Morpeth Harriers are at the front of the pack as the cross country season gets underway

Traditionally, the first fixtures have been held at Wrekenton, this year organisers, mindful of the great difficulties caused by last winter’s rains, switched the opening event to Thornley Farm, just south of Peterlee, and were rewarded with some fine autumn sunshine over going firmer than in a long while.

From Morpeth’s point of view, it was good to see five eager Under-11s out in the day’s first race, several of them running in a blue and white vest for the first time.

They were led home by Mason Ellison in 18th place, clocking 6 minutes 49 seconds for the one-mile course, with support coming from Will Fawcett (24th), Luke Thompson (24th), Jacob Raper (66th) and Jared Derbyshire (72nd).

One of the finest runs of the day for the club came from Mason Gaylor in the Under-13 Boys, who was the day’s overall winner, running from the Slow Pack, with team support coming from Jack Dhawar (35th) and Jacob Thompson (45th).

His achievement was matched by that of club colleague Heidi Wilkinson, a winner also, this time in the U13 Girls, although disappointingly she was the club’s only representative.

Faye Heatley also had a fine run in her first race as an U15 to come home second with Emma Tomlinson 25th.

The Junior races were completed in the U17s where Ben Moll was 16th and Emma’s older brother, Oliver, 17th in the Boys, with Molly Roche fifth, Megan Potrac 22nd and Lucie Todd 23rd in the Girls.

The penultimate race was once again the Senior and Veteran Women, with changes to the rules for this season meaning U20s now joining the field of over 300, three of whom featured in the top four, although the winner was the experienced Lydia Turner of Birtley, taking just over 23 minutes to complete the roughly four-mile course.

Morpeth’s contingent of eight was led once again by club stalwart Jane Hodgson, finishing in 22nd place from Fast Pack with the fourth fastest overall time of the day, with Nicol McCoy 36th from Slow Pack.

The team count of four was made up by Poppy Buck, 46th, and Robyn Bennett, 72nd, both of these coming from Fast Pack, however.

The final race of the day saw the day’s largest field of 415, although this number was noticeably down on previous seasons.

Morpeth vests were very much to the fore here, with Josh Fiddaman winning in a time of 30 minutes 16 seconds over the three lap, six-mile course, and U20 Joe Close also making the top 10 in eighth place. Fiddaman’s time, which saw him win by over two minutes, was the day’s fastest.

The team count of six was made up by Liam Ramsay (14th from Slow), Over-35 Rob Balmbra (35th from Fast), Dom Harris (36th from Slow) and Lee Bennett (86th from Slow), with the club putting up a strong defence of their team title – won for the last three years running – at a venue which is amongst the most challenging.

Action moves close to home in a fortnight’s time to Druridge Bay, where Morpeth will be looking to build on their successes.