Event hosts Cumbria were the overall winners of the Northern Schools Inter Counties Cross Country Championships, held on a brand-new course at Lowther Castle, near Penrith, on Saturday 8th February 2020.
Although all surfaces were easily declared as runnable, conditions could only be described as heavy going for the later events in the eight-race programme. Northumberland managed to scape home in second place overall, beating third placed Durham by one point, however both areas were nearly two hundred and fifty points adrift of the winners. Out of the five counties in action, only the three already mentioned could mount an overall team challenge, with both Cleveland and North Yorkshire out of contention in the Girls events. Northumberland’s best team result came from their Intermediate Boys, who won by one point from Durham in their 5.4k event, however the county’s best on the day achievement was that of Morpeth Harrier Ross Charlton’s individual run in the Senior Boys event, where he finished a very close second, (five seconds), to Cleveland’s Archie Lowe, both the North Eastern, and Northern Under 17 Men’s Champion, with whom he had battled vigorously with throughout their 6.536km event . Charlton led Northumberland Senior Boys to third team place behind winners Cumbria, and second placed Durham, only losing out for second by three points. Amongst the Northumberland scoring six, were fellow Morpeth Harriers Daniel Melling (6th), and Tom Balsdon (19th). Back to the Northumberland Intermediate Boys team success, where Morpeth’s Dylan Davies was fifth counter in fifteenth place overall. Other Morpeth Harriers in action in the Intermediate Boys event were Euan Duffin (32nd), and Sam Tate (65th). Second best team performance in the Boys events, came from the Juniors, who finished second to Cumbria, and had three Morpeth Harriers amongst their six counters. Ryan Davies certainly had one of the runs of the day, finishing an excellent fourth, and leading the squad home. Further team support included an under the weather Joe Dixon, who under such circumstances, still did his best to come home as third counter in ninth place. Another Morpeth Harrier getting amongst the scorers was Will De Vere-Owen, who finished thirteenth, on what was a greatly improved run. Not far behind Will, but outside the scoring six, was Theo Dragoi, who is currently training with Morpeth as a second claim athlete, his first claim club being Gateshead Harriers. Dragoi finished seventeenth, eight places ahead of Morpeth’s Liam Roche. Morpeth’s Bertie Marr bravely battled around despite a niggling injury, to finish in 57th place. Northumberland’s Minor Boys finished as third team behind Cumbria and North Yorkshire in their 2.7k event. Morpeth’s Oliver Tomlinson and Ollie Calvert had an intriguing battle with North Shields Poly’s Zac Brannon at the front end of the event. Whilst Brannon finished sixth as Northumberland’s leading counter, Tomlinson and Calvert came home as second and third from the county in eighth and ninth places respectively, with only two seconds dividing them. The best result achieved by Northumberland in the Female events, in terms of team performance, came from their Senior Girls in their 4.5k race. An over enthusiastic start may have cost Morpeth’s Holly Peck a bit of ground on her front running rivals, who included Northumberland Champion Chloe Wellings of Gateshead Harriers, who was a close second to Cumbria’s Chloe Rylance. Peck did stick to the task in hand, to emerge as second for Northumberland, finishing eleventh for her efforts. Completing the Northumberland Senior Girls scoring count was Ella Duffield, who finished in 31st place. Second claim Morpeth athlete Millie Breeze led Northumberland Intermediate Girls home to fourth team place in their 3.83k event. The first claim Alnwick Harrier finished fifth. Another Morpeth Harrier having an excellent run in this event was Abi Leiper, who was third counter in thirteenth place. Outside the scoring counts in the Intermediate Girls event was Morpeth Harrier Sophie Coaker, who finished 57th. Morpeth’s Kate Kennedy had an excellent run in the Junior Girls 3.5k event, finishing ninth overall, and leading Northumberland home to fourth team place. Another Morpeth Harrier in action here was Zara Naughton, who was outside the scoring counts in 61st place overall. There were no Morpeth Harriers competing in the Minor Girls events. Gateshead Harriers hosted the fourth meeting in their series of Indoor Standards Meetings
at Gateshead College on the evening of Thursday 6th February 2020. Having her first taste of action for 2020, and her first in her new Under 15 age group, was Morpeth Harrier Hannah Lott. Lott began her campaign in satisfactory style, when she finished as second fastest to Gateshead’s Hannah Buckton (9.87s), in the 60m Hurdles, posting a good early season time of 9.96s. Buckton had finished sixth in the very recently held Northern Championships at Sheffield, so Lott had formidable opposition to face up to. Lott was one of a total of six Morpeth Harriers in action on a fairly busy night of competition. In the Under 15 Girls 60m sprints, Freya Caygill (8.53s), and Victoria Hodgson (8.66s) were second and third fastest respectively, again behind Buckton (8.31s), who was obviously in fighting form. Hodgson had the delight of producing a personal best performance for her efforts. Having his very first indoor outing in a Morpeth vest, Under 13 Boy Harrison Scott was third fastest Under 13 Boy over 60m, producing a time of 9.13s. In the Under 15 Boys 60m events, Morpeth’s Reuben Moss and Sam Dent were seventh and eighth fastest, with respective times of 8.48s, and 8.63s. Dent and Moss also competed in the Long Jump, finishing third and fourth respectively, producing efforts of 4.53m and 4.45m. For Dent, it was particularly pleasurable, as he produced a personal best performance. Harrison Scott furthered his indoor experience and education, when he finished fourth in the Under 13 Boys Long Jump, producing an on the night best of 3.61m. An early start on Sunday 2nd February 2020 in West Yorkshire for the Dewsbury 10k saw a fine individual victory for the club’s Chris Parr. The out and back race from Dewsbury to Batley has a reputation for fast times that are at least comparable to the Abbey Dash, and that was certainly the case for Morpeth’s Chris Parr, who clocked an excellent time of 29 minutes 57 seconds, finishing ahead of Muhammed Abu-Rezeq of Altrincham (30:11) and Joe Sagar of Spenborough (30:45). The race route passes, incidentally, the building that housed the legendary BATLEY VARIETY CLUB now sadly closed, but famous in the 70s as the North’s leading chicken-in-a-basket nightclub venue that hosted such legends as Louis Armstrong, Roy Orbison and Shirley Bassey. It was a blustery day at East Cramlington Nature Reserve on Saturday 1st February 2020, where eleven of the club’s veterans took part in this year’s North East Masters Cross Country Championships. A successful afternoon saw no less than three individual and one team golds, with several minor medals to boot. Jane Hodgson was again a dominant figure in the earlier, two lap kilometre women’s and men Over 65 race, where she was first home in a time of 24 minutes and 21 seconds, a good 30 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, Gillian Manford of Gateshead Harriers. O/55 colleague Gwenda Cavill picked up a bronze in the same race. Meanwhile, leading O/65 Dave Nicholson finished a good minute ahead of his nearest rivals, all from Blaydon Harriers, to win an individual gold in his category. Paul Bentley was 2nd in the O/70 behind Elswick’s Harry Matthews with Archie Jenkins 7th O/65, while once again evergreen Walter Ryder – the club’s longest serving competitive athlete - made the long journey from his Scottish eyrie to clinch yet another O/80 title. The team of Nicholson, Jenkins and Bentley finished as 2nd team to Blaydon in the O/65 category. In the following veteran men Over 35 race, run over three laps and 9k, there were some five Harriers taking part, with the fastest run of the day overall by Andrew Powell of Sunderland in a time of 31:34,
a few seconds ahead of last year’s winner, Gateshead’s Conrad Franks. First home for Morpeth was Lee Bennett in a time of 35:42 to take a silver i n the O/50 category behind David Moir of Tyne Bridge. Jason Dawson was 7th O/45 and Paul Brown 14th O/50. Paul Bellingham and Andrew Dippie were 11th and 12th O/60 respectively. There was another team medal for the club in the O/45 category, with Bennett, Dawson and Brown picking up an unexpected but greatly enjoyed team gold. The British Universities and Colleges Sport Cross Country Championships took place in the famous Holyrood Park in Edinburgh on Saturday 1st February 2020 with some four Morpeth Harriers competing.
With well over 2000 athletes taking part, the event was dominated by those with extensive international experience, with Anna Emilie Moller of St. Mary’s University winning the women’s long race and Mahamed Mahamed of Solent comfortably winning the men’s. Morpeth’s Liam Roarty, representing Loughborough University, was 81st in the Men’s short course event, while in the long course, Alex Brown, running for Durham University, had another good run to finish 40th. Taylor Glover was 117th for Newcastle University and Ali Douglass 198th for Teesside. |
Archives
April 2024
|