The weekend Park Runs on Saturday 23rd January produced two first across the finish lines for athletes
from Morpeth Harriers.
Course record holder Ian Hudspith triumphed
at Newcastle’s Exhibition Park, completing the 5k course in 15m21s, which was some 45 seconds short of his best on the course.
However he was nearly a minute clear of second placed Conrad Franks of Gateshead Harriers.

Meanwhile at Druridge Bay, Mark Snowball was first home in 17m14s, finishing 20 seconds ahead of his Morpeth Harriers club colleague James Young.

There was an excellent turnout of athletes for the third in the current series of
Indoor Standards Meetings, held at Gateshead College,
on the evening of Thursday 21st January 2016.

Amongst them were seven from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers,
who were certainly keen to get into competitive action before the
North East Counties Indoor Track and Field Championships,
scheduled to be held at the same venue over
Saturday (Field) and Sunday (Track), this coming weekend.

Six of the seven athletes were from the Eddie Hedley and Dave Thomas stable,
and both Morpeth coaches were well pleased with their respective performances.

Following a lean summer mainly due to recurring injury problems,
it was very pleasing to see Under 17 Men’s star performer Sean O’Hara back in competitive action.
He was the fastest on view in his age group in the 60m,
where he clocked 7.38s in Round 1,
and went on to improve this to 7.34 in the later Round 2.

Club-mate and fellow training partner David Storey also did well
in the Senior Men’s section, posting respective times of 7.56s and 7.52s,
which made him the eighth fastest in his age group.

Morpeth  Harriers other Senior Man in action was Wayne Gedge,
who posted a time of 8.37s in Round 1 of the 60m,
and returned later in Round 2, posting a time of 8.35s.

In the Under 13 Girls age group Morpeth’s Amy Lott proved to be a real star performer.
Running over 60mHurdles for the first time ever,
she posted the fastest time in her age group,
with her clocking of 10.83s.
In the flat 60m she also proved to be formidable,
posting the eighth fastest time of 9.24s.

Morpeth Harriers had three athletes competing in the Under 17 Women’s events.
Fastest of these in the 60m was Jessica Young-Rogers,
who was also second in her age group with her clocking of 8.22s.
Katie Hilton clocked a time of 8.51s, which made her fourth in her age group.
Hannah Brown was seventh best with her best of 8.75s,
was best in her age group in the 60m Hurdles, with her clocking.
Katie Hilton also competed in the Triple Jump,
finishing third with her best effort of 9.03m.

Athletes competing in the annual Northumberland Schools Cross Country Championships, held at Temple Park, South Shields on Tuesday 19th January,
faced possibly the best running conditions since the New Year.
All of the fallen snow had mostly disappeared,
and although the ground was relatively heavy due
to a great deal of additional rain, only a few icy pathways posed a threat
to runners overall performances, which on the day included several
exceptional efforts by athletes from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers.

On the day, the club managed no less than eight podium places from
the eight age group events, which was a superb achievement to say the least.
Holly Peck (Junior Girls), Daniel Dixon (Junior Boys)
and Scott Beattie (Senior Boys) were also all on the day event winners.
Peck, representing East Northumberland won with nearly thirty seconds
to spare over her Morpeth Harriers club colleague Lily Heaton (East), who took the Silver medal.
Finishing in fifth place, and also producing one of the outstanding
runs of the day was another Morpeth Harrier Ellie Coxon,
who was another athlete running for East Northumberland.
Other Morpeth Harriers competing in the Junior Girls event were
Lauren Cummings (East) (17th), Ruby Wyld (North) (31st),
Charlotte Bruce (East) (46th), and Nicole Teasdale (East) (64th).

Morpeth Harriers Athlete of the Month for December 2015 Daniel Dixon,
representing East Northumberland, very convincingly won the Junior Boys
event from his club colleague Ross Charlton (East), who took the Silver medal,
and another well placed club colleague was Daniel Melling,
representing Newcastle, who finished sixth.

Other Morpeth Harriers finishers in the Junior Boys event were
Brad Brown (East) (18th), Andrew Hudspith (Newcastle) (19th),
Thomas Cunningham (East) (21st), Mark Booth (East) (30th),
Sam Bradley (East) (48th), and Joseph Bell (54th).

The Senior Boys event saw a close battle throughout between
Scott Beattie (North Tyneside) and club-mate Nathan Cox (North);
however Beattie managed to break away at the end of the three laps,
to win by a margin of twenty one seconds.

Fourth place in the Senior Boys event went to James Young,
who was representing East Northumberland.
This was probably the closest to a one, two, and three for the club on the day.

Two other Morpeth Harriers, who finished in podium places as Silver medallists,
were brother and sister Kieran and Rhiannon Hedley,
who were both representing North Northumberland.

Following a close battle with Tynedale’s Max Pearson,
who had won the Northern Athletics Indoor 1500m
on the previous Saturday in Sheffield,
Kieran was eventually forced to settle for second place,
only losing out by a mere fourteen seconds at the finish line,
in the Intermediate Boys event.

Also prominent in the Intermediate Boys event was Rory Leonard,
who had also competed against Pearson in Sheffield.
Leonard, representing East Northumberland, finished fourth,
and just twelve seconds adrift of third placed Alex Wood (Tynedale).
Twenty seconds behind Leonard in fifth place was his Morpeth Club-mate
Taylor Glover, also representing East Northumberland,
who had felt ill before and throughout the event,
and had battled courageously to finish.

Other Morpeth Harriers competing in the Intermediate Boys event were
Joe Dowd (East) (9th), Adam Shewry (East) (14th),
Connor Marshall (East) (17th), Matthew Waterfield (East) (18th),
Jordan Hedgecock (North) (24th), and Alex Cunningham (East) (27th).

Competing in the Minor Girls event Rhiannon Hedley
ran exceptionally well throughout her race to finish
eighteen seconds adrift of Newcastle’s Olivia Kantony,
and a good thirteen seconds ahead of another Newcastle Girl Ava Taperell.

Other Morpeth Harriers competing in the Minor Girls event were
Amy Lott (East) (19th), Ailidh Dick (East) (44th), and Rebecca Bradley (East) (45th).

Ben Walker was probably the unluckiest Morpeth Harrier on the day
as he just missed out on a podium placing by a mere three seconds,
when he finished fourth in the Minor Boys event,
and was first home for East Northumberland.
Fellow Morpeth Harrier Dylan Davies was third home for East, finishing eleventh.

Other Morpeth Harriers finishers in the Minor Boys event were
Jack Barrett (East) (16th), Bobby Stone (North) (23rd),
Dylan Gooding (East) (31st), Charlie Lane (East) (45th),
Josh Adams (East) (51st), and James Herron (East) (63rd).

The Intermediate and Senior Girls event was run as a combined race.
In the Senior Girls section, Morpeth Harriers had two of their athletes in action.
Representing North Northumberland Abby Sheldon finished fifth.
Charlotte Jewell representing East Northumberland finished seventh.

In the Intermediate Girls race, three athletes from Morpeth Harriers were amongst the finishers.
First home was Kate Seymour, who finished thirteenth, and not far behind her was Gracie Hufton,
who really ran well to finish fifteenth.
Completing the Morpeth Harriers trio was Eve Smith, who finished in 36th place.
All three of these athletes were representing East Northumberland.

Two athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the
Durham Schools annual Cross Country Championships,
which were held at Meadowfield, near Durham City,
on Saturday 16th January 2016.

Although most of the snow that had fallen during the previous week
had mostly disappeared, the course was left frozen in places,
with odd traces of mud in one or two areas.

Joe Armstrong and Jacob Hopkins were in the Senior Boys line-up,
Armstrong representing Durham Central, who also won the team race,
and Hopkins representing Gateshead College.

Armstrong led from the gun to the finish line, and was never headed,
and he came home in 22m46s for the 7.1k distance,
winning by a thirty nine second margin over his closest rival Kieran Walker of Sedgefield.

Meanwhile Hopkins who had been lying in ninth place for most
of the contest, slipped back to finish an eventual 12th in 26m42s.

However both of the Morpeth athletes still qualified themselves to compete
in the forthcoming Northern Schools Inter Counties Championships,
which will be held in Cleveland in early February.

They will be competing alongside several of their club colleagues,
who will be in action for Northumberland Schools.

This is the last stepping stone for all, targeting the
English Schools Cross Country Championships,
scheduled to be held at Nottingham in March.

Photos courtesy of Simon Hannaford.

Despite the low temperatures, enhanced by freezing fog,
there was still an excellent turnout of enthusiastic competitors,
who turned out at the University Sports Ground
in Durham for the very popular Cathedral Relays,
on Sunday 17th January 2016.

With the previous weekends athletics programme in the region
being completely wiped out by wintry conditions, all were eager
to spring into competitive action, none more so than the contingent
from Morpeth Harriers, who managed to turn out three Senior Men’s squads,
four Veteran Men’s squads, and one Senior Women’s squad.

The clubs major triumph of the day came in the Senior Men’s competition,
where they managed to win the team title for the fifth consecutive year.

On first leg for the Morpeth A team was Sam Hancox,
who finished sixth in a time of 9m18s.

Posting a time of 9m04s, Lewis Timmins grabbed a second leg lead,
which was well held on to by third leg runner Carl Avery,
despite a close challenge from Gateshead Harrier Chris Parr.
Avery’s clocking of 9m02s enough to give his club victory
by a margin of nine seconds over Gateshead,
with the Morpeth B team a further twenty seven seconds
adrift in third place, courtesy of Thomas Straughan (9m12s),
Kevin Calvert (9m14s), and Robert Balmbra (9m33s).

Morpeth Senior Men’s C team finished eighth courtesy of
Jordan Scott (9m47s), Mark Snowball (10m07s),
and David Swinburne (10m28s).

In the Veteran Men’s Relay, Morpeth Harriers also claimed a podium place,
when they finished second to Sunderland Harriers.

John Butters came home fourth on first leg in a time of 9m55s.
Tony Lewis progressed to second on the second leg, with his clocking of 10m14s.
Clocking the same time as Butters, Chris Smith held on to second place throughout the third and final leg.

Morpeth Harriers Veteran Men’s B team finished twelfth,
courtesy of Tim Miley (10m59s), Paul Waterston (11m00s), and Fergus Bates (10m18s).

The clubs Veteran Men’s D team finished ahead of the C team
by three places when they came home in 30th place.
D team performances came from Peter Scaife (12m09s),
Paul Bellingham (11m54s), and David Nicholson,
in his relay debut for the club (11m48s).

C team performances came from Rob Hancox (10m49s),
Jim Alder (12m17s), and Gavin Bayne (12m59s).

Morpeth Harriers Senior Women finished in 14th place.
Alison Brown was eleventh on the first leg with her clocking of 12m00s.
Claire Walker slipped back a little on the second leg with 14m58s;
however fortunes were revived somewhat on the
third and final leg by Gemma Floyd, who clocked 11m56s.