 Holly Lawrence puts in a powerful display at Wrekenton. Photo: Stuart Whitman Temperatures barely above freezing and some tough going under foot greeted the hardy souls who took on the NEHL fixture at Wrekenton, just South of Gateshead, on Sunday morning. What should have been the fifth round of the competition, but was actually only the third fixture competed for after cancellations at Druridge Bay and Mickley, was also badly affected not just by the weekend’s two other popular fixtures but also big schools races coming up at the start of the following week which took out many regular youngsters – not great scheduling then. There were big fields, however, in the opening Under 11s races, with some 72 finishers in the Boys and 82 in the Girls. The four Morpeth runners in the Boys race saw Mason Ellison come back in 15th, Luke Thompson 26th, Ben Hodgson 42nd and Will Fawcett 45th, while Heather Bailie was the club’s only representative in the Girls race, finishing in 27th place. Heather’s older brother Lewis was 38th from Slow Pack in the U/13 Boys, while Heidi Wilkinson finished 10th from Fast Pack in the U/13 Girls where Emily Hodgson was 15th. With no runners in any of the U/15 Boys and Girls or the U/17 Boys, the club was however well represented in the U/17 Girls, where Iris Dungait was 13th, Charlotte Marshall 14th and Lucie Todd 19th and the team were 2nd overall. There were bigger fields out in the Senior Women’s and Men’s races that followed, although both probably were down by about a hundred on usual numbers. In the penultimate Women’s, Birtley’s Lydia Turner was 1st back out from Medium pack in 22:35, the day’s fastest time, but Holly Lawrence also had a super run from Medium with the second fastest of 24:33 to finish in 4th and head the Morpeth challenge. She was supported by Jane Hodgson, 29th (24:58), Lizzie Rank, 36th (25:09) and Poppy Buck, 69th (26:03), all running from Fast to make the team count, with Laura Mclean 113th (32:20) and Frances Robson 250th (37:03), both from Slow. Some 342 finished, with Jesmond Joggers 1st team ahead of Sunderland Harriers and Morpeth only 4 points off 3rd but moving up to 2nd overall in the team standings behind Sunderland. The club’s thinnest Senior Men’s turn out for many a season of only six (who comprised one Under 20 and five Veterans, one of whom had run the previous day in Newcastle) in the day’s final race was a big disappointment and means the defence of a Men’s title won for the last three years is now very challenging. Hats off to all six who ran then, with Dave Stabler having a fantastic run to come home in 16th from Slow Pack (36:29) with James Deathe 31st from Medium (34:54), both gaining promotion to Fast for the rest of the season. Ethan Bond was 39th from Fast with the club’s fastest time (32:42), Ian Armstrong 60th from Medium (35:59), Jason Dawson 121st from Slow (39:52) and Richard Glennie 124th, also from Slow (41:17). Special mention for Richard who had run hard on the Quayside less than 24 hours previously. Durham University student James Johnson was 1st back in 31:25 from Slow, although Darlington Harrier Rory Hart actually recorded the day’s fastest time of 31:15 from Fast. Gateshead took the team count with Durham City 2nd and Birtley 3rd. Morpeth finished 5th against the odds, although somehow also managed to stay in 2nd place in the overall standings behind Durham, who are now five points ahead. Some 396 finished. With three fixtures still to come, the club hopes for plenty of commitment for the three remaining fixtures, whenever they are scheduled.  Ethan Bond was the club's fastest runner in the Senior Men's competition. Photo: Stuart Whitman Comments are closed.
|
Archives
January 2026
|
