Morpeth Harriers' men's team retains Royal Signals Relays title

The longstanding local fixture incorporates the North East Counties Athletics Association Road Race Championships, with all runners completing a two lap, 2.2 mile circuit of the lake in Hetton Lyons Country Park.

The day’s first race, held over four stages, saw a strong Morpeth Senior Women’s team claim silver in a time of 52 minutes 15 seconds behind race winners North Shields Polytechnic Harriers (50:55).

Morpeth’s challenge was headed by Lizzie Rank (13:12) with Catriona Macdonald, on leg two, running the club’s fastest time of 12:49. Robyn Bennett clocked 13:08 three on leg three with Holly Lawrence bringing the team home in second place with 13:06, over a minute ahead of nearest rivals Tyne Bridge Harriers in third (53:53).

The B team of Lindsey Quinn (14:18), Lorna Macdonald (14:42), Jane Kirby (15:49) and Kirsty Burville (14:25) finished 13th out of 35 complete teams.

Under-17 Charlotte Marshall ran the first leg for an incomplete C team, clocking a respectable time of 15:53 in her first taste of competition with older athletes.

The veteran team of Rob Hancox (13:42), Alistair Macdonald (13:57), Lee Bennett (12:48) and Jason Dawson (13:21) were unfortunate to miss out on a medal in the Over-50s race, placing fourth in a time of 53:48.

The Senior and Over-35s race, held over six stages, saw an impressive gun to tape victory for the club’s men.

On leg one Peter Smallcombe – who had raced in Northern Ireland less than 48 hours previously – got Morpeth off to a fine start, his clocking of 10:23 the day’s fastest time, to put them into a lead that was never seriously challenged.

Connor Marshall ran 10:56 on leg two, teenager Eliot Kelso 11:12 on leg three and Ellis Hetherington, another who had raced on Thursday, 11:08, with the lead slowly extending.

With Sam Hancox clocking a fine 10:57 on leg five, the Morpeth lead looked unbeatable, and so it proved to be on the final leg, with Alex Brown extending it further with his time of 10:46.

The cumulative time of one hour five minutes 22 seconds was a full minute ahead of nearest rivals Gateshead Harriers.

The B team of Ethan Bond (11:13), Dominic Harris (12:51), Dan Melling (11:33), James Deathe (12:06), Liam Ramsay (12:20) and Tom Innes (12:39) also made the top 10 with a time of 1:12:42, with 42 teams finishing.

In a very keenly contested Men’s Over-35 fixture, the club came fourth, missing out on a medal by seven seconds after over an hour of racing.

Ian Harding ran their day’s fastest time of 11:51 on leg one, with Dave Stabler (12:15), Andrew Lawrence (12:03), John Butters (12:10), Rob Balmbra (also 11:51) and Andrew Ball (12:35) completing the line-up.

Eight of the club’s Senior Men crossed the Irish Sea to race in the prestigious Armagh International 5k on the previous Thursday evening, finishing second.

James Young came 15th in a time of 13 minutes 55 seconds, with Finn Brodie 41st (14:11), Carl Avery 65th (14:25) and Peter Smallcombe 77th (14:29) making up the team count of four.

Josh Fiddaman was 94th (14:30), Ellis Hetherington 100th (14:38), George Lowry 124th (14:47) and Tom Prentice 206th (15:40).