The combined forces of Morpeth Harriers and Tyne Bridge Harriers ended their NEYDL (North East Youth Development League) Division 2 season on a positive high when they finished fifth in their final round match at Shildon 2000 Stadium on Sunday 19th July.
On the day, Morpeth provided fourteen athletes to the fixture, with some good results being achieved across the three age groups and two genders.
Eight A String wins were achieved, also being supplemented by a couple of B String victories, which gave much power to the cause.
Two of those A String victories were achieved by Under 18 sprinter William Hodgson, who won both the 100m in 12.16s, and the 200m in 23.89s.
Under 16 Boy Oredeji Faybamiye, also achieved two A String victories in the 200m (23.23s), and High Jump (1.80m), in what was his second outing for the club.
Charlie Taylor finished third in the 200m B race in 29.81s.
Taylor also finished second in the B race of the 800m in 2m30.62s.
Joseph Fawcett won the A String of the Under 14 Boys 800m, posting a time of 2m24.74s, and Hector Ford Hutchinson turned this into a double win, when he secured a B String victory in a time of 2m37.23s.
Sophie Pledger achieved two A race victories in the Under 16 Girls 100m and 200m events, posting respective times of 12.7s, and 26.05s.
B race support in these events came from Sophie Peace, who posted times of 13.98s, and 29.66s, finishing second and third respectively.
Heidi Wilkinson took an early lead in the Under 16 Girls 1500m, then went back into a chasing third place, before regaining a final lap lead, to cost home to record an excellent victory in a time of 4m58.51s.
Zoe Tomlinson provided B race support, finishing second in 5m40.75s.
Charlie Townsend finished a close second in the A race of the Under 16 Boys 100m, posting a time of 12.03s.
B race support came from newcomer Sam Thompson, who finished second in a time of 13.22s.
Izzy Cromar won the B race of the Under 14 Girls 800m in a time of 2m42.58s.
Faye Heatley finished third in the Under 16 Girls 800m in a time of 2m35.50s.
Heatley also finished second in the 300m Hurdles, posting a time of 58.9s.
Other Morpeth scoring performances came from Zoe Tomlinson, who finished second in the Under 16 Girls 300m in 62.61s, Sophie Peace third in the Under 16 Girls Long Jump with a best of 3.83m, and Lucas Townsend, who finished second in the Under 16 Boys Shot Putt, producing a best effort of 5.82m.
The result of finishing fifth in the final match, also meant that the combined club effort, also saw them place fifth overall.
Many thanks to the combine efforts of athletes and officials throughout the season for achieving this better than hoped for final result.
MATCH RESULT
1st CHESTER LE STREET/DURHAM 664pts, 2nd MIDDLESBROUGH (MANDALE) 577pts, 3rd NEW MARSKE HARRIERS 440pts, 4th SOUTH SHIELDS/ELSWICK HARRIERS 379pts, 5th MORPETH HARRIERS 332pts, 6th BIRTLEY/JARROW & HEBBURN/PHOENIX FLYERS 278pts, 7th BLAYDON/WALLSEND/GOSFORTH 255pts, 8th TYNEDALE HARRIERS/ PRUDHOE PLODDERS 160pts.
FINAL LEAGUE RESULTS (Total Match Points in brackets)
1st CHESTER LE STREET/DURHAM 31pts (2409.5), 2nd MIDDLESBROUGH (MANDALE) 29pts (2092), 3rd NEW MARSKE HARRIERS 22pts (1724), 4th SOUTH SHIELDS/ELSWICK HARRIERS 18pts (1632), 5th MORPETH HARRIERS 14pts (1495), 6th BLAYDON/WALLSEND/GOSFORTH 13pts (1350), 7th BIRTLEY/JARROW & HEBBURN/PHOENIX FLYERS 12pts (1324.5), 8th TYNEDALE HARRIERS/PRUDHOE PLODDERS 5pts (1092).
Many thanks also go to the combined efforts of joint Team Managers of Morpeth and Tyne Bridge, David Swinburne and Sinead Coffey, in getting athletes to turn out, without them, and the willingness of all the participating athletes over the four fixtures, this satisfying result could not have been achieved.
As a result of the final scores, Chester Le Street/ Durham see themselves promoted as Division 2 NEYDL Champions, and as a result of finishing bottom in Division 1, Houghton/Derwentside see themselves relegated to Division 2 next season.
RESULTS LINK Div 2.xlsx - Google Sheets