The inaugural Run Through Newcastle 10k took place at the weekend on a flat and fast out-and-back course along the city’s Quayside, with an elite A race featuring some 160 finishers and over 1500 in the mass participation B race.
Houghton Harrier Cameron Allan, in tremendous shape over the cross country this winter, was a winner of the A race in a time of 29 minutes 28 seconds, just pipping Gateshead’s Callum Johnson to the win, with Durham City Harrier Jasmine Wood first female finisher in 33:37. There were some nine Morpeth Harriers out in the A race, with Lawrence McCourt just missing out on a top three place, coming home 4th in 30:44, and Alex Brown next home for the club in 7th place (31:10). George Lowry was 12th in 32:05, Adam Pratt 28th in 34:32, Richie Hughes 32nd in 34:25, Ali Douglas 56th in 36:37, Jake Parmley 78th in 37:26, Shaun Land 79th in 37:23 and Ben Clarke 82nd in 37:35. There were six Morpeth Harriers in the following B race, with Richard Glennie first back for the club in 41:44 and Steve Johnstone 211th in 45:42. Sunderland Harrier Liam Taylor obviously fancied winning the B more than featuring in the A, coming home in 32:05 with veteran Sarah Duncan first female to finish in 39:07. There were age category medals for three Morpeth veterans however, with Anna Wright 2nd Over 40 in 42:22, Shuna Rank 2nd O/55 in 46:08 and Pam Woodcock winning the O/70 category in 57:13. Laura Mclean also continues to make great strides, here running a personal best when finishing 207th overall in 46 minutes. The following morning saw the running of the ever popular and always over-subscribed Brass Monkey half marathon in York, with nearly 1700 finishers. Hallamshire Harrier Tommy Power was the winner in 1 hour 6 minutes 58 seconds, with Leeds City AC’s Sarah Potter finishing in 1:12:32 to take the woman’s race. Some six Morpeth Harriers travelled down the A19 to make the race, with Finn Brodie coming home 10th in 1:09:03 and Phil Winkler 12th in 1:09:11. Seasoned marathon runner Andrew Lawrence was 47th in 1:13:26, Rob Balmbra 64th in 1:14:30, John Butters 71st and 5th O/45 in 1:14:56 and Mark Snowball 697th in 1:36:26. Brad Duesbury, who was been training with Gordon Dixon’s group recently and will be hopefully joining the club soon from Telford AC, was 246th in 1:22:53. Several athletes from Morpeth Harriers braved some hard and frosty conditions at the annual Northumberland Schools Cross Country Championships, held at Temple Park, South Shields, last Tuesday.
Some of those competing also managed to gain qualification for the next round of the competition, the Northern Schools Inter Counties, to be held at Stewart Park, Middlesbrough on Saturday 3 February which will be the final stepping stone for qualification for the English Schools Championships at Pontefract Racecourse in March. In the Senior Boys event no fewer than six members of the club got into the top ten places, led home by Will Devere-Owen, who won in 21m24s. Third place went to Morpeth’s Elliot Kelso, here representing Tynedale Schools, and he was followed home very closely by club colleagues Ethan Phillips and Bertie Marr, who were fourth and fifth respectively, representing East Northumberland. Other Morpeth Harriers in action were Joe Close (Newcastle, 8th), Ryan Davies (East Northumberland, 9th), and Elliot Mavir (East Northumberland, 13th). Morpeth’s Oliver Tomlinson (East Northumberland) finished a creditable third in the Intermediate Boys event, with his club colleagues Ben Moll (East) and George Mavir ( East) finished fifteenth and seventeenth respectively. Despite a stomach bug, Junior Boy Ewan Line, who had surely been in line at least for a top three place, still managed to finish seventh, representing East Northumberland. Other Morpeth Harriers in action in the Junior Boys event were: Harry Douglas (Tynedale, 13th), James Rothwell (East, 21st), Thomas Roche (East, 27th), Evan Laude (East, 32nd), and Daniel Vermaas (East, 43rd). Two runners from the club took part in the Minor Boys event, with Jack Dhawar (East) finishing 31st and George Moll (East) 47th. Lucy Raper produced a fantastic run in the Minor Girls event to finish second, and fellow East Northumberland representatives and club colleagues Zoe Tomlinson and Emily Vermass finished 19th and 44th respectively. Three Morpeth Harriers and East Northumberland representatives featured in the top ten finishers in the Junior Girls event with Sophie Pledger 5th, Faye Heatley 8th, and Emma Tomlinson 10th. Anna Archibald, representing East Northumberland, finished 61st. Two athletes from Morpeth Harriers and East Northumberland faced the starter in the Intermediate Girls event, with Molly Roche battling well to finish 11th, and Iris Dungait in 23rd spot. Morpeth Harriers were back in cross-country action at the Birtley Relays, incorporating the North East Masters championships, held at Lord Lawson of Beamish Academy at the weekend.
A deceptively challenging two-lap course of 3000 metres per stage winding its way up, down and around the school fields presents competitors with more than just the expected heavy going under foot, and with three separate races totalling well over a hundred teams in total it was certainly a busy Sunday morning, with Morpeth picking up two team Gold and one team Bronze across the day. First race of the day, for Men 35 and upwards, saw the club pick its first medals, as a strong team of Andrew Lawrence, Rob Balmbra and Adam Pratt won in a total time of 32 minutes 58 seconds, well ahead of nearest rivals Tyne Bridge and Sunderland Harriers, for whom Steve Rankin ran the fastest Men’s Masters time of 10:41. Lawrence ran 11:02 on leg one, but it was Rob who moved the club up to first on second leg, with a powerful run of 11:07 that made light of the conditions, managing at the same time to get over a nasty fall in the mud at one point, but certainly not the only runner to take a tumble on the day. Adam ran the team’s fastest time of the day, 10:49, to bring the team home. The club’s Over 55s team of Neil MacAnany (13:28), Bill Tilley (14:34) and Gavin Bayne (14:11) missed out on a medal in their category in the same race when finishing fifth, but there was some consolation, with Neil recording the third fastest time for his O/60 category and Gav and Bill the second and third fastest in the O/60s (they would of course have walked the O/65s with a third member). The O/55s B of Paul Bellingham (14:55), Andrew Dippie (15:20) and Peter Scaife (16:29) finished as 8th in their category, with all three enjoying the return to competitive XC action. Just a shame the club couldn’t get out a complete O/45s. There were 51 complete teams in the following Senior and Masters Women combined event, with Morpeth’s Senior Women coming in 5th in 42:23 behind winners and hosts Birtley Harriers (38:43), for whom Katie Francis ran the day’s fastest time of 12:32. Lizzie Rank had another excellent outing for Morpeth on leg 1, however, clocking 12:45, the day’s third fastest time, with support from O/45 Claire Calverley (15:36), stepping in to make sure the team was complete and Lindsey Quinn (13:44). There was another team medal for Morpeth in the same race, however, with the O/55 team of Shuna Rank (15:34), Jane Briggs (15:50) and Nicola McCoy (16:27) finishing over three minutes ahead of nearest rivals Gateshead Harriers, with the three recording the day’s second, third and fifth fastest O/55 times. Birtley B won the Masters title in 41:44, with TBH’s Sophie Marr recording the fastest Masters time of 13:48. Last race of the morning had the smallest field of only fifteen complete teams but also featured the day’s closest finish, with Sunderland, Morpeth and Gateshead Harriers fighting out a close contest. It was last year’s winners Sunderland Harriers who took an early lead thanks to Scott Armstrong whose 9:52 was the day’s 2nd fastest overall time, with Morpeth coming home 4th in 10:22 thanks to Connor Marshall’s strong run. Tom Balsdon moved Morpeth up to 2nd with 10:33, with Sunderland still ahead and Gateshead into 3rd. All changed on the last leg, however, with 2020’s National Cross Country winner Calum Johnson looking in tremendous form as he set about closing down Morpeth’s George Lowry ahead of him, then went after Sunderland’s last leg runner Stephen Jackson. In the end, the day’s fastest time of 9:30 saw Gateshead finish in 30:31, over twenty seconds ahead of Sunderland (30:56), with Jackson also falling down at one point, and Morpeth finishing in third (31:17), with Lowry (10:22) not quite able to make up the ground to a fading Jackson. A good day’s work all round then, just a shame that for some reason we couldn’t get more teams out this year – it’s always a good one to be part of and to spectate. 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:
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