Morpeth Harriers win two silvers at Northern Road Relays

Drawing big-name teams from all over the North of England, the event was perhaps the most high-profile of its kind since the easing of lockdown, having been cancelled altogether in 2020..

First in action for Morpeth were the girls U13 team, competing in an event of this nature for the first time. Emma Tomlinson on leg 1 ran the club’s fastest time of 13 minutes 2 seconds for the 3.1 kilometre course, with Molly Roche on leg 2 finishing in 13:24 and Charlotte Marshall bringing the team home in 14:20 in 14th place, with a strong Liverpool AC winning and their B team also finishing in third.

Next up over the same distance were the U/15 boys. Oli Calvert was 5th in the first leg with 10:17, and Oliver Tomlinson got the team up to 2nd with 10:40 on leg 2. Joe Close had a real go on the last leg, but the gap to the Wirral athlete was just too big, and the team settled for an excellent silver medal.

The U 17 Men ran over a slightly longer distance of 3700m. Will de Vere Owen, winner of last weekend’s Junior GNR on the Quayside, came back in 11:13 for 5th place on leg 1. Joe Dixon on leg 2 ran 11:27 and moved the club to second place, again behind Wirral AC. On the last leg Bertie Marre maintained second spot and, like the U/15s, took silver with a clocking of 11:53.

The Morpeth B team of Liam Roche (11:46), Matt Walton (12:01) and Ryan Davies (11:59) also gave a highly respectable account of themselves, finishing in 7th place overall but, ironically, just behind the B team of Wirral! James Tilley also ran the 1st leg for an incomplete Morpeth C team in 12:12.

The day’s biggest field was in the Senior Men’s race, contested over six legs and a distance of just over 6km and, as expected, the day’s stiffest opposition came from the usual suspects, Leeds City AC, Salford Harriers and AC, Blackburn Harriers and AC and Lincoln Wellington AC.

Finn Brodie got Morpeth off to a flying start with a clocking of 17:44 for 4th place and he was followed by Ali Douglas. George Lowry, Matty Briggs and Phil Winkler, the team clocking 1:49:39 for fifth, the event being won by Leeds City.

Morpeth’s B team also had a very respectable afternoon’s work, coming home 5th B team in 26th place in 2:00:19. John Butters ran 19:15 on leg 1, Liam Roarty 20:32 on leg 2, Tom Innes 19:57 on leg 3, 20 year old Connor Marshall 19:31 on leg 4 to take the team inside the top thirty, Jordan Scott 20:52 on leg 5 and Mark Snowball 20:12 on the final leg.

The Senior Women’s race started some five minutes behind the Men’s but was run over the same course over four legs with nearly 50 teams competing.

Salford were the winners in 1:24:52 with Morpeth finishing in the top 20.

Cat Macdonald ran 21:30 on the first leg, Lizzie Rank 25:25 and Lindsey Quinn 24:39 with Michelle Thompson clocking 24:03 for a total time of 1:35:37.