NE Harrier League, Jarrow 15/12/12
After the previous weekend’s swampfest at Hartlepool, Jarrow seemed like a walk in the park! Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. A spell of overnight rain guaranteed some very muddy conditions, but ample sunshine and mild temperatures made it somewhat enjoyable. I won’t lie, I only did it for the cake, and Mandy and Lorna certainly didn’t disappoint with some fantastic banana bread and apple cake. Well done to everyone, we had the biggest turnout for a Harrier League fixture in quite some time. Let’s keep it gannin’ next year. I’m not too sure about all the Daves running together as a pack though.
Here’s a report by Bill Milbourne.
The Harrier League hasn’t been to Jarrow for a long time and most of us older runners have bad memories of a bare windswept playing field; flat and boring. Things have changed over the years, trees have grown and the whole place has mellowed. Car parking arrangements have got better thanks to improved access from the industrial estate, so everyone was not trying to squash onto the stadium car park.
There were still loads of mud of course but we did find a slightly drier spot to put up the tent. The conditions were a lot kinder than last week at Hartlepool. The mud was wet but not too deep or sticky;there was no river and no significant hill.
I was still nursing my injury but we had a good turnout for both races.
In the Senior Men’s race Brendan was back on form and led the team home. Matthew benefitted from his greater experience in the mud and came in ahead of Luke who struggled a bit in the unaccustomed slime. Close behind, Sumanth, Alasdair and Chris Jones came in together to make up the team ahead of Jamie and Graham
Then there was the usual battle of the Daves with Mr Beaney coming in ahead of Mr Wotton whose finishing burst put him well clear of Messrs Kear and Reay.
Claremont finished 8th in Division 2 and halfway through the season we are now up to 9th place in the table, we can breath again but we cant afford to relax.
Senior Men’s Race – 9km
35 161 182 207 223 229 262 272 286 344 365 369 375 |
Brendan McMillan Matthew Kingston Luke Bryant Sumanth Nayak Alasdair Wilson Craw Chris Jones Jamie Harding Graham Leslie David Beaney David Wotton David Kear David Reay Ken McCormick |
36:01 38:44 39:08 39:40 40:11 40:24 41:28 41:50 42:18 45:32 47:21 47:56 49:08 |
There was also a lower turnout in the Ladies race after the horrors at Hartlepool. The field at the front was particularly thin with most of the usual faces missing. Claremont had another strong team with Julie making a welcome return to the mud after a long layoff and Nina back in form after her recent injuries to support Mandy and Kate
This season’s newcomers, Mary and Debbie returned to the fray again doing a valuable job in adding to the points tally of the opposition.
Claremont ended up 6th in Division 2, moving up one place to 7th in the league table.
Senior Women’s Race – 6km
30 67 74 88 136 157 |
Mandy Herworth Julie Cross Kate Sergeant Nina Jensen Mary Martin Debbie McRory |
30:12 31:31 31:50 32:21 35:35 39:02 |