Morpeth Harriers cap good cross-country season with team and individual awards

Members of Morpeth Harriers with their awards. Picture: Morpeth Harriers

Oliver Calvert won gold in the Under 15s Boys, and also led the U15 Boys squad to the team trophy, with a winning margin of seven points ahead of North Shields Polytechnic Harriers and Tyne Bridge.

Support came from Oliver Tomlinson, tied in second place with Alnwick Harrier Liam Mcdonough, who both collected individual silvers, and team members Stephen Craske, Harry Armstrong, Dan Burrow and Ben Moll.

The margin of victory was even greater for the club’s U17 Boys, who won every fixture over the season to finish with a mere six point total, 17 ahead of nearest rivals Birtley AC and Durham City.

They were led home by Will De Vere Owen who, like Calvert, collected an individual gold ahead of Gosforth’s Ethan Bond and Blackhill’s Tom Slane.

Just missing out on individual medals, Morpeth’s Elliot Kelso, Bertie Marr and Joe Close were fourth, fifth and sixth overall.

And although Morpeth missed out on the overall title in the Senior Women’s Division One by a point, Cat Macdonald and Jane Hodgson, who have had outstanding cross-country seasons, picked up individual Golds in the Senior and Veteran competitions.

The final individual medal went to Emma Tomlinson, who picked up a good bronze behind Kathryn Pye of Houghton AC and second-placed Niamh Phillipson of Birtley in the U13s.

Meanwhile the club’s Senior Men picked up the Sisterson Cup for the second year running as overall winners in the Men’s Division One competition by a margin of eight points over Tyne Bridge Harriers and Gateshead.

The final trophy of the night to collect was the Sherman Cup, won at Temple Park in South Shields in January, with contributions across the board from the club’s U13, 15 and 17 Boys, and Senior and Veteran Men.

Three members of the club took on the challenging Three Peaks Race over the summits of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough on Saturday (April 29).

Matthew Briggs came 38th in a time of 3:38:7, with the race itself won in a time of 2:53:28.

On Sunday, Phil Winkler was 20th in the Cardiff 5km Race for Victory, clocking a new personal best of 14:53 while representing the North of England in the Inter Area Match, while on Friday Lawrence McCourt was 10th in the Mid Cheshire 5k in a time of 14:31, also a personal best.