Despite the increased turnout, the club placed sixth of eight for the second match in succession, however the points difference collectively over third, fourth, fifth and sixth spots, only spanned a mere 53 points. One of the day’s highlights for Morpeth, came in one of the early events in the programme, when Under 17 specialist thrower Alexandria Hodgson managed 50.5 metres to win the Hammer, the first time she had broken the distance in her young life. Under 13 Boy Mason Gaylor was also in the form of his life, as for the third match in succession he executed a winning double in the 200m and 800m A races, posting respective times of 29.4s, and 2m27.95s. His win in the 800m, had an extra touch of sweetness when club colleague Aj Watson took the B race in 2m48.99s. Another Morpeth performer in the Under 13 Boys 800m was Jack Dhawar, who posted a time of 2m50.66s. Gaylor’s A race win in the 200m, was backed up in the B race by George Moll, who finished third in 31.5s. Aj Watson also took part in the 200m, clocking 33.42s. For the third match in succession, Morpeth Under 13 Girl Lucy Raper executed a throws double victory in the Shot (7.04m), and Discus (18.6m). Another Under 13 Girl winner was Heidi Wilkinson, who won the 1500m, in 5m29.63s. Zoe Tomlinson won the 1500m B race in 5m47.26s. Tomlinson also finished third in the Javelin, throwing a best of 9.90m. The best Morpeth Under 15 Boy performance came from Daniel Vermaas, who finished third in the A race of the 200m in 28.2s. Thomas Wilson finished second in the B race in 31.5s, and there were also other Morpeth 200m performances from Edward Roff (32.79s) and Will Lowrie (36.3s). Roff also finished third in the Javelin, producing a best throw of 15.2m. There were some good points for Morpeth in the Under 15 Girls events. Sophie Pledger won the 200m in 27.2s, and just missed out on a second win, when finishing second in the 300m in 43.4s. Miya Young gave good B race support in the 300m, finishing second in 47.6s. Another Morpeth performance in the 300m, came from Faye Heatley, who posted a time of 50.66s. Heatley also finished third in the 800m in 2m39.89s. Emma Tomlinson of Morpeth finished second in the Under 15 Girls 1500m in 5m24.41s. There were excellent debut performances from Sofia Gibson in the 100m, where she finished second in 13.7s, and in the Long Jump, where she also finished second, producing a best of 4.29m. Morpeth’s best results from the Under 17 Men, came courtesy of Ollie Tomlinson, who won both the Javelin (16.6m), and Discus, with a best of 25.1m. Another good Field result for Morpeth in the Field Events, came from Steven Craske, who won the Long Jump with a best of 4.76m. In the Under 17 Men’s 1500m, Harry Armstrong finished second in the A race in 4m28.50s, and Ollie Tomlinson saw his third victory of the day, come in the B race, where he posted a time of 4m31.80s. George Mavir finished second in the 800m in 2m06.62s. Sprinters Harrison Scott and William Hodgson also produced good performances in the 100m and 200m events. The best of these was the 200m, where Harrison was second in the A race in 23.0s, and Will was second in the B race in 24.7s. In the 100m, Harrison was third in the A race in 11.4sm, and Will finished second in the B race in 12.1s. It was good to see Amelia Hamlin back in Under 17 Women’s action, where she finished third in the A race of the 300m in 45.2s, and Charlotte Marshall finished second in the B race in 56.2s. Marshall also finished third in the Shot, with a best Putt of 5.18m. MATCH RESULT 1st Blyth/Alnwick 623pts, 2nd M’Boro/Houghton/Derwentside 581pts, 3rd Chester Le Street/Durham 488pts, 4th New Marske 460pts, 5th Blaydon/Wallsend/Gosforth 448pts, 6th Morpeth 435pts, 7th Heaton/Tyne Bridge 364pts, 8th Tynedale/Prudhoe 242pts. Comments are closed.
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