two team wins in aykley heads farewell

Lawrence McCourt, who recorded the day's fastest time at Aykley Heads. Photo: Stuart Whitman

Another busy weekend of cross country saw Morpeth Harriers well represented both locally in County Durham and, further afield, in Liverpool.
 
Saturday afternoon saw the third round of the North East Harrier League take place at Aykley Heads on the northern outskirts of County Durham, with the league sadly bidding a fond farewell to a challenging but much-loved cross country course which, after many decades, will no longer be available.
 
Often a time of year when inclement weather only adds to the day’s challenges, Saturday was in contrast blessed with a weak Winter sun and an absence of wind, with conditions under foot holding up surprisingly well given the weeks of recent rain.
 
And there was one outstanding individual Gold medal to go along with the two team wins, one team second and one third place.
 
The individual win came in the Under 13 Boys race, where Morpeth’s Ewan Line had a tremendous run to come home first from Fast Pack, some eight seconds ahead of his nearest rival from Derwentside AC, who had started from Slow Pack with a handicap of over one minute.
 
With supporting runs coming from Jack Dhawar in 9th, George Moll 10th and Daniel Vermaas 25th, the team were also comfortable winners over nearest rivals Elswick and Blaydon Harriers, and in the process extended their winning margin at the top of the league table further.
 
The U/13 Girls faced a stiffer challenge, with strong outfits from Birtley and Elswick again dominating the competition.
 
This time Lucy Raper was first back for Morpeth in 11th, with Faye Heatley not far behind in 14th and, in her first outing in a blue and white vest, Amberley Foster completing the team count in 51st.
 
The team finished 6th on the day and have slipped to 4th overall, but are still within touching distance of a top three finish at the end of the season.
 
With three to count in the Junior races, sadly once again Ben Moll flew the solitary flag for Morpeth in the U/15s, coming home in 27th, with Emma Tomlinson, 13th, and Megan Potrac, 24th, also missing a final counter in the Girls race. It would be great to see some full teams in both of the 15s competitions in the New Year, because there is certainly enough talent seen in training.
 
There was better news however from the U/17 Boys, which has over the last few years always been a strong category for the club, with Oliver Tomlinson first back for the club in 10th, Stephen Craske 22nd and Elliot Mavir 28th, the team finishing in third place to maintain a challenge overall in the top three behind Birtley and NSP.
 
Up and coming young triathlete Millie Breese, now studying at Leeds University, had her first run for the club in a while with the second fastest U/20 run of the day when finishing from Fast Pack in 9th place in the combined U17 and U20 race, with Caitlin Flanagan finishing 19th.
 
Biggest fields of the day were unsurprisingly in the Senior Women’s and Men’s races that concluded the day’s proceedings, with a lot of runners keen to say goodbye to what has traditionally been regarded by many as the best cross country course in the North East.
 
There were nearly 400 finishers in the day’s penultimate two lap Women’s race, with Morpeth narrowly missing out on the team victory to Jesmond Joggers but joining hosts Durham City Harriers at the top of the league table with half the season now complete.
 
Once again it was the redoubtable Catriona Macdonald who led the charge, recording the day’s fastest overall time of 26 minutes 44 seconds when finishing 6th overall from Fast Pack, with Durham’s Louise Mitchell 1st in 27:04 from Slow.
 
Remarkably, evergreen veteran Jane Hodgson, who had earlier watched her daughter Emily herself have a fine run when finishing 14th in the U/11 Girls, ran the day’s 2nd fastest time of 27:02 when finishing only three places behind Macdonald in 9th.
 
In only her second Harrier League fixture, Poppy Buck was again a counter, finishing 15th here from Medium Pack in 30:26 to gain promotion to Fast next time out.
 
The team count was finished with a great run by Shuna Rank, 53rd here in 35:20, with daughter Lizzie also having a good run when coming home in 76th from Fast Pack (30:38), a few places behind Robyn Bennett, 69th also from Fast (30:30). Nicola McCoy was just ahead in 57th in 35:30.
 
With a good showing of some 11 finishers in total, also finishing were: Kirsty Burville, 125th from Fast (31:37); Laura Mclean, 161st from Slow (37:37); Fran Naylor, 256th from Slow (40:47) and Margaret Macdonald, 335th from Slow (44:46).
 
With only one point separating the top two teams, Morpeth and Durham City, from Jesmond Joggers in 3rd, but signs also that last year’s winners Tyne Bridge Harriers, 4th here, are getting their act together, the rest of the season certainly will not lack interest and is likely once again to go to the wire.
 
There were over 550 finishers in the Senior Men’s race and this time no question of where the team win would go, with Morpeth’s biggest and strongest squad of the competition so far dominating proceedings here, reflected in a final six to count team score of only 53, exactly half of a distant Sunderland Harriers in 2nd on 106, with Tyne Bridge 3rd.
 
After a tussle at the front of the race with eventual winner Jack Casalino of Durham University Cross Country Club (36:04), Peter Smallcombe was first counter in 2nd place overall (36:55), with Alex Cunningham next back in 5th (37:57), both running from Slow Pack.
 
Recording the day’s fastest time for the three laps, Morpeth’s Lawrence McCourt finished in a fine 13th place (34:36) having had a terrific battle with club colleague Sam Hancox, who was only one second and one place behind, both from Fast.
 
Also running from Fast, Connor Marshall was 24th (35:22) with Lee Cuthbertson, 27th from Slow (40:42) in his first Harrier League, completing the team count.
 
Remarkably, Alex Brown, who had lost a shoe on the 3rd lap but who still finished 31st   (35:50), Ian Armstrong, 34th from Slow Pack (41:24) in only his second outing, and Rob Balmbra, 45th from Fast (37:01), all would have made the counters of other clubs but missed out here, so dominant was the Morpeth performance, which bodes well for the North Eastern Championships in two weeks' time.
 
There were some 22 finishers for the club in total, with, in addition to those previously mentioned: Andrew Hebden, 114th from Medium (42:11); Lee Bennett, 137th, Medium (42:34); Andriy Volkov, 141st, Slow (45:11); Ben Heatley, 142nd, Medium (42:37); Anthony Jannetta, 146th, Medium (42:42); Richie Hughes, 147th, Fast (40:03); Shaun Land, 179th, Medium (43:32); Rob Hancox, 183rd, Slow (46:10); Alistair Macdonald, 259th, Medium (47:29); Neil MacAnany, 331st, Slow (49:52); Ben Clarke, 340th, Slow (50:10); Richard Kirby, 342nd, Slow (50:13) and Dave Nicholson, 404th, Slow (52:28).
 
The win saw the Men open a healthy four point margin at the top of Division 1 in their efforts to retain the title for the third consecutive year.
 
Full results here. 
Stuart Whitman’s photo albums here.

Liverpool Cross Challenge
 
Elsewhere, a muddy Sefton Park, Liverpool was the venue for the British Athletics Cross Country Challenge on the same afternoon, with some five Morpeth Harriers making the journey.
 
Prominent amongst them was European Under 23 10,000m Gold medallist Rory Leonard, who finished in 4th place in the Senior Men’s 9.8 kilometre race to ensure his selection for next month’s European Cross Country Championships in Brussels with a time of 29:03 behind race winner Hugo Milner of Derby AC (28:38).
 
Scott Beattie was next home for the club in 20th  (29:41), with Will Cork 74th (31:46)and Dan Melling 154th  (33:31).
 
The Junior Men’s 7.8 k race had earlier seen Joe Dixon come home 69th of some 156 finishers in 21:59 in a race won by Shaftesbury Barnet Harrier Henry Dover in 20:10.