The annual Heaton Harriers Memorial Road Races were held on Newcastle’s Town Moor on Sunday Morning, and before the Senior 10k race got underway, competitors, and spectators alike observed a one-minute silence in remembrance of those who fought in the two World Wars, plus other conflicts, as is customary.
Over 400 runners lined up in the Senior event, including 11 finishers from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers. At the halfway point in the race, Morpeth’s Alex Brown had a slender lead over Birtley’s Adrian Bailes, and his former Houghton colleague Alex Coulson, plus Sunderland Harrier Liam Taylor also coming into the reckoning. Brown may have paid a slightly heavy price for his early exuberance, as by the time the front runners emerged from the far reaches of the two-lap course, he had slipped slightly off the pace to fourth, with Coulson now heading for victory, ahead of Bailes and Taylor. Whilst Coulson won in 31m05s, Bailes came home second in 31m14s, with Taylor getting third place in 31m26s, just holding off a fast-finishing Brown (31m36s). Next Morpeth Harriers finisher was Gavin Bayne, who was first Over 65 Veteran Man in 140th place, posting a finishing time of 40m28s. Three places behind Bayne, was his Morpeth club colleague Robyn Bennett, who posted a finishing time of 40m34s, and was sixth Senior Woman finisher. One place behind Robyn was another Morpeth Harrier, in the form of Lee Cuthbertson, who was only a second adrift, and was 43rd Senior Man overall. Further Morpeth Harriers results were as follows: - Alistair MacDonald (177th) (5th O/60 Man) 41m47s; Lindsay Quinn (183rd) (8th Senior Woman) 42m09s; David Nicholson (193rd) (3rd O/65 Man) 42m44s; Richard Kirby (226th) (15th O/50 Man) 44m16s; Laura McLean (292nd) (11th O/35 Woman) 47m49s; David McGuckin (298th) (2nd O/70 Man) 48m13s; and Andrew Dippie (317th) (13th O/60 Man) 49m13s. On the day Morpeth Harriers had no competitors in the accompanying Young Athletes events, which were all held in wonderful sunshine, with no evidence of wind, on what was a very pleasant autumnal day. Following her Italian adventure, another excellent run by Catriona Macdonald saw her pick up the women’s prize over the hilly seven-mile course at the Gibside Fruit Bowl, held within the National Trust Gibside Estate, in a time of 49:43 and 11th place overall.
Remarkably, this win came less than 24 hours after Cat was 20th overall in the Lindsays Scottish Short Course Championships held at Lanark. Having finished 35th last year, this was quite an improvement against the best of Scotland, including a mix of fast U/20s and 800 metre runners due to the odd 4k distance, in effect a course over football pitches, with not a hill in sight. (Alistair Macdonald was 13th in his O/60 age category, although 30 odd seconds would have got him inside top ten and Anthony Jannetta 38th in his O/40 age category, in what he describes as ‘a manic race with a huge field!’). Lee Bennett also had an outstanding run to finish as first Over 50 in 49:01 and 8th place, with daughter Robyn also running well for 6th Senior Woman and 34th, and Linzi Quinn 57th and 9th Senior. The race was won by U/23 Houghton Harrier Chris Coulson in 42:47, with some 212 finishers. Also on Sunday morning at Gosforth Park, some 102 teams were out at the Norman Woodcock Relays on a 1.66 mile course round the road that runs inside the race track. A mixed relay for teams of three, Morpeth fielded some five teams with success in two of the veteran categories on offer. Won by Sunderland Harriers in a cumulative time of 25:24, for whom Joe Armstrong ran the day’s second fastest leg of 7:42, Birtley’s Adrian Bailes going some four seconds faster, Morpeth’s A team of Mark Banks (8:06), Lizzie Rank (9:52) and veteran Tony Lewis (9:22) finished in a respectable 7th place in 27:20. The B team were hit by the late withdrawal on Saturday that had meant Tony joining the A team, so it was down to team manager Scaife to complete the team after runs by Andriy Volkov (9:55) and Poppy Bluck (10:30), with the team finishing in 58th in 33:44. (Commented Scaife later, ‘I had a bit of a Star Trek moment as I kept recalling Scotty’s immortal words: Captain, I cannae get no more out of these engines!’ ) The Over 40s team of James Dixon (8:46), Kirsty Burville (10:20) and John Butters (9:39) were unfortunate to miss out in their category, coming back in 19th (28:45) but 4th 0/40 outfit behind three teams from North Shields Polytechnic Harriers, for whom Steph Maclean-Dann ran the fastest female time of the day (9:43). However, the club’s 0/50s and 0/60s both picked up prizes, the 0/50s team of Neil MacAnany (9:49), Shuna Rank (11:42) and Mike Winter (10:48) finishing 2nd in their category in 32:16 and the 0/60s, represented by Dave Nicholson (10:43), Pam Woodcock (14:18) and Gavin Bayne (10:25), going won better to win theirs in 35:26. Full results here. Conditions that were amongst the worst in living memory greeted teams from across the country who had travelled to Berry Park, Mansfield, for the English Cross Country Association National Relays on Saturday.
Described by the organisers as ‘a true cross country test’ but by many runners as the toughest conditions they had ever known, the quick succession of storms that the country had faced in October meant that the ground was saturated from the off and the course in many places still covered with standing water. With not many teams from the North East travelling, Morpeth Harriers were one of the few clubs to fly the flag once again for the region, with the club’s Senior Men in particular putting in an outstanding top-ten performance in the day’s final event, the four-stage, two-lap relay run over some 5 kilometres per leg. Won by Cambridge and Coleridge AC in a time of 1 hour 2 minutes and 4 seconds, Morpeth finished 6th overall in a time of 1:03:30, with Aldershot Farnham and District 2nd (1:02:06) and Highgate Harriers 3rd (1:02:36), some 177 teams finishing. Carl Avery had moved the club up to 10th with a clocking of 15:25 on leg two after Will Cork had come home on the as ever keenly-contested leg one in 15:54, with Lawrence McCourt gaining a further two places on leg three (16:44) and Scott Beattie matching Avery’s time exactly on the final leg. With teams from the South dominating the event, Morpeth did have the distinction of being first club from the North of England to finish, ahead of the very successful Leeds City AC, who were 7th. Fastest leg of the day was by City of York’s Angus McMillan of 14:55. It wasn’t such a successful day for the club’s Junior Men, however, as the curse of the relays struck once again for one of the two teams entered in the earlier 3k event which was contested by 81 teams. A strong run by Joe Dixon on leg 1 for the A team saw him back in 24th place (9:17) but in the melee at the changeover, 2nd leg runner Will de Vere Owen missed his return and went out over two minutes late. His 11:24, not an accurate reflection of his ability by any means, meant the team unfortunately dropping to 57th, with last leg runner James Tilley (9:44) pulling back over ten places on leg three for the team, who had been looking for a top ten place, to finish half way down the field in 44th in 30:27, with Aldershot Farnham and District race winners (26:43). The club’s B team of Liam Roche (9:27), Bertie Marr (9:33) and Matthew Walton (9:56) had a better afternoon, consistent runs by all securing 29th in 28:58. Morpeth’s Under 15 Girls also battled through their 6k of mud, finishing in 64th place out of some 93 teams, with legs by Molly Roche (9:35), Megan Potrac (9:40) and Emma Tomlinson (8:59), Aldershot Farnham and District again the winners. |
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