Two Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the third Gateshead Harriers Indoor Standards Meeting, held at Gateshead College on the evening of Wednesday 10 January.
Over 50 Veteran Man Trevor Hodgson began the New Year in excellent style by recording a new personal best time of 7.50s in the second fastest heat of the 60m, when finishing a good second behind Gateshead Under 23 athlete Nicson Melaco. Under 15 Girl Sophie Pledger was also in action, finishing second, in the second fastest of her age group heats, posting a season’s best of 8.66s. Her heat was won by Gateshead’s Holly Houghton in 8.55s. Membership fees for 2024 are now due - these have been frozen at the same rate as last year. To see fees and renew online please click here.
In 2021 we took the decision to delay the payment of club subs from our normal payment date in January to April of that year due to the lack and training and competition opportunities resulting from Covid. We also discounted that year’s subs to reflect this. Since then, we have continued to run the subs year from April to April. However, it has become increasingly difficult to operate along these lines for several reasons, but primarily because of the payment of England Athletics registrations. The EA competition year also runs from April to April, with clubs given a period of grace between April and June to pay relevant registrations. But with our subs year beginning in April, it has not always been possible for the club to register members to meet the June deadline where club subs have not been paid before this point. (Over the last few years, of course, it has been club policy that EA registration will only be made where subs have been paid.) With race organisers cracking down over the last few years on those athletes without EA registrations, this has increasingly resulted in the club being contacted by race organisers and athletes at the eleventh hour desperately needing to be registered so they can compete or enter a race, sometimes at as little as 24 hour notice. Clearly this places onerous demands on club administration, with those at the sharp end having to respond very quickly, often at great inconvenience. Furthermore, this situation is likely to be compounded next year by the new Roster Athletics entry system which many race organisers are moving to. The Roster system does not always recognize the grace period between April and June, frequently identifying athletes as unregistered from April 1 when the new competition year begins. Largely as a result of this, the committee have decided to return our subscription year to the traditional January to December from the beginning of 2024. This will make it less problematic to manage EA registrations. It will also help our Treasurer, Mark Hudspith, to manage year end accounts more easily and mean that new members joining in November or December can pay the following year’s subs without having to pay a half yearly fee. Club subscriptions will continue to remain at the current rate for 2024, with the change in the subs year in effect in lieu of a rise in fees which we would otherwise have had to consider. It should be noted that the club is facing significantly higher operating costs as a result of a number of factors:
2024 got off to a disappointing start for Morpeth Harriers when, despite several strong individual and team performances, they lost their longstanding hold on the Sherman Cup and proved unable to mount a challenge for the Davison Shield at the weekend.
Decades-long annual competitions which were originally set up to show the overall strength of North East clubs, the Sherman Cup (for male athletes) and the Davison Shield (for female athletes) require clubs to participate across the full age ranges, with three categories that take in Under 13s, 15s and 17s for Young athletes, then two for the Seniors and Veterans, with the first three finishing in each category to count in a club’s overall team score. It proved to be in the younger age groups where Morpeth were found wanting, with only their winning U/13 boys able to show the way forward. Ewan Line had a deserved victory in the U/13s over the same ground at Temple Park, South Shields, where he had so cruelly been robbed of a win in the NECAA Championships a few weeks ago when he was misdirected on the course, with excellent support behind him coming from Daniel Vermaas (13th), Jack Dhawar (27th) and George Moll (29th) for a team win. In the matching U/13 girls race, Faye Heatley was narrowly beaten into 3rd with Lucy Raper 4th, but the unfortunate lack of a third counter, due to illness, meant the team missed out on a likely win. The absence of a final counter cost both boys and girls teams in the U/15s, with Ben Moll 5th and Michael Leeson 26th for the boys and Emma Tomlinson 7th and Charlotte Marshall 25th for the girls. It was if anything worse in the U/17s, with NECAA winner Elliot Kelso forced to drop out of the boys race and leaving Oliver Tomlinson flying the Morpeth flag, but squeezed out of the medals in 4th, and Stephen Craske hanging on for 29th, but no girls running at all. With full teams a pre-requisite for wins in either overall competition, the chances of victory had already gone when Senior and Veteran athletes lined up for the day’s final two races, but there was at least redemption of a sort with much better turn outs and several outstanding performances. Two of these came in the women’s race, where Cat Macdonald was chased all the way round by Jane Hodgson, with Cat taking the Senior and Jane the Veteran titles. Some strong packing behind them saw Poppy Buck, Lizzie Rank and Lindsey Quinn finish 19th, 20th and 21st to finish as first Senior team ahead of Jesmond Joggers, with Nicola McCoy (79th), Jane Briggs (84th) and Shuna Rank (92nd) ensuring the Veteran team were 8th. The day’s final race Senior Men’s race saw Houghton Harrier Cameron Allan reprise his win from the NECAA event with an even more dominant winning margin of nearly a minute and a half. There were three Morpeth runners in the top ten, however, with Lawrence McCourt picking up a Silver in 2nd, Alex Brown looking strong in 5th and Connor Marshall 8th. With James Tilley making the top twenty in 18th, Adam Pratt returning to competitive action in 23rd, Shaun Land 85th, Andriy Volkov 111th and Jake Parmley 119th, the Men’s team, like the Women’s finished as winners, this time ahead of Durham City. In the same race, the Morpeth Veteran men also ran well, with Ian Armstrong first back for the club in 61st, Andrew Hebden 68th and Ben Heatley 74th, Richard Glennie 125th and Steve Johnstone 200th, the team finishing in 5th. Final results showed the Men, with only three complete squads, finishing in 5th (one more complete outfit would have meant them being runners up, given their performances elsewhere), their lowest position for many a year. Similarly the Women, with only two complete squads, were down the tables in 6th. As the only club fielding full teams in both competitions, Tyne Bridge finished as winners in the Sherman Cup but had to settle for second in the Davison Shield, where NSP pulled off a deserved win after a number of years missing out. Morpeth meanwhile, despite the numbers turning up on Monday nights to train, were left sadly having to look ruefully at what might have been. Clearly injured and ill athletes can’t be blamed, but the lack of commitment from others elsewhere is hugely disappointing and must act as a wake-up call in advance of the rest of the season’s XC fixtures and before the Track and Field season gets under way in the spring. A number of club members were involved in races either side of the Christmas holidays, with 2023 culminating in one stand-out performance in Spain.
The Fell em Doon 5k took place in Ashington Community Woods, now also the venue of course for the weekly parkrun, and was hosted by Ashington Hirst Community Running Club. Alnwick’s Liam McDonough was 1st back in 16:19 with TBH Paul O’Mara 2nd (16:31), but it was good to see Adam Pratt returning to action, 3rd here in 17:18. Dave Stabler was 4th in 18:10, Richard Glennie 15th in 20:54 and Stephen Johnstone 20th in 21:46. Shauna Rank capped a fine 2023 with 1st O/55 in 22:43 and Laura Mclean was just outside the top 100 in 30:46. Good to see AHRC runner Samantha Gair 1st female back in 19:01, ahead of NSP’s prolific Steph Maclean-Dann (20:05) and Lilly Scott, also of AHRC (21:41). Now one of the oldest races in the country, the Ronnie Walker Saltwell 10k took place the Saturday before Christmas round a hilly four-lap circuit of Saltwell Park in Gateshead. Won by Leeds City AC athlete Linton Taylor in a time of 32 minutes and 1 second, with Elswick Harrier Sophie Pikett first female finisher in 36:31, Morpeth were represented by John Butters, 18th overall in a time of 35:39 and third Over 40 competitor, and Gavin Bayne, 81st in 42:40 and second O/60 (only ten year vets categories used). Over 350 finished the challenging race. The ever popular Woodlawn ‘Pudding Run’ on the sea front at Whitley Bay on Boxing Day was once again a sell-out, with valuable funds again being raised for the school. Advertised as a Fun Run (although entries are taken through Race Best), no results are later made available, with the winning run coming however from a visiting Bristol and West athlete, but there were three Morpeth Harriers in the top ten, with Rob Balmbra first home in 5th and local residents Ross Floyd 6th and Andy Lawrence 8th. Two high-profile races followed on New Year’s Eve, with eight Harriers travelling to Clitheroe in Lancashire for the Ribble Valley 10k, which incorporated the North of England Championships and attracted a high class field. Miler James Young was first back for the club, clocking 29:55 in 8th place, with Sam Hancox fighting off an injury to record 31:33 and finish 34th. Team GB triathlete Dan Dixon, back in the UK for the holiday period, paced teenage brother Joe round the course to a new pb of 31:40 (38 and 37) with Connor Marshall next back in 32:09 (45). The Morpeth team were 4th overall. Alex Cunningham clocked 33:30 in 82nd and Rob Hancox was 4th /55 in 39:36, with Michelle Thompson, in her first outing on the roads for a while, recording 43:07 as 10th O/40. Marc Scott, of Richmond and Zetland Harriers, was crowned Northern Champion in 28:46 with local runner Jess Warner-Judd of Blackburn Harriers female winner in 32:42. Meanwhile over in Spain there were two remarkable runs by Morpeth’s Scott Beattie and Rory Leonard on the same weekend at the Nationale-Nederlanden San Silvestre Vallecanu International in Madrid, where an elite field were headed by two Ethiopians, Berihu Aregawi winning in 27:15 with Ababel Yashaneh taking the women’s title in 30:30. Finishing in 4th place in a time of 27 minutes 58 seconds, Scott capped a fine year as he recorded the fastest time over 10k on the roads in 2023 by a GB athlete, with Rory also running well to put difficulties at the European Cross Country Championships behind him when coming home 7th in 28:33. Closer to home, the Town Moor full and half marathons took place on the same weekend. Claire Calverley finished 10th overall and 2nd female finisher in the full in a time of 3 hours 49 minutes 46 seconds, not far behind winner Nina Cameron of Heaton Harriers. The race was won by Alex Ventisei in a time of 3:01:51. Andy Lawrence was a winner in the half, coming in in a time of 1:14:29 only to find however ‘there was no one on the finish line and I only found I’d won in the showers afterwards!’ (or so he claims). Runners defied the worst conditions experienced at a cross country in the region for a long, long time to take part in the North East Cross Country Championships held at Temple Park, South Shields on Saturday.
With further rain on the day only adding to the challenge of what is a normally firm course - but which this year featured knee-deep in mud in several places - the three team and two individual Gold medals, allied to two team Bronzes, three individual Silvers and two Bronzes, won by the club were the icing on the cake of what was a memorable, if demanding, day for all who travelled. The first of those two Golds were in the Under 17 Boys race, were Elliot Kelso defied the conditions to run away from the rest of the field for what proved to be in the end quite a comfortable win with a 12-second margin, also leading his team to victory. Elliot was supported by Oliver Tomlinson, 6th, and Joe Close, 15th, the team finishing ahead of nearest rivals North Shields Polytechnic Harriers. There was a further team Gold in the U/20 Junior Men, won by Josh Blevins of Gateshead Harriers, with Joe Dixon again proving how much he likes the country and running very well over the terrain to pick up an individual Silver. With Liam Roche, Ethan Phillips and Bertie Marr in 5th, 6th and 7th, the team secured victory over nearest rivals this time Durham City Harriers. With all four finishers having been members of the winning KEVI team in the English Schools Cross Country Cup the previous weekend, it has certainly been a demanding time for the group who will now perhaps be able to look forward to some down time over the festive period. The final team Gold was in the day’s penultimate race, the Senior Men’s held over the day’s longest distance of three laps and over seven miles. With Sam Hancox and Will Cork in the thick of the action from the off, the leading group of six were soon detached from the rest of the field of several hundred, but a powerful run by Houghton Harrier Cameron Allan saw him surge away on the last lap to win by a 40-second margin, with Cork and Hancox collecting much enjoyed Silver and Bronze medals. With six to count for the team prize, a dominant club performance saw the next four counters in 11th (Connor Marshall), 15th (Tom Balsdon), 16th (Rob Balmbra) and 23rd (Peter Smallcombe) for a total team count of a miserly 70 points, with old rivals Sunderland Harriers in 2nd on 116 and Gateshead Harriers in 3rd (157). Picking up the team award for the twelfth successive year, the team were delighted to receive the trophy from club president Jim Alder MBE – who could, of course, remember worse conditions that he had himself run in! An excellent team turn out saw no less than eight other finishers for the club with Matty Briggs just missing out to Peter in 24th; Andy Lawrence in 30th; Ali Douglas 36th; Anthony Jannetta 74th; Lee Cuthbertson 78th; Ian Armstrong 80th; Lee Bennett 88th and Ben Heatley 89th. All of these would have made team counts of many other clubs. There was a further individual Gold medal in the U/20 Women’s race, with triathlete and Leeds University student Millie Breese making the journey home to pick up the trophy for the second successive year – fortunate, as she had completely forgotten she still had it! There were also team Bronzes in the U/13 Boys and the Senior Women races. Ewan Line picked up both individual and team medals in the U/13s, finishing 3rd overall but understandably frustrated having been misdirected when leading the race, although able to smile about it afterwards. His day will surely come. Ewan’s team mates were Evan Laude, 30th, George Moll, 34th and Jack Dhawar, 35th, with Darlington taking the team Gold ahead of Elswick Harriers. Last race of the day was the Senior Women’s, which was won as last year by Middlesbrough’s Philippa Stone, who produced perhaps the performance of the day to win by over a minute, a remarkable run given that the course had by this point cut up even further. She was chased home by Cat Macdonald, who picked up a Silver medal for the second successive year and also led her team to Bronze medals, with good packing behind her seeing Lizzie Rank in 22nd, Lorna Macdonald 24th, Robyn Bennett 27th and Kirsty Burville 43rd. Tyne Bridge Harriers, with 14 finishers, were team winners on 45 points with Durham City 2nd on 65. The club’s U/15 Boys were unlucky to miss out on medals earlier by only four points when coming in as 4th team, with Ben Moll 14th, Harry Douglass 33rd and Thomas Roche 65th, but it was great to see a full, competitive team again in advance of January and February’s fixtures. Emma Tomlinson ploughed a lone furrow for the U/15 Girls, coming home in 13th, with younger sister Zoe 32nd in the U/13s and Faye Heatley having a good run for 9th. (Again, a shame no team count.) Finally, the U/11’s opening races saw a Morpeth debut for Jacob Raper, younger brother of Lucy, who came in 41st - and will surely remember his debut in the conditions – and a super race by Heather Baillie, who was 7th. Well done all, runners, parents and helpers, who turned out. See Stuart Whitman's gallery of images from the race here. Simonside Cairns Fell Race There were further challenging conditions the following day for runners taking part in the Simonside Cairns Fell Race. With the eleven mile route also including some 1772 feet of climbing, it was certainly not one for the faint-hearted. Northumberland Fell Runners were at the sharp end, perhaps unsurprisingly, with Chris Larking winning by over five minutes in 1 hour 14 minutes 38 seconds with Craig Jones 2nd and Morpeth’s Richie Hughes 4th. Meanwhile Matthew Briggs, who had placed just outside the Morpeth counters when finishing 24th at Temple Park, made the most of his weekend home by taking in the race, coming in in 5th place. (After the previous day, that was some performance!) There was some tight Morpeth/NFR packing behind, with Anna Wright 79th, Gwenda Cavill 80th, Les Cavill 81st, Claire Calverley 82nd and Jane Briggs 84th. Malaga Marathon Meanwhile, over in warmer climes of over 18 degrees in Spain, Carl Avery was first British finisher in the Malaga Marathon on Sunday, completing the 26.2 mile course in a time of 2 hours 21 minutes 39 seconds in a race won by Charles Minera in 2:08:54. |
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