February 2009... January 2009... December 2008... November 2008... October 2008... September 2008... August 2008... July 2008... June 2008... May 2008... April 2008... March 2008... February 2008... January 2008...December 2007... November 2007... October 2007... September 2007... August 2007... July 2007... June 2007...May 2007... April 2007... March 2007...February 2007... January 2007...December 2006... November 2006... October 2006... September 2006... August 2006... July 2006... June 2006...May 2006... April 2006... March 2006...February 2006... January 2006...December 2005... November 2005... October 2005... September 2005... August 2005... July 2005... June 2005...May 2005... April 2005... March 2005...February 2005... January 2005... December 2004...November 2004... October 2004... September 2004... August 2004... July 2004... June 2004...May 2004... April 2004... March 2004...February 2004... January 2004... December 2003...November 2003... October 2003...September 2003... August 2003...July 2003...June 2003...May 2003...April 2003...March 2003... February 2003...January 2003...December 2002...November 2002...October 2002...September 2002... August 2002...July 2002... June 2002...May 2002...April 2002...March 2002... February 2002...January 2002...December 2001...November 2001...October 2001...September 2001

February

News From February 2009

Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League !
Excellent runs from Ian Hudspith and Delyth James were the major highlight
of a superb set of performances by athletes from Morpeth Harriers
at the fourth Start Fitness sponsored North Eastern Harrier League
meeting held at East Cramlington Nature Reserve on Saturday 28th February.

The tough and demanding course splendidly erected by Blyth Running Club,
did nothing to deter the 38 year old Hudspith, who hadn't competed since November,
when he had run a 10k leg for Great Britain at the Chiba Ekiden Relay in Japan,
and had picked up a throat infection that had forced him out of the
North East Cross Country Championships in December.

Ian had not run in the Harrier League for several years,
and it was soon quite evident that he needed this particular run.
Giving five minutes, and two and a half minute starts to the
majority of the 300 strong Senior Mens field,
after opting to run from the fast pack, he tore round the heavy
and relatively muddy three lap course to come home in fifth place
overall in an excellent 32m07s for the six mile distance,
and he led Morpeth Harriers to second team place on the day
behind their fierce rivals Sunderland Harriers.

This run will certainly give Ian the impetus to begin his Spring
and Summer programme on a positive note, and it will be an enormous
boost for his club to be able to include him in the forthcoming
Northern and National 12 Stage Road Relay Championships in April.

Morpeth's second counter on the day was Matt Nicholson,
who also produced a superb performance from the fast pack.
Matt followed on well from his Harrier League performance at Wrekenton,
where a Medium Pack run had seen him finish second, and as third fastest.
This run saw him finish eighth, and as second fastest on the day.

Morpeth's third and fourth counts came from Medium packers
Mark Davies and Richard Teasdale, who each had
excellent runs to finish 23rd and 28th respectively.
Not far behind them was Barry Taylor in 36th place
with an excellent run from the Slow Pack, and Mike Winter
completed the Morpeth team count when he also finished
excellently from the Slow Pack in 49th place.

Morpeth's Delyth James gave great insight into her current form
when she destroyed the entire field to comfortably win the
Senior Womens event by a margin of sixty two seconds over her closest rival.

Delyth had been picked by the North East selectors for this Saturday's
Inter Counties Cross Country Championships in Nottingham,
very much based on information being provided by her
coach at Birmingham University, Bud Baldaro, who had reported
that she was literally "flying", and although there had been very
little shown at a competitive level, she certainly cast away any doubts,
and more than repaid the selectors faith, when giving a three minute start to a good
proportion of the field by running from the fast pack, she worked her way
through to grab the lead on the second of the two lap event,
and led Morpeth home to fourth team place on the day,
only losing out for second by a mere seven points.

Aiveen Fox, whose form had been a little indifferent of late,
came home as Morpeth's second counter, having an excellent
run from the fast pack, to finish in sixth place overall,
and third fastest on the day.

Morpeth's third count came from Claire Bruce,
who was 49th from the fast pack.

After the disappointments of failing to finish both the North Eastern
and Northern Cross Country Championships due to injury,
Laura Weightman gave herself a very much needed confidence booster,
for both this weekends Inter Counties, and the forthcoming
English Schools Cross Country Championships, by battling her way
round the two lap Junior and Under 17 Womens course to win with
eleven seconds to spare over her closest rival who was also running from the fast pack.

Alison Brown crowned both her Morpeth Harriers and Harrier League
debut by winning the Under 13 Girls event by a margin of three seconds.
After a steady start, the Berwick based youngster,
who only attended her first training session with the club last
Monday night, literally ran away from her slow pack rivals,
and it was only the chasing fast pack rivals that looked like
endangering her modest victory in the closing stages.
By finishing as eighth fastest on the day, Alison looks to
be a young athlete with lots of promise for the future.
Morpeth finished as third team on the day with further support coming
from Adele Stewart (14th) (Fast Pack) and
Sarah Wilkes (15th) (Fast Pack).

Faye Kankowski produced yet another excellent Harrier League performance,
when she finished second in the Under 15 Girls event from the fast pack,
and only five seconds adrift of the race winner Steph Bruce of Tynedale,
who also ran from the fast pack.

Despite recent chest problems, Marcus Cram showed that he is
gradually getting back into form when he finished third
from the fast pack in the Under 17 Mens event,
and after giving three minutes start to seven of his sixteen rivals.

Jonny Nisbet also produced an excellent performance when finishing sixth
in the Under 15 Boys event from the fast pack.
Morpeths other runner in this event was Sam Hancox,
who finished 22nd from the slow pack.

Martin Hood led Morpeth's Under 13 Boys home to third team place
on the day when he finished in eleventh place overall from the slow pack.
Further excellent team support came from Ben Steel (18th) (Slow Pack)
and Joe Robertshaw (23rd) (Fast Pack),
who was thirteenth fastest overall out of the 51 finishers.

Return To Top Of Page

English National Cross Country Championships !
Morpeths Nick Swinburn capped an excellent first season as a
Senior athlete when he finished eleventh in the main feature at the
Saucony sponsored English National Cross Country Championships
held at the events ancestral home at Parliament Hill Fields,
Hampstead Heath,in London on Saturday 21st February.

In very much springlike conditions, the Bangor University student,
who turns 21 in May, more than matched the abilities of his older rivals around him,
as he held a top 12 placing throughout the whole of the two lap 12k affair,
and achieved one of the best placings for a Morpeth Harrier for a couple of years.

It was in 2003 at the very same venue that Morpeth Harriers
had Senior runners in the top twenty at the National,
when Ian Hudspith and Terry Wall had finished 18th and 20th respectively.
Hudspith added another top twenty placing to that when
he finished sixth at Sunderland in 2007.

Parliament Hills has been a very good hunting ground for Swinburn,
because it was in 2006 that he led the Morpeth Junior Men home to second team place.

This latest performance however will undoubtedly earn Swinburn some rave notices,
and it shouldn't be too long before he gets International recognition at Senior level,
to add to those that he won as a Junior a couple of years ago.
To add to an excellent individual performance, which saw him only eighty seconds
behind the renowned winner Frank Tickner of Wells City,
he would be very pleased to lead a much weakened
Morpeth Harriers Senior Mens squad home to sixteenth team place.

Support firstly came from an excellent run by Chris Sampson,
who despite losing a few places on the run in,
still managed to hold a very respectable 42nd place.
Third and fourth counters Nathan Shrubb and David Swinburne
beavered away to come home in 144th and 170th places.

Next came Andrew Lawrence, who again renewed fine memories of the venue,
as he was the fourth counter in the Junior Mens team success in 2006.
He finished in 266th place.
The Morpeth Harriers scoring count was completed by the endeavours
of the dependable Veteran Paul Waterston who finished 371st.

Disappointingly in other aspects it was a poor day for Morpeth Harriers
as athletes from younger age groups and the Senior Women failed to
compete in the capital on their behalf for varied reasons.

Gwenda Cavill was Morpeth's only Senior Woman to compete,
and she finished 264th in the two lap 8k event.

Sarah Wilkes and Rachel Todd were Morpeth's only other two
runners to compete, and they finished 257th and 315th
in the Under 13 Girls one lap 3k Championship.

Return To Top Of Page

Aviva Grand Prix !
Morpeths Nick McCormick and Jonathan Taylor continued their run of
excellent indoor form when they both clocked new personal bests in the 3000m
at the televised Aviva Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham on Saturday 21st February.
The 3000m was won by fellow Brit Mo Farah who created a new
National record of 7m34.47s, which ranks fourth in the world for 2009.

That makes McCormick and Taylor's respective clockings of
7m50.50s and 7m58.60s, which saw them finish third
and sixth, stand well in the rankings, and sees the former well on his way
to the forthcoming European Indoor Championships, due to be held in Turin.

Return To Top Of Page

Scottish National Cross Country Championships !
Morpeths Craig McBurney and Marcus Cram both competed in the Scottish
National Cross Country Championships held at Falkirk on Saturday 21st February.

Craig, who had also finished third in the Army Championships
at Sandhurst the previous week, where he was also first Veteran,
can feel well pleased with his finishing place of thirty sixth in the Senior Mens event,
which saw him as fourth team counter for his Scottish club Hunters Bog Trotters,
who finished as Silver Team medallists.

Marcus Cram finished fifteenth in a 68 strong Under 17 Mens field,
and he led his Scottish club Edinburgh AC home to fifth team place.

Return To Top Of Page

Albert Park Time Trial Run !
Alistair, Margaret and Catriona MacDonald took part in the
Albert Park Time Trial Run in Middlesbrough on Saturday 21st February.
Alistair finished second, and Margaret and Catriona
finished 28th and 39th respectively.

Return To Top Of Page

Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League !
The wintry storms that hit the region last Thursday left insufficient
aftermath to force any cancellation of the third meeting of the
Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League held at Wrekenton, Gateshead,
on Saturday 14th February much to the delight of competing athletes and organisers.

Morpeth Harriers did manage to turn out a full team of Senior Men,
however their finishing positions were not strong enough to continue
their challenge for supremacy at the top of Division 1,
as they could only finish eighth on the day.

On the plus side however, Morpeth's Matt Nicholson produced
one of the runs of the day when he finished second overall to Elswick's Philip Hurst,
and was only denied victory by a margin of thirteen seconds,
blaming a tricky downhill section for thwarting his final challenge.

His run from the Medium Pack along with Hurst was third fastest overall on the day,
and the pair were only beaten by Ross Murray of Gateshead,
whose Fast Pack run got him through finish in seventh place.

Another excellent Senior Mens run for Morpeth came
from newcomer Richard Teasdale, who used his Slow Pack
start to full advantage as he held on to a placing of fifth.

Morpeth's third counter was Phil Walker, who produced an excellent
Fast Pack run that saw him come home in 47th place,
and he was eleventh Veteran finisher.
Twenty places behind Phil came Morpeth's fourth counter in Ross Floyd,
who had started brightly from the Fast Pack, but had struggled on the final third lap.

Morpeth's scoring counts were closed by Rob Hancox (167th) (Slow Pack)
and Peter Scaife (170th) (Slow Pack).

A well back to form Kate Chapman led Morpeths
Senior Women to team victory on the day, when she
finished second from the Slow Pack.
The winning team count was completed by
Gwenda Cavill (8th) (Slow Pack)
and Julie Clark (11th) (Slow Pack).
Morpeth's Claire Bruce finished ninth from the Slow Pack,
however she was disqualified from the team count
as she was wearing an ineligible number.

There was an excellent debut run by Morpeth's Faye Kankowski
in the Under 15 Girls event which she won comfortably
with fifty two seconds to spare over her closest rival.

Morpeth finished as second team in the combined
Under 17/Under 20 Womens event.
They were led home by a much rejuvenated Zoe Armstrong,
who despite giving three minutes away to half of the field
with her Fast Pack start, finished in an excellent fifth place overall.

Further team support came from Louise Cairns (6th) (Slow Pack)
and Jessica Caldwell (14th) (Slow Pack).

Morpeths Under 15 Boys finished in third team place,
and were led home by Jonnie Nisbet, who again
impressed when finishing sixth overall from the Fast Pack,
and was fourth fastest on the day.

Philip Caldwell (11th) (Slow Pack)
and Sam Hancox (17th) (Slow Pack)
were Morpeth's other supporting counts.

There was a third team place also for Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Girls.
They were led home by Mollie McDonald (14th) (Slow Pack),
with supporting counts coming from Sarah Wilkes(15th) (Fast Pack)
and Rose McDonald (16th) (Slow Pack).

Morpeth Harriers also finished as a team in the Under 13 Boys event.
They came sixth, and were led home by Joe Elder
who finished 16th from the Slow Pack.

North East Counties Under 13 Boys 200m champion Joe Robertshaw
came home in 19th place from the Fast Pack,
and was an excellent tenth fastest on the day as Morpeth's second counter,
and the score was completed by Henrik Paulsen who was 26th from the Slow Pack.

Return To Top Of Page

Aviva European Trials !
Morpeths Nick McCormick produced
another impressive indoor performance when he led from gun to tape in the
Mens 3000m at the Aviva European Trials meeting
on Saturday 14th February at Sheffield Arena.

The now John Nuttall coached athlete eased over the finish line
to a European Indoor qualifying standard of 7m54.73s,
and now looks set to be joining fellow Brit Mo Farah
on the plane to Turin in a few weeks time.

McCormick commented that he is well pleased with his recent progress,
and he regards this recent 3000m effort as a stepping stone
on the way to competing over 5000m this summer.
He had tried to do this a couple of years ago,
and it hadn't worked, however on this occasion he regards himself to be
in better shape in both body and mind, and is looking forward to rising to new challenges.

Another Morpeth Harrier taking part in the 3000m was Jonathan Taylor,
who was absolutely delighted with his fourth place in such exalted company,
and a brand new personal best of 8m07.77s.

Return To Top Of Page

Keswick/Buttermere 34k Round Road Race !
Four Morpeth Harriers travelled to Cumbria on Sunday 15th February to take
part in the very much stamina demanding Keswick/Buttermere 34k Round Road Race,
and two of them were amongst the leading finishers.

Paul Waterston finished 3rd in 2hrs20mins14secs,
and he was the first Over 40 Veteran home.
In fourth place was club colleague Gordon Dixon, a further 30 seconds adrift,
and he was the first Over 45 Veteran to finish.

Mike Winter was 27th in 2hrs45mins07secs, unfortunately Ian Corner
picked up a back injury halfway round the course on Honister Pass,
and struggled home in 70th place in 3hrs45mins39secs.

A total of 78 finishers took part in the event which experienced
conditions from cool at the start, to cold and misty midway,
with the finish area in Keswick being termed as relatively mild.

Return To Top Of Page

Veterans Grand Prix Presentation Night !
Morpeth Harriers held their Veterans Grand Prix Presentation Night
on Thursday 12th February at the Joiners Arms in Morpeth.

The event was once again hosted by Tony Woodcock,
(Tony Woodcock Planning Consultants) and his wife Pam,
who are currently in the third year of their sponsorship of the event.

Unfortunately the poor wintry conditions meant that some were unable to attend,
however those who got to the venue saw Doug Cockburn,
(Chairman of Morpeth Harriers & AC) present recipients with their awards.

The Ladies award for 2008 went to Sue Calvert for the second year running,
and Sue Smith and Jane Blackett took the second and third prizes.

In the Mens section, it proved to be another victory for Paul Waterston,
and the minor placings went to Gordon Dixon and Richard Driscoll respectively.

Pam Woodcock on behalf of the sponsors said that
they were very happy to be involved with the Veterans Grand
Prix, as she felt because of its structure, all those involved
could compete on a level playing field.
She went on to thank Neil McAnany for his efforts in
keeping the score accurately throughout the year,
Hamish McCallister-Williams for his training sessions
that kept everyone focused, Hud Stoker, George Patterson, Alistair
MacDonald and Steve McDonald for publicity and photographs,
and Doug Cockburn for coming along to make the presentations.

Thanks also went to the Joiners Arms for their help
and co-operation in staging the presentation.
Pam concluded by confirming that they would continue
to play their part as sponsors during the forthcoming year.

Doug Cockburn responded on behalf of himself and the club,
and thanked Tony and Pam for their continued efforts,
and for helping to provide raffle prizes and catering,
which had added to the speciallity of the evening.

Return To Top Of Page

McCain UKA Indoor City Challenge !
Team Newcastle finished fourth in the McCain UKA Indoor City Challenge
Semi Final match at Sheffield Arena last week,
and one of their star performers on the day was Morpeth's Jonathan Taylor
who stole away easily to win the Mens 1500m in 3m51.80s.

Scottish National Masters XC Championships !
Morpeth Harrier Craig McBurney won a Bronze Medal
at the Scottish National Masters Cross Country Championships held in Irvine,
Ayrshire last week, he was also second in the Over 40 age group.

Return To Top Of Page

Inter Counties Cross Country Championships Selection !
The North East Counties Cross Country selectors have now finalised
their first choice teams for the annual Inter Counties Cross Country Championships
due to be held in Nottingham on Saturday 7th March 2009.

We are pleased to announce that ten Morpeth Harriers
have found favour with the selectors.

They are as follows
Senior Men
Nick Swinburn
Chris Sampson
Jonathan Taylor.

Under 17 Men
Marcus Cram.

Under 15 Boys
Jonny Nisbet.

Senior Women
Delyth James.

Under 20 Women
Laura Weightman.

Under 17 Women
Zoe Armstrong.

Under 15 Girls
Hannah Rank
Rachael Steel.

Return To Top Of Page

Llandudno Nick Beer 10k Road Race !
Clocking a lifetime personal best of 30m34s, Morpeths Nick Swinburn
secured an easy and superb victory in the Nick Beer 10k Road Race
in Llandudno in Wales on Sunday 8th February.

He bettered his previous best figures by twelve seconds,
and he was at the front of a 563 strong field that included
second placed Andrew Norman of Altrincham,
who was a whole 82 seconds adrift of Bangor University based Swinburn,
such was the strength and enormity of Nicks performance.

Return To Top Of Page

Snow and Ice Robs The Sport of Events !
It was very much a blank weekend in the region on the athletics front,
as snow and ice robbed the sport of its two major fixtures
that involved athletes from Morpeth Harriers.

The North Eastern Royal Signals Road Relays due to be held at Watergate Park,
and the Northern Inter Counties Schools Cross Country Championships
set to be held at Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria, were called off on
Friday and Thursday respectively.

In the case of the Signals, the organisers are intending to
reschedule the event for Saturday 21st March 2009,
however there is little likelihood of the latter event taking place.

There was some joy however for Morpeths Nick McCormick
who was originally intending to head for Aberdeen and the
BUSA Cross Country Championships, which were also
called off because of the wintry conditions.

Instead, the Loughborough based athlete headed for Stuttgart
and the prestigious Indoor Sparkassen Cup,
where he produced an excellent run of 7m52.74s to finish
fourth in a talent filled Mens 3000m, and achieved the necessary
standard for the European Indoor Championships
scheduled to be held in Turin later this month.

Although he was a little adrift of the leading trio,
which included Double World Champion and race winner
Bernard Lagat, this run will give McCormick much needed confidence,
as at last he seems to be getting his athletics career back
on track after a couple of years in the doldrums.
Behind McCormick in 5th and 6th places,
were seasoned Internationals Rui Silva of Portugal,
and the legendary European Cross Country Champion,
Serhiy Lebid of the Ukraine.

Return To Top Of Page

Alsager 5 Mile Road Race !
Morpeth Harrier Matt Nicholson travelled to Cheshire last Sunday 1st February,
to finish 21st in the prestigious Alsager 5 Mile Road Race in a time of 25m45s.

Return To Top Of Page

January

News From January 2009

Return To Top Of Page

McCains UK Challenge Meeting !
Morpeth Harrier Lewis Timmins produced an excellent run to finish
eighth in the Senior Mens event at the third McCains sponsored
UK Challenge meeting held in Antrim, Northern Ireland on Saturday 3rd January.
Timmins was 37 seconds adrift of race winner Jida Merga of Ehiopia.

Return To Top Of Page

Morpeth Harriers 11k Road Race !
New Years Day began on an enthusiastic and somewhat happy note when
130 plus runners stripped for action in the annual Morpeth Harriers 11k Road Race.

With temperatures just above freezing point,
and bright sunshine making its presence,
the Deputy Mayor of Castle Morpeth, Coun Edward Trevelyan
set them off on their way on Mitford Road,
and it led to a cheery start to the 2009 athletics programme for the club,
as they were pleased to see their very own Nick Swinburn
come home in 33m36s as the race winner.

Although nearly a minute behind him in second place
was club colleague Mark Brown,
who crossed the finish line on the Stanners in 34m30s,
he was also well pleased with his start to 2009,
and he hopes to remain relatively injury free during the forthcoming year.

Third place went to the visiting Matt Whitfield of Bingley who clocked 34m59s.
With former winner Nathan Shrubb of Morpeth Harriers
coming home in fourth place in 35m02s,
the host club easily claimed the Mens Team title.

Morpeth Harriers also claimed second place in the team
battle ahead of North Shields Poly, courtesy of Phil Walker (6th) 36m16s,
Paul Waterston (7th) 36m22s, and Ross Floyd (11th) 38m41s.

Walker and Waterston were also the first two Veteran Men finishers,
with the third Veteran Man place going to their club colleague Gordon Dixon,
who was also first in the Over 45 Mens category when finishing thirteenth in 39m20s.

The Ladies race was won by Chester Le Street's Angela Hibbs
who finished sixteenth overall in a time of 39m46s.
Second place in the Ladies event went to Gateshead Harrier
Mary Ferrier who was in twentieth place overall in 41m00s,
however she had the added satisfaction of leading her club to the Ladies Team title.

Third place in the Ladies event went to Bev Whitfield (wife of third placed man Matt)
and also running for Bingley.She finished 28th overall in 42m58s.

First Lady Veteran was Lynn Marr of Tynedale who finished 49th in 46m28s.

Supporting Mary Ferrier in the Gateshead womens team success were
Claire Baudouin (38th) (4th Lady) 43m58s,
and Maggie Lorraine (68th) (10th Lady) 48m15s.

The occasion was also marked by the presence of members
from the Morpeth Lions Club led by Les Sage,
appropriately dressed as a Lion, who were collecting
donations towards the Morpeth Flood Victim Appeal,
in addition to the club agreeing to donate a portion of the
proceeds gained from the Morpeth 11k event.

Morpeth Harriers would like to thank Main sponsors
Alderbuild and club member George Patterson for their generosity.

They would also wish to thank Morpeth Rugby Club
for the use of their premises as Race Headquarters,
the Deputy Mayor of Castle Morpeth,
Coun Edward Trevelyan for starting the race,
Ted Phizacklea and his team of Red Cross Volunteers
for assisting the event, Northumbria Police for their co-operation,
and members and friends of the club for their help on the day.

Return To Top Of Page

December

News From December 2008

Woodlawn Xmas Pudding Run !
A record field of nearly 1,000 runners lined up on the links
at Whitley Bay on a bracing Boxing Day morning for the
annual Woodlawn Christmas Pudding Run.

Amongst them were athletes from Morpeth Harriers,
and six from the club were amongst the leading finishers.

The 3.14mile event was once again won by Ryan McLeod
(formerly with Elswick Harriers) now with Tipton following
his move to the Midlands.

Second place went to Morpeth's Lewis Timmins,
who along with clubmate Mark Brown had dictated the early pace,
and it was only in the last kilometre that he had allowed McLeod
to steal away to retain his hold on the race winners title.

This was the second time in ten days that Timmins
had found himself beaten by McLeod, however on this occasion
there was only a margin of eleven seconds between them as the
Morpeth man crossed the finish line in 15m23s, with
Brown a further nineteen seconds adrift in third place.

Timmins, currently based in America, had to be pleased with his run however,
and will certainly have caught the eyes of selectors who will shortly
be making final considerations for the North Eastern team for
the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships in Nottingham in March.

Brown will also be pleased following his return from an injury
which forced him out of the North Eastern Cross
Country Championships two weeks previous.

Other good Morpeth Harriers placings in the Mens race came from
Phil Walker (7th) 16m24s and Paul Waterston (12th) 17m00s.

In the Womens race Morpeth Harrier Dawn Nagazina
emulated her Saltwell effort by finishing third in 18m35s, and
Julie Clark did well to come home as seventh lady in 21m16s.

Return To Top Of Page

Saltwell Road Race !
With Nick Swinburn finishing second in 31m17s,
Lewis Timmins finishing third in 32m36s,
and Kristian Forster coming home in eleventh place in 34m10s,
Morpeth Harriers were dominant winners of the Senior Mens Team award
at the annual Saltwell Road Race, held at Saltwell Park,
Gateshead on Sunday 21st December.

Archie Jenkins finished as first Over 55 Veteran Man in 36th place in 38m52s.
Running in Morpeth colours for the first time was Canadian visitor Dawn Nagazina,
who is also Lewis Timmin's girlfriend.
Dawn did well in her first outing on English soil,
when she finished as third lady behind Tynedale's Sonia Morley,
and Gateshead's Mary Ferrier.
She finished 49th overall in 40m14s.

Other Morpeth Harriers competing in the 254 strong Senior field were
Julie Clark (107th) (13th Lady) 45m02s,
and Ricky Davidson (163rd) 50m33s.

Morpeth's Marcus Cram was an easy winner of the Under 17 event.
He had thirty six seconds to spare over Luton's Sean Still
when he crossed the finish line in 16m10s.

In the Under 15 Boys event Morpeths Jonnie Nisbet gave a superb performance
which saw him finish third and only four seconds adrift of race-winner
Shaun Barras of Jarrow and Hebburn, with Gateshead's Lewis Hogg
only a mere second in front in second place.
Barras and Hogg are both in the second year of the age group,
which clearly outlines the strength of Nisbet's effort.

Return To Top Of Page

2008 Morpeth Harriers Christmas Handicap !
Starting off three minutes into 2008 Morpeth Harriers Christmas
Handicap was sufficient to allow Maria Muller victory at
Lancaster Park last Wednesday night, 17th December.

With only Susan Millward and Jill Blackett in front of her,
she eventually passed them to win with forty eight seconds
to spare with her handicap time of 20mins.
Millward held on to second place, and Lucy Sill made it a Womens 1-2-3
when she crossed the finish line in a handicapped time of 21m17s.

First Man home was Les Cavill in fourth place in 18m39s off a 5m40s handicap,
and he was followed in by David Steel in 16m09s off an 8m40s handicap.
Third Man home was Gordon Dixon in sixth place off an 8m30s handicap.

Fastest Man on the night was Paul Waterston who finished seventh
with his handicap time of 15m10s, just ahead of Phil Walker
who was nineteenth in 15m22s, and third fastest man
was Mike Hegarty 16m06s who was 22nd.

Fastest Woman was Zoe Armstrong who clocked 17m43s for ninth place.
Second fastest Woman was Kate Chapman who finished 18th in 18m59s,
and third fastest was Gwenda Cavill 19m06s for 20th place.

24 runners took part and conditions were ideal.

Return To Top Of Page

North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships !
It was certainly not for the fainthearted when athletes took on the tricky and testing
conditions at the 103rd Annual North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships
held at Wrekenton on Saturday 13th December.

Heavy overnight rain had left pools of water over various parts of the course,
and just before the first event began, the rains returned along with a cold wind
that made life even harder for the organisers.
However with a tremendous amount of determination and grit,
the nine race programme was completed before darkness fell,
and perhaps more importantly, before temperatures dropped to near freezing.

The major highlight of the day for Morpeth Harriers was a tremendous team win by their Senior Men,
and seeing their leading finisher Nick Swinburn, a winner previously as an Under 20,
grab an individual Silver medal after a tremendous tussle with reigning Champion
Mark Hood of Sunderland who was taking victory for the third year in succession.

After being at close quarters with Hood for two of the three lap 8k race,
Swinburn was eventually resigned to taking the Silver medal
and finishing twenty nine seconds adrift.

What was particularly special for Morpeth Harriers in their team win
was that they achieved it without the services of a lot of their leading lights,
with the exception of the aforementioned Swinburn,
and their Road and Cross Country Mens Team Manager David Swinburne,
who also earned tremendous plaudits for his performance to finish twelfth as second counter.

Neil Armsworth was the next Morpeth counter in an excellent fourteenth place,
and considering that he had been absent from these championships since 2003,
this was no mean achievement.

Morpeth Harriers team dominance was further completed
by excellent performances by Phil Walker (21st),
David Steel (34th) and Alistair MacDonald (42nd).

Other good Senior Men performances from Morpeth
came from John Woods (58th) and Steve Beattie (90th).

Next best performers on the day for Morpeth were their
Under 15 Girls who finished as second team.
They were led home by Hannah Rank who finished fifth,
with excellent team support also coming from Rachael Steel (6th)
and Carley May Webster (22nd)
Also running in this event for Morpeth was
Miriam Inverarity who finished 25th.

Morpeth Harriers Senior Women finished as third team
behind winners Chester Le Street, and second placed Gateshead.
They were led home by Jane Mooney who finished seventh.

Supporting counts came from eighth placed Aiveen Fox
and twelfth finisher Sarah Graham.
Other Morpeth finishers in this event were Claire Bruce (38th)
Gwenda Cavill (41st) and Margaret MacDonald (55th).

Morpeth Harriers also gained Bronze team medals in the
combined Under 17/Under 20 Womens event.
They were unfortunate to lose the services of leading light Laura Weightman,
who suffered a calf injury at the beginning of the second lap.
Laura Dixon led the squad home when finishing fifteenth.

Supporting counts came from Under 17 athletes
Catriona MacDonald (21st) and Louise Cairns (23rd).

Morpeth's Under 15 Boys just missed out on Bronze medals.
They were led home by Jonnie Nisbet, who had an excellent run to
finish fifth amongst opposition that were a year older in the age group.
Excellent team support came from Tom Brookes (23rd)
Josh Dunn (29th), and Steven Hancox (41st).

In the Under 13 age groups Morpeth Harriers
finished as fifth team in both sections.
The Boys were led home by Connor Weightman (brother of Laura),
who ran excellently to finish 14th.
Further team support came from Oliver Dent (18th)
Martin Hood (29th), and Ben Steel (31st).
Another Morpeth performer here was Henrick Paulsen who finished 45th.

The Girls were led home by Stephanie Purvis,
who produced an excellent run to finish eleventh.
Further good team support came from Adele Stewart (19th)
and Rachael Todd (22nd).
Also competing for Morpeth in this event were Sara Wilkes (24th)
Rebecca Reed (34th), and Lucy Pargetter (35th).

Despite suffering a bout of tonsillitis just prior to the Championships,
Morpeth Harrier Marcus Cram took his place on
the start line for the Under 17 Mens event
After attacking hard on the first lap, where he was in third place
as the field began their second lap, he battled hard to
hold his position, however he eventually came home in sixth place.
Other Morpeth Harriers in this event were Thomas Foster-Beattie (18th)
and Harri Dunn (25th).

Return To Top Of Page

English Schools Cross Country Cup Finals !
Three athletes from Morpeth Harriers represented their respective schools
at the Sainsbury's sponsored English Schools Cross Country Cup Finals
held at Shepshed High School in Leicestershire on Saturday 6th December.

Rachel Denton was the best performer when she led
Dame Allan's Girls School of Newcastle home to nineteenth team
place in the Intermediate's race with an excellent individual placing
of eighth amongst some of the country's best.
She was only thirty seconds adrift of an individual medal placing.

The other two Morpeth Harriers were Ailsa McGregor and Carley May Webster,
who were both competing for Central High School of Newcastle
who were eleventh team in the same race as Rachel,
with Ailsa finishing twenty eighth,
and Carley May finishing ninety fifth.
Ailsa was second counter for Central.

Return To Top Of Page

Blyth Sands Race !
57 runners competed in the 49th Blyth Sands Race on Sunday 7th December.
Amongst them were two Morpeth Harriers.
Over 55 Veteran Archie Jenkins, a previous winner,
despite struggling with injury finished sixth, and Zoe Armstrong
came through to finish nineteenth, and was first Under 18 Lady.

Return To Top Of Page

Norman Woodcock Memorial Road Race !
Unfortunately the only North East fixture on Saturday 6th December,
was wiped out because of the wintry conditions.

The annual Elswick Harriers Norman Woodcock Memorial Road Race
due to be held on the pathways on the inner section of Gosforth Park Racecourse,
was postponed when Race Referee Bill McGuirk declared icy parts of the
circuit to be too dangerous to compete.

Organisers are currently looking at possible
alternative dates for the event to be rerun.

Return To Top Of Page

Maximise Your Training Forum !
Morpeth Harriers hosted a "Maximise Your Training" forum
for Distance Runners on Thursday 4th December
at Morpeth Conservative Club.
This was a unique opportunity for Distance Runners of all abilities
to learn and share experiences about how to get good
value from their training and improve their performances.

The programme included "The Key Ingredients of Training",
"Injury Prevention", "Planning to Peak" and
"Preparing for Race Day", and concluded with a
Question & Answer Session and a discussion over drinks.
Experienced athletes who have gone on to coach
at Club Level and Higher made up the panel.

Return To Top Of Page

November

News From November 2008

McCains UK Challenge Cross Country !
Despite the freezing fog in Liverpool's Sefton Park,
Morpeths Nick McCormick gave a more improved performance
when he finished tenth in an exciting Senior Mens event at the second
McCains sponsored UK Challenge meeting on Saturday 29th November.

The Loughborough based former UK 1500m Champion was certainly
in more determined mood than his previous showing earlier this month at Gateshead,
and the fact that he was so much closer to event winner Andy Vernon of Aldershot,
clearly outlines that he is heading in the right direction to recover some of his loss of confidence.

Fellow Morpeth Harriers Jonathan Taylor and Nick Swinburne
finished further down the field in 34th and 60th places respectively.

Return To Top Of Page

Tilburg XC International Meeting !
Morpeths Nick Swinburn was third home for the North of England
in the Under 23 8,100m race at the Tilburg Cross Country
International Meeting in Holland on Sunday 23rd November.

Swinburn finished an excellent sixth of 24 finishers,
and the race was won by his fellow Brit, Jonny Mellor of Liverpool Harriers.

Return To Top Of Page

Chiba Ekiden Relay !
Great Britain and Northern Ireland finished seventh in the
Chiba Ekiden Relay in Japan on Monday 24th November,
and Morpeths Ian Hudspith completed his 10k section in 30m29s.

Return To Top Of Page

Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League !
Despite the overnight snow, and chilly conditions,
there was an excellent turnout for the first meeting of the
Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League which was held
at Shibdon Pond, Blaydon on Sunday 23rd November.

There were a total of 343 finishers in the Senior Mens event,
and Morpeth Harriers were boosted by the fact that they
finished fourth in the Division 1 team score behind Heaton,
Wallsend and South Shields, and one place above reigning
champions Sunderland Harriers.

Morpeth Harriers were led home by Kristian Forster,
who took full advantage to finish ninth from his Slow Pack start.
Second counter was Phil Walker, who came through
excellently in the Medium Pack to finish 20th.
Barry Taylor, who is making a welcome return to the sport after many years out,
was Morpeth's third counter in 39th place from the Slow Pack.
Taylor ran as a Junior for Morpeth back in the 80s,
and his return is more than welcome, especially after this performance.
Mike Hegarty was Morpeth's fourth counter in 68th place from the Medium Pack,
and he was closely followed home by clubmate David Steel who placed 73rd,
also running from the Medium Pack.
Ross Floyd closed the Morpeth count by finishing 124th from the Fast Pack.

Morpeth's Jonny Nisbet, who secured a silver medal in last years
North East Cross Country Under 13 Boys Championship,
began his North East Harrier League Under 15 Boys campaign
by snatching a narrow and well fought victory from the Slow Pack
over Chester Le street's Craig Roberts, with Gateshead's Barry Maskell
only a mere second adrift in third place.
Fellow Morpeth Harrier Philip Caldwell produced
an excellent run to finish twelfth from the Slow Pack.

Running from the Slow Pack, Ben Steel led Morpeth's Under 13 Boys
home to sixth team place by finishing 15th.
Further team support came from fellow Slow Packers Martin Hood
and Matthew Denton who finished 19th and 27th respectively.
Morpeth's Joe Robertshaw finished as thirteenth
fastest overall running from the Fast Pack.

Philip Shuttleworth was Morpeth's only Under 17 Man to turn out,
and he finished eleventh from the Slow Pack.

Led by Jane Mooney who was third fastest on the day,
Morpeth Harriers Senior Women finished as seventh team.
Mooney, running from the Fast Pack, and giving away
three minutes to a large proportion of the 111 strong field,
came through nicely to finish 22nd overall.
Further supporting counts came from Claire Bruce (25th) (Slow Pack)
and Gwenda Cavill (39th) (Slow Pack)

Morpeth Harriers finished as fourth team in the
combined Under 17/Under20 Womens event.
They were led home by Louise Cairns in fourteenth
place from the Slow Pack, with further support coming from
Jessica Caldwell (15th) (Slow Pack), and Deborah Oakley (24th) (Fast Pack)

In the Under 15 Girls event, Morpeth's Carley-May Webster
finished 13th from the Slow Pack,
and Rachel Steel finished 24th from the Fast Pack.

Return To Top Of Page

Leeds Abbey Dash 10k Road Race !
Morpeths Chris Sampson knocked a second off his personal best
when he finished 10th in the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k
Road Race in 30m54s on Sunday 23rd November.
He had set his previous personal best over the same course in 2007.
Fellow Morpeth Harrier Sarah Graham finished 24th in the Womens race in 38m46s.

Return To Top Of Page

Masters Cross Country International !
Four Morpeth Harriers represented their countries at the
British Masters Home International Cross Country
Championships at Swansea on Saturday 15th November,
and two emerged with medals.

Although he surrendered his Over 70 Mens title, Walter Ryder was very
much part of an England team success when he finished third overall,
and he was second counter for his country in a close team victory over Wales.

Craig McBurney finished fourteenth in the Over 40 Veteran Mens race,
and was second counter for Scotland who took the Bronze medals.
Running for England, Phil Walker finished as 16th in the O/35 Veteran Mens race.

An injury plagued Archie Jenkins finished 20th when running
for Scotland in the Over 55 Veteran Mens event.

Return To Top Of Page

Gateshead International Cross Country Races !
With very little racing activity under her belt of recent,
Morpeths Laura Weightman produced a most promising
performance in the Junior Womens 4.5k event at the
McCain sponsored Gateshead International Cross Country Races
at the Riverside Bowl on Saturday 15th November.

Weightman who is included in the nations latest list of
Lottery Funded athletes under the Talent section, finished
thirteenth, in what can only be described as a field of high
class opposition and her performance clearly pointed to the
fact that there is more to come from her in the forthcoming winter programme.

She was a little disappointed not to have made
it into the top ten on the day, however she can take much stock
from the fact that she was only mere seconds away from doing so
on a day that proved to be excellent in conditions for most around her.

In the case of clubmate Nick McCormick however it was not quite
the sort of homecoming he would have wished for.
After going off hard in the Senior Mens International 6 lap 8.7k event,
the now Loughborough based athlete eventually
faded to fifteenth, and was clearly seeming to struggle
in the later stages as the pace hotted up at the front of the field.

McCormick is still struggling to recapture the form that won
him many accolades three years ago, and a return to basics,
including domestic club action to gain some confidence,
would probably be his best form of remedial treatment.

In contrast club colleague Nick Swinburn will feel well
boosted by his run that saw him come through to finish 24th
after taking things nice and steady in the early stages.
Three places behind Swinburn came Morpeth's
Heaton Road Race winner Jonathan Taylor who is
very tactically attacking his races at the moment.
Despite his early aggression he hung on well to claim his final placing.

Morpeth Harriers newcomer Matt Nicholson finished 19th
in a very fast run Senior Mens 1 lap 1mile International event.

In the Veteran Mens 7.3k, 5 lap event Morpeth's
David Steel competed well to finish eleventh.

Jonnie Nisbet of Morpeth ran well to finish 18th in the Under 15 Boys 4k event.

Other performances by Morpeth Harriers on the day saw
Delyth James finish 27th in a top class Senior Womens 7.3k event,

Stephanie Purvis and Sarah Wilkes finished 20th
and 26th respectively in the Under 13 Girls 3k event,

Deborah Oakley finished 17th in the Under 17 Womens 4.5k event,
and Ben Steel finished 33rd in the Under 13 Boys 3k event.

Return To Top Of Page

Brampton to Carlisle 10mile Road Race !
Finishing in fifteenth place in 57m16s, Paul Waterston was
Morpeth Harriers first finisher in the 57th running of the annual
Brampton to Carlisle 10mile Road Race on Saturday 15th November.

Morpeth finished seventh in the Mens team race
with further support coming from
Gordon Dixon (25th) 59m18s,
and Mike Winter (100th) 65m05s.

Jane Mooney (59th) (3rd Lady) 62m25s,
Aiveen Fox (77th) (5th Lady) 63m22s,
and Jill Atherton (411th) (71st Lady) (22nd O/35) 80m54s
secured fifth team place for Morpeth Harriers Ladies.

Other Morpeth Harrier Results were as follows
Ian Corner (234th) (39thO/40) 71m15s,
and Richard Driscoll (260th) (16th O/55) 72m27s.

Return To Top Of Page

Edinburgh University Braids Hills Cross Country !
Representing Leeds University, Morpeths Sarah Graham
ran superbly to finish eighteenth in the Ladies Race at
the Edinburgh University Braids Hills Cross Country
event on Saturday 15th November.

Return To Top Of Page

Derwentwater 10 mile Road Race !
Morpeth Harriers finished as third Senior Mens team
and second Veteran Mens team at the recently held 49th running
of the Derwentwater 10 mile Road Race in Keswick, Cumbria.

On both counts they were led home by Paul Waterston
who was twelfth overall in 56m54s.
Second home was Gordon Dixon who was twenty eighth in 60m26s,
and third home was Alan Shepherd who was 32nd in 60m57s.

Next to finish for Morpeth was Mike Winter who was 76th
in 66m46s, and Kevin Bray completed the Veteran Mens
team count when finishing 87th overall in 67m38s.

Another Morpeth finisher was Mike Steven who placed 145th in 72m03s.

Return To Top Of Page

Heaton Harriers Memorial Road Races !
Unfortunately twenty eight seconds robbed Morpeths Jonathan Taylor
of an extra bonus prize of £100, when he won the Senior Mens event
at the Heaton Harriers Memorial Road Races held at
Newcastle's Exhibition Park and Town Moor on Sunday 9th November.

After breaking away in the very early stages of the 10k event,
Taylor was left very much to his own devices in the strong windy
and damp conditions, and he was never really challenged as he
crossed the finish line comfortably in 31m26s,
and just outside Sunderland Harrier Mark Hood's 2006 course record,
which if he'd broken would have earned him the extra cash prize.

His closest rival Peter Newton of Claremont finished in 31m53s,
with Gateshead Harriers Junior Ross Murray claiming third place in 32m28s.

Taylor was however pleased with his individual performance,
and in addition feels himself getting closer to the form he would like
to be in as his Winter programme progresses.

Unfortunately Morpeth were out of the team challenge,
finishing in fourth place overall.
Morpeth Harriers next finisher was newcomer Matt Nicholson,
who is still a non counter following his recent transfer from Gosforth Harriers.
This was Nicholson's first ever 10k race,
and he competed well to finish fourth in 33m11s.
Nicholson does become eligible to count from December 1st,
and is eagerly looking forward to playing a part in the Northern
and National Road Relay challenges for Morpeth next Spring.

Third home for Morpeth, but as a second
claim runner wearing the vest of Tonbridge was
Harry Paton who finished twelfth in 35m56s.

The Morpeth team count for fourth was completed by
David Steel (21st) (4th O/40) 37m36s,
Alistair MacDonald (27th) (3rd O/45) 38m12s,
and Mike Steven (154th) (15th O/50) 44m44s.

Other Morpeth Harriers results were as follows
Claire Bruce (169th) (3rd O/40 Lady) 45m29s,
Ian McLaren (172nd) (24thO/40) 45m48s,
Bernie Cordes (238th) (1st O/70) 48m54s,
Margaret MacDonald (260th) (6th O/40 Lady) 50m11s.

Morpeth Harriers had athletes competing in the
younger age group events at the Heaton Memorial Road races.
Jonny Nisbet finished third in the Under 15 Boys 3k event in 10m35s.
Stephanie Purvis finished third in the Under 13 Girls 3k event in 12m32s.

Morpeth Harriers completed as a team in the under 13 Boys 3k event,
and were led home by Ben steel who finished fifth in 12m24s.
Supporting counts came from Martin Hood (7th) 12m53s,
and Henrik Paulsen (12th) 14m22s.

In the Under 17 Womens 5k event
Zoe Armstrong finished fourth in 21m52s.

Many Thanks to all at Heaton Harriers
for their usual splendid organisation.

Return To Top Of Page

Leeds Hyde Park Time Trial !
Morpeths Sarah Graham was first Lady finisher
in the Hyde Park Time trial in Leeds on Saturday 8th November.
Sarah produced an excellent run of 18m52s,
which was short of her personal best for the course,
however it placed her 14th of 156 finishers.

Return To Top Of Page

Mid Lancs Cross Country League !
Morpeths Ben Harrison who is back on the comeback trail after injury,
finished 49th in the Senior Mens event at the Mid Lancs Cross Country League
meeting held at Townley Park, Burnley on Saturday 8th November.

Return To Top Of Page

English National Cross Country Relays !
In what was mainly a southern dominated event,
largely through Aldershot and Farnham, and apart from the
exceptional victory by New Marske Junior Men,
Morpeth Harriers Senior Men provided one of the regions best
performances at the English National Cross Country Relays,
held at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield on Saturday 1st November.

They battled hard and well to clinch well earned Bronze medals,
on what otherwise was a very uneventful day for the Northumbrian club.
For the first time in almost two decades,
Morpeth Harriers had no teams competing
in Under 13, Under 15, Under 17 Men, Junior Men and Women,
and Senior Womens events, and other than Senior Men,
only the Under 17 Women could muster a squad, and even they suffered
misfortune as you will find out later in this article.

The Morpeth Senior Mens challenge began well when Jonathan Taylor
ran a first leg of 15m19.50s to come home in an excellent ninth place.
He handed over to a very much in form Chris Sampson,
who despite running a slightly slower 15m35.0s,
managed to maintain progress and climbed up one place
at the expense of Stockport, who had slipped back badly after
Steve Vernon's first leg had seen him come home
very much in front of 188 other runners,
and eventually to be rewarded with the fastest time of the day of 14m51.05s.

Third leg saw Morpeth Harriers bring their fastest runner
into the fray in the form of Ian Hudspith, who sped round the
two lap course in an excellent 15m12.35s,
and in furious pursuit of the leader Frank Tickner
of Well City Harriers who were only in front by five seconds.

Hudspith's time on the third leg was only beaten by
Newham and Essex Beagles Mark Warmby who were lying in fifth
place at the end of the stage, and beginning to mount a serious
challenge to the would be medal protagonists.

It was indeed a most daunting task when Morpeth's fourth
and final leg runner Nick Swinburn took over from
Hudspith, because he now had the lead at the expense of Wells City,
who had failed to provide a fourth runner, and were now out of the reckoning.

This meant that Swinburn was now being hard chased by
Nielson Hall of Bedford who took over in third,
Bruce Raeside of Notts who had taken over in fourth,
and Keith Gerrard of Newham, who had taken over from the
aforementioned Warmby in fifth.
All three knew that they had been elevated at the expense of Wells,
which made Swinburn's position no better to handle.

Swinburn did battle hard however, but eventually succumbed to Hall,
who realising he had grabbed the lead, went on to capitalise his advantage
by clocking the fourth best fastest time of the day of 14m58.05s
to claim Gold medals for Bedford.

Unfortunately Nick was also eventually passed by Gerrard
who claimed Silver for Newham and Essex by clocking the
seventh best fastest time of 14m59.95s.
Gerrard had however done some damage by
running the legs off Raeside of Notts, which gave Swinburn the
opportunity to hold off another challenge,
and clinch some well earned Bronze medals for his Morpeth club colleagues,
as he finished in an excellent individual time of 15m29.75s,
and with a seven second cushion over the Notts man.

The third placing for Morpeth Harriers also meant they were
first from the North of England, with sale Harriers being
their closest rivals back in fifth spot and forty three seconds adrift.

Morpeth also had a B team back in 46th place
courtesy of Mark Brown (16m04.25s)
David Swinburne (16m35.65s)
Ross Floyd (17m10.10s)
and Jordan Scott (17m59.00s)
They finished as sixth B team.

Unfortunately Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Womens
team were victims of an officiating blunder.
Their event time was brought forward slightly,
and as a result of this first leg runner Deborah Oakley was slightly late to
the start line and was denied entry onto the course by an over zealous official.

A protest was lodged by Morpeth Harriers Team Boss
and Club Secretary Mike Bateman which won them a reprieve
that they be allowed to run as a non counting
Senior Womens team in the later event.

With Morpeth Harriers having no Senior Womens team taking
part the organisers agreed to this, which meant that the
three girl squad were not to have had a wasted journey
although they were facing a slightly longer race than anticipated.

This is the second occasion that Morpeth Harriers
have fallen foul to officials judgement at this event.
In 2006 their Under 15 Girls team were deprived of their
correct start when Louise Cairns was prevented by an official
from entering the course when she had every right to take her place on the start line.

Eventually after heavy protests they were allowed to run,
albeit around nine minutes behind the rest of the field.
In the team that day was Catriona MacDonald,
and this must have felt like a repeat performance,
when she ran second leg after Deborah Oakley's first leg
clocking of 13m23.70s saw the squad in 82nd place.
Catriona did make up some ground however as she clawed
back eight places with her clocking of 14m10.15s.

Third and final leg runner Jessica Caldwell managed
to get round in 14m45.85s, and got the
Morpeth Under 17 Girls squad up to a final placing of 65th.

Return To Top Of Page

Gibside Fruit Bowl Trail Race !
Morpeths Neil Wilkinson produced an excellent performance
on Sunday 2nd November to win the Gibside Fruit Bowl 6.2mile Trail Race,
Wilkinson clocked 36m10s, and he was 67 seconds clear
of his closest rival Conrad Franks of Gateshead.

Return To Top Of Page

Abergele 5mile Road Race !
0n Sunday 2nd November, less than 12 hours after anchoring Morpeth Harriers to
third team place and Bronze medals at the English National XC Relays in Mansfield,
Nick Swinburn was again tasting the sweet smell of success when winning the
Abergele 5mile Road Race in North Wales in a time of 25m21s,
which put him 26 secs clear of his nearest rival.
Swinburn was competing for his second claim club Bangor University.

Return To Top Of Page

2008 Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes Road Championships !
The final events in the Morpeth Harriers Young Athetes Road Races 2008,
took place on Lancaster Park on Monday evening.( 3rd November)
Jonny Nisbett won the Under 15 Boys event in 7m54s,
and had six seconds to spare over his closest rival Jack Hepple.

The Under 15 Girls event was very easily won by Rachel Denton in 8m09s
and proved to be 92seconds clear over her closest rival Carley May-Webster.

Third places went to Tom Brooks (8m29s)
and Miriam Invararity (10m07s) respectively.

Other placings
UNDER 15 GIRLS
Fiona Herbert (4th) 10m13s,
Lucy Shuttleworth (5th) 10m20s,
Ellen Welsh (6th) 10m30s,
Katie Tiffen (7th) 10m34s,
Polly Jeffery (8th) 11m07s.

UNDER 15 BOYS
Josh Dunn (4th) 8m31s,
Alistair Titchmarsh (5th) 8m38s,
Rhonan Green (6th) 8m58s,
Steven Harrogate (7th) 9m23s,
Sam Hancocks (8th) 9m55s,
Jonathan Cozens (9th) 11m37s,
Jack Stabler (10th) 11m37s.

Return To Top Of Page

October

News From October 2008

2008 Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes Road Championships !
Philip Shuttleworth produced an excellent 16m43s
to win the two lap Under 17 Mens event in the latest
Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes Road Championship
held on Lancaster Park on Monday night. (27th October)

After going through halfway in 8m09s
and holding a 28 second lead,
he further increased that lead on the second lap
to 65 seconds to claim victory.

Second place went to Harri Dunn who was also well clear
of his nearest rival with his clocking of 17m48s.

Third place went to Marc Anderson who clocked 20m04s,
but was running as a slightly over age guest,
so the Championship Bronze placing went to
Jack Gebhard who clocked 20m08s.

The Under 17 Womens Championship saw
Deborah Oakley win quite easily in 9m15s.
Second and third places went to
Cariona MacDonald (10m04s)
and Louise Cairns (10m08s).

Other finishers were
Stevie Goodfellow (4th) 10m43s,
Jessica Caldwell (5th) 11m02s,
and Louise Gebhard (6th) 14m41s.

Return To Top Of Page

Sherman Cup & Davison Shield Meeting !
Morpeth Harriers Womens section took pride of place at the
Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League Sherman
Cup & Davison Shield meeting held at Temple Park,
South Shields on Saturday 25th October,
when they won the latter trophy for
the fourth year in succession.

Unfortunately the same could not be said for the clubs Male counterparts,
who despite some good performances, failed to retain the Sherman Cup
for the seventh year in a row by virtue of their failure
to turn out a complete Under 15 Boys squad.

The best contributors to the Morpeth Harrier Womens
overall result were undoubtedly their Under 15 Girls who
finished second to Gateshead Harriers,
albeit by the slender margin of two points.
This squad were led home by Hannah Rank who finished fourth,
and only just missed out on an individual Bronze by the margin of two seconds.

Further scoring counts came from excellent runs by
Ailsa McGregor (9th) and Carly-May Webster (13th).

Next best Morpeth performers were the
Under 17/Under 20 Women who finished third.
They were led home by Deborah Oakley who finished seventh,
and was fourth in the Under 17 Womens section.
Further scoring counts came courtesy of Louise Cairns (14th)
and Catriona MacDonald (17th), who were also tenth
and thirteenth respectively in the Under 17 finishers.
Another Morpeth Harrier finisher was
Jessica Caldwell who was 20th and sixteenth Under 17.

Morpeth's Senior Women came fifth in their respective event.
Road and Cross Country Team Captain Gwenda Cavill
was the first home for the club, finishing in 23rd place overall.

Other supporting counts came from Shuna Rank,
who finished 29th, and was having her first ever taste
of team competition on behalf of Morpeth,
and Margaret MacDonald who was 31st.
What made Rank and MacDonald's part more interesting
was that both their daughters Hannah and Catriona had also
competed to their clubs success,
which made it very much a Morpeth Harriers family affair.

Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Girls finished sixth in their team race.
They were led home by their recently crowned Road Champion
Stephanie Purvis who finished in eleventh place.
Other supporting counts came from Adele Stewart (21st)
and Francesca Price (22nd).
Two places behind Francesca came another
Morpeth finisher in Rebecca Reed.

At one stage it was thought that Morpeth Harriers may have
missed out on their team victory to great rivals Gateshead,
however eagle eyed judges in the results room spotted that
Gateshead's leading trio in the Senior Womens event had
included two non scorers who were still rendered
ineligible due to their change of clubs.

On to the Mens section, where Morpeth's best result on the day
came from their Under 17 Men who won their team event.

They were led home by an excellent performer in Marcus Cram
who won a personal battle to finish second,
but unfortunately could not quite match terms
with the older race winner Michael Priestley of North Shields.
Other scoring counts in this event came from Alistair Douglass
who finished seventh, and Philip Shuttleworth who placed 14th.
Harri Dunn also had an impressive Morpeth Harriers debut when he finished 21st.

Morpeth Harriers Senior Men finished fourth in their team event,
and their scorers all came from their Veteran ranks.
First home however for Morpeth was non scorer and debutant
Matthew Nicholson newly acquired from Gosforth Harriers.
Nicholson was certainly impressive when he finished fourth,
and just outside an individual medal.

First official counter for Morpeth was Neil Wilkinson who was eighth,
and his efforts were well supported by Paul Waterston (14th) and Phil Walker (21st)
Other Morpeth runners in the Senior Mens event were Jordan Scott (30th),
Gordon Dixon (38th), David Steel (41st) and Bernie Cordes (176th).

Morpeth's Under 13 Boys finished in fourth team place.
They were led home by an excellent performer in Joe Robertshaw,
who is the North East 200m Under 13 Boys Track Champion,
and is more known in the Winter for his exploits on the Indoor Track over 60m.
Robertshaw finished eleventh which proved to be in the top half of a 38 strong field.

Second counter was Joe Elder who was 18th,
and third counter was Ben Steel who was 20th.
Also running for Morpeth in this event were Matthew Denton,
and debutant Martin Hood who were 22nd and 28th respectively.

The major disappointment on the day for Morpeth Harriers
was the failure to field a complete Under 15 Boys squad,
with only Philip Caldwell turning out for his clubs cause.
Caldwell finished 27th.

Return To Top Of Page

Bupa Great South Run !
Morpeths Ian Hudspith finished 15th in the
Bupa Great South Run on Sunday 26th October.
He covered the ten mile course in Portsmouth in 49m49s.

The race was won by Bernard Kipyego
in an unofficial time of 46mins 42seconds.
The Kenyan crossed the line ahead of Ireland's Martin Fagan
and his compatriot and defending champion Luke Kibet.

In the Womens race, Paula Radcliffe looked in fine form
ahead of next week's New York Marathon
as she won in a British record time.

Radcliffe, competing for the first time since her
disappointment at the Beijing Olympics, won in 51m 11s.

Return To Top Of Page

Morpeth Harriers at UK Cross Challenge !
Morpeths Nick McCormick finished third in the Senior Mens race
at the first UK Cross Challenge event held at
Birmingham's Senneleys Park, on Saturday 25th October.
He was ten seconds down on race winner Jean Dayisenga of Birchfield,
and ran an equal time with second placed Tom Russell of Stroud.

At the same meeting Morpeth's Delyth James
finished twelfth in the Senior Womens event.

Return To Top Of Page

Ian Hudspith Selected For Great Britain Squad !
Morpeths Ian Hudspith has earned himself a much prized place
in the Norwich Union Great Britain and Northern Ireland squad
that will compete in the Chiba Ekiden Relay in Japan on November 24th.

This is as a direct result of his recent excellent run of form,
and a good performance in some recent high profile events including
the National 6 Stage Road Relays held recently at Sutton Park.

37 year old Hudspith will run a 10k leg, and is joined in Japan
by fellow North East Club Member Freya Murray of Chester Le Street,
who can also look upon the recent National Womens 4 Stage Relay at Sutton Park,
where she ran the fastest time of the day,
as a direct reason for her inclusion.

Return To Top Of Page

National Mens 6 Stage & Womens 4 Stage Road Relay Championships !
Although Morpeth Harriers two competing teams had no medals
to show for their long journey to Birmingham's Sutton Park for the
English National 6 and 4 Stage Road Relays held on Saturday 18th October,
they still managed to finish amongst the country's top performers,
and there were some brighter moments within the course of the competition.

The clubs Senior Men finished eleventh of seventy complete teams,
and once again it was thirty nine year old Ian Hudspith who earned
most of the plaudits by completing the third 5.9k leg in an excellent 17m18s,
which proved to be the fourth fastest of the leg, and was just outside the top ten on the day.
That run moved Morpeth up to what was to their best position on the day,
as they reached sixth, as Ian clawed a mammoth ten places following
the earlier legs of Jonathan Taylor, who by his own account ran a poor 17m51s to finish
seventeenth on leg one, and Nick Swinburn who climbed one more place with 18m11s.

Chris Sampson, who had been Morpeth's second best performer
in the Northern Championships two weeks earlier,
ran his heart out to try to make some impact on those ahead of him.
He ran 18m04s, which was eleventh fastest of the leg,
however he did succumb to some faster opposition around him,
including Blackheath's Mike Skinner, and unfortunately he had slipped to ninth
before handing over to fifth leg runner and club captain David Swinburne.
Swinburne battled as hard as he could to maintain status,
however by the time he had reached the changeover line in
19m00s he had slipped a further two places.

Final leg runner Mark Brown really gave his all in the chase,
however despite his gutsy 18m29s, he remained in the final
finishing position of eleventh when he got to the line.

Despite finishing in eleventh place Morpeth emerged as third
from the North behind Sale Harriers and Leeds City,
and were well clear of their other three competing North East rivals,
New Marske, Sunderland Harriers and Loftus,
who placed 18th, 30th and 67th respectively.

Elswick only had one runner in Ryan McLeod,
who had led the field home on Leg One.

Morpeth Harriers Senior Women also gave good account for themselves
when they finished in eighteenth place at the end of their 4x 4.4k event.

They were sixth from the North, and also second from the North East,
with local rivals Chester Le Street being dominant in winning team Bronze
and having Scottish International Freya Murray clocking
the fastest time of the day of 13m50s.

The event marked the Senior National Relay debut for Laura Weightman,
who had made her Senior Northern Relay debut at Hartlepool two weeks previous.
Weightman ran despite sporting a hefty bruise from a fall sustained
in training when tripping over a stone a few days before,
however showed caution on the first leg to come home
in 36th place with her clocking of 15m42s.

Although clocking a second slower, second leg runner Jane Mooney
managed to climb twelve places to put her club in a more challenging position.
In clocking a time of 15m29s, which proved to be just outside the top ten on Leg Three,
Aiveen Fox continued the progress by climbing a further five places
to nineteenth and only three seconds adrift of Lincoln Wellington's starlet Blue Haywood.

Sarah Graham battled her way round the fourth and final leg
with the Lincoln runner Lara Thomas, and eventually
pushed ahead by ten seconds with her clocking of 16m18s.

As aforementioned Morpeth Women were second from the North East
with further results showing Wallsend A (64th) and Wallsend B (77th).
Chester Le Street B finished after two legs in 60th place,
and Gateshead who just had one runner in Mary Ferrier who
was sixteenth on the first leg.

Return To Top Of Page

National Young Athletes Road Relays !
Morpeth Harriers fielded two teams at the
English Young Athletes Road Relays at Sutton Park,
Birmingham on Sunday 19th October.

The clubs Under 17 Men finished 25th in a field of 59 complete teams,
and Marcus Cram was their fastest on the day. Alistair Douglass had the squad in 28th place with his first leg clocking of 12m48s,
then Cram took over the reins to haul them up eight
places to 20th on leg two with a time of 12m31s.
Philip Shuttleworth clocked 13m30s as he slipped back to the final placing of 25th.

There was slightly better fortune for Morpeth's Under 15 Girls who finished 21st.
On first leg Ailsa McGregor clocked 15m45s to finish in 41st place.
Hannah Rank clocked 15m47s as she took the
squad up a further five places on Leg Two.
Final leg runner Rachel Denton clocked an excellent 14m05s,
which was second fastest of the leg, and tenth fastest of the day,
to climb an equally excellent fifteen places to the final placing.

Return To Top Of Page

Marathon Debut In Chicago For Michael Morris !
Braving very hot conditions, Morpeths Michael Morris crowned
his Marathon debut in Chicago on Sunday 12th October
by finishing 55th in a time of 2hours 33mins 54secs.

After passing the halfway point in 1hr13m55s,
Michael unfortunately submitted slightly to the prevailling heat
to take around seven minutes longer to run the second half.

The mens race was won by Evans Kiprop Cheruiyot of Kenya
who crossed the finish line in 2:06:25.

Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia won the women's race,
clocking a time of 2:27:17.

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon has been held annually
for the last 30 years in September/October.
Since the first Chicago Marathon in 1977,
the field of runners has increased from 4,200 to 45,000,
but the race has all along the way been one of
the largest marathon road races in the world.

Return To Top Of Page

2008 Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes Road Championships !
An excellent turnout of 42 runners took part in the second
of the series of Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes Road
Championships held on Lancaster Park on Monday night ( 13th October ).

There were 22 finishers in the Under 13 Boys
and 20 in the Under 13 Girls events respectively.

Liam Brooks won the Under 13 Boys event in 8m56s,
albeit by the slender margin of three seconds over Liam Fox
. Third place went to Ryan Dodds who clocked 9m14s.

The Girls event was won quite comfortably by Steph Purvis in 9m22s,
with Francesca Price (9m50s)
and Rebecca Reed (9m56s) securing the minor placings.

Other Results were as follows

UNDER 13 BOYS
Ben Steel (4th) 9m45s, Joe Elder (5th) 9m56s,
Martin Hood (6th) 10m22s, Matthew Denton (7th) 10m24s,
Aaron Whalley (8th) 10m39s, Daniel Smith (9th) 10m42s,
Henrik Paulsen (10th) 11m14s, Ben Welsh (11th) 11m15s,
Luke Hegarty (12th) 11m15s, Jake Weatherburn (13th) 11m35s,
Daniel Thorns (11m42s, James Thorns (15th) 12m03,
Ross McGowan (16th) 12m06s. Cameron Wilson (17th) 12m27s,
Kyle Duggan (18th) 14m08s, Shaun Elliot (19th) 14m09s,
Chris English (20th) 15m00s, Daniel Dunn (21st) 15m47s, Cameron Thomas (22nd) 15m54s,

UNDER 13 GIRLS
Eve Shashova (4th) 10m19s, Josie McReeton (5th) 10m21s,
Rachael Todd (6th) 10m30s, Alice Greenhaugh (7th) 10m46s,
Beth Woolley (8th) 10m47s, Ailidh McCallister-Williams (9th) 11m34s,
Lucy Pargeter (10th) 11m45s, Rhian Watkins (11th) 11m49s,
Hetty Naylor (12th) 11m59s, Frances Holland (13th) 12m06s,
Honoria Brown (14th) 12m08s, Charlotte Welldon (15th) 12m09s,
Emma Telford (16th) 12m18s, Alice Kelly (17th) 12m35s,
Deborah Snowdon (18th) 14m22s, Abigail Neilly (19th) 14m23s,
Madeline Coates (20th) 17m04s.

Return To Top Of Page

Whalton Classic 5 Mile Road Race !
Morpeths Phil Walker won the Whalton Classic 5 Mile Road Race
on Sunday 5th October, Phil crossed the line in 27m40s.
88 finishers turned out in excellent conditions,
and Walker finished just ahead of his second placed clubmate
Paul Waterston (28m06s), with Shaun Laws of Birtley finishing third in 28m38s.
Host club Morpeth Harriers took the Mens team honours with
Gavin Bayne's ninth placing in 30m33s giving excellent support.

The Ladies race was won by Chester Le Street's Tracy Laws, who was tenth overall in 30m34s.
Sixteen seconds and two places behind her came Elswick's Yam Thiru to take the second Ladies spot.
Third Ladies spot went to North Shields Poly's Jane Goble who finished twentieth in 33m31s.
Goble had the consolation of leading her club to the Ladies team title.

Many Thanks go to event sponsors Stanton Hall Garden and Plant Centre
and Intersoil for their generosity, and to Whalton Village Hall for the use of their premises,
also to Whalton residents for their co-operation.

The event was also once again treated to a visit by the Red Arrows,
who were warming up for their Great North Run display.

Return To Top Of Page

British Masters Cross Country Relay Championship !
Despite getting to the venue late owing to missing a Road Junction on the M1,
Morpeth Harriers Over 40 Veteran Mens squad succeeded in placing fourth
in the British Masters Cross Country Relay Championship at Berry Hill Park,
Mansfield on Saturday 4th October.

The lateness meant first leg runner Paul Waterston had very little time for warm up,
however he managed to finish around midway in the field in 14m04s.

Second Leg runner PhilWalker managed to gain eight positions on leg two
having passed three in the first 500m with his clocking of 13m57s.

Alistair MacDonald on third leg clocked 15m08s and managed
to get the squad up into third for a while, but eventually
finished in sixth place at the changeover, where Craig McBurney,
who had travelled up from Wiltshire,
ran a solid 13m53s to maintain a good position.

Gordon Dixon on fifth leg also had a solid run of 15m27s,
and left Neil Wilkinson with plenty to compete with as he
worked his way to a final placing of fourth and just outside
the medals with his excellent clocking of 13m35s.

Return To Top Of Page

Great North 2 Mile Run !
Morpeths Jonathan Taylor enjoyed the excellent performance
he gave in front of the watching Newcastle Quayside crowd,
and the TV audience when he finished seventh in the
Great North 2 Mile Run on Saturday 4th October.
Also running in the 1 Mile event was clubmate
Nick McCormick who finished eighth.

Return To Top Of Page

2008 Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes Road Championships !
Morpeth Harriers held the first of their 2008 Young Athletes
Road Championships on Lancaster Park on Monday night (6th October)

Emily Todd was a most convincing winner of the Under 11 Girls event in 12m13s.
Second place went to Florence Thomson who clocked 13m56s,
and Megan Scott claimed third place in 14m15s.

The under 11 Boys event was won by Andrew Allan in 9m57s.
Second place went to Sam Alder who clocked 10m24s,
and Patrick Smith finished third in 11m07s.

Other Results were as follows

Under 11 Girls
4th Bethany Hardy 15m15s,
5th Katie Dunn 15m18s.

Under 11 Boys
4th James Wilkes 11m17s,
5th Daniel Larby 11m23s,
6th Matthew Jordan 11m58s,
7th Finn Farthing 12m05s,
8th Gabriel Farthing 12m27s,
9th Sam Foster-Beattie 14m 08s,
10th Callum Brooks 14m09s,
11th Rioghan Bruce 15m52s,
12th James Piet 16m37s.

Return To Top Of Page

Bupa Great North Run !
Morpeths Ian Hudspith was the clubs first finisher in the
27th Bupa Great North Run on Sunday 5th October.
He finished 17th in 64m55s, which unfortunately was around
a minute down on his 2007 which will disappoint him.

Second home from Morpeth was Chris Sampson who finished 28th in 67m19s,
which is ten seconds down on his 2007 time.
Kristian Forster will be pleased however to find that after several months in the doldrums,
that he managed to put in a solid performance to finish 45th in 71m41s.

Other finishers from Morpeth Harriers within the top 200 were
Andy Lawrence (100th) 78m34s
and Mike Hegarty (193rd) 83m09s.

Return To Top Of Page

North of England Young Athletes Road Relay Championships !
Morpeth Harriers Under 15 Girls performed well to claim tenth place
at the North of England Young Athletes Road Relay Championships
held at Croxteth Park, Liverpool on Sunday 5th October.

Rachel Denton clocked the fastest time of 11m33s on the final leg,
and the third fastest overall time of the day to climb nine places
after Rachael Steel's (13m25s) and Hannah Rank's (12m30s)
had seen them progress from a lowly 30th on the first leg.

The clubs Under 17 Women progressed from 21st to 13th courtesy
of Catriona MacDonald (17m24s), Deborah Oakley (15m35s) (10th Fastest of the Leg)
and Louise Cairns (17m34s).

Disappointingly Morpeth only managed to field one Under 13 Boy
in Ben Steel who clocked 13m34s to finish 22nd on the first leg.

Return To Top Of Page

Junior Great North Run !
Morpeths Marcus Cram became the latest in a line
of Junior Great North Run champions from the club,
when he won the Boys event in emphatic style on
Newcastle's Quayside on Saturday 4th October.
Performing in front of his watching father Steve,
who was broadcasting for BBC Sport, he was well clear in the event.

He now joins fellow Morpeth Harriers Philip Downes, Sam Forester,
Kirk Wilson, Carley Wilson and Laura Weightman as winners of Junior Great North events.

Other leading Morpeth Harriers in the 13 to 16 year old Boys event were
Alistair Douglass (15th) and Jonny Nisbett (27th).

In the 9 to 12 year old Boys event Joe Elder placed 24th,
Matthew Denton was 45th and Ben Steel was 56th.

Deborah Oakley was the first Morpeth Harrier
home in the 13 to 16 year old Girls.She finished 20th.

Other Morpeth Harrier finishers were
Adele Stewart 39th,
Stevie Goodfellow 47th,
Rachael Todd 80th,
Rachael Steel 136th
and Ailidh McCallister- Williams 150th.

Return To Top Of Page

September

News From September 2008

Northern Athletics Road Relay Championships
Excellent top drawer performances from Ian Hudspith
and Chris Sampson spurred Morpeth Harriers Senior Men
to Bronze medals and an automatic qualification for the
National 6 Stage Road Relays due to be held at Sutton Park in three weeks time,
at the North of England equivalent held at Hartlepool on Saturday 27th September.

After Michael Morris's first leg clocking of 16m32s
had the squad in a very handily placed ninth,
second leg runner Sampson passed all in front of him when
he clocked the third fastest of the leg with 15m53s,
which also proved to be the fifth fastest of the day,
to post a two second lead over Leeds City,
who were the eventual runaway winners,
with then third placed Liverpool a further twenty seconds adrift,
and Altrincham breathing down their necks in fourth spot.
It did not take long for Leeds City to exert their authority on the event
as their third leg runner proved to be a little too strong for Nick Swinburn,
who also succumbed to the experience of Matt Barnes
of Altrincham who moved into second place.

Swinburn did manage to hang on to third spot with the
seventh fastest of the leg clocking of 17m03s,
with now fourth placed Salford a further thirty one seconds adrift.
So at halfway it was Leeds City in front with a forty four second margin over Altrincham,
who were seventeen seconds ahead of Morpeth.
At this point Ian Hudspith joined the fray, and easily dealt with Altrincham,
who having a weaker runner slipped back to sixth, and Salford, Liverpool
and Morpeth's North East rivals Sunderland had now joined the fight
for medals with only nine seconds dividing the three of them.

Meanwhile Hudspith was clocking the fastest time of the day of 15m30s,
and cutting down Leeds City's lead to a mere thirty eight seconds despite James Walsh's 15m53s.
He had also given his club a seventy eight second cushion over third placed Salford.
Disappointingly Terry Wall, who had been called
in as a late replacement for an unwell Mark Hudspith,
failed to capitalise, as although he held on to second place
with his clocking of 17m25s, he was no match for Leeds's Alan Buckley,
(formerly Gateshead), who went into an unstoppable lead of two minutes,
and Liverpool and a rejuvenated Altrincham were breathing down
Morpeth's neck in third and fourth places and only one and seven seconds respectively.

Sixth leg saw another replacement enter the fray for Morpeth in the form of Mark Brown.
After a hectic Track season, Jonathan Taylor had been ordered to take a rest by his coach,
although he had been quite keen to run, it was felt better he heed the instructions.

Despite his lack of races Brown gave his all, although he lost out
to the powerful performance of Altrincham's Andrew Norman for Silver,
he managed to hang on to Bronze medal placing with his clocking of 16m41s,
which was seventh fastest of the leg,
and won the praise of his clubmates for his bravery in the fight.

Morpeth Harriers Mens incomplete B team was lying in
nineteenth place when it left the competition after four legs.
Kristian Forster had them in 22nd place on Leg One with his clocking of 17m14s,
Neil Wilkinson got them up to twentieth on Leg Two with 17m25s,
David Swinburne clocked 17m05s to take them up to sixteenth on Leg Three,
and Veteran Paul Waterston clocked 18m33s when finishing nineteenth.

Other North East results in the Mens Championship were as follows
Sunderland (6th), New Marske (10th),
North York Moors (15th), Elswick (25th),
Loftus (26th), Richmond & Zetland (28th),
Gateshead (30th), Durham City (32nd),
Blyth (34th), Sunderland B (39th), North York Moors B (44th),
Wallsend (45th), Hartlepool (46th), Low Fell (53rd),
North York Moors C (55th), South Shields (58th),
North York Moors D (59th) Gateshead B (61st),
North Shields Poly (63rd), Loftus B (64th) and Hartlepool B (69th).

In the Womens 4 Stage Relay, Morpeth Harriers finished
in a well accomplished fifth place despite a very close battle with Liverpool in the closing stages.
Sarah Graham had the squad in twentieth place on Leg One with her clocking of 13m51s.
Aiveen Fox clocked the eighth fastest time on Leg Two of 13m44s
to take them up to tenth with an excellent performance.
Jane Mooney kept things rolling well on Leg Three as she clocked
the legs seventh fastest time of 13m25s to take them up to sixth.
Fourth Leg runner Laura Weightman, having her first taste of
Senior Relay Championship competition, ran an excellent third fastest
of the leg of 13m06s to take the squad to their final placing of fifth.

North East rivals Chester Le Street proved to be
convincing winners of the Womens Championship.

Other North East results in the Womens Championship were as follows
Gateshead (7th), Loftus (16th), Elswick (19th),
Richmond & Zetland (21st), Chester Le Street B (24th),
Wallsend (33rd), North York Moors (34th), Tynedale (35th),
Gateshead B (39th) and North York Moors B (41st).

Return To Top Of Page

National Fell Running Championship !
Morpeth Harrier Sarah Wilkes had her first outing in a
National Fell Running Championship on Sunday 28th September.
This was Sarah’s first fell race and first national schools event.

Over 500 pupils from schools throughout England attended
the inaugural event with four age category races on the day
for boys and girls; year 7, years 8/9, years 10/11 and years 12/13.

Sarah’s year 7 race was a two-mile race on the Howgill Fell rising some 750 feet.
She completed the course in a respectable 26m23s earning a tenth place finish.

Return To Top Of Page

Supper and Disco Evening !
Members of Morpeth Harriers got together for an informal Social Evening
held at Morpeth Rugby Club last Saturday 27th September
as a means of welcoming in their new Club President Jim Alder MBE.

The evening was splendidly organised by Pam Woodcock,
with help from her husband Tony and was attended by over 100 Members and guests.

There were a number of Club Presentations made by Jim
and organised by Club Secretary Mike Bateman,
but the one that captured most people's hearts was the one
made to the great man himself by Club Chairman Doug Cockburn.
Jim received the Millenium Trophy, a cup that was given to the club in honour
of their members bringing back the light from Lindisfarne just before the Millenium.
The award was given in respect of Jim's willingness
to be an always available ambassador for Morpeth Harriers,
and for his general contribution towards the Clubs profile throughout his involvement.

Morpeth Harriers would wish to thank Pam and Tony for their organisational skills,
and Morpeth Rugby Club for the use of their clubhouse for the event.

Return To Top Of Page

Anglesey 10k Road Race !
Morpeth vet Phil Walker travelled to Anglesey on 21st September,
to compete in The Anglesey 10k Road Race,
and we are happy to report that Phil won the race in 34m25s,
on what Phil describes as a 'hilly' course.

Return To Top Of Page

Teespride 10k Road Race !
Morpeths Ian Hudspith proved to be a most impressive
winner of the Middlesbrough Teespride 10k on Sunday 21st September,
when he crossed the finish line at the helm of a record field of over 2000 runners
and thirty four seconds ahead of 2006 and 2007 Champion Stephen Hepples of Loftus.

In ideal conditions Hudspith produced an excellent finishing time of 29m43s,
after he and only the competitive Hepples had drawn well clear of the rest of the field as early as the 3k point.
On a downhill stretch between 4k and 5k Hudspith pulled away from Hepples,
and he reached halfway in14m40s.
Ironically he only narrowly missed out on setting a new course record by eight seconds.

Another Morpeth Harrier amongst the leading finishers
was David Swinburne who finished eleventh in 32m46s.

Return To Top Of Page

Sunderland Harriers Open XC Races !
Athletes from Morpeth Harriers had their first taste of Cross Country
action this term when they took part in the annual Sunderland Harriers
Open XC Races held at Farringdon School on Saturday 20th September.

Despite the recent heavy downpours in the area, the course was still fresh
and firm and after the six tabled events was still in good order.
Best individual performer on the day from Morpeth was Rachel Denton,
who won the Under 15 Girls event with plenty to spare over the host clubs Charmaine Porter.
Fellow Morpeth Harriers Hannah Rank and Rachael Steel finished sixth and tenth respectively.

Other good Morpeth performers were Deborah Oakley
who finished fourth in the Under 17 Womens event,
and Jonny Nisbet who also placed fourth in the Under 15 Boys event.

Other Morpeth Results were as follows
Under 11 Boys/ James Wilkes (12th)
Under 13 Boys/ Liam Fox (18th), Ben Steel (19th), Henrick Paulsen (29th)
Under 13 Girls/ Steph Purvis (9th), Sarah Wilkes (10th)
Adele Stewart (13th), Frances Holland (20th), Eildh B-Davies (21st)

Disappointingly Morpeth Harriers failed to turn out
teams in the Senior and Veteran Mens Relay events.

Return To Top Of Page

Tynedale 10M Road Race !
Morpeth Harrier Nick Swinburn strode to a comfortable victory
in the Tynedale 10M Road Race on Sunday 14th September.
In the thankfully dry, but breezy conditions,
a group of 4 athletes soon headed the record field of 600 runners,
with Swinburn being joined by David Kirkland of Alnwick,
Stewy Bell of Chester Le Street and Jon Archer of Low Fell.
Swinburn made two unsuccessful early efforts to break way,
and the quartet were together at halfway (26:56)
Kirkland made his bid for victory in the 6th Mile covered in 5mins 10secs,
with only Swinburn covering the move.
Kirkland held a slight advantage at 9M (48:02)
before Swinburn kicked away on the final downhill section,
to the finish at Ovingham Middle School.

The margin of victory was 11secs,
while Bell finished another 37secs adrift in 3rd place.
The first three competitors also took the medals
in the incorporated North Eastern Counties Championship.

Morpeth also took the team honours.
Swinburn who clocked 52mins 58secs,
was backed up by Kristian Forster (12th in 56:32)
and Phil Walker (13th in 56:39 and also 4th M40).

Morpeth's other performances were
17th Paul Waterston 57:18 (7th M40)
34th Gordon Dixon 59:27 (4th M45)
80th Archie Jenkins 64:11 (3rd M55)
88th Mike Winter 65:03
104th Richard Driscoll 66:15 (4th M55)
107th Mike McKean 66:21
109th Neil McAnany 66:39
123rd Steve McDonagh 67:43
124th Jim Alder 67:51
129th Graeme Leathard 68:05
145th Ian Corner 69:38
180th Walter Ryder 71:23 (1st M70)
190th Hamish McAllister-Williams 71:50
462nd Carlos Werner 89:51

Aiveen Fox took 3rd place (and the NECAA bronze medal)
in the Womens' race behind Angela Hibbs of Chester Le Street (61:40)
and leading veteran Fiona Shenton of Elvet (64:13)
Aiveen finished 85th overall in a time of 64mins 38secs.

Other Morpeth ladies
251st Sue Calvert 75:16 (34th)
383rd Susan Smith 83:40 (84th)
507th Jane Blackett 93:39 (146th)

The event also incorporated the British Masters Championships
with Morpeth taking 2nd place in the M40 team category behind Sunderland.
Morpeth's counters were Phil Walker, Paul Waterston,
Archie Jenkins and Neil McAnany.
Walter Ryder travelled down from Scotland to win the M70 category,
while Archie Jenkins was 3rd in the M55 age-group.

Return To Top Of Page

BUPA Great Sheffield Run !
In the BUPA Great Sheffield Run on Sunday 14th September,
Morpeth's Nick McCormick finished 9th in a time of 29mins 46secs,
with Chris Sampson coming home in 16th (31:20)

Return To Top Of Page

City of York Open Meeting !
Jon Taylor won the 800m at the City of York Open
Meeting in a time of 1min 53.2secs.

Return To Top Of Page

Watergate 5km !
Morpeth Harriers had a successful evening at the Watergate 5km
at Lobley Hill, Gateshead on Thursday 4th September.
Nick Swinburn pulled away from top veteran,
Stewy Bell of Chester Le Street on the second of the two laps,
winning by 8secs in a time of 15mins 25secs.
For good measure Swinburn was backed up by
Neil Wilkinson in 5th (15:56) and Phil Walker 8th (16:32)
as Morpeth took the team honours.
Wilkinson and Walker were also the 2nd and 3rd Veterans (M40) to finish.

Other Morpeth competitors were
Paul Waterston (11th and 6th M40) (16:58)
Gordon Dixon (36th and 2nd M45) (18:21)
Alistair MacDonald (39th and 3rd M45) (18:29)
Archie Jenkins (50th and 1st M55) (19:14)
Ian Caraner (63rd) (20:09)
Gemma Floyd (81st and 14th lady) (21:33)
Bernie Cordes (109th and 1st M70) (23:52)
Margaret MacDonald (111th and 26th Lady) (23:54)
and Catrina MacDonald (112th and 27th lady) (24:05)

The event also incorporated the Veterans A.A - North East Championships.

Return To Top Of Page

Scottish Track & Field Championships !
At the Scottish Track & Field Championships at Pitrevie,
Morpeth's Claire Reid took the bronze medal in the Shot, with a throw of 10.36 metres.
She also finished 6th in the Discus (32.51m).

Return To Top Of Page

Stretford Open Meeting !
Jonathan Taylor won the BMC 800m at a recent Stretford Open Meeting,
just missing his personal best with a time of 1min 51.30secs.

Return To Top Of Page

August

News From August 2008

The Gateshead Grand Prix !
On Sunday 31st August, Morpeth Harrier Nick McCormick
clocked 7mins 55.11secs to finish 9th in the 3000m
at The Gateshead Grand Prix, behind the world leading mark of 7mins 31.94secs
set by double Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia.

Return To Top Of Page

Hetton 10km Multi Terrain !
At the Houghton Harriers 50th anniversary Hetton 10km Multi Terrain event
at Hetton Lyons Country Park on Sunday 31st August.
Mike Winter led home the Morpeth Harriers contigent finishing 12th in 42mins 41secs,
behind Sunderland's Steven Potts (35:49). Ian Carener finished 19th (45:31)
and Iain McLaren 27th (47:38) (also 4th M40).

Return To Top Of Page

Blyth Links 10k Race !
A total of 224 finishers took part in the annual
Blyth Links 10k Race on Tuesday 26th August.
Amongst them were eleven runners from Morpeth Harriers.

First home in a Blue and White hooped vest was Over 40 Veteran Paul Waterston,
who in finishing third overall in 35m00s was also first in his category.
He beat his club colleague Phil Walker by all of two places, and by twenty seconds.
Phil was also second in the Over 40 Veteran Mens section.

Third home for Morpeth Harriers was Gordon Dixon who
finished eleventh in 37m00s and was first in the Over 45 category.

Other Morpeth Harrier results were as follows
Kevin Bray (33rd) (2nd O/50) 39m51s,
Richard Driscoll (40th) (2nd O/55) 40m09s,
Jim Alder (44th) (9th O/45) 40m34s,
Neil McAnany (51st) (12th O/45) 41m01s,
Ian Corner (65th) (10th O/40) 42m18s,
Allan Welsh (109th) (13th O/40) 45m04s,
Sue Smith (177th) (43rd Lady) (8th O/40 Lady) 51m16s
Suzanne Millward (210th) (61st Lady) (7th O/50 Lady) 58m04s.

Return To Top Of Page

Northern Inter Counties Track & Field Championships !
Representing the North East, Morpeths Rachel Denton was
an impressive winner of the Under 15 Girls 1500m at the
Northern Inter Counties Track & Field Championships
held at Hull's Costello Stadium on Saturday 23rd August.
Rachel won with a margin of four seconds over
Yorkshire's Sally Smith with her clocking of 4m53.60s.

Return To Top Of Page

Tartan Games Track & Field Festival !
Morpeths Jonathan Taylor was a clear winner of the Senior Mens 800m
at the annual Tartan Games Track & Field Festival held at
Gateshead International Stadium on Saturday 23rd August.
Jonathan clocked 1m52.32s for his victory.

Another Morpeth winner on the day was Elaine Telford who
crossed the line first in the Senior Womens 100m in 13.07s.
Telford also finished third in the 200m in 27.44s.

Morpeths Joe Robertshaw finished second in the finals of both the
Under 13 Boys 100m and 200m events in respective times of 13.96s and 28.35s.

Return To Top Of Page

Start Fitness North Eastern Athletics League ( 6 )
In her first race after a three week family holiday in New Zealand,
Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman showed that she had not
lost any of her previous sparkle by winning the
Womens 3000m at the final Start Fitness sponsored North Eastern
Athletics meeting held at Jarrow's Monkton Stadium on Wednesday 13th August.

Her victory was well sweetened by the fact that she also
clocked a new personal best for the distance of 9m38.6s,
this beating her previous figures by a mammoth eighteen seconds
which she had set in June 2007 at Gateshead.
She also set a new Morpeth Harriers Womens record for the
distance as she took victory from Chester Le Street's
Claire Simpson by a margin of four seconds.

This also means that Weightman has improved times in
all four of the events she has covered this season,
a unique individual and club achievement for someone
who is still at Junior level.

Other Morpeth Harrier winners on the night were Rachel Denton and Joe Robertshaw.
Denton was hard pressed during the first lap of the Under 15 Girls 800m
by Birtley's Sophie Taylor, however at the bell she put sufficient daylight
between herself and the determined Taylor to coast home to victory in 2m23.5s
which eventually gave her a seven second cushion.

Robertshaw just held off the close challenge of Gateshead's Jack Young
to claim victory in the Under 13 Boys 200m in 28.4s.

Alistair Douglass was fifth Under 17 Man in the 3000m in a time of 9m56.3s.
Daniel Hedley was second Under 17 Man in the 200m in 25.3s.

Return To Top Of Page

Exhibition Park 5k Road Race !
Morpeth Harriers won the Mens team race
at the Exhibition Park 5k Road Race
held in Newcastle on Wednesday 13th August.

They were led home by David Swinburne who finished sixth overall in 16m12s.

Further team support came from Phil Walker (8th) 16m14s
and Paul Waterston (11th) 16m48s.

Morpeth Harriers Women finished as third team behind Wallsend and Elswick,
and were led home by Deborah Oakley who was eleventh lady in 105th place in 20m19s,
and was also first Under 17 Lady finisher.

Further team support came from Zoe Armstrong (120th) (2nd U/17) (15th Lady) 20m45s,
and Sue Calvert (130th) (4th O/40 Lady) (17th Lady) 21m07s.

Other Morpeth Harriers to finish in a field of 268 finishers were as follows
Bill Gilroy (24th) (4th O/45) 17m42s,
Alistair MacDonald (35th) (6th O/45) 18m12s,
Graeme Leathard (51st) (10th O/40) 18m46s,
Neil McAnany (67th) (12th O/45) 19m14s,
Jim Alder (81st) (13th O/45) 19m34s,
Mike Steven (99th) (8thO/50) 20m12s,
Iain McLaren (103rd) (20th O/40) 20m17s,
Trevor Robinson (124th) 20m52s,
Sally Welsh (181st) (7th O/40 Lady) (34th Lady) 23m39s
Sue Smith (194th) (9th O/40 Lady) (39th Lady) 24m10s.

Return To Top Of Page

World Mountain Championships !
A week in an athletes life can take many twists and turns,
and along the way there can be many ups and downs,
just ask Morpeth 10k winner Nick Swinburn and he will
give you an expert run down of how it goes.

On Sunday 17th August in Llanberis, Snowdonia,
the 20 year old Morpeth Harrier attempted to gain an International call up
for the second year running in the World Mountain Championships.
He had finished 33rd in the Junior Mens race in Switzerland in 2007
and was aiming to make the team as a Senior in this years Championships,
due to be held in Crans-Montana in September.

Unfortunately on this occasion things didn't quite go to plan for Nick
when he finished well adrift of the leading pack,
down in sixteenth place and nearly six minutes adrift
of the winner Steve Vernon of Stockport.

Return To Top Of Page

The Warkworth Show Fun Run !
A total of 44 enthusiastic runners took part in the Fun Run
at The Warkworth Show on Saturday 16th August.
The event was started by Morpeth Harriers Club President Jim Alder MBE,
and the first home was Amble schoolboy Alistair Douglass
from Morpeth Harriers who won the Mens category.

Second home was his club colleague Jonny Nisbet
who won the Under 16 Boys section.

Morpeth Harrier Sarah Wilkes won the Under 16 Girls
section when she finished eighth overall.

Sharon Green won the Womens by finishing in twentieth place.

Return To Top Of Page

Darlington 10k Road Race !
Three of Morpeth Harriers vets squad took part in the Sherwood Chevrolet
sponsored Darlington 10k on Sunday 10th August,
which was run on a newly modified course.
Graeme Leathard finished 70th in 39m33s, and was first home for the club.
Morpeth Harriers other two finishers were Jim Alder (139th) 41m59s,
and club newcomer Iain McLaren who finished 171st in a time of 42m46s.

Return To Top Of Page

Forest Burn Fell Race !
Five days after claiming victory in the Morpeth 10k, Morpeths Nick Swinburn
was back in record breaking form when he won the 13th Forest Burn Fell Race
at Rothbury on Sunday 10th August, in a new course record time of
19m25s, breaking the old figures by ninety seconds.

Second place went to Northumberland Fell Runner Will Horsley in 21m07s,
with another team colleague Phil Sanderson taking third place in 21m16s.
Swinburn competes in the World Mountain Trophy Trials in Llanberis,
Snowdonia this Sunday, hoping to gain another International vest.

Other Morpeth Harriers running at Rothbury were John Woods
who finished ninth in 23m18s, and Swinburn's younger brother Greg,
only seventeen, who finished exactly halfway in the field in 21st place in 26m05s.
Woods and Swinburn had also competed in the Morpeth 10k.

Return To Top Of Page

BMC Grand Prix Final !
Unfortunately Morpeth Harrier Jonathan Taylor became the victim
of a slower run 1500m A race at the BMC Grand Prix Final meeting
in Eton on Saturday night ( 9th August ) when he finished fifth in 3m49.59s,
which was around four seconds short of his season and personal best.

Return To Top Of Page

Gateshead Open Minor Grand Prix !
Young Morpeth Harrier Sarah Wilkes has just completed the
series of Gateshead Open Minor Grand Prix meetings.
The final meeting was held on Sunday 10th August,
Sarah finished fourth in the Under 12 Girls section with a total of 33 points.
She had to compete on the track over 60m and 600m,
and in the Long Jump and Javelin Field events over a series of five meetings.
Her improvement over the period of the competition was quite noticeable.

Return To Top Of Page

BMC 800m Race Jarrow !
Morpeths Jonathan Taylor clocked a new personal best time of 1m51.1s
when he won the BMC 800m A Race at Monkton Stadium on Monday 4th August.
At the same meeting his clubmate Marcus Cram fractionally improved his best
when he finished second in the B race in 1m59.6s.

Return To Top Of Page

US Runner in Morpeth 10k !
One man who certainly enjoyed running the Morpeth 10k for the first time ever
was visiting athlete David Kroupa of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
David was in England for the first time, and visiting his wife parents in Peterlee for 14 days.

Being a 5k, Duathlon and Triathlon specialist in the USA,
and having just turned 50, he decided to try to find an athletic
event to his liking, to take part in while he was visiting.

On checking the Internet he found the Morpeth 10k,
even though it was a little above his normal distance, he decided to give it a try.
He described the course and the experience as very enjoyable,
and as he normally runs in 90 degrees of humidity,
the slightly humid conditions on the night didn't really trouble him.

His performance certainly bore out his credentials,
as he finished in an excellent 41st place,
and in a superb time of 38m46s,
and picked up the prize of second Over 50 Male Veteran into the bargain.

David promised he would give a glowing report of the event
to his running colleagues at Premier Running Club in Fort Lauderdale,
and added that he hoped to return someday to once again compete in the Morpeth 10k,
and he thanked the organisers for putting on a splendid event for both him and all who ran.

Return To Top Of Page

Northern League Division 2 Match !
Morpeth Harriers failed to avoid the drop into Division 3 of the
North of England Track and Field League despite the gallant efforts
from those who turned out in their final match of the season at
Claireville Stadium, Middlesbrough on Sunday 3rd August.

Sadly a poor turnout from the club resulted in them having to call
on distance runners to compete in sprints, and even Club Secretary
Mike Bateman was forced into action in a desperate bid for valuable points.
Morpeth had to finish above Durham City in the match to avoid relegation,
however they were very much on an uphill struggle as
Durham managed to finish third, and Morpeth ended up fifth.

Womens Team Manager Aiveen Fox, and Claire Reid were the clubs
only winners on the day as the squad battled to claim respectability.
Fox claimed her victory in the 3000m where she clocked 10m15.5s,
and Kate Chapman took the B race in 11m25.9s to secure maximum points.
Fox also had a B race win in the 800m where she clocked 2m26.7s,
and Zoe Armstrong took third in the A race in 2m28.2s.
Reid won the Shot Putt with 10.53m, and finished second in the Discus with a best of 36.62m.

In the Mens events, there were second places for John Woods (3000m Steeplechase) (11m11.4s)
and Mark Brown (5000m) (16m17.6s), and also for Ian Mawdesley (110m Hurdles) (19.4s)
and a returning Andrew Wake (Pole Vault) (3.50m).

The Appleby brothers Steven and Paul battled in the quest for points in the Discus, and Shot.
In the Discus Paul finished fourth in the A event with his best of 33.31m,
and Steven finished third in the B event with his best of 29.76m.
Steven finished fourth in the A event of the Shot with 9.73m,
and Paul finished second in the B string with 9.03m.

Martyn Cairns produced an excellent run of 2m05.3s
to finish second in the B race of the 800m.

FINAL MATCH RESULT
1st City of York A 405pts,
2nd Middlesbrough (Mandale) 379.5pts,
3rd Durham 334pts,
4th Gateshead 325.5pts,
5th Morpeth 261.5pts,
6th Scarborough 57pts.

Return To Top Of Page

Morpeth 10k Road Race !
A record number of 313 finishers took part in the11th running
of the Morpeth 10k Road Race on Tuesday 5th August.

Thankfully on the night, the relatively unseasonable August weather abated,
and runners faced slightly humid conditions for the event which now ranks
as one of the oldest in the region that is still run on its original course.

The field were led home by Morpeths Nick Swinburn, who in clocking 32m24s,
bettered his winning 2006 time by a mammoth thirty seconds,
and the 20 year old Bangor University student was also well
pleased with his run following a strenuous series of
International Mountain races that have brought him some success.
Swinburn was five seconds clear of his Morpeth clubmate Terry Wall at the halfway point,
and was always wary of the possibility of a challenge from him.
as he is also a former winner of the event, having won in
2002 and 2003 in times of 31m11s and 31m27s.

Nick was very much forced to push up the pace on the second lap,
and eventually came home with twenty seven seconds to spare
over Wall who maintained second place.
Third place went to Michael Morris,
which meant a 1,2,3 for the Morpeth club.

Morris had won his own personal battle of wits with Paul Besford,
formerly of Gateshead, now running as unattached, and crossed
the finish line in 33m17s, giving him an eighteen seconds
margin over the fourth placed Besford.

Fifth place went to Sunderland Harrier Paul Given in 33m58s,
just outsprinting Morpeth's Phil Walker by two seconds,
who took the first Veteran Mens title.
He was followed in seventh place by his club colleague
and training partner Paul Waterston who clocked 34m51s
and was second Veteran Man to finish.

Eighth place went to Paul Whalley of Blyth Running Club who clocked 35m24s.
Ninth and tenth places went to Stephen Grey of Elswick (3rd Veteran Man) (35m30s)
and Chris Jackson of Sunderland Strollers (35m34s).

Jimmy Bell of Elswick, who was first in the Over 60 Mens Veterans
category had a superb run to finish eleventh in 35m39s.

One place behind Jimmy came the first Lady finisher in Fiona Matheson
who in clocking an excellent 35m46s as a Veteran, easily smashed
Tynedale's Lynne Marr's ten year old Veteran Womens record of 37m00s.

Les Atkinson's Veteran Mens course record of 32m14s,
also set in 1998 remains unbroken.
As do the Mens and Womens course records held by
Ian Hudspith (Morpeth Harriers) (1997) 29m14s,
and Jill Boltz (formerly Hunter) (1998) 34m46s.

Second and third placed Ladies were Angela Hibbs of Chester Le Street
who was 22nd in 36m34s, and Morpeths Aiveen Fox, who was 26th in 37m21s,
and had won the race for the last three years, and had finished second in 2004.
Her time on this occasion was her third best on the course.

Morpeth Harriers would wish to thank the following
for their kind sponsorship and assistance with the event:-
A-Belco (Ashington based Electrical Engineering Company)
and Brumell & Sample (Morpeth based Solicitors) as Main Sponsors,
Stanton Hall Nurseries and Alderbuild as co sponsors,
support given by Morpeth Town FC
in providing Race Headquarters and Officials Parking,
Piramal Healthcare in providing Race Parking, Start Fitness for prizes,
Ted Phizacklea and his ever willing team of Red Cross workers
for providing valuable Medical assistance, Northumbria Police for their co-operation,
and Members and Friends of Morpeth Harriers for offering
their services as Race Officials and Race Marshalls on the night.

Return To Top Of Page

July

News From July 2008

Start Fitness North Eastern Athletics League
Callum Duncan of Morpeth Harriers produced two outstanding performances
to win both the Under 15 Boys 100m and Long Jump at the fifth and penultimate
Start Fitness North Eastern Athletics League meeting held at
Gateshead's International Stadium on Wednesday 30th July.

Duncan won the 100m in 12.75s, and the Long Jump with a best of 4.72m.

Another Morpeth winner on the night was Joe Robertshaw
who won the Under 13 Boys 100m in 13.62s.
There were also good runs in the Junior Mens 1500m
by Morpeth's Martyn Cairns and Jordan Scott,
who each recorded new personal bests with 4m18.46s and 4m24.34s
when they finished fourth and sixth respectively.

Marcus Cram finished third in the Under 17 Mens 1500m in 4m15.50s,
and Wayne Gedge finished sixth in the Senior Mens 100m in 13.26s.

Return To Top Of Page

New Marske Victorian 10k!
Alistair MacDonald finished eleventh in the New Marske Victorian 10k race
on Sunday 27th July in a time of 38m11s.
Other Morpeth performers in the event were husband and wife
Richard and Lucy Sill who finished 46th and 102nd in respective times of 42m30s and 52m12s.

Return To Top Of Page

Sunderland Harriers 5k !
Morpeths Craig McBurney continued his competitive
comeback on the roads last week when he finished thirteenth in the
Sunderland Harriers 5k at Silksworth on Wednesday 23rd July.

McBurney who has seen recent Army service take him to war torn Basra,
completed his run in a time of 16m11s.

Other Morpeth Harriers competing on the night were Aiveen Fox,
who was sixth lady home in 46th place in 17m43s, and Zoe Armstrong,
who was also making a competitive comeback
after taking time out to concentrate on her Rowing
which saw her take part in a National Championship.
Zoe finished 135th and was twenty third in the Ladies race in a time of 20m28s.

Return To Top Of Page

Elmsley Carr Mile !
Morpeths Nick McCormick finished tenth in a very tactical
Elmsley Carr Mile at Crystal Palace on Friday 25th July,
in a seasons best time of 3m58.04s, which saw him around
four seconds adrift of Shedrack Korir of Kenya,
who won in avery close finish with Britain's Beijing bound Andy Baddeley.

Return To Top Of Page

Young Athletes League ( 5 )
Although relegation was unavoidable, Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes
did enough to survive the final indignity of being awarded the wooden spoon
in their final Northern League Division One East match at Cleethorpes on Sunday 20th July.

By finishing third for the only time this season,
and above their North East rivals Houghton,
it meant that the aforementioned not only also faced the drop,
but they had the honour of ending up at the foot of the table.

Main highlights in the Morpeth Harriers performances
were the wins by Adele Stewart, Rachel Denton, Jessica Caldwell,
Stevie Goodfellow, Deborah Oakley, Catriona MacDonald,
Jonathan Cozens, Josh Dunn and Jonny Nisbet, and the overall commitment
given by those athletes who turned out on the day to make some very valuable contributions,
albeit by claiming good minor placings across the age groups.

Adele Stewart won the Under 13 Girls 800m in splendid fashion in 2m44.8s,
and Rachael Todd contributed well here by finishing second in the B race in 3m07.4s.
Stewart also contributed well by finishing second in the 70m Hurdles in 12.8s,
and Sarah Wilkes backed her up well by taking second in the B race in 15.1s.

Steph Purvis finished second in the A race of the 1200m in 4m29.8s,
and Sarah Wilkes backed her up well by finishing second in the B race in 4m34.8s.

Rachel Denton easily won the Under 15 Girls 800m in 2m28.9s,
which although was a little way short of her best,
mainly due to a swirling wind, was a good win.
Polly-Ann Jeffrey finished third in the B race in 3m18.3s.

Jeffrey also contributed well with a good second in the Javelin with a best of 12.26m.
Another good performer in the Under 15 Girls age group was Katie Plant,
who finished second in the 100m (14.1s), third in the 200m (29.4s),
and third in the 75m Hurdles (15.2s).

Jessica Caldwell competed well to just clinch victory
in the Under 17 Womens 800m in 2m49.2s,
and went on later to finish second in the 1500m in 5m57.3s.

Stevie Goodfellow scored an excellent victory in the 300m Hurdles in 57.5s.
She also finished second in the Triple Jump with a best of 8.84m.

Despite carrying a painful leg injury, Deborah Oakley managed to capture
no less than three B race victories in the 800m (3m09.2s),
1500m (6m02.1s) and 3000m (14m16.0s).

Catriona MacDonald confirmed maximum points
for Morpeth in the 3000m by winning in 13m57.4s.

A name to watch for the future in the Morpeth Under 17 Womens ranks
could be Elizabeth Severs who finished second in the 100m (13.9s),
second in the 200m (29.2s), and second in the High Jump with a best clearance of 1.38m.
Stevie Goodfellow backed Elizabeth up well in the 200m by taking the B race in 32.7s.

On to the Boys events where Jonathan Cozens scored
an excellent victory in the Under 15 200m in 25.8s,
and Jonny Nisbet backed him up well with an excellent second in the B race in 27.3s.
Nisbet later tasted a superb victory in the 1500m in 4m51.3s.

Josh Dunn won the 400m in 59.4s, and Jonathan Cozens made his victory
that much sweeter by taking the B race in 61.1s.

Callum Duncan placed second in the Long Jump with a best of 4.97m.

In the Under 17 Mens events Daniel Hedley finished second
in the 100m in 12.8s and third in the 200m in 25.2s.
A hardworking Philip Shuttleworth tackled all the distance events,
and finished third in the 800m (2m27.4s), third in the 1500m (5m03.6s)
and second in the 3000m (10m29s).

In the Under 13 Boys events Morpeth's best performances
came from Matthew Denton who finished second in the 200m (31.9s)
won the B race of the 800m in 2m52.0s
to support Joe Elder's third in the A race in 2m45.9s,
and went on to finish third in the 75m Hurdles in 17.0s.

A final thanks must go to Team Managers Tony Ward and Josie Goodfellow
for their efforts to get teams out during a season where commitment was hard
to find apart from those who did turn out,
and to the helpers who went along to the matches quite willingly
and contributed greatly to the overall performances.

FINAL MATCH SCORE
1st Doncaster 472pts,
2nd Cleethorpes 317.5pts,
3rd Morpeth 196pts,
4th Houghton 177.5pts.

Return To Top Of Page

National Police Track & Field Championships !
Rachel Archer and Ian Mawdsley of Morpeth Harriers competed in the
National Police Track and Field Championships in Hillingdon last week.

Representing Northumbria, Rachel finished second in the Finals
of the Womens 100m and 200m in respective times of 13.7s and 27.5s,
and Ian finished second in the Mens 110m Hurdles in 19.8s,
and third in the 400m Hurdles in 64.5s.

Return To Top Of Page

BMC Races Monkton Stadium !
Six days after creating a new personal best for himself over 800m,
Morpeths Marcus Cram once again rewrote his record book when he clocked 4m15.8s
in the BMC 1500m at Jarrow's Monkton Stadium, on Monday 21st July,
which shaved a further four seconds off his previous figures.

Return To Top Of Page

VAA NE Track & Field League ( 4 )
At the fourth VAA NE Track & Field League meeting
held at Jarrow's Monkton Stadium, on Monday 21st July,
Morpeth's Archie Jenkins finish 3rd in the 800m in 2m30.9s,
and 4th in the 3000m in 10m55.07s.

Return To Top Of Page

Northumberland Coastal Run !
The Beadnell to Alnmouth Coastal Run on Sunday 20th July was won by
Leicestershire based athlete Tim Hartley of Barrow Running Club,
who managed to create a winning margin of just over 90 seconds
over second placed Morpeth Harrier Michael Morris who in turn
managed to fend off the close attentions of Dave Kirkland of the host club Alnwick Harriers.

Other Morpeth Harriers amongst the leading finishers were
Phil Walker and Paul Waterstone who placed sixth and seventh respectively.
Over 800 runners took part in the 29th running of this very popular event.

Return To Top Of Page

BMC Grand Prix Manchester !
Morpeths very much in form Chris Sampson created
himself another huge personal best in the BMC Grand Prix
3000m B race at Trafford, Manchester on Saturday 19th July.

Exactly a week after his excellent 3000m Steeplechase success
in the UK Trials Sampson clocked a superb 8m20.29s,
which knocked around 19 seconds off his previous best.

In the very same race clubmate Nick Swinburne
finished in fifth place in 8m 26.51s.
In the A race of the Mens 1500m Morpeth's
British Universities Champion Jonny Taylor
clocked 3m47.77s for tenth place.

Return To Top Of Page

North Eastern Athletics League ( 4 )
Morpeth Harrier Marcus Cram created another new milestone in his young athlete career
when he dipped under two minutes in the 800m for the very first time at
Gateshead's International Stadium on Wednesday 16th July.
Watched by his illustrious father, former World Mile Record Holder Steve,
and his more than interested grandparents,
the fifteen year old claimed victory in the second of four mixed seeded events
that were run for Under 17, Under 20 and Senior athletes
at the fourth Start Fitness North Eastern Athletics League meeting,
in a new personal best exceptional time of 1m59.69s.

After a fast first lap, Marcus worked his way from fourth at the bell
to second on the run in, and just managed to head off Elswick's Jonny Pearson
around 30 metres from the finish line with an exhilarating late run.
It was a tremendous boost for Marcus Cram after a horrendous time
at the Scottish Schools a few weeks ago, where he literally blew up
in the final stages of a 1500m to finish a desperate last.

Other good Morpeth performers on the night were Daniel Hedley in the 150m,
where he finished as third Under 17 in 18.69s,
and Jordan Scott who finished third in the 3000m in 9m29.91s.

Return To Top Of Page

Watford Open Track & Field Meeting !
In a specially organised 1500m race at the Watford
Open Track and Field meeting on Wednesday 16th July,
Morpeths Nick McCormick failed in what was his very last attempt
to get a time to take him to the Beijing Olympics when he finished
second to Britains other hopeful Michael East in a time of 3m41.59s,
with East clocking 3m39.04s which was
also outside the required qualification standard.

Return To Top Of Page

Neil Wilkinson On His Way Back !
After a long spell out with a succession of niggling injuries,
Morpeths Neil Wilkinson has been gradually working his way back
into competitive action by taking part in some low key Multi Terrain events.
Firstly he won the Hadrians Wall 3k Showrace at Hexham,
where the course ascended to a maximum height of 360 feet,
then last week he finished second to Sunderland Harrier Brian Rushworth
in the Herrington Country Park 4.8k event on wednesday 9th July.

Return To Top Of Page

Angel View 5 Multi Terrain Event !
Jane Mooney of Morpeth Harriers secured an emphatic victory
in the Womens Race at the Low Fell Running Club
Angel View 5 Multi Terrain event at Gateshead on Thursday 10th July.
She finished twelfth in a time of 31m18s which put her well
over two minutes clear of her closest rival.

Her clubmate Deborah Oakley, despite taking a heavy tumble
in the early stages managed to pick herself up to finish
59th overall and was ninth lady in a time of 37m41s.

Return To Top Of Page

Blackburn Celebration 5k !
Morpeths Ben Harrison finished thirteenth in the Elite section
of last weeks Blackburn Celebration 5k event in Lancashire in a time of 15m38s.

Return To Top Of Page

Norwich Union Beijing Olympic Trials & UK Championships !
There was a mixture of emotions for the two Morpeth Harriers
who competed at the third and final day of the Norwich Union
Beijing Olympic Trials and UK Championships meeting
at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium on Sunday 13th July.

For Chris Sampson there was a feeling of elation,
as for the second time in two weeks he created
himself a new lifetime best for the 3000m Steeplechase.
Coming in as a late entry certainly did the 32 year old Chris a lot of favours,
as once again he managed to get himself dragged round by some of the nations
best to an excellent 9m03.56s, which clipped over three seconds
off his previous best set at Solihull a couple of weeks previous.

Chris can take particular delight at his track season,
and now will concentrate on taking his current run of form
onto the roads in the hope of bettering his excellent time set in last years Great North Run.

Not so happy however was Sampson's clubmate Nick McCormick
who on Saturday managed to win his heat of the Mens 1500m in 3m47.33s,
which was a good twelve seconds down on his best for the distance.
After a lively start on Sunday which saw him lead until 1100metres,
having gone through the first 400m in 58.75s, and then through 800m in 1min56.30s,
he was found wanting over the final 150metres where he faded to fifth in 3m40.43s,
and any hopes of an Olympic appearance finally in tatters.

Another Morpeth Harrier who competed in the Mens 1500m
was Jonathan Taylor who went out in the heats on the Saturday
with his clocking of 3m51.84s which saw him finish eighth in the heat won by Michael East.

Also in action at the trials on Saturday was Morpeths Ian Hudspith who clocked
a seasons best of 14m14.44s when he finished thirteenth in a classy Mens 5000m field.

Return To Top Of Page

English Schools Track & Field Championships !
In a very tactical race Morpeths Laura Weightman stole away in the final 200 metres
to win the English Schools Senior Girls 1500m Championship held at
Gateshead International Stadium on Saturday 12th July.
Clocking a time of 4m31.08s, which although was a little way short of her best,
it was enough to clinch an excellent victory over some very tough opposition.

In the Intermediate Boys 1500m, Morpeths Alistair Douglass
clocked 4m14.95s to finish seventh in his heat, but was agonisingly
just a hairsbreadth short of his personal best, as he failed to make the final.

Rachel Denton clocked a lifetime best of 4m44.93s
to finish third in her heat of the Junior Girls 1500m.
However she found the final a lot tougher where she finished
last of eleven in a much slower 4m55.60s.

Return To Top Of Page

Anita Nott Memorial Womens Only Run !
Despite running her second fastest time ever on the course,
Morpeths Aiveen Fox failed to retain the winning title she has held
for the past four years in succession at the Anita Nott Memorial
Womens Only Run at Jesmond Dene on Monday 7th July.

Aiveen clocked 19m49s and had to be content with third place
behind Middlesbrough's Carolyn Summersgill (19m31s)
and Chester Le Street's Claire Simpson (19m36s).
There was some compensation for Fox however as she led her club
to the team title for the fifth consecutive year with further support
being received from Jane Mooney (5th) 20m33s and Kate Chapman (15th) 23m01s.

Return To Top Of Page

Tynedale 10k Road Race !
Morpeths Kristian Forster made a welcome return to racing action
in the Tynedale 10k Road Race on Wednesday 2nd July
and led his club home to an emphatic Mens team victory.

The son of former International Marathon runner Kevin Forster
has been dogged by injury and illness over the past year,
however he now hopes to have put all that behind him
as he finished in sixth place and 69 seconds behind race winner
Michael Dawson of North Shields Poly with his clocking of 34m14s.

Further team support in the victory came from Paul Waterston
and Phil Walker who finished in seveth and eighth places
with respective clockings of 34m35s and 34m44s.
Waterston and Walker also occupied the second and third
Veteran Mens places behind Stewy Bell of Chester Le Street.

Next Morpeth Harriers man to finish was Gordon Dixon
who placed 21st and was second in the Over 45 Veteran Mens
section with his clocking of 36m10s.

Jane Mooney was the fifth Morpeth athlete home when she
placed 53rd in 37m55s and was sixth lady finisher.
She led Morpeth Harriers home to third place in the Womens Team Race
with further support coming from Michelle Woodley (185th) (25th Lady) 43m33s
and Sue Calvert (202nd) (27th Lady) 44m09s.

Other Morpeth Harriers Results were as follows
Michael Winter (66th) 38m42s,
Ian Corner (93rd) 40m04s,
Richard Driscoll (116th) 41m02s,
Nick Armstrong (127th) 41m27s,
Simon Robson (145th) 42m21s,
Richard Sill (163rd) 42m55s,
Neil McAnany (187th) 43m39s,
Trevor Robinson (223rd) 44m49s,
Norman Clark (224th) 44m51s,
Paul Tomlinson (280th) 46m45s,
Steve McDonald (289th) 46m58s,
Lucy Sill (402nd) 50m22s,
Susan Smith (426th) 51m45s,
Carlos Werner (443rd) 52m39s,
Jane Blackett (449th) 52m55s.

Return To Top Of Page

Northern League Division 2 Match !
Missing athletes in key events, saw Morpeth Harriers
Senior Men and Womens Track and Field squad only finish fourth
in their third round Northern League Division 2 match
held at Jarrow's Monkton Stadium on Sunday 6th July.

This means that they will have to finish ahead of Durham City
in their final match at Middlesbrough in August to avoid the drop
into Division 3 along with the already doomed Scarborough squad.

Nevertheless the Morpeth athletes who did turn out gave
their all and tried to plug the gaps where possible.
It was in the Mens section where a poor turnout resulted
in a lack of quality distance runners being able to tackle the rigours of the 5000m,
which has usually proved to be a strong event in the past for the club.

On the credit side the best Mens result came in the 800m
with Alistair Douglass and Martyn Cairns both producing
personal bests of 2m03.2s and 2m04.7s respectively
as they placed second in the A and B races.

Other high points came in the Discus and Shot events where the Appleby
brothers combined to good effect with very workmanlike performances.
Paul finished fifth in the A string of the Discus with a best of 32.56m,
and Steven won the B String with a marginally smaller 32.29m.
The pair completed a replica success in the Shot where
Paul managed a best of 9.78m and Steven again was
just marginally adrift of his sibling with 9.59m.

Another good Morpeth Mens result came in the 200m
with Greg Swinburn finishing a good second in 24.1s.

In the Womens events Morpeth managed four excellent wins from
a squad that worked very hard to achieve on the day.
Clair Reid managed a Shot (10.43m) and Discus (35.26m) winning double
and was well supported in both events by Rachel Moody and Josie Goodfellow respectively.
Moody won the B String Shot with a best of 7.39m,
and Goodfellow excellently finished third in the B event of the Discus with a best of 16.59m.

Laura Weightman clocked a personal best of 58.8s to outsprint
Middlesbrough's talented Kirsty Legg in the 400m.
Morpeth scored good points here by fielding Aiveen Fox
in the B race where she finished third in 71.7s.
Fox also helped Morpeth to more valuable points when she won
the 3000m in 10m22.1s, and Kate Chapman took the B race in 11m17.5s.

This pairing also did well in the 800m, with Fox finishing second
in the A race in 2m23.4s and Chapman finishing fourth in the B race in 2m45.1s.

FINAL MATCH RESULT
1st City of York 426pts,
2nd Middlesbrough (Mandale) 376.5pts,
3rd Gateshead 322pts,
4th Morpeth 291.5pts,
5th Durham City 280pts,
6th Scarborough 122pts.

Return To Top Of Page

Nick McCormick In Milan !
Unfortunately Morpeths Nick McCormick's latest attempt
to achieve an Olympic qualifying time over 1500m came to nothing
in Milan last week when he finished fifth in a slower time
than he would have liked of 3m38.13s.

Return To Top Of Page

BMC Meeting Watford !
Morpeth Harrier Jonny Young finished second in the 1500m B race
at the BMC meeting held at Watford last week in a time of 3m58.53s.

Return To Top Of Page

Stephen Unwin Memorial 10k Road Race !
Graeme Leathard and Jim Alder of Morpeth Harriers travelled to Dalston
in Cumbria last week to compete in the Steven Unwin Memorial 10k Road Race.
Graeme finished 28th in 39m59s and was sixth Over 40 Veteran Man,
and Jim finished in 33rd place in 40m48s, and was fourth in the Over 45 Veteran Mens section.

Return To Top Of Page

VAA North Eastern Track & Field Championships !
Morpeth Harriers had title winners at the recently held
Veterans Athletic Association North Eastern Track and Field Championships
held at Jarrow's Monkton Stadium.
Phil Walker won the Mens Over 40 1500m in 4m25.8s,
and clubmate Paul Waterston finished third in 4m43.9s.
Waterston later went on to win the Mens Over 40 5000m in 17m22.2s.
Alistair MacDonald won the Mens Over 45 5000m in 18m21.1s,
after earlier taking the 400m title in 62.3s

Evergreen Archie Jenkins celebrated a hat-trick of victories
in the Over 55 Mens 800m (2m39.6s), 1500m (5m02.1s) and 5000m (19m16.8s) events.

Margaret MacDonald tasted sweet victories in the 1500m and 3000m
events for Over 40 Women in respective times of 6m22.7s and 13m54.8s.

Josie Goodfellow won both the Over 45 Womens Shot (7.72m)
and Javelin (15.63m) events and finished second in both the
Long Jump (3.86m) and Triple Jump (8.21m) events.

Return To Top Of Page

June

News From June 2008

Beamish 10k Tram Challenge !
Morpeths Nick Swinburn was more than a match for not only his rivals,
but also the tram at the annual 10k Challenge held at the
North of England Open Air Museum at Beamish on Sunday 29th June.

He won the event for the third time in a row in a time of 32m58s,
which proved to be three minutes and fifty eight seconds faster than
his closest rival Simon O'Donnell of Chester Le Street.
Bangor University student Swinburn certainly retains an affection
for the course which happens to be only several minutes away from his family home.

Nick also lowered the course record by a further 66 seconds into the bargain,
which is a timely boost as he has now been selected to compete for
England in the Snowdon International Mountain Race, due to be held later in July.

Return To Top Of Page

Morpeth Harrier Wins A Tetrathlon !
Versatile 13 year old Steph Courty of Morpeth Harriers cast
aside her dilemma and disappointment of having to miss the
Northumberland Minor Schools Track and Field Championships
in favour of winning a Tetrathlon in Angus, Scotland
over Saturday and Sunday 28th and 29th June.

The Tetrathlon involved a Shooting Competition where she finished sixth,
a Swimming competition where she finished fifth,
a running competition where she placed seventh,
plus a clear round on her horse in the Cross Country Riding event.

These results gave her the overall individual title when competing against 54 other rivals,
and she led the North of England to third team place against teams from Northern Ireland,
Southern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and other areas of England.

Return To Top Of Page

BMC Nike Grand Prix Meeting !
When finishing tenth in the Mens 3000m Steeplechase in the BMC
Nike Grand Prix meeting at Solihull, West Midlands on Saturday night ( 28th June )
Morpeths Chris Sampson added yet another dimension to his long and very
determined and relatively distinguished athletics career when he clocked
a lifetime best of 9m06.75s, in what can only described as a classy field of entrants.

Chris who has come all the way through the ranks at his club,
and has had to put up with a fair share of injuries and disappointments in his time,
is described by one highly regarded club official as a hard working athlete,
and richly deserves to achieve this success,
albeit in the later stages of his Senior career at the age of 32.
His latest effort puts him 16th currently in the country's rankings for the event,
and the improvement on his previous best by nearly three seconds which he
achieved exactly a year ago in Watford is quite outstanding.
Chris commented, that he had been feeling pretty good in recent weeks
and knew that there was a decent race in him,
thankfully he had chosen the right race,
had held the correct pace throughout amongst good opposition,
and that it had all come right for him on the night.

On the Morpeth Harrier front, Chris now ranks fourth in the club records
for the Mens Steeplechase behind European representative Dave Camp,
and Scottish representative Archie Jenkins and Nigel Reeves,
with only Gary Woods a nearer challenger previously.

At the same meeting there was both satisfaction and despair
for two of Sampson's club colleagues.
Jonathan Taylor was just over a second outside his lifetime best
when he finished eleventh in the A race of the Mens 1500m in 3m46.22s,
however will take some satisfaction that he was only a mere four seconds
adrift of race winner and seasoned International James Thie of Cardiff,
and that he had Somalia's Moumin Geele and India's Ravida Sharma,
both Under 23 Internationals trailing in behind him five and ten seconds adrift respectively.

It was not a happy night however for Ian Hudspith, who doesn't seem
to have quite recaptured the form he showed before falling ill prior to
April's London Marathon, where he was forced to pull out.
Hudspith finished an unlucky thirteenth in the Mens 5000m
and one place behind fellow North Easterner Ryan Mcleod.
His time of 14m27.94s, which although is a seasons best,
is still a good way short of what he would have wished for on the track,
however when he returns to the roads someone will have to watch out.

Return To Top Of Page

Northumberland Minor Schools Track & Field Championships !
Morpeth Harriers Jonny Nisbet, Callum Duncan, Tom McGee,
Joe Robertshaw and Reece Ramsey all claimed respective victories
at the Northumberland Minor Schools Track and Field Championships
held at Gateshead's International Stadium on Saturday 28th June.

Jonny claimed a narrow victory in the Under 14 Boys 1500m in 4m41.1s.
Callum showed excellent form when winning both the
Under 14 Boys Long Jump (4.75m) and Triple Jump (10.93m) events.
Tom McGee won the Under 14 Boys Javelin with his best effort of 30.89m.

After finishing third in the Under 13 Boys 100m in 13.9s,
Joe Robertshaw clocked 28.4s to win the 200m.
Reece Ramsey won the Under 13 Boys 400m in 65.9s.
Finally Carley Mae Webster finished second in the Under 14 Girls 800m in 2m38.0s.

Return To Top Of Page

Windy Gyle Fell Race !
Margaret MacDonald was Morpeth Harriers lone finisher
at the Windy Gyle Fell race on Sunday 22nd June.
She finished 35th in 1hr52m44s.

Return To Top Of Page

Penshaw Hill Race !
Morpeths Nick Swinburn ended Sunderland Harrier Brian Rushworth's
impressive record of five successive wins in his own clubs Penshaw Hill Race
when he stole victory by the margin of seven seconds
with his clocking of 16m18s last Wednesday 25th June.
Rushworth himself finished second, with Morpeths Neil Wilkinson claiming third spot in 17m42s.
Swinburn became the second Morpeth Harrier to taste victory on the tough demanding course.
Terry Wall had preceeded Rushworth's incredible five when in 2002 he had clocked 16m03s.
Morpeths Archie Jenkins finished 23rd in 20m29s
and was first home in the Over 55 Veteran Mens category.

Return To Top Of Page

North Eastern Athletics League !
Morpeths Joe Robertshaw won the Under 13 Boys 100m at the third
meeting of the Start Fitness sponsored North Eastern Athletics League
held at Gateshead's International Stadium on Wednesday 25th June.
The North Eastern Under 13 200m Champion clocked 13.90s.

Elaine Telford had two second places in the Senior Womens 100m (13.09s) and 200m (27.03s).

In the seeded 1500m events Morpeth had good performers in
Alistair Douglass, Martyn Cairns, Jordan Scott, Phil Walker and Paul Waterston.
Alistair, although a little short of his personal best, gave a typical fighting display
to finish ninth in the A race in 4m23.36s and was second Under 17 Mens athlete.

Martyn ran excellently to win the B race in a new personal best of 4m23.59s,
finishing two places ahead of Jordan who also clocked a new best of 4m26.58s.

Phil and Paul clocked 4m26.74s and 4m41.32s respectively to finish as seventh and 12th Senior Men.

In the Under 17 Womens 300m, Zoe Armstrong finished third in 46.2s
and Katie Plant finished fifth in the B race of the Under 15 Girls 100m in 14.34s.

Return To Top Of Page

Young Athletes League !
Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes Track and Field squad
very nearly managed to escape finishing bottom for their
fourth successive Northern League match held at
Sheffield's Woodburn Road Stadium on Sunday 22nd June.

Only ten points separated them from third placed fellow North Easterners Birtley,
with host club Spenborough by far the winners,
and another fellow North East club Tynedale finishing second.
This now means that Morpeth cannot avoid the drop into Division 2
for next season, which indeed is a rarity for the Northumbrians.

Over the past 20 years under the leadership of Tony Ward
they have drifted between Premier and Division 1 status,
however despite strong efforts by those who have taken part relegation is inevitable.
On this occasion however the effort was stronger,
but it was in the Field events where missing athletes lost valuable points.

Credit must go to Alistair Douglass in the Under 17 Mens age group
where he took on some tough opposition to record two outright victories and a second.
He won both the 800m (2m10.2s) and 1500m Steeplechase (4m55.9s)
and went on to finish second in the 400m (56.5s)
only losing out for a hat-trick of victories by a mere two seconds.

Morpeth took maximum points in the Steeplechase with Philip Shuttleworth winning
the B race in 5m46.3s, and that was after earlier finishing second in the 3000m in 10m24.6s.

The best results in the Under 15 Boys events for Morpeth
came in the Field with Callum Duncan and Tom McGee both performing well.
Duncan claimed victories in the Shot (8.69m) and Long Jump (4.99m)
and McGee won the Javelin (27.83m) and B event of the Shot (7.87m)
in addition to his second in the A event of the Discus (20.22m).

In the Under 15 Boys Track events Josh Dunn and Jonny Nisbet
took honours with victories over 800m (2m18.8s) and 1500m (4m54.7s).

Maximum points were achieved in the 1500m when Tom Brookes took the B race in 5m16.0s.

At Under 13 Boys level both Liam Brooks and Ryan Dodds look bright spots for the future.
Brooks finished third in the 200m (32.3s)
and the hardworking Dodds finished third in the 100m (14.8s)
second in the 800m (2m53.7s), third in the 1500m (5m29.7s)
and rounded a splendid afternoons work with a third in the Long Jump (3.86m).

Morpeth's best points in the Under 17 Womens events came in the 3000m
which Jessica Caldwell won in 13m43.9s
and Catriona MacDonald won the B event in 14m11.4s.

In the Under 15 Girls events Morpeth had a double victory in the
75m Hurdles courtesy of Steph Courty (13.9s) and Katie Plant (15.0s)
Courty also finished second in the 800m in 2m39.6s.
Plant finished third in the 100m in 13.9s.

There were some hardworked efforts in the Under 13 Girls events by Morpeth athletes.
Steph Purvis gained their only victory when winning the Shot with a best of 4.55m.
Purvis also finished third in the 1200m in 4m36.3s, with Sarah Wilkes producing
an excellent 4m42.7s to finish second in the B race.

In the 75m and 150m A races Catherine Phillips finished third
in both in respective times of 11.3s and 23.9s.
B race runners Eve Shashova (12.2s) and Ailidh McCallister-Williams (24.8s)
placed third respectively.
These two also shared the spoils in the 800m with Eve finishing third
in the A race in 2m58.6s and Ailidh winning the B race in 3m08.1s.

FINAL MATCH RESULT
1st Spenborough 392pts,
2nd Tynedale 260pts,
3rd Birtley 208pts,
4th Morpeth 198pts.

Return To Top Of Page

European Championship Trials Mens Mountain Race !
Morpeths Nick Swinburn finished sixth in the
European Championship Trials Mens Mountain race
in Llanberis in Snowdonia on Sunday June 15th.
His time for the 12.8k with 804m ascent event was 53m15s,
which put him approximately two minutes adrift
of race winner Steve Vernon of Stockport Harriers.

Return To Top Of Page

England Athletics Under 20/Under 23 Track & Field Championships !
Morpeths Jonathan Taylor and Laura Weightman qualified for
their respective finals of the 1500m at the Norwich Union England Athletics
Under 20/Under 23 Track & Field Championships held at
Bedford International Stadium over Saturday and Sunday 21st-22nd June.

After clocking 3m49.55s in the slower of his two heats
of the Under 23 Mens 1500m on the Saturday,
Jonathan Taylor went on to finish third in the final with a slower 3m55.8s,
mainly because of a prevailing wind.
This was still a good run however with the poor conditions
playing their part towards the slower time as he defeated
two other rivals who had run faster than him in the heats.

After running 4m37.49s when finishing second to Aldershot
International Stephanie Twell in her heat of the
Under 20 Womens 1500m on Saturday,
Laura Weightman found life a little tougher in the wind on the Sunday,
despite running a faster time of 4m35.04s she finished fifth,
once again it was Twell who took the honours.

Return To Top Of Page

Glynne Bellerby
We are very sorry to learn of the death at the age of 74
of our friend and former Morpeth Harrier colleague
Glynne Bellerby who sadly lost his brave fight for life on Friday 20th June 2008.

Glynne will be very much revered for his witty conversations on many a 1980's training run,
however will also be fondly remembered for his methods of refreshing returning runners
from a hard evenings training session, by providing an endless supply of splendid juicy oranges
that were greatly appreciated by all who received them.

He played a splendid Mine Host to many a New Years Day evening party
after the Morpeth to Newcastle Road Race at the Calfornia Suite in Morpeth
which Morpeth Harriers members, and runners visiting the area regularly attended.

Glynne's Funeral Service took place at St Mary's Church, Morpeth
on Thursday 26th June, followed by an Interment at Fairmoor Cemetery.
Flowers or Donations to Marie Curie Hospice
may be sent c/o J.W.Peters Funeral Directors, Wellwood House, Morpeth.

From all those who knew Glynne at Morpeth Harriers,
we offer their sincere condolences to his immediate family.

Return To Top Of Page

Newburn River Run !
The hugely popular Newburn River Run, organised by Elswick Harriers,
on Wednesday 18th June attracted a field of 340 finishers.

Morpeths Paul Waterston produced a superb run of 36m37s
to finish eighth overall which also gave him the title of first Veteran Man.
Next home for Morpeth was Gordon Dixon who in finishing 17th in 38m24s
was third in the Over 45 Veteran Mens section and fifth Veteran overall.

Jane Mooney was next to finish for Morpeth in 35th place in 40m21s,
and she had plenty of Male clubmate support as Michael Winter and
Alistair MacDonald finished 36th and 37th in respective times of 40m22s and 40m30s.
Mooney was third in the Ladies race for her efforts.

Other Morpeth finishers in the event were as follows
Graeme Leathard (57th) 42m23s,
Jim Alder (77th) 43m34s,
Ian Corner (78th) 43m35s,
Richard Driscoll (82nd) 43m51s,
Nick Armstrong (100th) 44m59s,
Simon Robson (104th) 45m04s,
Michelle Woodley (111th) (2nd O/35 Lady) 45m32s,
Norman Clark (115th) 45m40s,
Paul Tomlinson (153rd) 48m02s,
Gary Clark (166th) 49m21s,
Laura Dixon (167th) (32nd Lady) 49m21s,
Pam Woodcock (172nd) (1st O/55 Lady) 49m51s,
Bernie Cordes (180th) (1st Male O/70) 50m21s,
Susan Smith (241st) (60th Lady) 53m48s,
Jane Blackett (284th) (8th O/45 Lady) 57m50s,
T. O'Hara (285th) (15th O/40 Lady) 57m50s
Suzanne Milward (315th) (7th O/50 Lady) 63m12s.

Return To Top Of Page

Blandford Bridge Run !
Morpeths Andrew Lawrence won the
Blandford Bridge Run in Dorset on Sunday 15th June,
in a time of 35m00s which put him 55 seconds clear of his closest rival.

Return To Top Of Page

Tesco Junior Great Coastal Run !
Morpeths Sarah Wilkes recently secured a hat-trick of Tesco
Junior Great Coastal Run victories by winning in Sunderland on 15th June.

After winning the inaugural event in 2006 at the age of 9,
she followed that up with a win in 2007 and now at the age of 11
she has added the 8-11 year old Girls title for a third time.
She took the title with a PB of 12m12s over the 2.8km course,
beating Sophie Motgomerie of Blaydon Harriers by a margin of 50 metres.

At the same meeting her Morpeth clubmate
Johnny Nisbet took 2nd in the 12- 14 year old Boys race.

Return To Top Of Page

Northumberland School's Track & Field Championships !
The Northumberland School's Track and Field Championships
held at Gateshead's International Stadium on Saturday 14th June,
saw easy wins for Morpeth Harriers Laura Weightman and Deborah Oakley,
and an excellent second place gained in a
tough Intermediate Boys 1500m by Alistair Douglass.

Laura was unopposed in the Senior Girls 1500m where she clocked 4m33.9s,
and Deborah was likewise in the Intermediate Girls 3000m clocking 12m00.4s.

Alistair was only three seconds adrift of outright victory with his clocking of 4m22.0s.

Return To Top Of Page

Veteran Athletics Association Track and Field League !
Morpeths Archie Jenkins finished second in the Over 50 Mens 1500m in 4m54.2s
at the third meeting of the Veteran Athletics Association North East Track and Field League
at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow on Monday 16th June.

In the Over 40 Mens 1500m, Morpeths Alistair MacDonald
and Neil McAnany finished 7th and 9th in
respective times of 4m52.5s and 4m57s.
Alistair also finished sixth in the 400m in 63.1s.

Return To Top Of Page

Newton Aycliffe 10k !
Morpeths Terry Wall finished second in the Newton Aycliffe 10k
Road Race on Sunday 15th June in a time of 32m29s.

Return To Top Of Page

Bupa Great Womens Run !
Morpeths Aiveen Fox finished seventeenth in the
Bupa Great Womens Run in Sunderland on Sunday 15th June,
in a time of 34m20s, which put her exactly five minutes behind race winner Gete Wami.

Return To Top Of Page

NoE Senior & Under 20 Track & Field Championships !
On the first day of the North of England Senior & Under 20 Track
& Field Championships held at Sport City, Manchester over
Saturday and Sunday 14th and 15th June,
Morpeth athletes Claire Reid and Nick Swinburn were competing.
Claire finished fifth in the Shot with 10.70m,
and Nick finished ninth in the Mens 5000m in 15m26.41s.

Return To Top Of Page

BMC Elite Meeting !
Three Morpeth Harriers were in action at the BMC Elite
meeting held at Watford on Saturday evening, 14th June.
Ian Hudspith finished tenth in a class filled
Mens 10,000metres in a time of 29m27.47s.
Jonathan Taylor finished thirteenth in the B race of the Mens 1500m in 3m47.41,
and Chris Sampson clocked a seasons best of 9m15.81s
when he finished ninth in the 3000m Steeplechase.

Return To Top Of Page

The Mizuno Blaydon Race !
Morpeths Ian Hudspith produced a superb performance in the Mizuno
Blaydon Race on Monday 9th June, to not only finish as first Geordie in third place,
but also he split up the Kenyan dominance, and very nearly claimed second place
with his excellent clocking of 28m58s being only five seconds
adrift of him claiming yet another Kenyan scalp.
The Kenyan's had obviously come with the intention
of picking off all of the best of the prizes,
however Ian ran with a determination that was going to ensure that
they didn't totally dominate the proceedings.

Ian's example also rubbed off on several of his clubmates as
along with himself were five other Morpeth Men who ensured club
dominance in the Team Race by finishing inside the top 40.
Nick Swinburn aquitted himself well throughout to finish in tenth place in 30m14s,
and managed to fend off pretty strong opposition in the process.
Next home was Andrew Lawrence who ran well to finish 24th in 32m01s.
Two places and two seconds behind him came David Swinburne.
Morpeth's next finishers were from the Over 40 Veteran ranks
as Phil Walker placed 36th in 33m04s,
and Paul Waterston finished 40th in 33m19s.

In the Ladies race, Morpeth's Aiveen Fox was 17th in 36m59s.

Return To Top Of Page

Morpeth Fair Day Fun Run !
Newminster Middle School Year 7 pupil Joe Robertshaw won
the Morpeth Fair Day Fun Run 0n Sunday 8th June with a second
to spare over Bebside Middle School's Year 5 pupil James Young.
Joe who is the North East Under 13 Boys 200m Track Champion
used all of his versatility and speed to hold off his rival in a close finish.
Third place went to another Morpeth Harrier in Dame Allan's Year 6
pupil Matthew Denton who was a further three seconds adrift.

In the Girls section it was Amble Middle School Year 7 pupil
Adele Stewart who led the field home by finishing fourth overall.
Second Girl home was her School colleague and Morpeth Harriers
clubmate Elske Simpson who was eighth overall.
The third girl home was Niomi Quinn of Druridge Bay
Middle School who was tenth overall.

Morpeth Harriers Club Secretary Mike Bateman organised the event
on behalf of the Fair Committee and the run attracted a total of 36 finishers,
many thanks go to him and his helpers for their organisational skills on the day.

Return To Top Of Page

Northern League Division 2 Match !
With all of their regular middle and distance Men being unavailable
for their second round Northern League Division 2 match at
Jarrow's Monkton Stadium on Saturday 7th June,
Morpeth Harriers Team Manager John Thompson was forced to be
content with either missing athletes, or opt to blood a combination of
Under 17 and Under 20 talent that was at his disposal.

The direct result of that was that Morpeth finished fifth in the match,
with no one behind them as Scarborough were in worse
trouble by not being able to turn out a single competitor.

Morpeth had to look to their Womens section for their best points,
and it has to be said that on the day they served their club proud.
On the Track, Laura Weightman, Aiveen Fox, Elaine Telford,
Rachel Archer, Jane Mooney, and Deborah Oakley were the stars.

Whilst in the Field Claire Reid, Womens Team Manager Josie Goodfellow,
and daughter Stevie turned in some good performances.

Laura Weightman had two excellent victories in the 400m (59.3s)
and 800m (2m12.9s) A races, although was a little bit disappointed
to see her times rendered a little short of best by a prevailing breeze.
She had excellent back up in these events however by Rachel Archer
winning the 400m B race in 63.8s, and Aiveen Fox taking the 800m B in 2m28.3s.

Archer had another B race victory in the 200m in 26.8s,
backing up Elaine Telford's second in the A race which saw
her clock a fractionally faster 26.4s.

Telford also finished third in the A race of the 100m in 12.9s.
Stevie Goodfellow finished fourth in the B race of the 100m in 13.9s.

Fox had her second win of the day in the A race of the 3000m
where she clocked 10m42.0s, and Deborah Oakley took the B race in 12m05.4s.

Jane Mooney finished a close second in the 1500m A race in 4m55.4s,
and Kate Chapman finished third in the B race in 5m23.1s.

In the Field events Womens Team Manager Josie Goodfellow led
by example by pulling off excellent placings in no less than five B String events.
Her best came in the Hammer, Discus and Shot,
where she finished second on each occasion, with best efforts
of 13.18m, 19.02m and 7.35m respectively.
Claire Reid partnered her in the A events, and the best of these
came in the Shot with her effort of 9.81m.
Reid finished third in the Discus with 32.77m,
and fifth in the Hammer with 17.38m.
Claire also finished fifth in the Javelin with 15.27m,
and Aiveen Fox finished fourth in the B event with her best of 8.00m.

Josie Goodfellow's other excellent performances came in the
Long Jump and Triple Jump where her bests of 3.92m
and 8.54m earned her fourth and third places respectively.
Partnering her in these events as the A string athlete was daughter Stevie
who finished fifth in both cases with respective efforts of 4.23m and 9.47m.

On to the Mens events and Morpeth's best result of the day here
came in the 110m Hurdles where Ian Mawdsley finished second
in the A race in 18.4s, and Team Manager John Thompson
came second in the B race in 25.5s.

In the 400m Hurdles Mawdsley finished second in the B race in 74.2s,
and Under 17 athlete Alistair Douglass, making his Northern League
debut finished fourth in the A race in 73.0s.

Douglass also competed well when finishing third
in the A race of the 800m in 2m08.7s, and Martyn Cairns showed
another improvement when he finished third in the B race in a slightly faster 2m06.1s.

Jordan Scott finished fourth in the A race of the 1500m in 4m31.2s,
and Cairns finished fourth in the B race in 4m35.9s.
Scott also finished fourth in the 5000m in 17m52.7s.
In the Mens 200m Daniel Hedley finished fourth in the A race in 24.9s,
and John Thompson finished fourth in the B race in 25.6s.

Best results for Morpeth from the Mens Field events came in the Hammer, Discus and Shot.
The Appleby brothers have certainly been synonymous with these events in recent times for Morpeth,
and they were both well to the fore during proceedings.

In the Hammer, Paul finished fourth in the A event with a best of 27.54m,
and Under 20 athlete Alan Richmond certainly made a mark for himself
when he placed second in the B event with an excellent 23.44m.

Steven Appleby finished third in the A event of the Discus with a best of 35.29m,
and brother Paul weighed in with 28.84m for fourth in the B event.

In the Shot, Steven finished fourth in the A String with his best of 9.45m,
and Paul's 8.95m saw him place third in the B String.

FINAL MATCH SCORE
1st City of York 397pts,
2nd Durham 353pts,
3rd Gateshead 326pts,
4th Middlesbrough 313pts,
5th Morpeth 294pts,
6th Scarborough DNA.

Return To Top Of Page

Stretford BMC PB Classic !
Morpeths Marcus Cram further improved his 800m best
when he clocked 2m01.2s to finish third in the Mens B race
at the Stretford BMC PB Classic meeting held at
Longford Park, Manchester on Saturday night 7th June.

At the same meeting Morpeths Rachel Denton
also improved her personal best over 1500m by over
two seconds when she clocked 4m48.9s in finishing
eighth in a race including nine older athletes.

Return To Top Of Page

Stranraer Half Marathon !
Alan Hyde of Morpeth Harriers finished 34th in the
Stranraer Half Marathon on Saturday 7th June in a time of 94m20s.
The former Blaydon Harrier was 7th in the Mens Over 40 Veteran category.

Return To Top Of Page

Chorley Night Series ( 2 )
Morpeths Ben Harrison finished fifth in the second race of the
Chorley Night Series events held on 4th June in a time of 21m15s.

Return To Top Of Page

Watergate 10k Trail Race !
Morpeths Nick Swinburn and Jane Mooney provided a
double club victory at Low Fell Running Clubs 10k Trail Race
held at a rainswept Watergate Park, Lobley Hill on Sunday 1st June.
The miserable conditions did nothing to deter Swinburn who won
with 71secs to spare over his closest rival and clubmate
Michael Morris with his clocking of 34m28s.

By finishing eleventh overall and third from Morpeth Harriers,
Jane Mooney easily added her third womens title in a month to her superb tally.
Mooney's 40m21s put her three minutes and thirty three seconds
clear of her closest rival Angela Hunter of Chester Le Street.
Morpeth's next finisher was Claire Bruce who finished in 47th spot in 48m22s.
Bernie Cordes finished 62nd in 51m03s,
and completed a Morpeth Mens team who finished second to Heaton.

Return To Top Of Page

Young Athletes League !
Once again it was a poor athlete turnout that dogged the determined
efforts of Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes Team Management for their
third round match held at a rainswept Monkton Stadium, Jarrow on Sunday 1st June.
Nevertheless the athletes who did turn out gave their all, but however once again
couldn't prevent their club from finishing last of the four competing clubs,
which means they now face life next season in Division 2,
and it will be the first time for a good number of years that Morpeth will have competed so low.

The club did have a number of excellent performances across the age groups however.
In the Under 17 Mens section Alistair Douglass and Daniel Hedley
both achieved wins in the 800m and 100m events in respective clockings of 2m08.9s and 12.3s.
Hedley also achieved a second in the 200m in 24.7s.

Another hard worker in the Under 17 Mens age group was Philip Shuttleworth
who finished second in both the 3000m (10m49.1s) and 1500m steeplechase (6m01.9s)
and third in the 1500m (5m20.4s)

In the Under 17 Womens events Deborah Oakley (11m41s)
and Catriona MacDonald (13m29.6s) combined to take maximum points in the 3000m.
Oakley also finished as second A runner in the 1500m (5m38.3s),
where Jessica Caldwell took the B event in 6m03.7s.
Caldwell had earlier finished second in the 800m in 2m47.8s.
Stevie Goodfellow captured an excellent victory in the triple Jump with 9.31m,
and added a B string victory in the 300m (48.1s) to compliment
Rachel Moody's second place in the A race in 46.4s.

In the Under 15 Boys events Jonny Nisbet had an excellent 1500m victory in 4m45.7s,
and Tom Brookes obliged by taking the B race in 5m02.2s.
Jonny also had earlier finished an excellent second in the 200m in 27.4s.
Jonathan Cozens finished second in the 100m in 12.5s.

In the Under 15 Girls events Kim Jinks cleared 1.30m to win the High Jump.
There was an excellent double victory in the 1500m with Rachel Denton
winning the A race in 4m55.5s and Hannah Rank taking the b event in 5m09.1s.

In the Under 13 Boys events Joe Robertshaw's victories
in the 100m (14.1s) and 200m (28.0s) stand out.
Matthew Denton's second in the B 200m in 31.9s was excellent.
Robertshaw also finished second in the Shot with a best of 6.32m.

In the Under 13 Girls events Shannon Henley won the 150m (21.7s)
finished second in the Long Jump (4.16m) and third in the Shot (5.03m)
Eve Shashova backed Shannon up well in the Long Jump by taking the B event with 3.33m.
Sarah Wilkes scored an excellent victory in the 1200m in 4m32.0s.

FINAL MATCH RESULT
1st Chesterfield 432pts,
2nd Blaydon/Elswick 325.5pts,
3rd Hallamshire 290pts,
4th Morpeth 233.5pts.

Return To Top Of Page

May

News From May 2008

BMC Grand Prix Meeting !
Morpeths Jonathan Taylor and Laura Weightman both clocked
new personal bests over 1500m at the BMC Grand Prix Meeting
held at Sports City, Manchester on Saturday 31st May.
Jonathan finished eighth of 15 finishers in a classy Mens A race
in a time of 3m45.07s, which saw him knock just over
a second off his previous figures set in 2007.

Laura`s new best of 4m22.20s was also just more than
a second off her previous best set at Jarrow a few weeks ago,
and she finished twelfth in what was also a classy field of sixteen finishers,
and in doing so she also captured the scalp of four Senior Women
who included Hallamshire's Hatti Dean, just in the throes of a comeback,
and was only a second and one place adrift of Dean's illustrious
clubmate Rebecca Lyne, also on the comeback trail.

Morpeth's only other athlete competing on the night was Jonathan Young,
who finished fifth in the Mens 1500m D Race in a time of 3m56.78s,
which was around four seconds outside his personal best,
and a second outside his seasons best so far.

Return To Top Of Page

Start Fitness North Eastern Athletics League !
There were some fine performances from athletes from Morpeth Harriers
at the second Start Fitness North eastern Athletics League held at
Gateshead's International Stadium on Wednesday 28th May.

The event also incorporated a series of BMC 800m events
which saw Rachel Denton produce a new personal best of 2m21.82s
to capture an excellent victory over Middlesbrough & Cleveland Senior athlete Abby Smith.

In the league events, the performances of Marcus Cram,
Alistair Douglass and Joe Robertshaw clearly stand out for merit.
In the 800m A race where he was seeded against more Senior athletes,
Cram achieved a brand new personal best of 2m02.57s.
Clubmate Martyn Cairns can also feel well pleased with a
personal best of 2m08.13s which saw him take the B race.

Alistair Douglass ran a superb 3000m to finish third against
more Senior rivals in a time of 9m25.7s.
Other Morpeth athletes in the 3000m were Phil Walker (9th) 9m38.3s,
Jordan Scott (10th) 9m39.4s and Paul Waterston (11th) 9m41.5s.

Joe Robertshaw just missed his personal best when he
triumphed in the Under 13 Boys 200m in 27.29s.

Jonny Nisbet gave good account for himself when he finished second
in the Under 15 Boys 200m in 27.4s and fifth in the 800m in 2m18.50s.

Return To Top Of Page

Shri Chinmoy Self Transcedence 1 Mile Race !
The MacDonald family of Morpeth Harriers, Alistair, Catriona and Margaret
all travelled up to Edinburgh to take part in the Shri Chinmoy Self Transcedence
1 mile Race at The Meadows on Wednesday 28th May.
Alistair finished 19th in 5m22s, Catriona finished 51st in 6m47s
with mother Margaret not far behind in 54th place in 7m08s.

Return To Top Of Page

Bupa London 10k Road Race !
Morpeths Ian Hudspith finished eleventh in
the Bupa London 10,000 metre Road Race
on Monday 26th May in a time of 30m33s.

Return To Top Of Page

Raby Castle 10k !
Terry Wall was Morpeth Harriers leading finisher in the near
400 strong Raby Castle 10k field on Sunday 25th May.
He finished in sixth place in 33m38s behind winner
and former club colleague Martin Scaife, now running for North York Moors,
who broke the course record with his clocking of 32m14s.

Other leading Morpeth placings in the Mens race came from
David Swinburne (9th) 34m29s, Ben Harrison (12th) 35m03s
and Michael Morris (13th) 35m06s.

In the Ladies race, course record holder Morpeths Aiveen Fox
finished third behind Middlesbrough's Carolyn Summersgill
and Hartlepool's Louise Bennett in 41m31s, and was 49th overall.
Morpeth's only other runner was Claire Bruce who finished 127th in 47m18s.

Return To Top Of Page

CAU InterCounties Track & Field Championships !
A time of 9m27.61s earned Morpeths Chris Sampson
a Bronze medal in the 3k Steeplechase at the CAU InterCounties
Track & Field Championships at Bedford on Sunday 25th May.

Return To Top Of Page

Fanny Blankers-Koen Memorial Games !
Morpeths Nick McCormick was well below his best when he
competed in the Mens 5000m at the Fanny Blankers-Koen
Memorial Games held in Hengelo in the Netherlands on Saturday 24th May.
He finished 18th as the only Briton in a top class field of Ethiopian's
and Kenyan's that included World Cross Country Champion
Kenenisa Bekele who won in this years best time of 12m58.94s.

McCormick will now return to his Loughborough base and take stock of things,
and will probably revert to his more recognised 800m and 1500m events
in the hope of a title at the UK Championships later in the Summer.

Return To Top Of Page

North of England U15/U17 Track & Field Championships !
A lifetime best performance of 4m50.87s brought
Morpeths Rachel Denton a well earned Bronze medal
in the Under 15 Girls 1500m at the first day of the
North of England Under15/Under17 Track & Field
Championships held at Robin Park in Wigan on Saturday 24th May.
After finishing third in her heat in a very modest 5m05.2s,
Rachel ran well to finish in the Final behind East Cheshire's
Katie Reynolds (4m46.37s) and Wakefield's Sally Smith (4m47.36s)

Return To Top Of Page

NSP Clive Cookson 10K & 5K
Three days after her emotional victory in the
Race for Life at Gateshead's Saltwell Park,
Morpeth Harrier Jane Mooney was again tasting victory when
she retained her Ladies title at the North Shields Poly
Clive Cookson 10k Road Race held last Wednesday 21st May.
Jane finished 27th overall, and her time of 37m37s
was thirty seconds inside her 2007 winning effort.
That was exactly the margin she had to spare over her
closest rival Judith Nutt of Elswick who was 33rd,
with Claire McManus of the host club claiming
third Ladies place by finishing 38th in 38m49s.

The Mens race saw Morpeths Michael Morris making
a long awaited return to action, and he can feel well pleased
with his placing of third in 33m42s, which was 1min40secs
behind race winner Peter Newton of Claremont.

Morpeth Harriers took fifth place in the Mens team race
with further support coming from Mike Hegarty,
another in a return to action after a lengthy period on the sidelines,
who finished 14th in 36m39s, and Michael Winter (39th) 38m50s
and Ian Corner (52nd) 39m46s, both of whom had run the previous night at Alnwick.

Other Morpeth Harriers placings in the 10k were
Jim Alder (59th) 40m18s, Nick Armstrong (69th) 41m00s,
Mike McKean (70th) 41m05s, Ricky Davidson (110th) 44m39s,
Paul Tomlinson (111th) 44m40s, Bernie Cordes (147th) 47m14s,
Susan Smith (216th) 54m42s and Jane Blackett (217th) 54m57s.

Morpeth Harriers had three runners competing in the accompanying 5k event.
Gary Clark finished 21st in 20m36s, and Deborah Oakley
and Laura Dixon were fifth and sixth Ladies when finishing
24th and 25th in respective times of 21m07s and 22m05s.

Return To Top Of Page

Les Allcorn 10k !
Phil Walker was Morpeths first finisher at the Les Allcorn 10k held on
Tuesday 20th May 2008. Phil finished second in 34m22s, the race winner was Dave Kirkland
from the host club Alnwick Harriers, who crossed the line in 33m55s.
Phil was also the first O/40 vet to finish.
Second Morpeth vet to finish and second O/40 overall was Paul Waterson,
who finished 4th in 35m41s.
Jordan Scott finished in 6th place with a time of 36m45s.
Third Morpeth vet to finish was Gordon Dixon, who finished 7th in 36m58s and was 3rd O/40
Michael Winter finished in 12th place with a time of 38m52s.
Graeme Leathard was our next vet finisher, crossing the line in 13th place with a time of 39m26s
and one second behind him was Ian Corner in 14th place in 39m27s.
There were 110 finishers in the All Competitors category.

Other Morpeth finishers were
18th Jim Alder V40 41m00s
21st Hamish Mcallister-Williams V40 41m28s
40th David Watson V40 44m12s
46th Sue Calvert F35 44m25s
51st Trevor Robinson V40 44m44s
56th Claire Bruce F35 46m03s
61st Steve McDonald V40 46m45s
66th Shuna Rank F35 48m13s
71st Margaret McDonald F35 49m20s
85th Susan Smith F35 51m33s
98th Jane Blackett F45 55m42s

In finishing ninth overall Morpeths Sarah Wilkes won the
Girls 3k Junior Run that was run in conjunction
with the event, in a time of 12m16s.

Other Morpeth Harriers competing in this event were as follows
Ailidh McCallister-Williams (31st) (6th U13 Girl) 13m50s,
Rachael Todd (35th) (8th U13 Girl) 14m02s,
Sam Alder (39th) (7th U11 Boy) 14m35s,
James Wilkes (40th) (8th U11 Boy) 14m37s
and Charlotte Wellden (53rd) (6th U11 Girl) 16m29s.

Return To Top Of Page

Veterans North East Track & Field League 1
Morpeths Archie Jenkins finished fourth in the Over 50's 1500m at the
first Veterans North East meeting held at Jarrow on Monday 19th May.
Archie crossed the line in 4m58.4s.
Neil McAnany finished seventh in the Over 40's 1500m in 5m01.1s.

Return To Top Of Page

National Veterans Road Relay Championships !
Attending the British National Veterans Road Relay
Championships for the 1st time since 2001,
Morpeths 8 man team acquitted themselves well in the
O/40 category to finish 13th overall at Sutton Park,
Birmingham on Saturday 17th May.
Coincidentally, this was the position the 2001 team finished in.
With a team of mixed ability, the club were aiming for a top 20 finish
in a field of just over 50 teams from all over the UK.

In wet and warm conditions, particularly good performances
came from Paul Waterston (15:48),
Phil Walker (15:50) and Les Atkinson (16:10) who,
between them, had Morpeth up to 3rd place after the 3rd leg.
However, Morpeth slipped down the rankings to 9th place
with 4th and 5th leg runners Gavin Bayne(17:28)
and Gordon Dixon (17:16) keeping them, nevertheless,
in the top 10. Alan Boyd (18:44) and Ian Corner (18:05),
running legs 6 and 7 worked hard to keep the club near the top
as conditions dried eventually running in 11th and then 13th place overall.

It was the first time each of them has represented the club at a national road championships.
Alistair MacDonald (17:52) brought the club home to maintain 13th place overall.
He passed the Sunderland Harriers runner, last years bronze medallists on the last leg,
but was passed, in turn by Oxford whose team included ex-Morpeth Harrier John Lisiewicz.

Bristol and West won for the 3rd year from Leicester and Clayton Le Moor.
Sunderland Harriers finished 14th and North Shields,
the only other north east team present, 30th.

Ian Corner went onto complete the Manchester 10k the next day,
where he recorded a personal best of 39:45 in the process.

Return To Top Of Page

Young Athletes League !
Despite gallant efforts by those who turned out on the day,
Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes squad could once again
only finish fourth out of the four competing teams in their
second round Northern Division 1 match at the Dorothy Hyman Stadium
at Cudworth, near Barnsley on Sunday 18th May,
and are now staring relegation in the face with three matches remaining.

Team Managers Tony Ward and Josie Goodfellow are seeing their efforts
and that of those turning out being thwarted by the total lack of commitment
being shown from the absentees within the club who fail to support
their hardworking colleagues for whatever reason.

There were however some excellent performances
across the age groups that are worthy of mention.
Daniel Hedley continues to make enormous progress
in the sprints where he achieved two seconds in the
Under 17 Mens 100m and 200m in respective times of 12.3s and 24.5s.
Hedley also gained valuable points by finishing second in the Triple Jump with 10.07m.

Jonny Nisbet clocked a new personal best of 4m44.0s
to win the Under 15 Boys 1500m in one of the most exciting finishes of the day.

Tom Brookes gained maximum points for Morpeth
when he took the B race in 5m14.2s.
Elsewhere in this age group Callum Duncan won the Shot with 8.70m,
and finished second in the Long jump with 4.99m.

Joe Robertshaw renewed his rivalry with Middlesbrough Mandale's
Matthew Routh in the Under 13 Boys 100m and 200m events.
He had to be content with second in the 100m with 13.8s,
however he again outsprinted Routh over 200m by
clocking a new personal best of 27.2s, albeit wind assisted.
In the 200m B event Joe Elder finished second in 32.1s
to give Morpeth more valuable points.
Elder did his club proud by taking the 1500m in 5m31.1s

There were two splendid double victories for Morpeth
in the Under 17 Womens 3000m and Discus events.
Deborah Oakley won the 3000m A race in 11m48s
and Catriona MacDonald clocked 13m31.6s to take the B race.
Rachel Moody (20.62m) and Rebecca Gibson (18.76m)
combined to produce an excellent double in the Discus.
Moody also finished second in the Shot (8.21m)
and Stevie Goodfellow (9.35m) finished second in the Triple Jump.

Under 15 Girls level saw Hannah Rank win the 1500m in 5m12.2s,
and Miriam Inverarity finished second in the B event with 6m04.2s.
Rachel Denton (2m22.0s) and Katie Plant (4.40m)
finished second in the 800m and Long Jump events.

The Under 13 Girls events saw Adele Stewart, Steph Purvis
and Shannon Henley each record A string victories.
Stewart won the 800m in 2m50.3s and Eve Shashova
backed her up well in the B event by finishing second in 3m03.5s.
Purvis won the 1200m in 4m30.3s, and Henley
won the Long Jump with her best of 4.12m.
Henley's win in the Long Jump was sweetened
with Amy Gibson taking the B event with 3.88m.
Gibson also finished second in the 150m B race in 23.4s,
where Henley had finished third in the A race with 21.8s.

FINAL MATCH SCORE
1st Bingley 328pts
2nd Middlesbrough (Mandale) 325pts
3rd Barnsley 260pts
4th Morpeth 200pts.

Return To Top Of Page

Loughborough International Athletics !
At the Loughborough International Athletics meeting on Sunday 18th May,
Morpeths Laura Weightman was fractionally outside her best when
she took victory in the Womens 1500m Invitation in a time of 4m25.69s.

At the same meeting Nick McCormick won the Mens 1500m Match event in 3m43.40s,
and clubmate Jonathan Taylor finished seventh in 3m45.81s.

Return To Top Of Page

Sunderland Strollers Pier to Pier Race !
Morpeths Mike Winter finished 47th in 44m35s
at Sunderland Strollers Pier to Pier race on Sunday 18th May

Return To Top Of Page

Junior Great Manchester Run !
Morpeth Harrier Sarah Wilkes had an excellent run to
finish sixth in the 9 to 11 year old Girls age group event
at the Junior Great Manchester Run on Saturday 17th May.
Her time was 9m42s with the winner clocking 9m05s.

Return To Top Of Page

North Eastern Counties Track & Field Championships !
Nineteen Championship medals were won by athletes from Morpeth Harriers
at the North Eastern Counties Track and Field meeting held at Gateshead's
International Stadium over Saturday and Sunday 10th/11th May.

Apart from the medals, five of which were Gold, seven were Silver
and seven were Bronze, a host of new personal bests were achieved
in what could only be described as perfect conditions,
with both days being blessed with dry, warm sunny weather.

On Saturday Laura Weightman was the first Morpeth athlete to
strike Gold in what could only be described as a fairly
competitive combined Under 20 and Senior Womens 800m.
The 2007 Under 17 Champion shared most of the early pace
with former Morpeth athlete Nisha Desai, now running for Trafford,
and with 200m remaining Weightman decided to take up the gauntlett
only to be chased all the way to the line by her fierce rival Stacey Smith,
formerly Tynedale, now with Gateshead.
Sensing danger from Smith, Weightman injected yet another surge
of power with 40m remaining and crossed the finish line in 2m08.20s,
knocking a whole three seconds off her previous figures for the distance.
By finishing in fourth place behind Desai, Morpeth's Natalie Young picked
up a Bronze medal by virtue of being third Under 20 in 2m23.5s.

Another Morpeth Gold medallist on the Saturday was Hannah Rank,
who easily won her very first Under 15 Girls 3000m in 11m15.1s.

Hannah's training partner and clubmate Rachel Denton opted to
give the Under 15 Girls 800m a miss on the Saturday, however
turned up on the Sunday to put in an outstanding performance
to take Gold in the 1500m in 4m51.99s, and bettering
her previous figures by around three seconds.

Morpeth's Joe Robertshaw more than made up for his narrow
defeat in the Under 13 Boys 100m on the Saturday,
where his clocking of 13.7s was exactly the same as the winner
Matthew Routh of Middlesbrough, by breaking the Championship
record in the heats of the 200m on the Sunday with his time of 27.38s,
and then went on to win Gold in the Final in a slightly faster 27.21s
against the same Middlesbrough athlete, however the sweetness
was slightly taken away by the fact that the Wind Gauge had ruled
his time ineligible for ratification to a better figure.
Nevertheless Joe had worked hard for to retain his hold on the title that
he won in 2007, and more than deserved this particular victory alone.

Morpeth's fifth Gold of the weekend came on the Sunday
where Alan Richmond won the Under 20 Mens Hammer with a best of 34.53m.
This was Richmond's second medal of the weekend having taken Bronze
on the Saturday in the Discus with a little below par best of 29.12m.

Chris Sampson just lost out to New Marske's Dominic Shaw in
a hard fought Senior Mens 5000m, where he clocked 15m09.56s.

Clubmates Dan Samuels and Ross Floyd finished fourth and seventh
in respective times of 15m44.88s and 16m06.69s.
Deborah Oakley picked up a well deserved Silver medal
in the Under 17 Womens 3000m with a finishing time of 11m37.74s.

On Sunday Natalie Young added a Silver medal to the
Bronze medal she'd won on the Saturday when finishing
second in the Under 20 Womens 1500m in 4m51.41s.

Also on Sunday Martyn Cairns secured Silver in the
Under 20 Mens 5000m where he clocked 17m45.08s.

Morpeth's other two Silver medals came in the Field events
with Rachel Moody taking second in the Under 17 Womens Javelin
on the Saturday with her best of 17.05m, and Claire Reid took
second in the Senior Womens Shot on the Sunday with her best of 10.56m.

On Saturday Alistair Douglass secured a well earned Bronze medal in the
Under 17 Mens 1500m where he clocked a brand new lifetime best of 4m17.08s,
and on the Sunday he very nearly added a second Bronze
in the 3000m where he clocked an excellent 9m31.30s.

After securing a Bronze in the Senior Womens 200m
on Saturday with her finishing time of 26.55s,
Morpeth's Elaine Telford returned on Sunday to take
a second Bronze in the 100m in 13.07s.

On Saturday Morpeth's Jonny Young found himself squeezed out
of the medals in the Senior Mens 1500m with his clocking of 4m02.52s,
however he made up for that on the Sunday by securing a Bronze in the 800m in 1m59.03s.

Morpeth's Jack Hepple finished third in the Under 15 Boys 400m in 68.45s.

One Morpeth athlete who performed superbly over the
two days was Jonny Nisbet who on Saturday won his heat of
the Under 15 Boys 1500m in a new personal best time of 4m45.74s,
and although he bettered that time again in the final,
just lost out for medals when he finished fifth.

Jonny returned on the Sunday to produce yet another personal best
in the heats of the 800m where his 2m18.69s saw him finish fourth
in his heat, to go through to the final as a fastest loser.
However 2m18.84s in the Final was just not quite good
enough to get him amongst the medals.

Despite clocking excellent new personal bests of 4m19.23s
and 2m04.72s in the Under 17 Mens 1500m and 800m events,
Morpeth's Marcus Cram found himself outside the medals,
however as a first year in this age group there is certainly more to
come from the son of the former World Mile Record Holder.

Other excellent Morpeth performers other than medallists were
Shannon Henley who made it through to the finals of both the 100m
and 200m in the Under 13 Girls age group and finished fourth in the Long Jump,
Daniel Hedley who got through to the Final of the Under 17 Mens 200m,
Andrew Toothill who finished fourth in the Under 20 Mens Discus,
and Liam Brooks who just lost out on countback for
a Bronze medal in the Under 13 Boys High Jump.

The profile of the North Eastern Counties Championships certainly
reached a new high with a good deal of competition in Track events,
however there is still a good deal of work to be done
to ensure popularity within the Field events.
Certainly medal presentatations done in front of a watching
crowd added some spice to the occasion.
Many thanks must go to Gateshead Council
for their efforts in promoting the event.

Return To Top Of Page

Golden Ball 5k Road Race !
Morpeths Ben Harrison finished fourth in the Golden Ball 5k Road Race in Morecambe, Lancashire on Sunday 11th May in a time of 16m17s, which proved to be 59 seconds adrift of race winner Eddie Simpson of Dallam Running Club.

Return To Top Of Page

The Tees Barrage 10k !
Morpeths Terry Wall finished second at
The Tees Barrage 10k road race at
Stockton-on-Tees, on Sunday 5th May 2008.
Terry crossed the finish line in 32m50s.

Return To Top Of Page

Young Athletes League !
Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes squad were badly hit by a
number of absentees when they finished fourth in their opening
Northern League Division 1 match at Monkton Stadium on Sunday 4th May.
Nevertheless Team Managers Tony Ward and Josie Goodfellow did their
level best to tactically place those who could turn out to the best advantage.

Despite the loss of athletes there were a number of
excellent performances across the three age groups.

In the Under 17 Womens section Rachel Moody claimed
excellent victories in the Long Jump (4.23m) and Shot (8.57m).

Stevie Goodfellow went alone in the Triple Jump
to gain maximum points with a best of 8.66m
and followed that up with an excellent second in the 200m (28.9s)
with Kathryn Lake taking second in the B race in 29.0s.

After a hard day at York the previous day competing for the Seniors,
Deborah Oakley competed in the 3000m to finish third in 11m32.3s,
then later finished third in the 1500m in 5m35.4s,
and Jessica Caldwell took the B race in 5m48.3s.

There were good performances to be seen in the
Under 15 age group with Rachel Denton, Hannah Rank
and Jonny Nisbet all capturing the spotlight.
Denton claimed a superb victory in the Girls 800m in 2m23.3s,
a new personal best, which saw her finish well clear of her nearest rival.
Ellen Welsh ran well to finish second in the B race in 3m05.3s

Morpeth claimed an excellent double victory in the Girls 1500m
with Hannah Rank taking the A race in 5m06.7s
and Miriam Inverarity took the B race in 5m50s.
Rank also finished second in the Shot with 5.92m.

There were excellent second places for Anna Matthews
in the 200m (28.8s) and Ismay Kitson in the Javelin (10.77m)

Jonny Nisbet and Tom McGhee combined well to claim an
excellent Morpeth double victory in the Boys 200m
with Nisbet taking the A race in 27.4s and McGhee the B race in 31.2s.
Nisbett also finished second in the 1500m (4m47.2s)
a new personal best by almost thirty seconds,
and McGhee finished second in the Long Jump with 4.15m.
Another highlight was Philip Caldwell's second in the 80m Hurdles with 18.1s.

In the Under 13 age group Joe Robertshaw's victories in the 100m (13.9s)
and 200m (27.9s) certainly caught the eye.
Added to that he was agonisingly 9cm short of making a reasonable claim
of a hat-trick of victories with his best Long Jump effort of 3.91m.

In the Girls events Adele Stewart and Eve Shashova's performances
were outstanding with a double victory being claimed in the 800m
with respective clockings of 2m51.1s and 2m58.9s.
Stewart also finished second in the High Jump with a best clearance of 1.10m
and Steph Purvis came second in the B String with 1.05m.

There were very satisfactory debuts for Ryan Dodds and Liam Brooks.
Dodds finished third in the 75m Hurdles (16.7s)
and Brooks also placed third in the 1500m in 5m30.9s.

FINAL MATCH RESULT
1st Harrogate 360pts,
2nd Lincoln Wellington 354pts,
3rd Chester Le Street 233pts,
4th Morpeth 195pts.

Return To Top Of Page

Senior Men & Womens Northern League Division 2 !
Huntington Stadium in York was the venue for Morpeth Harriers
first taste of Senior Men and Womens Northern League
Division 2 Track and Field action on Saturday 3rd May.
Despite a number of gaps in both sections, some good characteristic
performances saw them finish fourth of the six competing teams.

One of the pleasing major highlights from Morpeth's
point of view was to see debutant Ian Mawdesley
win the A race of the Mens 110m Hurdles in fine style in 18.7s,
with Team Captain John Thompson throwing in his all by taking
his place in the B race to finish second in 22.7s.
Mawdesley again played his part enormously by winning
the B race of the 400m Hurdles in 69.4s
to add to Ray Kirkup's fourth in the A race in 66.2s.

Chris Sampson ran well to beat City of York's Andy Hilton
to the finish line in the 3000m Steeplechase to win in 9m32.6s,
and David Swinburne finished second in the B race in 10m15.4s.

In the Mens Field events Angus Wood did well to finish second
in the High Jump with a clearance of 1.65m.
Paul Appleby threw 37.62m to finish third in the Javelin,
and John Thompson backed him up well to finish third
in the B event with 36.00m.

In the Womens events Laura Weightman landed a victory in the 800m
clocking 2m11.6s which was fractionally just adrift of her personal best.
Natalie Young backed her up well by taking second in the B race in 2m27.7s.
Weightman also did well when finishing third in the 400m in 60.3s
and Rachel Archer finished second in the B race with 64.1s.

Elaine Telford finished third in both the 100m (12.8s) and the 200m (26.6s)
Archer backed her up in the 200m when finishing fourth in the B race in 27.4s.

Aiveen Fox finished third in the 3000m in 11m29.2s
and Deborah Oakley finished second in the B race in 11m56.2s.

In the Womens Field events as usual it was Claire Reid
at the helm of Morpeth's points haul by finishing second
in the Discus (30.99m) and second in the Shot (10.07m)

FINAL MATCH SCORE
1st City of York 447pts,
2nd Gateshead Harriers 345pts,
3rd Middlesbrough (Mandale) 340pts,
4th Morpeth Harriers 286pts,
5th Durham City 269pts,
6th Scarborough 186pts.

Return To Top Of Page

BUSA Track & Field Championships !
A close and very exciting finish saw Morpeths Jonathan Taylor
representing Teeside University, snatch victory in the Mens 1500m
from Darlington's Lewis Moses representing Loughborough, at the
BUSA Track and Field Championships held at Bedford on Monday 5th May.
Jonathan Taylor clocked 3m45.61s, a new personal best,
with Lewis Moses also getting a new personal best of 3m45.72s.

Return To Top Of Page

Start Fitness North Eastern Athletics League !
Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman showed that she is now virtually
back to her sparkling best as she knocked a whole three seconds
off her personal best time in the 1500m at the first Start Fitness
North Eastern Athletics League meeting held at a rainswept
Monkton Stadium, Jarrow on Wednesday 30th April.
She certainly took every advantage when running as the only Female
against older Men and Boys, to cross the finish line in an excellent 4m23.4s.

Another good Morpeth performer on the night was Joe Robertshaw,
who won the Under 13 Boys 100m in 13.5s.

Other Morpeth performers on the night were
Katie Plant Under 15 Girls 75m Hurdles (16.0s) and 100m (14.5s)
Daniel Hedley (18.1s) Under 17 Mens 150m and (39.7s) 300m,
Claire Reid (10.54m) Senior Womens Shot and (16.75m) Hammer,
Martyn Cairns (4m35.4s) Under 20 Mens 1500m,
Deborah Oakley (5m49.1s) Under 17 Womens 1500m.

Return To Top Of Page

Bupa Great Edinburgh 10k !
Morpeths Craig McBurney finished 27th in the
Bupa Great Edinburgh 10k on Sunday 4th May
in a time of 37m18s.
McBurney is just making a comeback to the sport
after service in the Armed Forces in Basra.

Return To Top Of Page

Dalton in Furness Charter 10k !
Morpeths Ben Harrison won the Dalton in Furness Charter 10k
on Friday 2nd May in a time of 33m35s.
Return To Top Of Page

April

News From April 2008

Paul Fairbrother Takes A Break !
Unfortunately Paul Fairbrother has been forced to put his athletics
comeback on hold following an accident when Skiing off-piste in the Cairngorms.
He says he is going to be away from running for at least a year
after breaking his left leg and damaging numerous ligaments into the bargain.
However to show that he has not lost any of his humerous spirit,
or indeed admiration admiration and thought for his club he has
adorned his cast-brace in club colours as per the picture.
We all hope you are very well soon Paul.

Return To Top Of Page

Blyth Valley Transped 10K Road Race !
Former Blyth Valley 10 mile winner Les Atkinson
was Morpeth Harriers first finisher at the
Blyth Valley Transped 10k Road Race on Sunday 27th April.

Les was tenth of 397 finishers in a time of 35m09s
and was first Over 50 Veteran Male finisher.
Nineteen seconds behind him in eleventh place was his clubmate Ross Floyd.
with Gordon Dixon finishing 19th in 36m46s,
Morpeth finished third in the Mens Team race
behind North Shields Poly and Elswick Harriers.

In the Womens Team race Morpeth Harriers finished as
seventh team being led home by Sue Calvert who finished
154th overall and was 25th Lady, 4th O/40 Female, and finished in 44m54s.
Further team support came from Pam Woodcock (35th Lady)
(2nd Over 55 Female) (193rd) 46m39s,
and Sue Smith (54th Lady) (11th Over 40 Lady) (270th) 50m23s.

Other Morpeth Harriers results were as follows,
Michael Winter (39th) 38m37s,
Archie Jenkins (40th) (1st O/55) 38m39s,
Richard Driscoll (50th) (2nd O/55) 39m13s,
Graeme Leathard (54th) (6th O/40) 39m26s,
Jim Alder (59th) (11th O/45) 40m07s,
Michael McKean (79th) (12th O/40) 41m07s,
Nick Armstrong (89th) (13th O/40) 41m39s,
Simon Robson (92nd) 41m46s,
David Gray (112th) (3rd O/60) 42m35s,
Alan Hyde (115th) (17th O/40) 42m47s,
Ricky Davidson (148th) 44m22s,
Trevor Robinson (168th) (22nd O/40) 45m34s,
Stephen McDonald (184th) (26th O45) 46m19s,
Bernie Cordes (186th) (1st O/70) 46m22s,
Colin Cecil (241st) (39thO/40) 48m50s
Jane Blackett (330th) (8th O/45 Lady) 55m05s Suzanne Milward (362nd) (8th O/50 Lady) 57m23s.

Return To Top Of Page

ERRA National Road Relay Championships !
A change of rules thwarted Morpeth Harriers in their efforts
to pull a full squad together for their challenge at the
National 12 Stage Road Relays held at Sutton Park,
Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham on Saturday 26th April.

The organisers informed the club three weeks ago that they would
have to cut back their intended entry of 36 runners to 24 which put
them in a very tricky position with most of the clubs top runners rendered
unavailable because of injuries and other commitments.
This left them unable to call upon some of their regular unsung
road runners who would have at least guaranteed they
would once again finish in the competition,
although they would be placed well outside of medal placing.
Instead, Team Captain David Swinburne was left with only seven runners
including himself to make the journey to the Midlands.

First Leg runner Chris Sampson came home in 25th place in 27m51s.
Jonathan Taylor on second leg carved through the opposition in front
of him to climb up to an excellent twelfth, clocking
an equally excellent eighth fastest Short Stage time of 14m17s.

Ben Harrison on third leg slipped back to 20th with 28m56s,
a position that Jonny Young held throughout his fourth stage effort of 15m05s.

Next two legs brought out the Veteran talents of Phil Walker,
making his National 12 Stage debut for Morpeth, and
Paul Waterston who clocked 30m22s and 16m52s finishing
firstly in 23rd and then 24th places.

Finally David Swinburne signed off Morpeth's brave attempt at respectability
by finishing in 22nd place clocking an individual Long Stage seventh leg in 29m14s.

Return To Top Of Page

Hamburg Marathon !
Ian Hudspith's dreams of making it to the Olympics came
to a sad and dramatic end in Hamburg on Sunday 27th April,
when he was forced to pull out having completed 18 of the 26 miles
of the only Marathon left available to him to gain qualification.

Having being forced out of London with illness the 36yr old had every
reason to believe he was in with a chance at halfway in Sunday's event,
however he began to struggle in the second half of the event
leading to him eventually stepping off the road.

Obviously he was bitterly disappointed, saying that it just wasn't to be,
he still wasn't alright after the illness and shouldn't have run,
but he felt that being his last chance, he had to give it a go.
It was upsetting, but he is resolved that he cannot do anything about it,
there was just nothing there when it mattered.

Return To Top Of Page

Track & Field News !
Morpeth Harrier Jonny Young finished third in the 3000m B Race at the
BMC Watford Open Meeting on Wednesday 23rd April in a time of 8m45.67s

Return To Top Of Page

British Orienteering Championships !
Adrian Barnes of Morpeth Harriers continued his long
and distinguished Orienteering experience by taking the
British Over 55 Mens Short Course Championship
in Culbin Forest, near Inverness at the weekend, 19th/20th April.

Return To Top Of Page

Redcar Half Marathon !
Ben Harrison was Morpeth Harriers leading finisher in the
Tees Valley Leisure sponsored Redcar Half Marathon
on Sunday 20th April.
Harrison made the long journey from Kirkby Lonsdale
in Cumbria to finish twelfth in 73m59s.
Other good Morpeth performances
came from Mike Winter (68th) 85m44s,
Ian Corner (120th) 89m25s
and Alan Hyde (147th) 91m08s.

Return To Top Of Page

Rothwell 10k Road Race !
Morpeth Harrier Phil Walker travelled to Leeds on Sunday 20th April
and finished 7th in the Rothwell 10k Road race in a time of 33m41s.
That placing also saw him finish second in the Over 40 Veteran Mens section.

Return To Top Of Page

Gateshead Harriers Track & Field Meeting !
Sarah Wilkes of Morpeth Harriers began her Track and Field season
with great determination and success when she competed in
Round 1 of 5 Rounds in the Gateshead Harriers Young Athletes
meetings at Gateshead International Stadium on Sunday 20th April.

She cleared 3.40m to win the Under 12's Long Jump,
she won her heat in the 60m in 9.8s
and finished third in the final in 9.6s.
Sarah went on to finish 4th in the 600m in 2m17s,
and 4th in the Javelin with 6.5m.
All of these efforts gave her a total of 14 Grand Prix points
placing her second overall after one round.

Gateshead Harriers also held their Medal Track Meeting
alongside the Young Athletes meeting,
and several Morpeth Harriers produced prominent performances.

Daniel Hedley finished fifth in the Under 17 Mens 100m
in 12.5s and fourth in the 200m in 25.1s.

Elaine Telford finished second in the Senior Womens 100m in 13.3s.

Rachel Denton had an excellent run of 2m26.18s
to finish second in the Under 15 Girls 800m.

Natalie Young finished third in the Junior Womens 1500m in 4m55.73s.

Rachel Archer finished fifth in the Senior Womens 200m in 27.9s.

Return To Top Of Page

News From America !
Morpeth Harrier Lewis Timmins finished second in the Mens 5000m
at The McDonnell Invitational Track and Field meeting held
at Fayetteville, Arkansas in America on April 19th. Timmins time was 14m09.91s.

Return To Top Of Page

Flora London Marathon !
Unfortunately illness prevented Morpeths Ian Hudspith taking his place
on the start line at the 28th Flora London Marathon on Sunday 13th April,
and he must now look towards the possibility of another chance in Hamburg,
Germany in two weeks time to convince Great Britains Olympic selectors
hat he is a worthy candidate for Beijing.

There is no doubt that had he been fit, the conditions
in London on Sunday would have suited him.
Seven of his club colleagues did make the start line however,
and they were led home by Paul Waterston who finished
159th overall and was 22nd in the M40 veteran category.
His finishing time was 2hrs38min15secs,
having gone through halfway in 1hr17min52secs.
Second home from Morpeth Harriers was Gordon Dixon
who clocked 2hrs44min03secs to finish 276th
and 10th in the M45 veteran category.

Only seven seconds divided Morpeth's third and fourth finishers
Hamish McCallister-Williams and Ian Corner, who finished
2,282nd and 2,299th respectively in the Mens race in
3hrs14mins23secs and 3hrs14mins30secs.

Michelle Woodley was Morpeth's next finisher in 3hrs17mins39secs,
and was 140th in the Womens race.
Kate Chapman was the clubs sixth finisher in 155th place
in the Womens race in 3hrs19mins03secs,
and Steve McDonald was the final Morpeth finisher in
3hrs43mins49secs in 6,295th place in the Mens race.

In the London Mini Marathon also on Sunday 13th April,
Morpeths Laura Weightman finished fourth in the
15 to 17 year old girls category in the Non London Borough event.

In addition to Laura Weightman, eight other Morpeth Harriers
took part in the series of Mini Marathons that accompanied
the 28th running of the Flora London Marathon.

Natalie Young and Claire Pitt finished 54th and 67th
respectively in the 15 to 17 year old Girls event
that saw Laura finish fourth, although Laura finished up fifth
in the result sheet purely down to the chip recording system.

In the Boys 15 to 17 year age group, Jordan Scott and
Alistair Douglass finished 62nd and 73rd respectively.

Rachel Denton and Hannah Rank finished 14th and 34th
in a quality filled 13 to 14 year old Girls event.

In the 11 to 12 year old Girls event Adele Stewart finished in 63rd place.

Reece Ramsay finished 67th in the 11 to 12 year old Boys event.

Return To Top Of Page

Wallsend Harriers Multi-Terrain Race !
Three Morpeth Harriers took part in Wallsend Harriers Multi Terrain Race
at the Rising Sun Country Park on Sunday 13th April.
First home was Alistair MacDonald who was 7th M40
Veteran when he placed 22nd overall in 30m01s.
Archie Jenkins was first M55 Veteran when he finished 30th overall in 30m42s.
Mike Steven finished 69th in 34m31s and was 8th in the M50 Veterans section.

Return To Top Of Page

Anne Marie Readshaw Open Track & Field Meeting !
Two Morpeth Harriers took part in the Anne Marie Readshaw Open
Track & Field meeting held at Stadium 2000 in Shildon on Sunday 13th April.
Elaine Telford finished 4th in the Senior Womens 100m in 13.4s.
Daniel Hedley competed in three Under 17 Mens events.
After finishing third in his heat of the 100m in 12.6s,
he finished 8th in the final in a slightly faster 12.5s.
He finished 4th in the 200m in 25.9s and 5th in the 400m in 58.5s.

Return To Top Of Page

North of England 12 Stage Road Relays !
Although they failed to retain their North of England 12 Stage Road Relay
title at a wintry Catterick Garrison on Sunday 6th April,
Morpeth Harriers Senior Men battled bravely throughout to eventually finish sixth,
with some excellent runs coming from Jonathan Taylor, Terry Wall, Jonny Young
and London Marathon bound Ian Hudspith.

Taylor really got them off to an excellent start on Leg One,
when he completed his long 5 mile circuit in third place in 28m01s,
and only 24 seconds adrift of the early leaders Bolton
and fifteen seconds adrift of second placed Liverpool.

Terry Wall took over on the 3mile second leg,
and although he lost a couple of places, his time of 15m47s
only saw him lose a further six seconds on new leaders,
and still well within easy reach of Derby and Bolton
now occupying second and third places.

The lead changed yet again on third leg with Liverpool
going into a nine second lead courtesy of their former
International 800m specialist Curtis Robb
who is once again looking a serious force,
albeit at a new distance and level.

Leeds had now dropped to second, with Derby now in third,
and Bingley had come through to fourth and Morpeth
had remained fifth courtesy of Ross Floyd's 16m18s.

Morpeth's fourth leg runner Nick Swinburn found himself
in a hotbed of good runners and he slipped to eighth with
a 5mile clocking of 30m26s which at that point proved
to be over two and a half minutes adrift of medal placings.

Thankfully at this stage a very much inform Jonny Young came into the fray,
and he produced an excellent short 5th stage clocking of 15m40s,
which proved to be sixth fastest of the leg, and was enough to claw back a place,
and brought Morpeth back to one minute and thirty seven seconds adrift of medals.

Leg 6 with the threatened snow flurries beginning to take more effect,
saw Ian Hudspith run a superb second fastest of the day short leg time of 14m19s,
and took Morpeth back up to third and in very close contention for second.

With the snow falling heavily Ben Harrison set off on Leg 7,
which was the two lap 5mile effort,
and he got round in 30m48s to finish seventh.

The snow continued throughout Legs 8 and 9 which saw
Phil Walker on his North of England 12 Stage debut for
Morpeth, and Mark Hudspith making a long awaited
comeback after various illnesses and injuries.

Walker got round in 16m46s to finish in sixth place,
and Hudspith held this placing throughout his excellent 18m36s.

Morpeth held this placing throughout Legs 10, 11 and 12
with David Swinburne, Chris Sampson and Neil Wilkinson
clocking 30m15s, 15m33s and 15m57s, respectively.

Morpeth's total finishing time was 4hrs05.26s
with Leeds coming out winners in 3m57.08s.

Unfortunately Morpeth were unable to field a Womens squad
for the Womens 6 Stage Relays due to illness and injuries.

Return To Top Of Page

Hartlepool Marina `5` Road Race !
Morpeths Alistair and Margaret MacDonald competed in the
Hartlepool Marina `5` race at Hartlepool on Sunday 6th April.
Alistair crossed the line in 29m51s finishing 22nd
and he was 4th M40 in the vets category.
Margaret finished 124th with a time of 40m15s
and was second in the Womens F40 category.

Return To Top Of Page

South Shields Sand Dancer 10k !
Three of Morpeth Harriers Vets were competing
at the weekend in the South Shields Sand Dancer
10k Multi-terrain event on Sunday 6th April.

Archie Jenkins was the first V55 to cross the line,
finishing 15th with a time of 38m24s.
Paul Bentley was third in the V60 category,
finishing 38th with a time of 41m48s.
Second in the V70 category was Bernie Cordes
who was 93rd in 48m43s.

Their efforts contributed to Morpeth
finishing 6th in the Mens team race.

Return To Top Of Page

Great Ireland 10k Road Race !
Morpeths Nick McCormick finished fourth in the Great Ireland 10k
Road race held in Dublin's Phoenix Park on Sunday 6th April.
His clocking was an excellent 29m18s as he finished behind winner
Abraham Chebil of Kenya 28m48s, Ahmed Abdullah Hassan of Quatar 28m51s,
and European Cross Country Champion Sergiy Lebid of Ukraine 28m59s.

Return To Top Of Page

Coniston 14mile Road Race !
Morpeths Michael McKean travelled to Cumbria
on Saturday 5th April to finish 64th in the annual
Coniston 14mile Road Race in 94m09s.

Return To Top Of Page

March

News From March 2008

Cyril Elliott Memorial Open Track & Field Meeting !
Morpeth Harrier Jordan Scott produced an excellent performance to finish
second in the 3000m at the Cyril Elliott Memorial Open Track & Field Meeting
at Claireville Stadium, Middlesbrough on Saturday 29th March.

Jordan clocked 9m46.2s putting him 26 seconds adrift
of race winner Andrew Wills of Gateshead Harriers.

Other Morpeth Harriers to feature at the meeting
were Daniel Hedley and Greg Swinburn.
Hedley finished fourth in the Under 17 Mens 100m in 12.9s,
and fifth in the 200m in 26.0s.
Swinburn finished seventh in the Under 20 Mens 400m in 57.0s,
and second in the 200m in 24.1s.

Return To Top Of Page

Indoor Standards Meeting !
At the final Indoor Standards Meeting held at Gateshead Stadium,
Morpeth's Joe Robertshaw triumphed in the Under 13 Boys 60m in 8.63s.

Melissa Anderson of Morpeth won the
Senior Womens 60m in 8.04s at the same meeting.

Return To Top Of Page

North Tyneside 10k Road Race !
Nick Swinburn became the third Morpeth Harrier to taste
success in the ultra popular North Tyneside 10k Road Race,
which was run for the fourth time on Sunday 23rd March.

He was always to the fore in a leading group of five that stole away
in the early stages, that included 2007 winner James Buis of Heaton,
2007 runner up Mike Griffiths of Newcastle Staffs AC,
Chester Le Street's Stewy Bell, and his fellow Morpeth clubmate Nathan Shrubb,
and on four occasions facing a strong headwind he tried to make a significant break.
It wasn't until around 400m from home on the Links at Whitley Bay that Nick
managed to put some daylight between himself and the others.
Shrubb and Buis gave desperate chase whilst Griffiths and Bell wilted somewhat.
Nick Swinburn's victory was never sure until he crossed the finish line
near St Mary's Lighthouse in a time of 33m21s, and only two seconds ahead
of Nathan Shrubb, with James Buis a further four seconds adrift in third place.

Morpeth Harriers also took the Mens Team race for the third year
in succession with third and fourth counters Ross Floyd and Bill Gilroy
finishing ninth and nineteenth in respective times of 35m00s and 37m14s.

Other Morpeth Harriers finishers were as follows
Alistair MacDonald (29th) 38m19s,
Michael Winter (48th) 39m47s,
Graeme Leathard (68th) 40m15s,
Ian Corner (73rd) 40m31s,
Jim Alder (90th) 41m31s,
Alan Hyde (152nd) 43m25s,
Nick Armstrong (218th) 44m58s
and Mike Steven (249th) 45m37s. Faye Glover (362nd) 47m54s
Trevor Robinson (363rd) 47m55s
Claire Bruce (408th) 48m39s
Margaret MacDonald (440th) 49m26s
Shuna Rank (477th) 49m53s
Ricky Davidson (483rd) 49m56s
Susan Smith (612th) 52m16s
Jane Blackett (836th) 55m34s
Suzanne Millward (968th) 57m38s.

Congratulations go to North Tyneside Council for their splendid organisation,
and to North Shields Polytechnic Athletic Club and UK Officials
for ensuring once again the smooth running of this popular event,
which this year attracted a total entry of 1,903 people.
Although the cold wind prevailed, the promised
snow stayed away during the run itself.

Return To Top Of Page

Elswick Harriers Good Friday Road Races !
Three individual and two team victories brought warmth to the hearts
of the Morpeth Harriers hierarchy at the annual Elswick Harriers
Good Friday Road Races, held at a cold and blustery Newburn Business Park.

On the eve to his return to his American College base, Lewis Timmins
clocked the fastest time of the day of 10m38s to spur
Morpeth Harriers Senior Men to yet another relay victory with splendid
support also coming from Nick Swinburn (11m18s) (10th Fastest)
Mark Hudspith (11m17s) (9th Fastest) and Ian Hudspith (10m45s) (2nd Fastest)

After Swinburn's first leg had seen the squad come home in fourth place,
Timmins took up the fight and they never looked back after he grabbed the lead,
eventually stealing to a two minute marginal victory, with Chester Le Street just
pipping Sunderland Harriers to the Silver medal placing.
Fifteen seconds adrift of Sunderland in fourth place were Morpeth's B team
courtesy of Ross Floyd (11m34s), Neil Wilkinson (11m37s)
Nathan Shrubb (11m24s) and David Swinburne (11m38s)
Marc Cochrane (12m25s) and Jim Alder (13m58s)
ran for an incomplete Morpeth Senior Mens B team.

Morpeth's second team victory of the day came in the Under 13 Boys event.
They also had the pleasure of seeing North East Cross Country Champion
Adam Harrington claim individual victory in 9m46s,
with Jonnie Nisbet finishing in second place in 9m50s.
The winning team score was closed with Jack Hepple
coming home in eleventh place in 10m45s.
Other Morpeth finishers in the Under 13 Boys event were
Jonny Anderson (17th) 11m06s, Liam Brooks (19th) 11m09s,
Ben Steel (33rd) 12m13s and Matthew Denton (38th) 13m10s.

Rachel Denton scored a superb individual victory in the Under 15 Girls event.
She won with seven seconds to spare over Gosforth's Rosie King with her time of 10m16s.
Morpeth unfortunately just missed out on team success to Gosforth despite
an excellent third place by Hannah Rank in a time of 10m34s.
Rachael Steel closed Morpeth's scoring three with
an excellent run to finish seventh in 11m26s.
It was on a countback situation that Gosforth won,
with both clubs being all square on points.
Other Morpeth finishers in the Under 15 Girls event were
Ailsa McGregor (11th) 12m05s and Catriona MacDonald (19th) 13m15s.

Morpeth's third individual victory of the day came in the
Under 15 Boys event where Marcus Cram won with twenty
two seconds to spare over his closest rival Jake Archer of Sunderland Harriers.
It was at the point where the runners had the wind to their backs that Marcus
took off in search of victory, and he crossed the finish line in 11m54s.
Unfortunately Morpeth could not field a scoring three here,
as Philip Shuttleworth produced an excellent run to finish eighth in 12m55s.

Morpeth Harriers Veteran Men finished in third team place
behind favourites Sunderland with host club Elswick claiming second place.
Despite running with a leg injury David Steel got round in 13m01s
to come home in sixth place on Leg One.
Paul Waterston got them up to third on second leg
with his clocking of 12m20s (7th Fastest)
and Gordon Dixon (13m02s) and Phil Walker (12m04s) (3rd Fastest)
held this position over the final two legs.

Richard Driscoll (13m50s), Alistair MacDonald (13m03s)
and Archie Jenkins (14m20s) ran in an incomplete
Morpeth Veteran Mens B team,
and were lying seventh after the third leg.

Sarah Wilkes led Morpeth's Under 13 Girls home to fifth team
place when she finished 14th of 28 in 12m20s.
Further team support came from Carley Mae Webster (16th) 12m36s
and Francesca Price, in her first competitive outing, (18th) 12m53s.
Another Morpeth runner in this event was Rachael Todd who finished 24th in 13m38s.

Alistair Douglass was Morpeth's lone Under 17 Mens runner,
and he ran excellently to finish 8th in 12m18s.

Morpeth's Senior Women finished as tenth team.
They were led home by Laura Dixon who produced
an excellent run to finish 19th of 48 finishers.
She clocked 14m52s and was second Under 20 Woman.
Team support came courtesy of Zoe Armstrong (27th) 15m15s,
and Rebecca Turnbull (35th) 15m35s.
Margaret MacDonald also ran for Morpeth in this event,
finishing in 42nd place in 16m25s.

Return To Top Of Page

Isle of Man Running Festival !
Three excellent performances saw Morpeth Harrier Sarah Graham
finish second cumulatively in the Womens events at the
Isle of Man Running Festival held over Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday.
On Good Friday she finished fourth in the Womens 10k event in 38m37s.
Sarah competed in the Peel Hill Race on Saturday where she finished third,
and she rounded it all off on Sunday when she finished third in the 5k Race in 18m25s

Fellow Morpeth Harrier Ben Harrison travelled to compete
in the Mens 10k on Good Friday where he finished 27th in
35m06s, and on Saturday he finished 24th in the Hill Race.
Those combined placings made him 22nd in the Mens section at that stage.

Return To Top Of Page

Mermaid 10k Road Race !
Morpeth Harrier Terry Wall finished fourth in the Mermaid 10k Road Race
held in Marske, Cleveland on Good Friday.
Terry clocked 34m13s, which put him just over a minute adrift
of race winner Patrick Martin of Sunderland Harriers.

Return To Top Of Page

Little Strickland 10mile Road Race !
Ben Harrison of Morpeth Harriers won the Little Strickland 10mile Road Race
held in in Penrith on Sunday 16th March in 58m56s.

Return To Top Of Page

Inter Counties Cross Country Championships !
Three Morpeth Harriers played their part in a superb
Senior Mens Team victory by the North Eastern Counties at the
Inter Counties Cross Country Championships held at
Wollaton Park, Nottingham on Saturday 15th March.

Ian Hudspith finished an excellent ninth to lead the squad home,
and he was well supported by club colleagues Lewis Timmins
and Nick Swinburn who were second and sixth counters in
sixteenth and forty eighth places respectively.
Hudspith was always up with the leaders, and the fact that he was only
just under forty seconds away from an individual medal amongst younger
opposition is pure testimony to an excellent performance.

It was also a particularly fruitfull day for Timmins, as he had to make
the journey from his base in America to compete.
He had contacted Team Boss Steve O'Gara several weeks before,
declaring an interest to run, and that he was in excellent form,
and he more than repaid the faith shown him by turning in this performance.

For Swinburn's part, it was again an excellent performance amongst older athletes,
and again repaid the faith shown in him after his superb English National last month.
Although a non scorer, Morpeth's Mark Brown ran competitively to finish in 115th place.

The North East were very unlucky to lose out in very close
team finishes in the Senior Womens and Under 15 Boys events.
In both cases they finished fourth, and only 24 and 15 points adrift respectively.

Morpeth's Jane Mooney, who unfortunately missed
the English National due to illness ran well to finish as fourth
counter in 78th place for the Senior Womens squad.
One place ahead of her was her club colleague Delyth James,
who had managed to gain a "wild card" entry as an individual from the organisers.
These were both excellent performances in a total field of 254 finishers.

Marcus Cram of Morpeth gave an excellent performance in the
Under 15 Boys event to finish as second counter for
the North East in nineteenth place of 281 finishers.

Morpeth's Marc Cochrane repaid the faith of the selectors
to finish as fourth counter in 91st place for a North East
Junior Mens squad that finished in tenth team place.

Another North East squad that finished tenth were the Under 13 Boys,
and three Morpeth Harriers played their parts excellently.
Superb runs by Jonny Nisbet and North East Champion
Adam Harrington saw them finish in 35th and 37th places
respectively and only a second apart in the final run in
that saw them as first and second counters.
Lewis Coyle produced an excellent performance to come
home as fourth counter in 80th place out of 298 finishers.
Eighth and final finisher for the North East
was Jack Hepple who placed 181st.

Morpeths Rachel Denton led the North East's Under 15 Girls squad
home to 13th team place when finishing 58th in a field of 274 finishers.
Clubmate and training partner Hannah Rank was
a non scorer as fifth from the region in 95th place.

The North East's Under 17 Womens squad who were hit by the loss of
former Inter Counties Champion Laura Weightman,
finished in sixteenth team place.

Natalie Young of Morpeth produced a superb performance to come
home as second counter in 70th place out of 240 finishers.

Although a non scorer, Morpeth's Jordan Scott answered his late
call up to the North East's Under 17 Mens squad by finishing 145th of 258 finishers.

Morpeth's Laura Dixon finished 111th in the Junior Womens event.

Its thought that the North East Counties may have won
the overall trophy by completing as a prominent team
in all of the ten events to count in the competition.

Return To Top Of Page

Ackworth Half Marathon !
Five Morpeth Harriers took part in the Ackworth Half Marathon on Sunday 16th March.
Paul Waterston was first home for the club in 17th place in 75m32s.
He was third in the Over 40 Veteran category.
Mike Winter finished 77th in 84m50s and Ian Corner was 100th in 87m13s.
The combination of Waterston, Winter and Corner gave
Morpeth Harriers 11th place in the Mens Team Race.

Other Morpeth results were
Steve McDonald (266th) 99m58s
and Pam Woodcock (326th) 103m59s.
Pam's placing made her first in the Over 55 Ladies section.

Return To Top Of Page

BUSA Indoor Athletics Championships !
Morpeths Jonathan Taylor took a Bronze medal in the 3000m
at the BUSA Indoor Athletics Championships in
Sheffield on Sunday 16th March.
He was just outside his personal best with 8m34.44s.
The race was won by fellow Teessider
Ricky Stevenson who clocked 8m30.89s.

Morpeths Jonathan Young finished ninth in the 1500m.
Jonathan clocked 4m03.50s.

Return To Top Of Page

New President For The Club !
At the clubs AGM held at Morpeth Rugby Club on Tuesday 11th March,
Club President Ernie Slaughter announced that he was
standing down from office after 23 years at the helm.
Ernie, who is the longest serving member of the club,
having joined as a prominent youth in 1947,
not long after the clubs formation, felt that the time was right for
someone younger to come in, and he would welcome the opportunity to
take a back seat after years of what all those present agreed was excellent service.

He was honoured however to accept the title of Honorary President,
and went on to say he would keep a watchfull eye on things,
and hoped that the club would continue to gain success,
he was a very proud man and praised the work of his fellow officers
and the coaches at the club who had continued to persevere through difficult times.

The man elected to step into Ernie's shoes was former
Commonwealth Games Marathon Champion
and long time Club stalwart Jim Alder MBE.
This is much deserved after the devotion and hard work
he has put in over many years to both promote and bring
success not only to his club, but also the town of Morpeth.

Return To Top Of Page

Trafford 10k
A superb run of 31m40s saw Morpeth Harrier Nick Swinburn
finish as first Junior Man in the Trafford 10k road race
held at Partington in Manchester on Sunday 9th March.
Swinburn finished in 16th place overall and was nearly
a minute clear of his nearest Junior rival.

Return To Top Of Page

World Indoor Championships
Luckless Morpeth Harrier Nick McCormick just missed out on a place
in the final of the Mens 3000m at the World Indoor Championships,
held in Valencia, Spain on Saturday 8th March.
Despite clocking a faster time than the winner of the slower of the two qualifying heats,
McCormick could only finish ninth in 8m00.01s, which meant the eight in front of him,
including four fastest losers, went through, and the first four
in the slower heat went through as of right.
One of those four in the slower heat was fellow Brit Mo Farah,
who finished third in 8m04.65s.

Return To Top Of Page

English Schools Cross Country Championships
Eleven Morpeth Harriers competed for Northumberland at the
English Schools Cross Country Championships held at
Sefton Park, Liverpool on Saturday 8th March.

On a day when the county certainly underperformed,
there was brightness in the individual performance of Rachel Denton,
and the best team performance being achieved by
the Intermediate Boys who finished eleventh.

In Denton's case she ran very competitively to come home in 24th place
and led Northumberland's Junior Girls home to 22nd team place.
Other Morpeth Harriers amongst the counters in this age group
were Hannah Rank (135th) and Rachael Steel (225th),
who were third and sixth for the county.

The Intermediate Boys were helped in their eleventh placed effort by
Morpeth's Alistair Douglass, who in finishing 139th was fifth counter.

Although Laura Weightman's form is still a worrying factor,
she managed to lead Northumberland's Senior Girls home to
20th team place with her individual placing of 22nd.
A lack of regular racing this winter did not daunt Natalie Young
when she came home as third counter in 101st place.

Northumberland's Intermediate Girls finished in 22nd team place
and were helped by Morpeth's Claire Pitt (187th) (4th counter)
and Zoe Armstrong (218th) (6th counter)
Although not a counter Deborah Oakley
competed well to finish in 236th place.

Northumberland's Junior Boys finished in 25th team place with
Morpeth's Jonny Nisbet being their fifth counter in 161st place.

Jordan Scott of Morpeth was second counter for
the Senior Boys who finished in 30th team place.
His individual placing was 145th.

Recent rain had made the Sefton Park course a little tricky in places,
with tightness of space also being experienced in several cases by athletes.

Return To Top Of Page

City of Salisbury 10mile Road Race
Morpeths Andrew Lawrence clocked a new personal
best time of 56m44s when finishing fifth in the
City of Salisbury 10mile Road Race on Sunday 9th March.

Return To Top Of Page

Scottish Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships
Competing in the Boys 15 to 17 year age group, Morpeth Harrier Marcus Cram
led his Fettes College of Edinburgh team - mates to fourth team place in the
Scottish Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships held in Irvine on Saturday 8th March.
Marcus finished eighth and was thirteen seconds adrift of a Bronze medal.

Return To Top Of Page

Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League ( 6 )
The final Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League fixture
held at Prudhoe on Saturday 1st March, saw Morpeth Harriers
round off their season by clinching team success in the
Senior Mens and Under 13 Boys sections, and Mark Brown,
Adam Harrington and Deborah Oakley all won best performance awards.
Brown confirmed his individual success in the strong wind on Saturday
by coming home in eighth place from the Fast Pack,
easily recording the fastest time of the day,
and leading Morpeth Harriers to fourth team place,
and first from Division 2, which confirmed their divisional victory
and promoted them to Division 1 next term.

Further team support for Morpeth came from excellent runs by
Alistair MacDonald (10th) (Slow Pack)
David Steel (32nd) (Medium Pack)
Mike Winter (42nd) (Slow Pack)
Jim Alder (54th) (Slow Pack)
and John Woods (83rd) (Medium Pack)

Morpeth's Under 13 Boys also confirmed themselves as
League champions by finishing third on the day,
and their leading finisher Jonny Nisbet also grabbed himself
a piece of the action by producing a superb run from
the Fast Pack to finish second, which in turn gave him a Silver Medal
for his individual performances for the season,
only beaten by clubmate Adam Harrington,
who missed Saturday's race to prepare for a school Skiing trip.

Nisbet was supported in Saturday's team effort by
Ryan Dodds (7th) (Slow Pack) and Ben Steel (21st) (Slow Pack)

Deborah Oakley ran excellently to finish third from the Fast Pack
in the combined Under 17 and Under 20 Womens event,
and confirmed herself as the seasons best performer for the age group.
Morpeth also finished as third team for the season behind Houghton and Gateshead.

Morpeth's Jordan Scott was second fastest on the day when
he finished fifth from the Fast Pack in the Under 17 Mens event.

In the Under 15 Boys event Philip Shuttleworth finished eighth from the Fast Pack.

Sarah Wilkes of Morpeth ran superbly to finish in fourth place
from the Slow Pack in the Under 13 Girls event.

In the Under 15 Girls event Rachel Steel also produced an
excellent run to finish in fourth place from the Fast Pack.

Margaret MacDonald finished 47th from the
Slow Pack in the Senior Womens event.

Return To Top Of Page

Reading Half Marathon !
Morpeth Harrier Ian Hudspith finished ninth in the Asics sponsored
Reading Half Marathon on Sunday 2nd March in a time of 66m26s.

Return To Top Of Page

Scottish Indoor Senior Track & Field Championships
Bronze medal success came to Morpeth Harrier Claire Reid in the Womens Shot Putt
at the Scottish Indoor Senior Track and Field Championships,
held at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall at the weekend (1st and 2nd March.)
Claire produced a best of 11.18m, which was actually only a centimetre adrift
of the Silver medal which was claimed by Birtley's Stephanie Hopkinson.
The event was won by Shaftesbury's Kirsty Law with a best of 12.22m.

Return To Top Of Page

Mid Lancs Cross Country League
Morpeths Ben Harrison finished 26th
in the Senior Mens event at the
Mid Lancs Cross Country League meeting held at
Witton Park, Blackburn on Saturday 1st March.

Return To Top Of Page

February

News From February 2008

British Veterans Indoor Championships
Morpeth Harrier Archie Jenkins finished second in the
Over 55 Mens 3000m at the British Veterans Indoor Championships
at Lee Valley on February 23rd in a time of 10m28.68s.

Return To Top Of Page

2008 English National XC Championships
In terms of individual performance, Adam Harrington's placing
of seventh in the Under 13 Boys event at the Saucony sponsored
English National Cross Country Championships,
held at Alton Towers in Staffordshire on Saturday 23rd February,
was the most outstanding from any Morpeth Harrier on the day.

The North East Champion went off strongly from the gun,
and held himself prominently throughout, and was only a
mere eight seconds adrift of a Silver medal at the finish line.
Northern Champion Fergus Roberts of Richmond and Zetland
had stolen well away to claim another Gold Medal victory.

Morpeth Harriers finished eighth in the team competition in this event
with Harrington's excellent run being well supported by Jonny Nisbet (26th)
Jack Hepple (84th) and Reece Ramsey (157th).

The best team effort for Morpeth came in the Junior Mens event where
they finished fourth and only fourteen points adrift of Bronze medal placing.
Nick Swinburn ran solidly throughout the three medium sized lap
event trying to hold onto a top fifteen place,
and was up against a lot of strong opposition.
However he stuck to the task in hand and finished in a well accomplished tenth place,
and had he not run out of ground, could possibly have clinched a top six placing.
Swinburn led the Morpeth squad home with further support coming from
Jonathan Taylor, Ross Floyd and a return to action man, Jonathan Young.
Taylor was quite evidently disappointed with his finishing of 21st
after being well up in the top five on lap one.
He suffered badly for pace on the second lap following a torturous hill section,
which was quite extraordinary considering his good form this winter.
Floyd was another who was going well until a bilious attack got the better
of him in the later stages and he slipped to a finishing place of 60th.

Having been out with injury and illness for most of this winter,
forced Jonathan Young to show some caution, however he ran with
a lot of determination to finish and complete the Morpeth scoring quartet.

Sixth team place against some strong opposition was a
good result for Morpeth's Under 17 Women.
Despite another slightly jaded performance by her own standards,
Laura Weightman led the Morpeth quartet home by finishing in seventeenth place.
Second counter home was Natalie Young, who like brother Jonathan,
was making a competitive comeback after a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
Natalie finished in 60th place.
Third counter was Zoe Armstrong, who had begun strongly,
but slipped a little in the later stages to eventually finish 92nd.
The scoring count was completed by Deborah Oakley who finished 103rd.

Morpeth Harriers Under 15 Girls finished as 16th team.
They were led home by Rachel Denton who finished in 25th place.
Hannah Rank was second counter in 79th place.
The Morpeth team counts here were completed by
Ailsa McGregor (183rd) and Catriona MacDonald (258th).

A bit of in house competing between Karl Taylor and Jordan Scott
led Morpeth's Under 17 Mens squad home to 21st team place.
After Scott had gone slightly ahead of Taylor at the end of the first lap,
Taylor chased him home and caught him just ahead of the finish line
to finish in 83rd place, with Scott finishing in 85th spot.
The scoring counts were completed by Alistair Douglass (96th)
and Daniel Hedley who finished 290th.

Morpeth Harriers Senior Womens hopes were dealt a heavy blow
on the journey down when Jane Mooney fell ill and only made it as far
as Washington Services on the A1 before having to return.
However they held their resolve to finish as 23rd team.
They were led home with an excellent run being
had by Sarah Graham who finished 68th.
Aiveen Fox struggled on the second lap and came home in 86th place.
The scoring counts were completed by Gwenda Cavill (221st)
and Michelle Muller (284th).

On a note of credibility, Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Girls squad
performed excellently to finish as 35th team.
Bearing in mind all of this squad are in the first year of their age group,
and will all be eligible to compete at the same level again next year,
their performance holds a great deal of promise for the future.
They were led home by the "mighty atom" tactics of tiny Sarah Wilkes,
who battled the tough natured course to finish in 229th place.
Excellent further support came from Adele Stewart (240th)
Stephanie Purvis (289th) and Eve Shashova (310th).

Back to individual performance, and Marcus Cram produced
a sound run to finish 28th in the Under 15 Boys event.
Unfortunately Morpeth could not close as a team in this event,
and other club finishers were Tom Brookes (292nd)
and an injured Philip Shuttleworth (330th).

In the Junior Womens event Morpeth's lone runner
was Laura Dixon who finished 99th.

Morpeth Harriers force at Senior Mens level appears to have
diminished somewhat at present, and this was clearly shown in the fact
that on this occasion they could only muster two finishers.
Ben Harrison finished in 254th place, and Paul Waterston,
despite his 22mile Road Race the previous week,
stuck it out during the three long lap affair to finish in 332nd place.

Return To Top Of Page

Delyth Gets Bronze And Gold
Morpeths Delyth James produced her best run of the Winter
when she finished third in the Senior Womens event at the
Welsh Cross Country Championships, held in Singleton Park,
Swansea on Sunday 24th February.
That run not only brought her the Bronze medal,
it also brought her Gold as being the first of six
Under 23 athletes competing within the Senior event.
Delyth was also only three seconds adrift of second place overall.

Return To Top Of Page

Good News For Nick McCormick
Good news, for Morpeth Harrier Nick McCormick, who has now
been added to the Great Britain and Northern Ireland squad for the
forthcoming World Indoor Athletics Championships in Valencia, Spain.
McCormick will compete in the 3000m alongside fellow
Brit Mo Farah the current European 5000m Silver medallist.

Return To Top Of Page

2007/2008 Border Winter Cross Country Series
Three young Morpeth Harriers have been achieving success in the
2007/2008 Winter Cross Country Series run in the Scottish Borders.
Over a series of six events that took place in Norham, Dunbar,
Galashiels, Peebles, Spittal and Lauder,
Sarah Wilkes, Steph Purvis and Eve Shashova overcame the challenge
of 34 other competitors in total in the Under12 Girls age group to
finish first, second and third respectively in the series.
The events took place between November 2007 and February 2008.

Return To Top Of Page

2008 Vets Grand Prix
THE TOP 3 MEN FOR 2007 WERE
1. Paul Waterston
2. Richard Driscoll
3. Gordon Dixon

THE TOP 3 WOMEN FOR 2007 WERE
1. Sue Calvert
2. Michelle Woodley
3. Jane Blackett

Return To Top Of Page

Flashlight Films
Morpeth Harrier Ian Brown has started up his own film company
called Flashlight Films, click on the link below.
Find out more.......

Return To Top Of Page

Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League ( 5 )
There were a number of confidence boosting performances generated
around the Morpeth Harriers camp in preparation for this weekends
English National Cross Country Championships, at the fifth and penultimate
Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League meeting held at Cardinal Hume School,
Wrekenton, Gateshead on Saturday 16th February.

One most noteable was that of the outstanding performance by Deborah Oakley
who won the combined Under 17/Under 20 Womens event from the Fast Pack
by an excellent twenty six second margin over Tynedale Harrier
Megan Lewis who had led her for a portion of the way.
She had also managed to overhaul long term leader Hannah Nagel of Chester Le Street,
who had the advantage of a 160 second start from the Slow Pack.
Once Oakley had got away from Lewis and got past Nagel on the second lap,
there was no catching heras she stole to the finish line.

This victory, added to her previous Harrier League performances
this season, puts her firmly in line for the best overall performance
of the season in the Under 17/Under 20 Womens age group,
with only Blaydon's Helen Girtig posing a major threat.

Another Morpeth Harrier firmly in line for an overall performance
of the season award in the Harrier League is Adam Harrington.
There was just no stopping the North Eastern Counties Under 13 Champion
as he fought his way through to second place from the Fast Pack, losing out
for overall victory to Luca Irvine of Sunderland Harriers by a margin of
twenty two seconds after giving away eighty seconds handicap at the start.

Harrington's clocking was fourteen seconds faster than his closest rival,
which just happened to be his Morpeth Harriers clubmate and
North Eastern Silver medallist Jonny Nisbet,
who in finishing seventh just behind another Morpeth athlete Liam Brooks,
closed a winning team score for Morpeth.
That was a superb start for Brooks, who was having his first competitive
run for the club, and that team win puts Morpeth very much in pole position
in the team competition in the Under 13 Boys, with one fixture remaining.

Two other excellent Morpeth runs, although not team counters,
were that of Jack Hepple who was third fastest on the day,
finishing seventh running from the Fast Pack, and Joe Robertshaw,
who has been extremely successfull at Indoor sprints of late,
who showed his versatility, and passion for his clubs cause
to finish eighth, running from the Slow Pack.

Karl Taylor looks to have found better form in time for the
forthcoming National and Inter Counties Championships,
judging from his run in the Under 17 Mens event.
Running from the Fast Pack, he drew on all his resources to
battle his way to finish fourth, and led Morpeth to second team place
with good supporting runs coming from Jordan Scott and
Alistair Douglass who finished eighth and fourteenth respectively from the Fast Pack.

A fairly mediocre Senior Mens turnout by Morpeth meant that they
finished fourth on the day in the Division 2 team battle.
They had to look to sixty fifth place overall to find their
first counter in Mike Winter from the Slow Pack.
Further counts came from
Robert Balmbra (69th) (Fast Pack)
Phil Walker (72nd) (Fast Pack)
Richard Driscoll (102nd) (Slow Pack)
Jim Alder (108th) (Slow Pack)
and Ian Corner (115th) (Slow Pack)

In the Senior Womens event Morpeth only fielded two competitors.
Claire Bruce finished twenty second from the Slow Pack
and Gwenda Cavill finished in thirty eighth spot from the Fast Pack.

Rachel Todd and Ailidh McCallister-Williams finished
thirtieth and thirty seventh respectively in the
Under 13 Girls event running from the Slow Pack.

Return To Top Of Page

PB For Nick McCormick
Morpeths Nick McCormick ran a personal best of 8m26.44s,
to finish seventh in the Mens 2 Mile event won by Ethiopia's
Kenenisa Bekele in a new World Record time of 8m04.35s
at the televised Norwich Union Grand Prix Indoor meeting held at
Birmingham's National Indoor Arena on Saturday 16th February.
McCormick now awaits to see if his time at 3000m has done enough
to satisfy Great Britain selectors to include him in
the team for that distance the World Indoor Championships
to be held in Valencia, Spain over 7th, 8th and 9th March.

Return To Top Of Page

Buttermere 22mile Road Race !
Morpeth Harriers Paul Waterston and Gordon Dixon
travelled to Cumbriaon Sunday 17th February to compete
in the very tough and hilly Buttermere 22mile Road Race
which encompassed the steep climb up the notorious Honister Pass.
Paul finished 3rd in 2hrs17m40s and was the first Over 40 Veteran Man.
Gordon finished 6th in 2hrs20m44s and won the Over 45 Veteran Mens section.

Return To Top Of Page

Radcliffe 12mile Trail Race !
Another distance traveller from Morpeth Harriers was Ian Corner who competed
in the Radcliffe 12mile Trail Race in Manchester on Sunday 17th February.
He finished in 52nd place and was 8th Over 40 Veteran Man
in a time of 1hr26m43s on a very tough Multi Terrain course.

Return To Top Of Page

Liversedge Half Marathon !
Michelle Woodley of Morpeth Harriers ran in the Liversedge Half Marathon
held in Roberttown, West Yorks on Sunday 10th February.
She placed 64th overall in 95m10s, and was 6th Female to finish,
which also placed her second in the Over 35 Veteran Ladies section.

Return To Top Of Page

Craig McBurney Becomes A Captain !
Morpeths Craig McBurney has had to put his
athletics career on the back-burner in recent years.
But it has all been worthwhile, as the professional soldier
is being given a commission as a captain next month.

Twenty-three years ago McBurney, a street-wise Teessider,
walked into the Army Careers Office and said:
“I’m 16-and-a-half and I want to become an infantryman.”

Now, at the age of 39, that career is being extended as he becomes a captain,
a role which will see him add a further 15 years to his Army life.

It wasn’t until McBurney was in his early 20s that he became interested in running,
which was around the time when he was being beaten by his fellow soldiers.

“I thought to myself, these guys shouldn’t be beating me,” said McBurney,
whose love of his Army career comes over loud and clear.

“I got myself into decent shape and, being a Saltburn lad,
decided to enter the Loftus Poultry Run one Christmas.

“That was the start. I loved running and was asked
to join the Loftus club by Peter Clifford,
and things started to take off from there.

“In the end, Peter thought I would be better off if I joined Morpeth,
so he got in touch with Jim Alder to see if he would give me some guidance.

“Jim’s input was immediate. My training improved, my times improved
and it was at the time when Morpeth had a cracking group of lads.

“They still do, but at that time they were winning everything
and I was pleased to be part of the success.

“I was in the team which finished third in the National 12-stage road relay,
which was the first time Morpeth had ever appeared among the medals.

“It was exciting times for me, as far as my athletics was concerned.

“I ran my one-and-only marathon and clocked 2 hours 25 minutes
in London in 2000 – and in the same year became
Combined Services 5,000m champion,
a victory which made me extremely proud.

“Even though running has taken a back seat at the moment,
I still yearn to get back into it before I hit 40.

“Peter, and Jim especially, had a great influence on my running.
We are still great friends and it is him who I give credit
to when I represented the Army in competition.”

McBurney’s running days eased to a standstill as he worked hard at his career,
which resulted in more and more time being spent abroad.

However, he still managed to finish runner-up to Dominic Bannister
in the Morpeth to Newcastle road race in 2002 –
a result that had Alder near to hysterics –
and is happy that he had the chance to give athletics a go,
but is adamant that he wouldn’t change anything if
given the opportunity came around again.

“As I said earlier, I love running but the Army has given me
a special bond that cannot be equalled in any other profession.

“It is a surrogate family in many ways. The people who you go through
training with tend to stick together and this builds a camaraderie
that lasts through the bad times as well as the good.

“I must have, in my 23 years, been everywhere the
British Army has a posting – Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Jordan,
USA and Canada, Germany, and of course, the latest being Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The Army has been great for me and I would encourage any young man
to think about joining as I did all those years ago.
There’s a special bond, and it certainly makes a man of you !”

McBurney is one of the very few men who have come
through the ranks from private to, as of next month,
gaining a commission as captain.

“It is a great honour to be commissioned by the Army.
Over the years I have gained six promotions to my current RSM
(Regimental Sergeant Major).

“I have been told it is only around 10% of soldiers
get to the stage I am at with my career.

“What really matters to me is that, even after all this time,
I still enjoy the life of a soldier, and this commission gives me
an extended run which should take me up until I’m 55.”

Before time runs out though, perhaps the globetrotting infantryman
could just make it into Morpeth’s 12-man relay team one more time.

His last outing in a blue-and-white Morpeth vest was two years ago
when, despite being anything but fit, he rallied to a late call to make it to Manchester.

McBurney is not just a credit to the Army but also to the sport he
came to enjoy whilst learning his trade over the last 23 years !

This article courtesy of Bill McGuirk appeared
in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle on 7/2/08

Return To Top Of Page

Laura Weightman On Camp with Kelly !
Morpeths Laura Weightman has been chosen to join
double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes’ exclusive
monitoring initiative for young female middle distance runners.

Laura will join the Norwich Union-supported On Camp with Kelly,
after impressing Dame Kelly at a strenuous selection day
at the UK Athletics High Performance Centre in Birmingham.

She was one of 13 athletes aged between 15 and 19 who
were selected after coming through various tasks, including
determination tests, team challenges and a session on goal setting.

Laura was also assessed on her attitude, determination and
willpower by Dame Kelly with the assistance of On Camp
with Kelly staff and representatives from UK Athletics.

Though the competition for places was gruelling,
it is no surprise to see Laura make it through.

Her athletic performances over the past 12 months stand out,
with her being the current English Schools’ intermediate 1,500m champion.

Laura, coached by Morpeth Harriers Club Secretary Mike Bateman,
with a great deal of input coming also from the
Club's Head of Coaching Tony Ward,
also won the 1,500m at the UK School Games.

To show she is equally at home racing on the country,
Laura recently landed the Northumberland Schools’ title.

16-year-old, Laura will now attend a Norwich Union-funded
On Camp with Kelly Educational Camp at
Loughborough University for 10 days from April 1-10 where she
will learn all about what it takes to become a world- class athlete.

After successfully completing the camp, she will become a full member
of the OCWK and will be able to benefit from regular get-togethers,
exhibition races, financial and medical support
and mentoring from Dame Kelly herself.

The Olympic 800m and 1,500m champion,
who started the OCWK ball rolling in 2004,
said: “I was very impressed by the performances of Laura
at the Selection Day and am delighted to welcome her to On Camp with Kelly.

“There is no doubt Laura is a very talented young athlete
and I hope that being involved with OCWK will help ther to
develop her athletics career and to achieve her full potential.”

Tanya Veingard, Head of Sponsorship at Norwich Union,
added: “As the team behind UK Athletics we are proud to
be able to offer support for all levels of athletics,
from grassroots through to elite.

“Our support for On Camp with Kelly helps to nurture and develop
talented girls into world-class athletes that Britain can be proud of
and we are delighted to be making it easier for Laura to achieve her dreams.”

Morpeth Harriers sincerely wish Laura all the best on this
latest venture, for which she has worked hard and long to achieve.

Adapted from an article that appeared in the
Newcastle Evening Chronicle on 14/02/08,
and written by Bill McGuirk

Return To Top Of Page

Royal Signals Road Relays !
Only eight seconds divided the top three clubs in the Senior Mens event
at the North Eastern Counties Royal Signals Road Relay Championships
held at Watergate Park, Lobley Hill, Gateshead on Saturday 9th February.

It had been a three horse race for five of the six legs with Morpeth Harriers,
Sunderland Harriers and New Marske dominating the proceedings.

After Gosforth's incomplete team had led on leg one through Matt Nicholson,
and Morpeth Harriers lay in fifth place courtesy of Ross Floyd (10m22s)
it was Morpeth who shot into an excellent lead, courtesy of a superb third fastest effort
of 9m39s, over the 3.2k multi terrain circuit within the Nature Park, by Jonny Taylor.

However Morpeth found themselves undone on third leg, despite inexperienced
Under 17 athlete Jordan Scott giving of his best with 11m17s they slipped to third,
with New Marske going into second, and Sunderland Harriers going into an excellent
lead courtesy of the Veteran talents of Brian Rushworth.

So at halfway it was Sunderland Harriers in pole position with a
twenty six second lead over New Marske and Morpeth Harriers
a further twenty four seconds adrift in third place.
These three were now well clear of any opposition, and each club had
at least another couple of aces in their pack.

Sunderland were the first to play one of those aces as Mark Hood
clocked the fifth fastest time of 9m59s to maintain their lead which had extended to 58 seconds.
Things had changed in second place however as Morpeth had now headed New Marske
to the tune of nineteen seconds courtesy of Chris Sampson's excellent seventh fastest 10m07s.

However there was a dramatic turn of events on Leg Five,
as New Marske's Ricky Stevenson tore into Sunderland's lead by
clocking what was to be the days fastest time of 9m29s to eventually
hit the changeover line at exactly the same time as the Wearsiders,
with Morpeth slipping back into third place, despite Under 20 athlete
Robert Balmbra's enthusiastic 10m44s,
which saw him finish fifty six seconds adrift of the leaders.

Morpeth Harriers final leg runner Ian Hudspith certainly put that lead under threat,
as he clocked the second fastest time of the day of 9m36s,
but had to settle for third place, and just missing out to
second place Sunderland Harriers by a mere six seconds,
with winners New Marske just two seconds further ahead.

It certainly made for the most exciting finish to the Senior event for many years,
and Morpeth Team boss David Swinburne commented,
"that the inexperienced lads had performed well, and had got some well
deserved first Senior medals, however if the club had managed to field
one more of their big guns they would have tasted victory".

An Incomplete Morpeth Harriers B team were in 22nd place
after three legs courtesy of Richard Driscoll (12m19s)
Chris Bradley (13m53s) and Paul Fairbrother (13m24s)

The Veteran Mens Relay also provided a close finish where Sunderland Harriers
just pipped Morpeth Harriers by eleven seconds with Elswick Harriers
a further eighteen seconds adrift in third place.

Morpeth Harriers got off to an excellent start with Paul Waterston
finishing in second place behind North Shields Poly and only two seconds adrift.

However they slipped back to fifth on second leg where Gordon Dixon clocked 11m57s.

Things looked better on Leg three where Les Atkinson's eighth
fastest time of 11m01s saw them rise back up to third.

So at halfway they were nine seconds adrift of second placed Sunderland Harriers,
and a further thirteen seconds adrift of then leaders Elswick.

Fourth leg saw yet another change with Elswick relinquishing the lead to
Sunderland as they slipped to third, and North Shields Poly came into the picture
as they finished second and Morpeth slipped to fourth with Ian Corner
running in his first ever Championship clocking 11m53s.

Fifth leg saw yet another dramatic twist, as Phil Walker grabbed
a superb lead of thirty eight seconds over Sunderland by clocking
the fastest Veteran Mens time of the day of 10m42s.

This left Morpeth's final leg runner Gavin Bayne with the toughest
of battles to hold off the tenacious Paul Merrison of Sunderland.
Gavin gave the occasion every effort he could muster with his clocking of 11m45s,
however just lost out in the final stages as the faster and younger Merrison stole the advantage.

It was an excellent result for Morpeth however with Walker and Corner
picking up their first Championship medals in the form of Silver,
and extra special for Walker having just become a father for the second time.

Silver medals also came the way of the Morpeth Harriers Womens team.
Chester Le Street A team set off on Leg One fully intent on retaining their title
and immediately established a fourteen second lead over their B team,
with Morpeth lying third, a further seven seconds adrift courtesy of Aiveen Fox's
sixth fastest overall clocking of 11m42s.

Unfortunately Morpeth's second leg runner Sarah Graham drifted
a little as she struggled home in a disappointing 12m24s,
which she admitted later was a result of still carrying tiredness in her legs
following the BUSA Championships in Swansea the previous week.

Third leg runner Jane Mooney still couldn't eat into second placed
Chester Le Street B's leading margin despite a solid performance of 11m45s.

With Chester Le Street A now uncatchable, it was down to the youth
of Laura Weightman on Leg Four for Morpeth, against the Veteran experience
of Heather Robinson to destroy the Cestria dominance.
Heather was fifteen seconds up on Laura as they both left the change over
area and Chester Le Street A now had an unassailable seventy second lead.
That lead increased courtesy of Maxine Czarnecka's third fastest 11m33s,
however Laura's powerful eighth equal fastest 11m45s eventually won the
Silver for Morpeth by a margin of fifty three seconds.

Morpeth Harriers Womens B team finished a creditable seventh.
as second B team. courtesy of Claire Bruce (14m43s)
Kate Chapman (12m42s), M.Muller (14m14s)
and Gwenda Cavill (13m04s)

Return To Top Of Page

Norwich Union World Indoor Trials and UK Championships !
It was at last back to winning ways for Morpeth Harrier
Nick McCormick on Saturday 9th February,
at the first day of the Norwich Union World Indoor Trials
and UK Championships held in Sheffield.

Although his victory in the Mens 3000m declares him UK Champion,
his winning time of 8m16.73s was below the British Indoor Standard,
and well adrift of the World Standard of 7m54s.
He will undoubtedly need to find another and much faster qualifying race
if he is to make it to the World Championships in Valencia.
However on a positive note it was a victory for McCormick,
a victory that he hopes to quickly build on

Return To Top Of Page

Llandudno Nick Beer 10k !
Running in the colours of Bangor University,
Morpeths Nick Swinburn won the Nick Beer 10k
in Llandudno on Sunday 10th Februaryin an excellent 32m01s.
He ran clear of his nearest rival to create
a winning margin of over a minute.

Return To Top Of Page

Scottish Masters Cross Country Championships !
Morpeth Harrier Archie Jenkins tasted success in the
Scottish Masters Cross Country Championships in Irvine
when he placed 61st overall and was second in the Over 55 Male age group.

Return To Top Of Page

Congratulations !
Congratulations to Mark Brown and Phil Walker who have both
become fathers, for first time father Mark, its a baby girl
and for Phil his second, its a baby boy.
Mothers and Babies are doing well.

Return To Top Of Page

Jarrow Indoor Meeting !
At the Jarrow Indoor Meeting held on Thursday 7th February
Morpeth Harrier Joe Robertshaw won the Under 13 Boys 60m in 8.7s
after earlier winning his heat in 8.8s .

Return To Top Of Page

Northern Inter Counties Schools XC Championships !
Although Northumberland could only manage one outright team victory
at the Northern Inter Counties Schools Cross Country Championships
held at Acklam Grange School in Cleveland,
on Saturday 2nd February there were a number of good individual
performances from athletes connected with Morpeth Harriers.

This was the last stage of competition that would give selectors
their chance to view who were going to make it on the team bus
for the English Schools Championships,
due to be held at Sefton Park in Liverpool in March.

Pride of place in those performances must go to Dame Allan's pupil
Rachel Denton who claimed an outstanding victory in the Junior Girls
event by showing a clean pair of heels to her nearest rival
by a margin of nineteen seconds.
The result in this event, where Northumberland finished as third team,
reflected well on Morpeth Harriers, as Denton was obviously leading counter,
her clubmates Hannah Rank (7th) and Rachael Steel (17th)
finished as second and third counters.
Other Morpeth Harriers competing in this event were
Ailsa McGregor (31st) (8th counter)
and Steph Courty (39th) (11th counter) Denton, Rank and Steel, should all be on the
Northumberland team bus for Liverpool.

Another Morpeth Harrier who secured his spot for Liverpool was Jordan Scott,
who can feel well pleased with his effort to finish fourth in the Senior Boys event,
and led Northumberland home to third team place.
His club colleague Martyn Cairns came home in 23rd place as sixth counter.

Running against older boys in the Junior event, did not prevent
North Eastern Counties Under 13 Boys Cross Country Champion
Adam Harrington turning on the finest of performances
to finish in twelfth place as second counter for a
Northumberland squad that narrowly missed out on victory
to North Yorkshire by the margin of two points.
Sixth counter for the county was Harrington's club colleague
Jonny Nisbet who competed well to finish in 18th place.
Eighth counter was Jack Hepple of Morpeth who was 26th overall.

Another excellent Morpeth performer was Alistair Douglass
who came home as third counter in seventh place for a
Northumberland squad that finished second to Durham.

The Preliminary Boys event saw Morpeth Harriers Reece Ramsay
and Ryan Dodds finish ninth and thirty sixth respectively.

Northumberland's only team victory came in the Senior Girls
where Morpeth's Natalie Young finished as fourth counter in ninth place.
Eighth counter and a non scorer was her club colleague
Laura Dixon who finished 18th overall.

The Intermediate Girls event saw Morpeth's Zoe Armstrong finish as
fourth counter for Northumberland in twelfth place overall.
There was a strong presense of Morpeth athletes in this event
with Armstrong being accompanied by Claire Pitt (18th) (7th counter)
Deborah Oakley (20th) (9th counter), Stevie Goodfellow (39th) (11th counter)
and Louise Cairns (40th) (12th counter)
Northumberland finished as second team to Durham in this event.

Adele Stewart and Eve Shashoua of Morpeth Harriers were
fourth and fifth home respectively for a third placed
Northumberland Preliminary Girls squad when finishing in
seventeenth and nineteenth place overall.

Final team selections for the English Schools Championships
will be made known on the 17th February.

Return To Top Of Page

BUSA Cross Country Championships !
Delyth James of Morpeth Harriers was best Morpeth Harriers finisher at the
BUSA Cross Country Championships held in Swansea on Saturday 2nd February.
Representing Birmingham University she finished 21st.
A little way behind her was her club colleague Sarah Graham,
who was third counter in a sixth placed Leeds University squad,
by virtue of her placing of 52nd.

In the Mens A Race Morpeth's Nathan Shrubb, running for Durham University,
finished 64th and was second counter for his squad which finished 13th.
Ross Floyd of Morpeth and Newcastle University finished 126th
and was first home for his 31st placed squad.
In the Mens B Race, Morpeth's John Woods finished 124th
running in the colours of Durham University, for whom he was second counter.

Return To Top Of Page

Alsager 5 Road Race !
Morpeth Harrier Ben Harrison finished 73rd in the prestigious
Alsager 5 Road Race on Sunday 3rd February in a time of 28m06s.

Return To Top Of Page

January

News From January 2008

North of England Cross Country Championships !
Despite the heavy overnight winds, conditions were near perfect
for the athletes who took part in the North of England Cross Country
Championships, held at Roundhay Park, Leeds on Saturday 26th January.

Two of our athletes managed to claim themselves individual medals,
and Morpeth managed to claim one set of team medals
and came very close to a second set.
After Ricky Stevenson of New Marske dropped out
during the Junior Mens 8k event,
Morpeth's Jonny Taylor battled his way through to claim a Silver medal
and subsequently led his ambitious clubmates to team Silver.
Further support came from Nick Swinburn, who is admittedly not quite
in the form that he was at this stage of the season last year,
however he stuck to the task in hand to finish ninth,
and the third and fourth counts came from excellent runs by
Ross Floyd (18th) and Robert Balmbra (38th)
Other Morpeth athletes competing in this event were
John Woods (75th), Martyn Cairns (80th) and Gary Clark (94th)

Morpeth's North East Under 13 Boys Cross Country Champion
Adam Harrington certainly showed his full potential
when he finished third to take a Bronze medal in his 3k event.
With around 800m remaining Harrington had slipped back to fifth,
however he summoned all of his reserve on the final
steep uphill to regain a medal placing,
and only just ran out of ground to take Silver.
Harrington's individual effort very nearly spurred team Bronze for Morpeth,
as they were just sixteen points adrift of third placed Warrington.
Excellent efforts by Jack Hepple (30th), Lewis Coyle (44th)
and Reece Ramsay (62nd) were the supporting counts.
Other Morpeth efforts worthy of praise in this event were
from Jonny Anderson (79th), Ben Steel (149th) and Joe Elder (159th)

Unfortunately Morpeth's Laura Weightman experienced breathing
problems in the Under 17 Womens 4.5k event, and
was disappointed to come home in seventh place.
Morpeth finished as sixth team here with good supporting runs
coming from Zoe Armstrong (39th), Deborah Oakley (60th)
and Stevie Goodfellow (82nd)

Another Morpeth athlete to suffer breathing problems was
Marcus Cram, who was forced to slow down after being in
the top ten in the early stages of the Under 15 Boys 4k event.
He eventually slipped back to 52nd place.
Morpeth's only other runner in this event was
Philip Shuttleworth who finished 95th.

Despite having been ill in the few days leading up to the event,
Morpeth's Rachel Denton still managed to work her way
through to finish 13th in the Under 15 Girls 4k event.
Morpeth finished as eighth team with further excellent team support
coming from Hannah Rank (22nd), Rachel Steel (63rd)
and Catriona MacDonald (128th)
Louise Cairns finished two places behind Catriona.

Morpeth's Chris Sampson was first from the region in the
Senior Mens 12k where he finished an excellent 29th.
However Morpeth, with most of their big guns missing,
could only finish as fifteenth team and second from the region,
with Elswick finishing in 11th place.
Further support came from Ben Harrison (80th)
Paul Waterston (115th)
Gordon Dixon (194th)
David Steel (254th)
and Richard Driscoll (403rd)

A freak head injury sustained in an accident just prior to the event,
forced Morpeth's Karl Taylor to withdraw during the Under 17 Mens 6k.
This left the club without the scoring four which was unfortunate
because Jordan Scott and Alistair Douglass finished in
42nd and 61st places respectively,
and Daniel Hedley came home in 161st place.

Surprisingly Morpeth did not manage to field a
full scoring four in the Senior Womens 8k event.
Jane Mooney was the clubs first finisher in 33rd place,
closely followed by Aiveen Fox in 36th place.
Morpeth's other finisher was Gwenda Cavill in 114th place.

Delyth James finished ninth in the Under 20 Womens 6k event,
and her Morpeth clubmate Laura Dixon finished in 48th place.

Morpeth could not turn out a full team in the Under 13 Girls 3k event.
Steph Courty was first home for the club in 95th place,
and Carley May Webster and Sarah Wilkes
finished in 133rd and 137th places respectively.

Return To Top Of Page

Castle Morpeth Sports Council Awards !
At what could be the very last ever Castle Morpeth Sports Council Awards
ceremony. held at the Riverside Leisure Centre, on Friday 25th January.
Morpeth Harriers were honoured in two categories.

Laura Weightman was presented with the Hilder Rose Bowl
for Junior Female for both her tremendous achievements in 2007
on the Track and on the Cross Country circuit.
She had comfortably won the Northumberland Schools
Senior Girls Cross Country title, and then had recovered from
a nasty spike injury sustained in the North of England Cross
Country Championships to finish fifth in both the English Schools
and Home Countries Championships, added to that she had a superb
Track season at her favourite distance 1500m, by winning the North Eastern,
North of England, Northumberland Schools, English Schools
and International Schools titles before capping her season in great style
by retaining the UK Schools games title, the only female athlete to achieve such a feat.

The clubs Under 13 Boys Cross Country squad received certificates
of achievement for their overwhelming victory in the North Eastern Championships,
where they also had the Gold and Silver Medallists in Adam Harrington and Jonny Nisbet,
they came sixth and only fifteen seconds adrift of medals at the English Cross Country Relay Championships,
and are currently four points clear in the title race at the North Eastern Harrier League,
added to which, the aforementioned Adam Harrington
is the leading individual performer with two meetings remaining.

Return To Top Of Page

Durham Cathedral Relays !
Morpeth Harriers Senior and Veteran Mens Teams found themselves
just outside of the medals at the annual Durham Cathedral Relays
held at the Racecourse in Durham City on Sunday 20th January.

However it was a medal winning day for their Womens squad
who finished four seconds ahead of an excellent Chester Le Street squad,
with North Shields Poly a lot further behind in third spot.
It had been Chester Le Street in front during the first two legs
by Aiveen Fox (10m19s) and Jane Mooney (10m14s)
and when Under 17 star Laura Weightman took over on the final leg
she was chasing down a five second lead held by the County Durham squad.

Laura was having only her second competitive run since November,
having being out with a virus, that also rendered unable to defend her title
at the North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships at Hartlepool.
However she clocked the fastest time of the day of 9m56s to ensure a superb victory.

Morpeth also had B and C teams competing in the Womens event.
Their C team finished seventh through Zoe Armstrong (10m47s)
Deborah Oakley (11m45s) and Margaret MacDonald (13m13s)

The Morpeth B Team finished thirteenth courtesy of Claire Bruce (12m31s)
Sally Welsh (12m32s) and Gwenda Cavill (11m49s)

After opening legs by Mark Brown (8m33s) and Ross Floyd (8m59s)
had seen them progress from firstly sixth to second,
Morpeth's Senior Mens A team slipped to fourth despite some tenacious
battling by final leg runner David Swinburne (9m19s)

Morpeth Senior Mens B team progressed to tenth courtesy of Jordan Scott (9m27s)
Marc Cochrane (9m37s) and Robert Balmbra (9m29s)

In the Veteran Mens event, Morpeth's A team found themselves
just run out of the medals when they finished fourth.
First leg runner Paul Waterston had them in third place with his clocking of 9m41s.
Phil Walker got them up to second when he got round the two lap circuit in 9m20s.
Third leg runner Ian Handyside found the going tough
as he slipped to fourth with his clocking of 10m01s.

Morpeth Harriers B team were the first complete squad of Over 50 athletes,
and they finished twelfth overall courtesy of Archie Jenkins (10m15s)
Bob Sewell (11m08s) and Gavin Bayne (10m56s)

Return To Top Of Page

Veterans AA North East XC Championships!
Morpeth Harriers Archie Jenkins and Walter Ryder successfully
defended their category titles at the Veterans Athletic Association
North East Cross Country Championships held at Acklam School,
Middlesbrough on Saturday 19th January.
Archie took the Over 55 title and Walter took the Over 70 title.
In Walter's case it was most fruitful, having travelled all the way
down from WesterRoss in Scotland to compete.

Return To Top Of Page

Northumberland County Schools XC Championships !
Having being out of action since November, Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman
bounced back into winning form at the Northumberland Schools Cross
Country Championships held at Kirkley Hall on Wednesday 16th January.

She won the Senior Girls event with thirty eight seconds
to spare over her nearest rival.
Fellow Harriers Natalie Young and Laura Dixon also ran well
to finish in third and seventh places respectively.

Another Morpeth Harrier winner was Adam Harrington.
The North Eastern Under 13 Boys Champion won the
Junior Boys event by a margin of six seconds.
Fellow Harriers Jack Hepple, Jonny Nisbet and Lewis Coyle
finished in seventh, eleventh and fourteenth places respectively.

Rachel Denton made it a hat-trick of Morpeth winners when she
won the Junior Girls event, with her clubmate Hannah Rank
coming home in second place.
Other Morpeth Harriers in this event were Ailsa McGregor (9th)
Steph Courty (13th) and Rachael Steel (14th)

Stephanie Purvis finished second in the Minor Girls event,
and fellow Morpeth Harrier Eve Shashoua finished seventh.

In the Intermediate Girls event Deborah Oakley, Claire Pitt
and Zoe Armstrong finished fourth fifth and sixth,
and Jessica Caldwell came home in fifteenth place.

Robert Balmbra finished fifth in the Senior Boys event,
and fellow Morpeth Harrier Martyn Cairns came home in eleventh spot.

Reece Ramsay and Joe Elder finished
second and twelfth in the Minor Boys event.

Return To Top Of Page

Northern Indoors Senior & Under 20 Championships !
Morpeths Jonathan Taylor finished second in the
Senior Mens 3000m at the Northern Indoors Senior
and Under 20 Championships held at Sheffield.
He clocked 8m33.07s.

Return To Top Of Page

Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League ( 4 )
Three team victories, and some of the fastest times recorded on the day,
portrayed Morpeth Harriers dominance at the
fourth Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League meeting
held at Farringdon School, Sunderland on Saturday 12th January.

Top of the pile were most definitely the clubs Under 13 Boys who
in achieving their third team victory in a row are quite clearly on their
way to winning the competitions Team Trophy with two meetings still remaining.

On the individual front Adam Harrington also looks
well on his way to winning the Under 13 Boys Best Performer title
after also achieving the best time for the third meeting in a row.
His run got him through to third place finisher, after giving away
80 seconds to slightly more than half of the 46 strong field,
and he led Morpeth to team victory with excellent supporting runs
once again being supplied by clubmates Jack Hepple and Jonny Nisbet.
It was a case of a repeat performance of South Shields the previous week
as Hepple and Nisbet clocked identical times as they finished fifth
and sixth respectively from the Fast Pack.
Again it was down to the judges to split them with
Hepple once again getting the approving nod.
Their times were also the second equal fastest on the day.