NEHL Druridge Bay, 12th October 2025

The second fixture in this year’s Harrier League turned out to be a rather eventful one. Twenty two Claremont runners and a few supporters headed up the North East coast to the scenic surroundings of Druridge Bay Country Park on a warm and pleasant day. There was little wind too and, like everywhere else this year, the ground was fairly firm meaning that the course could easily have been navigated in road shoes. Druridge does not have the hills of other courses, but the ground is uneven in places, especially in the start and finish field, which the dry weather had made even more bumpy than usual.

First off was Danielle O’Brien in the under 11s race. With the youngsters only doing a half-loop, it meant that more of their run was on the uneven parts of the course, so Dani did really well to complete the 1500m in just over 7 minutes. Our other junior was Charlotte Kerr who, as an under 13, had to complete a full lap of the course. Charlotte, again, finished half way up the field despite being towards the younger end of this age group.

Our 11-strong ladies’ team was led home by the ever-dependable Nicki O’Brien, with both Sarah Kerr and Sonja Fenske coming through from the medium pack to be our next counters. A great run from Yana Bevan completed the ‘A’ team. Yana had been accompanied most of the way around by Anna Round, making her cross-country debut, and Lynne Cornell, but managed to finish a few seconds ahead of both. They were part of a close group of Claremont ladies, with 6 finishers separated by only 67 seconds.

Finally it was the turn of the men, and there were 8 sky blues on the start line. Unfortunately, due to injury, I wasn’t one of them, so I was only there to support and take photos! At least this meant that I could follow the other Claremont runners a bit better. Roberto Marzo led the Claremont contingent from the start, Laurie Johnson and Anton Mirafsari being next in line – Laurie being 2nd at the end of the 1st lap, but Anton coming through on lap 2. For the last lap, I took up a spectating position between the lake and the finish, I was a bit puzzled when Laurie came by with no sign of Anton. A couple of minutes later, an agitated Dave Lydall approached looking around and pointing. He stopped to tell me “Anton has broken his leg!”, and showed me where he was. As I made my way over to see if I could help in any way, the other Claremont lads all informed me that Anton was down (their times below will reflect the fact that they all stopped). He was being well looked after by a paramedic and a very helpful marshal from Blyth Running Club called Anita. Somehow still smiling despite the pain, Anton asked me to retrieve his bag, so that he could phone his family, so, after exchanging numbers with Anita so that she could keep us up to date, I set off back for the club tent. Jenny and Roberto were also coming to offer support, which was lucky as Roberto could get Anton’s stuff much faster than I could! Anton was moved very cautiously to where there was an ambulance and crew and he could be looked after properly. He was taken to hospital, where he was kept on a trolley until being discharged at 4am – with a broken leg and dislocated ankle.

Poor Anton – he didn’t even get any cake!

U11 Girls
Position	Runner	Time
49	Danielle O’Brien	7:02

U13 Girls
Position	Runner	Time
33	Charlotte Kerr	15:10

Women
Position	Runner	Time
51	Nicki O’Brien	29:46
77	Sarah Kerr	30:26 (Medium pack, actual time 28:06)
216	Sonja Fenske	33:40 (Medium pack, actual time 31:20)
219	Yana Bevan	33:51
223	Anna Round	34:00
225	Lynne Cornell	34:05
231	Lucy Ward	34:20
251	Jenny Roberts	34:47
290	Hazel Juggins	36:09
322	Gill Milne	37:35
379	Becky Webster	43:38

Men
Position	Runner	Time
110	Roberto Marzo	39:00
230	Laurie Johnson	42:09
382	David Lydall	47:47
438	Jamie Harding	52:10
442	Mark Flynn	52:45
447	Terry Franklin	55:28
451	Aaron Mansell	57:00
DNF	Anton Mirafsari