Morpeth Harriers Men retained the Sherman Cup at Temple Park, South Shields on a blustery Saturday afternoon while the club’s Women finished fifth in the matching Davison Shield competition.
An annual test of the overall strength of a club’s resources, the Sherman Cup, for male Seniors and Juniors, and the Davison Shield, for female counterparts, offers opportunities for competition over cross country in some five categories: Under 13s, U/15s, U/17s, Senior and Veteran athletes, with the first three in each category for each club to count. Holders of the Sherman Cup from the last time it was held in 2020, Morpeth were looking to repeat their success but faced as expected some stiff opposition from many of their local rivals, including Gateshead Harriers, Sunderland Harriers, North Shields Polytechnic and Gosforth Harriers. In the event there were two individual and two team victories, which, when added to other scores, meant the club triumphed by a narrow margin over nearest challengers Elswick Harriers with Gateshead finishing in third place. The first individual victory came in the U15 boys, with Joe Close first home and supported by Oliver Tomlinson in 3rd and Elliot Mavir in 17th, the team finishing in 2nd place behind North Shields. Stephen Craske offered further support in 20th. The first team victory came as expected in the U17 boys, with Bertie Marr heading the Morpeth charge this time in 2nd place, Ryan Davies in 4th and Matt Walton 7th, with James Tilley also 9th. There was a good turn out in the U13 boys, with a number of individuals running their first cross country of the season while also at the bottom of the age category. Daniel Vermaas was first home for the club in 23rd, with good packing from Thomas Roche in 24th and Evan Laude 25th. Ben Moll was 33rd, William Hawkins 45th and Jamie Ellis 47th, with the scoring count putting the team in 6th place. After so few U13s have run in the NEHL, it was great to see so many out to support the club. Earlier, the first run but non-counting U11 fixture saw Jacob Thompson (11th) and Eli MacSparrow (53rd) have their first exposure to this kind of event. The Senior Men’s race saw a dominant performance from the club’s Senior Men, with the club’s second individual victory coming from Lancaster University student Mathew Briggs with a gun to tape victory. Mathew was chased for much of the race by club colleague Sam Hancox until an unfortunate collision at half way saw Sam take a tumble and him subsequently caught by a small group who had been working to close him down. He did well to maintain 4th position but did unfortunately finish outside of the medals. The team’s final counter was Thomas Innes in 12th, with further supporting runs coming from Connor Marshall in 14th, Joe Anderson in 20th, Liam Roarty in 34th, Jake Parmley in 84th and Shaun Land, 109th. In the same race, Lee Bennett led the club’s Veteran Men’s effort, finishing in an excellent 53rd place, with the scoring count completed by Richard Glennie, 119th, and Stephen Johnstone, 207th. Paul Brown was 219th and Richard Kirby 231st, with some 364 athletes finishing the course in the biggest field of the day. Missing several of our more experienced veterans, the Veteran’s team finished down in 16th but did enough to guarantee the final result, and it was great to see the scoring three picking up a team medal. With the aim to score the lowest total of points, Morpeth finished on 24 ahead of Elswick Harriers in 2nd on 31 and Gateshead Harriers in 3rd on 40. Despite not fielding full teams in all five categories, there was the consolation at least of one team victory in the Women’s Davison Shield competition, with a strong turn-out from the club’s Senior Women producing a comprehensive triumph. Perhaps surprisingly, North East Counties Champion Cat Macdonald was beaten into 2nd for the first time this season over the country by Elswick’s Amy Fuller, who finished some thirty seconds ahead with a strong run. It was very much a family show for the club, however, with sisters Lindsey in 10th and Lorna in 11th. A powerful run by Gemma Floyd, who finished 7th, saw her also pick up an individual bronze medal in the Vet’s. Behind these four, Lizzie Rank was 26th, Sarah Lawson 34th and Tayla Murdy 65th. The club’s Veteran numbers were complete with runs from Anna Walker, 47th and Margaret Macdonald, 184th, with the club’s Vets finishing in 16th. The other complete team came in the U13 girls, where no less than eight youngsters turned out for the club and the team finished in 6th. Emma Tomlinson was first back in 9th, with Molly Roche in 13th and Iris Dungait 16th. These three were backed up by Megan Potrac (20th), Grace Cunningham (22nd), Sophie Pledger (29th), Faye Heatley (30th) and Rosie Heaton (34th). Disappointingly, the club missed one scoring counter in the U17/20 Women, with Abi Leiper running well for 5th and Kate Gaffing in 10th, but there was no U/15 team. These absences meant the club was unable to finish higher than 5th, one place higher than the 2019/20 season. The competition was, perhaps surprisingly, run by Tyne Bridge Harriers, the only outfit able to field complete teams in each category. Great to retain the Sherman Cup then, but the moral overall is clearly that complete teams win medals, and that should certainly be a target for next year. Meanwhile in news from America there were three fine runs by Morpeth Harriers who all attend American universities. Perhaps the most noticeable was by San Francisco Academy of Art student James Young, who ran a remarkable 3 minutes 55.20 seconds for the indoor mile at the Music City Challenge in Nashville, Tennessee. Tulsa University student Scott Beattie ran 7:49.43 for 3 kms at the Badgers Windy City Invite in Chicago. Over the same weekend, Oklahoma student Rory Leonard also ran a PB of 8:12.52 for the same distance at the Husky Classic in Seattle. (In passing, I can’t help note that American races all seem to have much better names!). The second meeting of the Gateshead Indoor Series, organised by Gateshead Harriers, and held over two evenings at Gateshead College, took place on February 2 and 3.
Five Morpeth Harriers were in track action on the first day. Three athletes were from the Under 17 age group. They were Sam Dent, Freya Caygill, and relative newcomer Jack Dinning, all coached by Morpeth Sprint Coach Eddie Hedley, who also had Under 13 and Under 15 siblings Kyle and Conner Phillips tasting action, the former for the first time indoors. Events were over 60m, and Dent, began his evening well by producing a personal best of 8.1s, which was seventh fastest of the first round. He went on to finish sixth fastest of the second round with 8.16s. Caygill was seventh fastest in her first-round effort of 8.54s and progressed to be fifth fastest with her later effort of 8.46s. Dinning, enjoying his first taste of competition, was fifth fastest with his first-round effort of 7.86s, and his second-round effort of 7.85s saw him emerge as fourth fastest. Kyle Phillips was fourth fastest from his Under 13 age group, with his debut clocking of 9.48s, and elder brother Conner was sixth fastest Under 15 Boy with his effort of 8.06s. Representing Lancaster University, Matthew Briggs, finished 75th in a field of 279 runners in the Men’s Long Race, run over an approximate distance of 10k, at the BUCS annual Cross- Country Championships, held at Greenford in the London Borough of Ealing on Saturday. Briggs clocked a time of 37m50s, behind race winner William Battershill of Birmingham University, who clocked a winning time of 33m46s.
The NEMAA Cross Country Championships took place in challenging conditions at the Rising Sun Country Park in Wallsend on Saturday afternoon, with some six Morpeth veterans taking part and winning between them three individual and one team Gold, and one individual Bronze. The first race of the day saw all-conquering Jane Hodgson retain her title when finishing ahead of the rest of the field in the Women’s and Men Over 65s competition, completing the course in a time of 21 minutes 28 seconds ahead of nearest rival Kim Simpson of Gateshead (22:13). Over 65 Nicholson placed third in 24:14 behind race winner Stanley Owen of Salford Harriers (23:41) and Brian Martin of Quakers Running Club in third (23:45). Never a fan of cross country, club colleague Gavin Bayne was nonetheless unlucky to miss out on a medal in fourth (24:45). Winning their respective O/75 and O/80 categories were club stalwarts Paul Bentley (31:21) and Walter Ryder (47:15), with Ryder having made his annual visit South from Wester Ross to take part at the ripe old age of 84. The team of Nicholson, Bayne and Bentley also won a team Over 65 Gold. There was only Morpeth Harrier taking part in the longer Veteran Men Over 35 race, with Jason Dawson 37th and 9th Over 50 in 34:49. The race itself was won by Bristol and West AC O/40 Jarlath McKenna in 27:53 with Stephen Jackson of Sunderland Harriers second (28:11) and Darrell Hastie of Gala Harriers third (28:32). Northumberland Schools took pride of place by taking the overall winners title at the
Northern Schools Inter County Cross Country Championships held at Middlesbrough’s Stewarts Park on Saturday, winning by a margin of ten points over second place Cumbria, with Durham and North Yorkshire having a close battle for third and fourth placings. Amongst the Northumberland successes were several athletes from Morpeth Harriers, notably Senior Girl Millie Breese and Intermediate Boy Joe Dixon, who finished first and second in their respective events, and who look as if they have firmly booked their places on the bus for the English Schools Championships being held in Kent on Saturday 19 th March. Both athletes were competing on the back of strong performances when representing their club at the previous week’s Northern Championships in Pontefract, and Saturday’s efforts put further icing on the cake. Breese won with two seconds to spare over fellow Northumbrian Holly Waugh of North Shields Poly, with Cumbrian Champion Anna Mason of Border Harriers taking third place, a further nineteen seconds adrift. All three might have an interesting battle for supremacy when doing battle again in Kent in just over a month’s time. Another Morpeth Harrier who could make that bus from the Senior Girls section is Abi Leiper, fifth home for Northumberland in sixteenth place overall and part of her County’s winning score in this section. Joe Dixon led Northumberland Intermediate Boys home to a team victory when he finished second to Durham’s Brandon Pye. He was twenty seconds adrift of Houghton Harrier Pye, but also managed to put twenty seconds between himself and third placed Dan Richardson of Cumbria, who competes for Sedbergh. Other Morpeth Harriers distinguishing themselves in the Northumberland team in the Intermediate Boys event were Ryan Davies and Bertie Marr, who finished fifth and eighth respectively, and were the third and fifth counters for the winning squad and may also still figure in the county’s future selection plans. One who may miss out however is Joseph Close, who, a year younger than most in the race finished thirtieth, but was ninth home from Northumberland. Further back was fellow Morpeth Harrier Adam Howliston, who finished in sixty third place and fifteenth from his county. Another two excellent Morpeth performances for Northumberland came in the Junior Boys event, where Ollie Calvert and Ollie Tomlinson finished seven seconds apart respectively in third and fourth places. The event was won by North Yorkshire’s Jack Sanderson of Settle, with Cumbria’s Will McNally of Leven Valley only three seconds adrift and a mere second ahead of Calvert. The strength of Calvert and Tomlinson in terms of performances could well see them receive the selectors nod for Kent in four weeks’ time. Northumberland finished as second team to North Yorkshire in this section. Four Morpeth Harriers were in action in the Senior Boys event, finishing in 22nd , 23rd , 24th and 25th places, with twenty seconds spanning their performances, and they were fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth home for Northumberland, which puts them close to the selectors eyes when pondering choices for Kent. The respective four were: Matthew Walton, Joseph Anderson, Ralph Robson, and James Tilley. Two Morpeth Harriers faced the Starter in the Intermediate Girls event. Tabitha Robson, younger sister of Ralph, was the first of the two home, finishing in 25 th place, and Caitlin Flanagan followed her home in 34 th place, twenty-two seconds dividing them. Northumberland were second team behind winners Durham, however Robson and Flanagan were outside the scoring six, as in eighth and ninth to finish for the county they await selectors’ decisions. Two athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in action in the Minor Girls event, although athletes from this age group do not participate in the English Schools finals. Emma Tomlinson, younger sister of Ollie, finished fifteenth and was fourth home from the county, and Grace Cunningham finished fifty sixth, and was eleventh home for Northumberland. Under 13 sprinter Kyle Phillips of Morpeth Harriers turned his hand to cross country in the Minor Boys event, managing to finish fifty second, and was thirteenth home for Northumberland. |
Archives
April 2024
|