Less than 24 hours following her excellent competitive debut for Morpeth Harriers
in their opening Northern Senior League Division 2 E meeting at York, Under 17 Throws specialist Charlotte Pickering –Pruvot was in winning action at Middlesbrough Sports Village, in the annual Cyril Elliot Open Track and Field Meeting, on Sunday 8th May. Charlotte produced a superb best of 27.33m to win the Discus. We can now confirm that following further scutiny and clarification,
that the result of the Under 17 Men's Discus at the first NEYDL meeting at Whitley Bay, has been correctly revised to read that the event was won by Morpeth's Ruaridh Lang, with a best throw of 39.15m, and that clubmate Charlie Chisholm took the B event, with a best throw of 27.81m. Well Done to Both Athletes. It definitely felt like Track and Field season had finally arrived at the new University Athletics Facility, at Heslington, near York on Saturday 7th May, as Morpeth Harriers embarked on their 2016 Northern Athletics Senior League programme, by finishing in a well earned fourth place, in their opening round match in Division 2E. Unfortunately both the club’s Men’s and Women’s squads had been decimated by late withdrawals for varied reasons, some valid, some not so, which gave respective Team Managers David Swinburne and Mike Bateman some much unwanted headaches in having to seek last minute substitutes in order to fill gaps, in order to achieve a respectable start to their league campaign. It did mean that some athletes were asked to try relatively unfamiliar events in search of valued points, and thankfully with a great deal of willingness and flexibility in motion, a very creditable result was achieved at the end of the day. Morpeth Harriers had one of the youngest squads that they have ever assembled, and the way they got down to the task in hand on a warm sunny day, was very much there to be admired. Whilst host club City of York proved dominant in winning the match by the significant margin of 104 points, only a mere 24 points divided Gateshead Harriers, Skyrac and Morpeth, who were respective second, third, and fourth placed clubs. On the day the Morpeth Men’s squad managed three A string, and four B string victories, with the Women achieving one A string, and three B string victories. Sprinters David Storey and Sean O’Hara, who is still an Under 17 athlete, achieved a superb double victory in the Men’s 100m, both posting respective times of 11.3s, which were also both new personal bests. They very nearly pulled off a second double victory in the 200m, however Storey just missed out for a win in the A race with 23.2s, whilst O’Hara won the B race in a very impressive 22.9s. Again as in the 100m it was new personal bests for them both. Morpeth achieved a second double victory in the Men’s 5000m, with Thomas Straughan very clearly taking the A race in 15m52.7s, a new personal best, and Robert Balmbra just securing a win in the B race by one second, posting a time of 16m55.0s. Balmbra had another B race victory in the earlier run 1500m, where he clocked 4m32.0s, backing up Jordan Scott’s excellent 4m20.6s, for second place in a very competitive A string. Mark Snowball, who has recently run an excellent series of 10k races on the road, certainly showed his versatility, and willingness to try out new events, when he convincingly won the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase in 10m53s, taking an early bath at the water jump during the process, and clearly showed a keenness for gaining points for his club, when finishing fifth in the A string 400m Hurdles in 69.3s. Morpeth also gained solid results from the 400m/800m partnerships of Under 20 athlete Phillip Winkler, and Under 17 athlete Matthew Waterfield. Winkler was fourth in the A race in the 400m, and third in the A race of the 800m, with respective clockings 54.6s. and 2m03.3s, and in the B races, Waterfield finished respectively second in 54.0s, and third in 2m10.5s. It was Waterfield’s first experience of 400m, and he can take added pleasure that his 800m time gave him new figures for the two lap event. to add to the club’s rising tally. Morpeth were hoping for a set of excellent results from the Men’s Field events, especially the long throws; however they were dealt a very heavy blow to their fortunes, when unfortunately newcomer Craig Charlton became a late withdrawal because of family reasons, and was unable to travel. This left Steven Appleby as the clubs only recognised thrower, and he was forced to do the bulk of the work in this section. Appleby’s best individual performance in positional terms came in the Discus, where he achieved a best of 34.12m to finish fourth, this being his best performance since 2010. In the Javelin, although he was sixth A string, he did produce a lifetime best of 20.20m. He finished sixth in the Hammer with 19.53m, and 8.64m in the Shot Putt saw him finish fifth. In the unfortunate Charlton’s absence Thomas Straughan competed in the B string Javelin, managing a best of 7.08m for fifth place, and also in the B string Shot Putt, achieving a best of 5.14m for sixth place, which added more points to their clubs rising tally, small as they were. Once again it was the oldest of the Women’s squad who did a lion’s share of the work in the Field, with Claire Reid taking part in no less than four throwing events. Reid’s best results came in the Discus and Shot Putt, where she finished second in both A strings, with best efforts of 27.11m, and 10.45m. She was well backed up in these events by newcomer Charlotte Pickering – Pruvot. The Under 17 athlete finished second in both B string events, with respective best efforts of 23.41m, and 8.93m. Reid also finished third in the Hammer (28.15m), and second in the B string Javelin (16.36m), backing up Under 20 athlete Abby Sheldon’s A string effort of 20.69m, which saw her finish a well deserved third, and achieving a new personal best. On the Track, Emma Holt’s win in the A string 3000m was undoubtedly one of the clubs best achievements on the day. She won with seven seconds to spare over Gateshead Harrier Mary Ferrier in a time of 10m27.3s. Holt later went on to finish second in the A string 1500m in 4m57.2s, running the event for the very first time. Backing Holt up for Morpeth in the respective B string events were Under 17 athlete Gracie Hufton, and Under 20 athlete Abby Sheldon, who took respective victories in 12m25.8s, and 5m29.2s. It was not only Hufton’s Northern League debut, it was also her first experience of running 3000m on the track, and this was a truly splendid effort, and a victory was truly heaven sent, and richly deserved by this hard working young talent. Sheldon and Hufton also shared success in the 800m, with the former finishing fourth in the A race in 2m34.1s, and the latter finishing fourth in the B string in 2m48.9s. Back with the Women’s Field events, Under 17 athlete Jessica Young-Rogers achieved two excellent second places in the A string Long Jump and A string High Jump events. She produced a personal best of 5.06m in the Long Jump, and cleared 1.45m in the High Jump to equal her best ever figures. Fellow Under 17 athlete Katie Hilton finished third in the B string Long Jump with 4.34m, a personal best, and another Under 17 talent Harriet Priest cleared 1.40m, to take second place in the B string High Jump. The Women’s Triple Jump saw Charlotte Pickering Pruvot finish as third A string, with a best of 9.26m, and Katie Hilton was third B string with 8.40m. Jessica Young-Rogers finished third in the A string 100m in 12.8s, and was well backed up by Naomi Arkle, who finished as third B string in 13.3s. Under 17 athlete Arkle finished third in the 200m A race in 27.5s. Hannah Brown and Harriet Priest proved to b a formidable pairing i n the 400m Hurdles for Morpeth for the very first time over the distance. Brown finished second in the A race in 75.7s; however Priest went one better by taking the B race in a faster 70.9s. Priest later finished third in the A string 100m Hurdles in 17.2s. The Women’s 4 x 100m Relay saw Morpeth Harriers finish a close third in 51.8s, courtesy of Katie Hilton, Jessica Young-Rogers, Hannah Brown, and Naomi Arkle, who are all Under 17 athletes. Morpeth Harriers Women’s 4 x 400m squad comprising Abby Sheldon, Gracie Hufton, Emma Holt, and Naomi Arkle, combined well to also finish third in 4m40.4s. Summarising the overall result, this was a good performance by those
who turned out in both Male and Female events, and in competitive terms gave their all in pursuit of valuable points, and this was very much a positive pointer for what could be achieved over the remaining three fixtures. Success will only come from commitment however, and while that was no doubt in abundance from those who competed at York, they were largely a young squad, some of them with little experience, who very much need the support of some of the older squad members to augment what has the makings of a very good end result. FINAL MATCH RESULT (Subject to further Scrutiny) 1st City of York 461.5pts, 2nd Gateshead Harriers 357.5pts, 3rd Skyrac 345pts, 4th Morpeth Harriers 333pts, 5th Wallsend/Blyth 281pts, 6th New Marske 161pts Posting a finishing time of 32m10s, Morpeth Harrier Sam Hancox led a Morpeth one, two, three home in the annual Les Allcorn 10k at Hulne Park in Alnwick on the evening of Tuesday 3rd May. It was Sam’s second 10k victory in the space of a month, having won the Blyth Valley event at the beginning of April, and he also bettered the time that he had run in 2015 by seventy nine seconds, when he had finished third to club colleague Karl Taylor. Lewis Timmins of Morpeth Harriers was second home in 32m26s, and completing the club trio in third place was Mark Snowball, who clocked 34m55s. It proved to be a superb night for the Hancox family, when Sam’s Father Rob finished fifth in 37m02s, and was first Veteran Man, bettering his 2015 time in the event by twenty seven seconds, and his placement by five. Next home for Morpeth Harriers was Mike Winter, who finished 16th in 40m03s, and was fourth home in his Over 40 category. Other Morpeth Harriers finishers in the 139 strong field of finishers, (14 more than 2015), were as follows, Paul Banks (19th) (6th O/40 Man) 40m31s, Gary Mason (43rd) (14th O/40 Man) 44m19s, Kevin Bray (46th) (9th O/50 Man) 44m39s, Norman Clark (71st) (5th O/60 Man), Tracy Kenny (77th) (10th Lady) (3rd O/35 Lady) 49m07s, Carol Parry (98th) (20th Lady) (5th O/45 Lady) 53m22s, Susan Smith (99th) (21st Lady) (6th O/45 Lady) 53m24s, and Clare Hiscock (124th) (37th Lady) (12th O/35 Lady) 58m39s. Morpeth Harriers very easily won the team race, ahead of hosts Alnwick Harriers, with Blyth Running Club taking third spot. Daniel Dixon of Morpeth Harriers was a very clear winner of the
Les Allcorn Junior Run, which was run in conjunction with the 10k. The Under 15 athlete, posted a finishing time of 8m49s, putting him a good twelve seconds clear of Alnwick Harrier Ben Kelly, who was first Under 17 Man. Third place for the second year running was Morpeth Harrier Ross Charlton, who finished in 9m35s, and was second Under 15 Boy. Other Morpeth Harrier finishers were Callum Rowell (19th) (4th U13 Boy) 11m11s, and Harry Jackson (29th) (3rd U11 Boy) 11m57s. The Junior Run had a total of 81 finishers. Early morning rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of athletes competing in the first round North East Youth Development League Division 1 match, held at Churchill Playing Fields, Whitley Bay, and hosted by newly promoted club North Shields Poly, on Sunday 1st May. It also saw many athletes competing in brand new older age groups, and some in the youngest age groups experiencing Track and Field athletics for the very first time. Some of those athletes were from Morpeth Harriers, who were also led by brand new Team Managers, Steve Garrett (Male), and Mark Brown (Female), who had gained some initial experience, by acting as assistants last year, and both were hoping for an encouraging beginning from their respective charges, who this season are defending the league title that the club had won at Middlesbrough last July, albeit with a much changed personnel, with some athletes having become too old for the competition, and were now knocking on the door of the Senior team. Thankfully Morpeth Harriers did make an encouraging start to the season, finishing a close second, and only a mere twelve points adrift of very strong winners New Marske Harriers, with the only other Division 1 Champions, since the league’s 2014 formation, Blaydon Harriers, slightly adrift in third place. The clubs successes were spread across the two genders and three age groups, which saw no less than 21 A string and 11 B string, with 8 of them proving to be well earned double victories. Under 17 Men’s sprinter Sean O’Hara certainly proved himself to be in excellent form, by taking the 100m A race in 11.6s, with David Thomas providing superb backup by taking the B race in 12.7s. Morpeth’s Mitchell Cryer also had an excellent run, clocking 13.7s as a non scoring competitor in the 100m. O’Hara did well also in the 400m, which he was running for the first time, as he was a clear winner in 52.9s. Middle distance specialist Kieran Hedley gave superb versatile B string support by winning in 56.3s, also his first attempt at the distance. Not far behind Hedley in terms of time, were the clubs non scorers Joe Dowd (56.5s), and Matthew Waterfield (57.8s), who were also both running the distance for the first time, having now joined the Under 17 ranks. Hedley had another moment of personal glory when he won the Under 17 Men’s 800m in 2m05.2s, and was well backed up by Joe Dowd’s win in the B string in 2m12.5s. The club again proved strong in this event, with non scorers Matthew Waterfield and Jamie Duguid both making very respectable clockings of 2m13.5s, and 2m19.6s, and both personal best performances. Morpeth’s Connor Marshall took the Under 17 Men’s 1500m in 4m44.4s, winning by five seconds from his nearest challenger, which was agonisingly just short of his personal best. The club secured two excellent Under 17 Men’s Field Event double victories, courtesy of Ruaridh Lang and Charlie Chisholm in the Discus and Shot Putt events, however exact distances are still requiring clarification due to officials recording errors, the Morpeth pair were very worthy winners however in both cases. David Thomas added two A string Field Event victories to his Track B string victory, when he won both the Long Jump, with a best of 5.85m, and the Triple Jump with 12.0m, the Long Jump performance being a fractional new personal best. Backing him up in the B string Long Jump was Mitchell Cryer, who finished second, with a best of 4.18m. Morpeth Harriers other winner in the Under 17 Men’s Field events was Matthew Waterfield, who won the High Jump. The clubs other Field Event performer in this age group was Jack Andrews, who was second in the A string Javelin with a best throw of 22.25m. Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Men rounded off their very competitive day, when they finished a very close second to Blaydon Harriers in 51.7s, in the 4 x 100m Relay. There were some excellent performances by the clubs Under 17 Women, who managed no less than four A string victories, and four B string winning performances. Jessica Young-Rogers won the 100m A string in 13.3s, and agonisingly just lost out in the 200m with 28.0s. Giving excellent winning B string support however was Naomi Arkle, who very much enjoyed victory in the 100m in 13.7s, and also in the 200m in 28.9s. She also finished second in the B string Shot Putt with 7.92m, which was a new personal best, giving excellent support to Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot’s excellent winning A string performance of 10.71m. Arkle made her day very much complete however by helping Morpeth’s Under 17 Women’s 4 x 100m Relay squad to victory in 52.8s. Pickering-Pruvot also finished second in the A string Discus, with a best of 24.29m, which was a new personal best. Back on the track, Hannah Brown superbly won the Under 17 Women’s 300m in 53.50s, and narrowly missed out for victory in the 80m Hurdles with her clocking of 13.7s. Morpeth’s Katie Hilton, who produced an excellent 14.0s as a non scoring 100m competitor, produced a winning performance in the Long Jump with 4.53m, which was a new personal best performance, which saw an excellent double victory for the club provided by Hannah Brown, who took the B string with 4.06m, also a new personal best. Jessica Young-Rogers cleared 1.45m, which equalled her personal best, to take second place in the Under 17 Women’s A string High Jump. In her first Under 17 Women’s Track outing since moving from Under 15 age level, Gracie Hufton performed superbly to finish second in the 1500m in an excellent new personal best time of 5m36.7s. It was certainly a good day for Morpeth Harriers Under 15 Girl athletes, who managed no less than five A string victories. Sprinter Nadine Arkle, younger sister of Naomi, took the example of her older sibling, and carved out two excellent wins in the 100m and 200m, with excellent respective clockings of 14.2s and 28.5s. She had good Morpeth B string support in both of these events by Grace Bathgate who finished third and second respectively in 15.3s, and 31.8s. Morpeth also had two non scorers in the 200m in Charlotte Bruce (33.8s), and Lauren Cummings (34.7s), who were both first timers at the distance. In the Under 15 Girls 1500m, Morpeth’s Holly Peck renewed rivalry with Darlington’s India Pentland. The pair had not faced each other for a couple of years as Peck has only just moved up an age group, and the talented duo made for a very interesting contest throughout the early part of the three and three quarter lap contest. Eventually Peck took the initiative to steal away from her rival, to win in 5m03.1s, which gave her a four second winning margin, and was only a fraction short of her new personal best run four days previously. Morpeth Harriers B string competitor Lauren Cummings clocked 5m47.5s, to finish as fourth B string, and eighth fastest in the race. Another excellent Under 15 Girl victory for Morpeth came courtesy of Lily Heaton in the 800m, where she clocked 2m30.4s, which was just under a second winning margin from Darlington’s Ellie Phillips, and was a new personal best by two seconds. Morpeth B string support came from Ella Maley, who finished fourth in 3m07.7s. On to the Under 15 Girls Field Events, where Morpeth’s Lottie Hume had an outstanding day. She won the Discus with a best of 19.50m, was second in the Shot Putt with 8.50m, and third in the Javelin with 21.19m, which was a new personal best. B string support respectively came from Cara Wray (3rd) (7.25m), Lily Heaton (2nd) (5.26m), and Grace Coffey (2nd) (9.24m). In all three cases they were trying these events for the first time. Many of the clubs Under 13 athletes in both Male and Female genders were experiencing Track and Field athletics for the very first time, and on the day for some it was very much a learning curve. Nevertheless there were some very encouraging performances, which did give support to the team effort. One athlete from the Under 13 Girls section who did shine for Morpeth, was the more experienced Rhiannon Hedley, who won the 1500m with eleven seconds to spare over her closest rival in 5m26.1s. Lola Jackson provided excellent B string support by finishing second in 6m30.9s. Hedley also had an excellent B string win in the Shot Putt, with a best of 5.41m, which was the first time she had done the event. Good points were scored in the A string by Niamh Sanderson, who finished third with 5.58m. Showing great appetite Hedley also finished third in the A string High Jump, with her clearance of 1.05m. Another Morpeth athlete with great appetite was Mia Belton, who finished fourth in the A string 70m Hurdles with 17.50s, and also fourth in the A string Javelin with 2.14m. The Under 13 Girls Long Jump saw Morpeth’s Orla Callaghan finish as fifth A string with 3.05m, and Katie Fraser giving B string support by finishing sixth with 2.08m. Morpeth’s Under 13 Girls 4 x100m squad finished fourth in 69.20s. Bobby Stone and Koffi Avornyo were the star performers in Morpeth Harriers small band of nine Under 13 Boy athletes. Stone’s best performance was in his much favoured Long Jump, which he won with his best effort of 4.00m, albeit by the margin of 3cm over Darlington’s George Peacock. Making his Track and Field debut for Morpeth, Zachary Phillip did well to finish as third B string with 3.19m. Stone just missed out by one second for a second victory in the 100m with his clocking of 14.7s, which was a new personal best. Backing him up well in the B string was Avornyo, who finished third in 15.1s. Avornyo did have his own personal moment of glory however in the High Jump, which he won with his clearance of 1.29m. Ben Walker ran well to finish second in the A string 1500m in 5m17.0s, and the excellent B string support came from Jack Barrett, who won in 5m56.3s. Josh Adams and Jack Livingstone were Morpeth’s representatives in the Under 13 Boys 200m. Adams finished fifth in the A string in 32.7s, with Livingstone placing third in the B string in 33.0s. Jack Barrett clocked 38.6s as a non scoring athlete in the 200m. In the Under 13 Boys 800m, Jack Livingstone clocked 2m53.7s when finishing fourth in the A string, and Zachary Phillip finished second in the B string with an identical time. Oliver Bruce was a non scoring Morpeth athlete in the 800m with a clocking of 2m54.8s. Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Boys 4 x 100m squad performed well to finish second to host club North Shields Poly, with their clocking of 62.4s. The only disappointing aspect of the day for Morpeth Harriers was the poor turnout from their Under 15 Boys,
who managed to cover what events they could with only three athletes at their disposal. Luke Haxell finished an excellent second in the Javelin with 24.85m. Andrew Knight was up against a very formidable opponent in Luke Allen in both the Shot and Discus, where he finished in respective second and third places, with best efforts of 11.25m and 24.93m. Bradley Brown lined up for Morpeth in the 300m and 800m, finishing fifth and fourth respectively in 46.6s and 2m30.5s. Morpeth Harriers Team Managers Garrett and Brown felt that their respective squads had all performed well on the day, and that the only major disappointment had been the lack of turnout from Under 15 Boys, which on the day had left too big a hole to fill, and it was left to the rest to chase valuable points, however on a positive note it is hoped to have a much better commitment over the remaining three matches. Both reflected on the fact that some athletes had warmed to being flexible in their choice of events on the day, and had discovered that they had a talent for events that they had not previously considered, and had performed well, and indeed had enjoyed the experience, for which as respective Team Managers had been most pleasing and encouraging to see. Garrett felt that defending a title is a major thing, and had faith that the squad will fight on in the forthcoming matches, and that the points deficit on the day was not great, and a better result can, and should be achieved if flexibility and general all round commitment is maintained. Both Managers thanked parents for their help and understanding on the day, especially with the very youngest, who had never competed at such a level before, and had done well. They were also very pleased with their respective Under 17 charges, who had certainly made a superb and very mature effort in leading the quest for points, and had shown a very responsible and supportive attitude towards their much younger club colleagues. The next North East Youth Development League Division 1 fixture is at Darlington on Sunday May 22nd 2016 . FINAL MATCH RESULT (Subject to further Scrutiny) 1st New Marske 632pts, 2nd Morpeth Harriers 620pts, 3rd Blaydon Harriers 588pts, 4th Harrogate & Wetherby 561pts, 5th North Shields Poly 545pts, 6th Darlington Harriers 292pts. |
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