NEMAA Relays, 6th May 2026
The spring sun shone as the old folk, well, those over 35, gathered in Bedewell Park, Jarrow for this year’s masters relays. Claremont were well represented with 8 teams – 5 female and 3 male. It was good to see a large number making their competitive debut for the club, as Katherine Bell, Maria Oranges, Til Weber, James Adair, Dave Nolan and Edward Harris all donned the sky blue vest for the first time in earnest.
Our ladies have a good record in this race and the dream team of Catherine Young, Nicki O’Brien and Heather Steel didn’t let us down with a very commendable 6th place finish. Catherine just shaded Heather as fastest on the night – by a single second. I think almost everyone was happy with their times, but I would single out Rose Hawkswood as perhaps the performance of the night in the women’s race.
It was even closer for the title of fastest Claremont man with two of the debutants, Dave Nolan and James Adair, getting exactly the same time. Dave has run many relays before in his previous guise as a Low Fell runner, but for James this was his first ever, so we shall look forward to great things in the future (no pressure there, then!).
Spare a thought for another of the first-timers in Edward Harris. After running a great first leg (including his fastest ever mile), poor Ed had to hand over to the two crocks who were just happen to get around! Howard MacLennan has been struggling with a back injury for a long time, and was apologising before the start that he would be slow if he could get around at all! He needn’t have worried has he had a very solid run. Then Howard handed over to me – and I was just glad to be there! Injury has prevented me from representing the club for over 7 months, so, as with Howard, I was a bit worried about how it would go. The answer was – not too bad! Although I was quite a bit slower than in previous years, it felt good to be back in a Claremont team, and the support of the other Claremonters definitely helped spur me on for the second lap. It reminded me how much I like relays and feeling part of this wonderful club!
| Ladies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Runners | Time |
| 6 | Catherine Young Nicki O’Brien Heather Steel Team Time | 11:14 12:02 11:15 34:31 |
| 27 | Tara Hipwood Sarah Williamson Cate Walker Team Time | 12:51 14:19 13:43 40:53 |
| 33 | Rose Hawkswood Katherine Bell Rachel Hurdman Team Time | 12:30 16:17 13:55 42:42 |
| 40 | Anna Round Lucy Keating Gill Milne Team Time | 13:48 14:01 16:00 43:49 |
| 46 | Lucy Ward Sarah Taylor Maria Oranges Team Time | 13:13 18:39 15:37 47:29 |
| Men | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Runners | Time |
| 24 | Peter Noble Til Weber James Adair Team Time | 10:46 10:45 10:36 32:07 |
| 36 | Dave Nolan Mark Flynn Laurie Johnson Team Time | 10:36 12:17 10:55 33:48 |
| 65 | Edward Harris Howard MacLennan Tom Tinsley Team Time | 11:33 13:57 12:36 38:06 |
