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. On Saturday 1st February 2020, young Dan Dixon recorded a remarkable time at the Blyth parkrun.
Finishing 1st ahead of club colleagues George Lowry and Ross Floyd, Dixon clocked a new personal best of 15 minutes 12 seconds with Lowry, who Dixon had tracked for 4k, some 16 seconds behind. Floyd was 3rd home in 16:11, and Rachelle Falloon 6th finisher and 1st female in 18:40. Morpeth Harrier Ady Whitwam finished an excellent eighth out of a full field of 280 entrants in the Men’s 10k event at the annual Army Cross Country Championships, which were held at Minley,
near Camberley in Surrey, on Wednesday 29th January 2020. Posting a finishing time of 34m10s, Whitwam was also first Veteran Man, and was second counter in a winning RMAS Major Unit, who had a clear victory of forty-four points, on an eight-man count, from their closest rivals. Whitwam was only a mere nine seconds adrift of his team leader, a relatively unknown 21-year-old, with the surname of Thomas. The event was won by Edward Knudsen, who hails from Wiltshire, and is attached to Avon Valley Running Club, who posted a winning time of 32m57s, winning by a margin of 24 seconds from Paul Molyneux of Springfield Running Club. Whitwam has been missing from his club’s competitive scene for some time recently, having been stationed in other key parts of the world, however he hopes to reunite himself with us in the forthcoming future. |
Archives
April 2024
|