There were some excellent results achieved by athletes from Morpeth Harriers and AC, both on an individual and team front, at the fourth Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League meeting, held at a wet and very muddy Herrington Country Park, near Penshaw, on Saturday 7th January 2017. Heavy rain on the Friday had left areas of the newly acquired course in a very wet state, which quickly cut up as the ten-event programme progressed, and athletes in the later events were certainly subjected to heavy and very testing conditions. One Morpeth Harrier who clearly seemed to master the situation was Senior Man Ian Harding. Running from the Slow Pack, and clocking what was to emerge as the third fastest time of the day, he won his event by just under two minutes from his nearest rival. It was Harding’s first Harrier League victory since March 2011, when he had won the Senior Men’s event at Prudhoe, on a course no longer in operation. Conditions at Prudhoe had been considerably better however, as on that day, he had won by the even more comfortable margin of three minutes and thirteen seconds. Second home on Saturday for Morpeth Harriers was Alistair Douglass, who was making a welcome return to Cross Country competition, and he could feel well pleased with finishing sixth from the Slow Pack. Robert Balmbra was third home from the club, finishing an excellent fourteenth from the Fast Pack, and posting the second fastest time of the day behind Jarrow and Hebburn’s Andy Burn, who finished three places in front of Balmbra. The club then had to look to 37th place for their fourth finisher, with Sam Hancox finishing from the Fast Pack as seventeenth fastest on the day. Tim Miley (73rd) (Medium Pack), and Tony Holt (77th) (Fast Pack), closed the Morpeth scoring count for third team place on the day in Division 1. Further club Senior Men’s performances came from Jacob Hopkins (100th) (Slow Pack), Alistair MacDonald (101st) (Slow Pack), Paul Brown (128th) (Slow Pack), Paul Waterston (168th) (Medium Pack), Steve Haswell (231st) (Medium Pack), Richard Kirby (237th) (Slow Pack), Rob Hancox (246th) (Medium Pack), Graeme Thorpe (326th) (Slow Pack), and Les Cavill (405th) (Slow Pack). The Senior Men’s event had 532 finishers. Lorna MacDonald, who has certainly put in some mileage recently in ultra-distance training, certainly found that it all paid off quite handsomely as she secured an excellent individual win in the Senior Women’s event. She won with thirty-two seconds to spare over her closest rival, and led her club to a resounding on the day victory in Division 2 over Gosforth Harriers. Further excellent team support came from Emma Holt (Fast Pack), who finished third overall, clocking the days fastest time, Jane Hodgson (Fast Pack), who finished fourth, posting the third fastest time, and Gwenda Cavill (27th) (Slow Pack). Other Morpeth Harriers Senior Women in action were Jane Kirby (97th) (Slow Pack), Carol Parry (182nd) (Slow Pack), Sue Smith (186th) (Slow Pack), and Frances Naylor (267th) (Slow Pack). The Senior Women’s event had 341 finishers. Holly Peck continued her excellent Harrier League form, when she won the Under 15 Girls race by seventeen seconds from close rival Sophie Robson of Jarrow and Hebburn. Peck, like Robson ran from the Fast Pack, and was easily the fastest performer on the day, and in addition led Morpeth to a slender two point on the day team victory over Houghton. Further team support came from Lily Heaton, who finished eighth from the Fast Pack, posting the seventh fastest time of the day, and eleventh placed Ella Duffield, who ran an excellent race from the Slow Pack. Other Morpeth Under 15 Girl performances came from Hannah Pountney (18th) (Slow Pack), and Lauren Cummings (35th) (Fast Pack). Despite excellent runs from the Fast Pack, which saw them finish second and third respectively, and clocking the fastest and second fastest times, Morpeth’s Daniel Dixon and Ross Charlton were disappointed to see their club just lose out for a team victory on the day to Durham City. Morpeth’s third and closing count came from Thomas Cunningham, who finished 22nd from the Fast Pack. Further Morpeth Under 15 Boys performances came from Andrew Hudspith (36th) (Fast Pack), and Bradley Brown (37th) (Fast Pack). Despite the absence of three leading lights, Taylor Glover, Rory Leonard, and Kieran Hedley, Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Men still managed to produce an on the day team victory, albeit on countback over close rivals Durham City, by virtue of their closing counter Matthew Waterfield, finishing one place and four seconds ahead of their closing scorer, and was the third fastest overall. The Morpeth team charge was led by Alex Cunningham, who finished an excellent third from the Slow Pack, and helped himself to an on the day Harrier League medal. Second counter for the club was Joe Ramshaw, who finished seventh overall, and was second fastest on the day, and who has really settled in well at Morpeth, following his summer transfer from Gosforth Harriers. Another excellent Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Men’s performer was Connor Marshall, who finished fifteenth from the Fast Pack, and was tenth fastest overall. Dylan Davies and Ben Walker, both produced superb performances to finish third and fourth respectively in the Under 13 Boys event. Running from the Fast Pack, they were also third and fourth fastest, and led their club to an excellent team victory over Durham City, with Sam Tate producing a solid Slow Pack run to finish sixth as their third and closing scorer. Other Morpeth Under 13 Boys performances came from Callum Rowell (18th) (Slow Pack), James Tilley (39th) (Slow Pack), Jack Barrett (47th) (Fast Pack), and Bobby Stone (55th) (Fast Pack). Led home by Gracie Hufton, who ran well from the Medium Pack to finish twelfth in the combined Under 17/Under 20 Women’s event, Morpeth Harriers finished as fourth team behind Birtley AC. Further good team support came from Abby Sheldon (17th) (Medium Pack), and Alison Brown (23rd) (Fast Pack). Unfortunately, Morpeth could not turn out a full scoring squad in the Under 13 Girls event.
Fay Smith and Mia Belton finished 47th and 49th respectively from the Slow and Fast Packs. Morpeth Harriers had six athletes competing in the non-scoring Under 11 events for Boys and Girls. They had four in the Boys race, with Joseph Hudspith, Ryan Davies, Harry Jackson and Joe Dixon finishing 6th, 12th, 21st, and 84th. In the Girls event Sophia Cunningham finished 26th, and Keira Peck finished 35th. Overall, certainly a good day at the office for the club, with some truly superb performances, on a day certainly not made for the soft hearted. Ady Whitwam of Morpeth Harriers produced an excellent performance
to finish a well-earned seventh in the Senior Men’s event at the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships on Saturday 7th January 2017, at Lightwater Valley, near Ripon. Whitwam, who was also the Veteran Man, was in the top ten in the field after the first mile, and eventually progressed to eighth, and eventually got into seventh place, and was closely chasing down fifth and sixth places throughout the final mile. At the finish, he was only a mere twenty-three seconds adrift of the minor medals. In this form, Whitwam is optimistic, barring any injury worries, that he will compete well in the forthcoming Army Cross Country Championships at Sandhurst on February 1st, and the English National Cross Country Championships at the end of February. He is now also on the fringe of possible selection for the Inter Counties Cross Country for Yorkshire, having last been selected for that competition seventeen years ago, when running in the colours of Kent. Despite feeling the obvious joy of leading Great Britain home on his debut,
Morpeth Harrier Scott Beattie was also left feeling a little disappointed in the fact that he finished eighth out of seventeen National representatives in the Junior Men’s 6k event, at the annual Great Edinburgh Cross Country, held in Holyrood Park on Saturday 7th January 2017. Disappointed because an unfortunate fall in the second half of a top class race, cost him several places, some of which he reclaimed, however the act of trying to do so left him with a certain degree of oxygen debt, which cost him at least a place in the top five, which were filled by a mixture of USA and European athletes, whose teams took first and second places respectively, ahead of the Beattie led Great Britain. When interviewed afterwards, Beattie reflected on the fact that he had been very nervous in the week leading up to the event, however when he had got onto the start - line, had felt electrified by the occasion, and was quite relaxed once the race had begun. At the time of his fall, he had been going really well, holding onto a place in the top four, and always looking prominent. On a difficult twisting section at the foot of the famous “ Arthur’s Seat”, he seemed to hit something, perhaps a rock, which floored him, and had left him chasing around a 100m deficit. Try as he may he attempted to pull something back, however as a result of all of this, he had very little to offer in the last kilometre, and was forced to settle for a final position of eighth. A compensatory factor, is that he led the Great Britain team home to third team place on his debut, and in front of a BBC televised audience. The winner of the Junior Men’s event was USA’s Noah Affolder, who led them to team victory, posting a winning time of 19m29s, which gave him a five second margin over Europe’s Miguel Gonzalez. Third place went to another USA athlete Conor Lundy, who posted a time of 19m36s. Beattie’s clocking of 19m48s, indicates that he was still not far adrift of the leaders when he eventually crossed the finish line. Fellow Brits behind Beattie as team counters were Jonathan Shields (Sheffield & Dearne) (10th), Hugo Milner (Derby) (11th), and Sol Sweeney (Perth Strathtay) (13th). Outside the British counters were Sam Stevens (Leicester Coritanian) and Alex Yee (Kent), who were 14th and 17th respectively. Another Morpeth Harrier in Cross Country action in Edinburgh was Jonny Taylor, who finished seventeenth in the Senior Men’s 8k event, which was also televised. Tees-side based Taylor, was never quite in touch with the leading protagonist’s, that included his GB team-mate Callum Hawkins of Kilbarchan, who finished second overall, just losing out to USA’s Leonard Korir by one second in a close finish, however he was an accomplished fifth counter in a second placed GB squad led home by Hawkins, and could feel well satisfied with his performance at such a level. Whilst Korir won in 24m03s, Taylor clocked 25m26s, and GB finished second on countback, courtesy of sixth counter Charlie Hulson of Sale Harriers, who finished one place and a mere two seconds adrift of Taylor. Other counters in the GB team were newly crowned Sir Mo Farah (Newham) (7th) 24m49s, Andy Vernon (Aldershot) (12th) 25m13s, and Dewi Griffiths (Swansea) (14th) 25m21s. Other non - scoring Brits taking part in the Senior Men’s event were Alex George (Gloucester) (20th) 25m31s, Ben Connor (Derby) (23rd) 25m37s, Jack Martin (Stockport) (24th) 25m42s, Ellis Cross (Aldershot) (27th) 26m06s, and Graham Rush (Cheltenham) (28th) 26m20s. Nearly 170 keen runners lined up for the annual Morpeth 11k Road Race,
sponsored by Linden Homes, on New Year’s Day. For the second year in succession, the field were led home by Morpeth Harrier Peter Newton, who crossed the finish line on High Stanners, posting a time of 33m28s, which proved to be twenty - four seconds faster than his 2016 winning time. Second place went to Newton’s Morpeth colleague Carl Avery, who was thirteen seconds adrift, despite sharing a lead throughout most of the event, and was only dropped once the pair had entered Carlisle Park, which was where Newton scented a second triumph. It was also the second time that Avery had finished second, having been runner up to Elswick’s Tadele Geremew in 2015. Third place went to Gateshead Harrier Callum Johnson, who clocked 34m05s, which was fourteen seconds faster than his 2016 time, when he had finished fourth behind Newton. Fourth place on this occasion went to Morpeth’s Sam Hancox, who posted a finishing time of 34m39s. Morpeth Harriers also filled fifth, sixth, and seventh places, courtesy of Thomas Straughan, Ian Harding and Lewis Timmins, who posted times of 34m58s, 35m01s, and 35m18s respectively. Eighth place went to North Shields Poly’s Graham Cook (36m39s), ninth place went to Jarrow & Hebburn’s Brendan McMillan (36m55s), and the top ten finishers were completed by Macclesfield’s Mark Walker (37m07s). One place behind Walker was leading Veteran Man Jeff Prest of Trafford AC, who clocked 37m43s. Morpeth Harriers also provided the winner of the Women’s race, when Over 35 Veteran Jane Hodgson finished 25th overall in 41m18s, one place and sixteen seconds ahead of second placed Woman Gina Rutherford, now running in the colours of Jarrow and Hebburn following her transfer from North Shields Poly. Third placed Woman was Morpeth’s Lorna MacDonald, who finished in 31st place overall in 42m18s, five places and forty-two seconds ahead of younger sister Catriona, who was fourth placed Woman. Completing the top five in the Women’s event was Edinburgh AC’s Madeline Bell, who finished 40th overall, posting a finishing time of 43m30s. Morpeth Harriers wish to thank Race Sponsors Linden Homes and George Patterson for their continued generosity, Morpeth Rugby Club for the use of their premises as Race Headquarters, Racenumber.co.uk for providing their online entry service, Dave Todd for First Aid provision by Tees-side Voluntary Services, and members and friends for assistance with on the day course marshalling, and UK Athletics officials for their valuable help. Conditions for the event were generally good, with a cool breeze, however later finishing runners were forced to endure some sleety rainfall. |
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