Winning medals in four out of the five competitions – three of those medals gold – Morpeth Harriers were a dominant force at the Signals Relays on Saturday afternoon. The sunniest conditions anyone could remember at the event for a long time greeted the several hundred competitors representing clubs from all over the North East at the traditional venue of Hetton Lyons Country Park, Hetton-le-Hole for the 2021 fixture, moved from its traditional place in the Spring calendar after being cancelled altogether in 2020. As is customary, Race 1 featured Veteran Men Over 50, Senior Women and Veteran Women, with teams of four all completing two laps (some 2.22 hilly miles) around the picturesque lake. Morpeth were to the fore from the gun, with Guy Bracken, running leg 1 for a change instead of the customary leg 5 he has run for many years, soon at the front and Cat Macdonald leading the Women’s race. Bracken was first home in 12 minutes 19 seconds with his old club, North Shields Polytechnic Harriers, chasing in second. Meanwhile Macdonald had run an impressive 12:31 not far behind to put the Women also in front. Rob Hancox, some way off full fitness but keen to give himself a hard run out, was challenged all the way by the NSP leg 2 athlete, but did well to hold him off, finishing in 12:28, and with Alistair Macdonald, who has been in good form on the track in the last few weeks, clocking 13:13 the lead to the Poly was extended further. The outcome of the Over 50s race was put out of any doubt when a flying Lee Bennett, who had won his age category at the Watergate Trail Race less than 48 hours previously, clocked an impressive 11:56. (Bennett was in fact the only athlete in Race 1 to record a time of under 12 minutes.) The team’s cumulative time was 50:56 and the final margin of victory over NSP well over a minute at the end, with Sunderland Harriers having to settle for third. In the Senior Women’s race Macdonald had passed on to Under 18 Kate Gaffing, one of two Mike Bateman coached teenagers stepping up to represent the club at senior level for the first time. Sticking purposefully to her run, Gaffing was overtaken by the vastly experienced Alex Sneddon of Jarrow and Hebburn, but finishing in 14:31 did enough to keep the team in contention, handing onto in form triathlete Millie Breese. Still a few days short of her sixteenth birthday, Breese showed herself in no way overawed by the task ahead and set about reeling in the Jarrow and Hebburn athlete ahead of her. This she did in some style, her leg time of 12:43 the second fastest overall women’s time of the day which restored Morpeth’s lead and put the club in pole position on leg 4. Rachelle Falloon was always in control on this leg, holding off the Jarrow challenge of Steph Patterson without too much difficulty and in fact increasing the margin of her lead by the finish. With a final leg of 13:09, the team’s total time was 52:54., some 45 seconds ahead of second place Jarrow and Hebburn with Gateshead Harriers in third. (In fact the Senior Women’s time was only bested by the first three Men’s Over 50s.) Two further Morpeth women’s teams were represented, with a mix of Senior and Veteran (Over 35) athletes. The Senior team of Michelle Thompson (14:01), Claire Calverley (16:14), Lindsey Quinn (15:15) and Laura Shaw (17:30 in her first ever relay for the club), included in fact three Veterans and still placed a highly respectable 9th (1:03:00). Determined that the club’s Veteran Women were also represented, Jill Bennett (18:50). Sue Smith (17:40), Margaret Macdonald (19:14) and Jane Kirby (18:26) stepped up, some at short notice, and finished 15th in the Female Vets (1:14:10). New Marske were first team home here in 58:13. The only disappointment for the club in Race 1 was the incomplete Over 50 B, with the missing runner who’d gone awol somehow managing to get the day wrong… he was profusely apologetic later but has received several offers of calendars for 2022. Gavin Bayne ran 13:43 on leg 1, Andrew Dippie 16:05 on 2, and Gordon Dixon, there to watch Joe, returned to competitive action in blue and white for the first time in a long time with 16:02. While overall numbers were definitely down for Race 2, the Senior and Over 40’s Men’s race, the competition at the sharp end was as feisty as ever, with Morpeth up against traditional rivals Sunderland and Gateshead Harriers. Matthew Briggs got the club off on a tasty leg 1, with home town club Houghton Harriers also very much to the fore in the form of Luke Pickering. Pickering in fact ran the day’s fastest time, coming home in 10:39 with Sunderland’s Liam Taylor in 2nd. Briggs however ran the club’s second fastest time of the day, 10:56 and then handed on to Ali Douglas. Despite having focussed his efforts on much shorter distances over the Summer – notably the NECAA 800m which he won the previous weekend – Douglas got the club into first place with a clocking of 11:08 and thereafter the lead was never really challenged. Dan Melling ran 11:11 on leg 3, a resurgent Tommy Straughan 11:02 and Phil Winkler made sure his journey from Leeds was worth it with the fastest leg of the day - 10:53. By the time Ross Floyd went out on leg 6 the lead had gone out to over a minute, and with a final leg of 11:08 Floyd was able to extend this further. The team’s cumulative time was 1:06:18 with Sunderland Harriers a distant second in 1:08:43 and Gateshead third (1:08:52). The Senior Men’s race was also notable for a complete team of Mike Bateman coached Under 17 and Under 18 athletes (and nicknamed ‘Bateman’s Babes’ by Mark Davies).
With Will de Vere Owen on leg 1 (11:10), Bertie Marr on leg 2 (11:35), Joe Dixon (11:26) on leg 3, Liam Roche (12:05) on 4, Joe Anderson (11:50) on 5 and James Tilley (12:15) completing the team, this was a highly impressive outing by the teen tyros, who even got themselves up in to second at one point, and shows the future remains bright for the club. Their final overall time of 1:10:21 put them in 5th place, a tremendous achievement. A further Morpeth Senior team featured Richard Johnson on leg 1 (11:32), Tom Innes on 2 (11:34), Mark Snowball on 3 (11:55) – having been unable to resist completing the Carlisle Park parkrun at 9 the same morning - and Jake Parmley on 4 (12:38). It was made up with a couple of Vets, Andrew Richardson in his first ever Signals, 13:47 on 5, and O/60 Paul Bellingham (14:49), who willingly stepped out of the Over 50s to make up a complete team. Finishing in a respectable 1:16:15, the team still placed just outside the top ten in 11th place overall. The Over 40s competition is run in conjunction with the Seniors over six legs, and was won by Darlington Harriers in 1:15:36 with John Clifford running the fastest O/40 leg of 11:26. Sunderland Harriers were pipped by Darlington into second place, but there was a further medal for Morpeth with an excellent bronze in the competition despite the absence of some of the club’s leading Vets. After early legs by Eric Adams (14:05) and Jamie Johnson (13:39), John Butters, another athlete in excellent shape having, like Bennett, won his category at Watergate, got the club into medal contention with a flying 11:42, the second fastest O/40 time of the day. Back competing for the club after a number of years watching sons Dylan and Ryan, prosper, Mark Davies ran 13:42 on leg 4 with O/50 Jason Dawson another runner stepping down on leg 5 (13:18). Graeme Thorpe finished the count with 12:55 for a cumulative total of 1:19:21 and a medal that was very much the icing on the cake. With nine teams out across all five competitions, Morpeth were only matched on the day for numbers by Sunderland Harriers. On top of the medals won, perhaps most pleasing however was the willingness of so many to fill spaces in teams, often at short notice, particularly older runners who were happy to compete elsewhere. An excellent day at the office for the club then, and something to build on as the Northern Relays and the cross country season approaches. Well done to all. It may not be tripping off the tongue any easier, but the second running of the Morpeth parkrun at 9am on Saturday proved nearly as popular as last week’s inaugural event, with some 170 finishers in all this time.
First finisher in this week’s run was John Butters in a time of 17m 55s, a full minute ahead of his nearest challenger and only 4 seconds behind the time set by club colleague Richard Johnson the previous week. This time round there were some 17 finishers from the club, proving that despite the early start and a tough, three-lap hilly course round Carlisle Park, enthusiasm for the event remains strong in the town. Full results here. Another Morpeth Harrier in the medals elsewhere at the weekend was Over 65 Dave Nicholson, who made the long journey South to run in the Lytchett 10 mile road race just outside Poole in Dorset on Sunday.
With the hilly course incorporating the British Masters Championships for 2021, Nicholson recorded a time of 1 hour 9 minutes and 51 seconds, finishing a creditable 38th overall and second Over 65 finisher. Club members are notified that there will be no vehicle access via Cottingwood Lane to the KEVI track on August 26 & 27 due to roadworks taking place.
Twenty four athletes from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers & AC took part in the NECAA Track and Field Championships, being held in August for the first time, and also for the first time since 2019 because of the Coronavirus epidemic, at the weekend (21 and 22 August). Saturday’s first day experienced the most of the weekend rainfall, but Sunday’s competitors faced a decent amount of warm sunshine, laced with an intermittent moderate breeze, which kept conditions mostly ideal. The club saw a return of sixteen championship medals in total, which included ten Gold, one Silver, and five Bronze. Two athletes were double Gold medal winners, and the only age group not to get a medal in the club were the Under 13 Boys, however, William Hodgson came mighty close in the 100m, which we shall report in more detail later in this report. Amongst the Gold medallists were two double winners, in Under 17 Man Edward Gardiner, and Senior Woman Jessica Young-Rogers. On Saturday, despite still suffering the effects of a back injury, Edward threw a decent 32.30m to take his age group Discus title from closest rival Ryan Cook of Gateshead Harriers (31.91m), with Thomas Mann of Gateshead Harriers taking the Bronze with 31.40m. In the Under 17 Men’s Hammer on Sunday, Gardiner managed a best throw of 31.57m, ahead of Gateshead Harrier Fynn Errington (26.15m), to take his second Gold of the weekend. On Saturday, Jessica Young-Rogers won the first of her two Gold medals in the Senior Women’s 200m in 25.42s, and returned on the Sunday to win the 100m, posting a time of 12.49s. Also on Saturday, Morpeth Harrier Bobbie Griffiths added the Senior Women’s Javelin title to the Championship titles that she had won as an Under 20, Under 17, and an Under 15 athlete, a fine achievement in itself. Although, mainly because of a lack of competition, she only managed a modest distance of 36.08m, but it was enough to secure the Championship ahead of Sunderland Harrier Vicky Haswell, now an Over 40 Veteran (27.01m). Another two Gold Medals from the Field Events by Morpeth athletes were achieved on Sunday, courtesy of Jessica Gardiner, older Sister of Edward, and Charlotte Earl, both competing in the Under 20 Women’s events. Jessica added the Hammer title to the one that she secured in 2019, when she had been competing as an Under 17 athlete at the same venue. She threw a best of 36.55m, to just fend off New Marske’s Jessica Coapes (36.20m), to clinch Gold, with Coapes’s New Marske colleague Charlotte Gunn, getting the Bronze medal with a best of 33.40m. Charlotte Earl won the Under 20 Women’s Triple Jump Gold medal, with her best effort of 10.71m, ahead of North Shields Poly’s Evie Perrett (8.99m). The remaining three Gold medals were secured on Sunday, and all came from the track. In the Under 15 Boys 800m, Joseph Close stole away to win by almost two seconds from Elswick Harrier Elliot Kelso, who after being third throughout the first lap, attacked at the bell to oust early leader Harry Lyons of Darlington, who took the Bronze. Close posted a winning time of 2m11.84s. Hard work in training with her Club Coach Eddie Hedley, certainly paid rich dividends, as Under 15 Girl Victoria Hodgson pulled off a superb victory in the 300m Final, after also winning her earlier run heat in 44.44s. In the final, she clocked 44.53s, winning Gold from Blyth’s Sadie Parker 45.0, with Derwentside’s Isla Fishwick, who had also won an earlier heat, securing Bronze in 45.21s. Considering Hodgson had had no previous experience of the distance, it was an excellent victory for the Morpeth girl. In the Senior Men’s 800m, Morpeth’s Alistair Douglass's time of 1m57.17s was not a personal best, but still earned him a Gold medal. Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Man Joe Dixon, ran well throughout his 3000m event, to secure a well-earned Silver medal in 9m23.97s, behind Gosforth Harrier Ethan Bond (9m23.28s). Another Morpeth athlete in the event was Ralph Robson, who finished just adrift of the medals, despite posting a new personal best of 9m49.78s. Five more medals were added to the Morpeth Harriers tally, all of them being Bronze. Three of these medals were achieved on the track, with two coming from the Field, and all of them on Sunday. Mia Belton, just managed to finish third ahead of Gateshead’s Lucy Webster, as she posted a time of 43.39s, behind Lois Creasey and Leonie Pye of Middlesbrough AC, who were first and second with respective clockings of 42.31s, and 42.97s. Tayla Murdy finished third in the Senior Women’s 400m in 70.75s, and fellow Morpeth Senior Rachelle Falloon, also secured Bronze in the 1500m, posting a time of 4m58.66s. Alexandria Hodgson, younger sister of Victoria, who has recently linked up with Throws Coach Neil Ellerby, threw 15.53m on her first appearance in the Under 13 Girls Javelin, securing her Bronze, behind Gateshead Harrier Skye Marshall, and Chester Le Street’s Hollie Anne Sudder.
On Sunday Morpeth Under 20 Man Max Marr made a welcome return to competition in the Long Jump, securing Bronze with a best effort of 5.60m. However, younger brother Bertie was not so fortunate when running in the Under 17 Men’s 1500m on the Saturday. In a very fast run race, he just lost out for a medal when the pace became hotter, as triple Gold medal winner Chris Perkins of Birtley made his move to the front. Despite clocking a new personal best of 4m09.54s, which was a three second improvement, he lost out by a mere second to Gosforth’s Reece Slater in the final run to the finish line. Also in the event for Morpeth was Will De Vere-Owen, who finished seventh in 4m17.65s, taking a whole second off his previous figures for the three- and three-quarter lap event. Evan Logan was probably one of Morpeth's hardest-working athletes throughout the weekend. He managed to get through to three finals, but just missed out on medals, particularly in the Under 17 Men’s 100m on Saturday. He clocked 11.85s, with Gateshead’s Joshua Hickson (11.55s), just denying him a Bronze medal. Also on Saturday, Logan competed in a 400m for the first time, finishing fifth in 55.56s. Logan returned on the Sunday, where he finished third in his heat of the 200m, where in the later run Final, he equalled his personal best with 23.96s, which saw him just run out of the medals, when he placed fifth. Earlier we mentioned Morpeth Under 13 Boy William Hodgson, twin of Alexandria, who narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100m, which he ran for the first time, posting a time of 13.94s. A hat-trick of medals in the Hodgson household would have proved most welcome, but it will come, given time. Hodgson also got through to the final of the 200m on Sunday, after finishing third in his heat in 28.99s. He was not far adrift of the medals in the Final, where he placed sixth in 29.43s. Another hard-working young man from Morpeth was Under 15 sprinter Conner Phillips, who on Saturday finished third in his heat of the 100m in 12.9s, then finished sixth in a hard run Final later, posting a time of 13.27s. On Sunday, Conner returned to the venue, where again he placed third in his heat, in the 200m in 26.81s, and in the later run Final, he posted a better 26.72s, however, again it was only good for sixth. In both cases he needs to squeeze another couple of seconds out of himself to get amongst medals. Morpeth Under 15 Girl Tabitha Robson, younger sister of Ralph, finished sixth in the 1500m Final, posting a time of 5m17.03s. In the Under 17 Men’s 800m Final, Morpeth’s Liam Roche finished seventh, posting a finishing time of 2m07.82s. After being at the front in the early exchanges, Morpeth’s Joe Anderson finished outside the medals in fourth place in the Under 20 Men’s 1500m, where he posted a finishing time of 4m19.86s. In the Senior Men’s 1500m, Morpeth Veteran Alistair MacDonald finished seventh in 5m07.03s. In addition to the competing athletes, Morpeth Harriers also had a number of hard-working officials at the Championships over both days. Micky Groves was a Timekeeper, being Chief Timekeeper on the Sunday. Hemant Desai and his wife Vina were Clerks of Course on Field and Track respectively on Day 1, Hemant was a Field Referee on Day 2, and Vina was an Official on Day 2. Mike Bateman, in his role as NECAA President, was on hand to do medal presentations on both days, and George Patterson was the event announcer on both days, all being part of a genuine backroom effort, to ensure that the Championships were successful, and enjoyable for the competing athletes. |
Archives
April 2024
|