Relay bronze for Morpeth Harriers U17s men

Undoubtedly the highlight of the weekend was the team bronze won by the club’s U17 Men at Sutton Park, adding to the gold won in the Northern Relays in Manchester some two weeks earlier.

Held over three stages of 3.88km, the same trio of athletes featured for Morpeth as in Manchester, so it was once again Ryan Davies who led out for the club on the first leg, clocking 12:07 for ninth place.

Bertie Marr moved Morpeth up one place on leg two with his 12:18, but there was still an awful lot to do on the final leg for Will de Vere Owen.

Posting the day’s fifth fastest time of 11:48, he proved himself more than up for the challenge, with the team recording an overall time of 36:13 for an excellent third place.

The club’s Senior Men also made the long journey to Birmingham worthwhile with a fine 12th place in the Men’s event, this time held over six stage of.5.84 kms each.

For Morpeth, Finn Brodie clocked 17:34 on leg one for 14th, with Sam Hancox’s 18:00 seeing the team slip slightly to 17th. Debutant Will Cork moved the team up to 13th with his 17:43 and a returning Carl Avery recorded the day’s fastest time for the club of 17:29 as the team moved into the top 10.

Runs by young Connor Marshall (18:29) and Matthew Briggs (18:22) saw them drop down to 12th, but this was nevertheless a fine achievement and the best finish for a number of seasons.

Action moved to Druridge Bay on Sunday with the second round of the NE Harrier League.

Morpeth had two team victories – from the U/17 Boys for whom Marr and De Vere Owen both turned out again despite the previous day’s efforts, with De Vere Owen also managing the day’s fastest time; and the Senior Women, for whom Kirsty Burville on her debut in blue and white placed third. With Cat Macdonald seventh and Jane Hodgson 11th from the Fast Pack, it only needed Jane Kirby, a week after the Kielder Marathon, to make 12th place for the team to complete their second dominant performance of the season so far.