Morpeth Harriers test themselves against the north's best at Northern Athletics Relays

The closed route along the Esplanade towards the south of the town was battered by some very gusty winds which made life even more challenging for all taking part, with 1,000 runners competing across the four fixtures for both Young Athletes and Seniors.

The opening Under-15 and Under-17 races saw good runs by the five Morpeth Harriers taking part, with Emma Tomlinson 12th in the U15 Girls in 20 minutes 58 seconds and Faye Heatley 15th in 21:21.

There was a complete squad in the U17 Men, with Emma’s older brother, Oliver, coming in 14th (16:38), Harry Armstrong one place behind (16:49) and Ben Moll 38th (18:27). The team finished a creditable fifth.

There were 48 teams from across the whole of the north of England in the Senior Men’s fixture, run over four long stages of 9.5 kilometres and eight short ones of 5k.

Early runs by young Joe Dixon, George Lowry, Finn Brodie and Chris Parr saw Morpeth well in contention behind early leaders Salford Harriers, with Leeds City ominously also moving up the standings.

Lawrence McCourt on the day’s third long leg, Alex Brown on leg six and Carl Avery on the final long leg saw Morpeth comfortably into third place, with Leeds City moving into second behind a very strong-looking Salford.

Thereafter runs by Connor Marshall, Sam Hancox, teenager Elliot Kelso, Tom Prentice and Josh Fiddaman saw Morpeth finish in a total cumulative time of four hours six minutes 49 seconds behind Leeds City, in 4:03:54, and winners Salford Harriers (4:02:52).

Carl Avery ran Morpeth’s fastest long leg of 29:07 with Alex Brown the club’s fastest over 5k of 15:12.

Morpeth’s B team also had a remarkably successful afternoon, coming 17th in 4:34:36, with Andrew Swinburne, in his first outing in blue and white, clocking their fastest long stage of 31:55 and Tom Balsdon 16:16, the team’s fastest over 5k. The team was also the day’s second fastest B team.