NEHL 2: Town Moor - Victory!
The women of Wallsend Harriers produced a spectacular performance in the second Harrier League fixture of the season as they romped to a fantastic victory in both individual and team competitions.
Led by Danielle Hodgkinson, the women showed themselves capable of competing at the highest levels and dramatically announced a very serious intention to challenge for the overall series title.
With heavy and unexpected overnight snow turning Newcastle's Town Moor into a Christmas-card scene, there were some initial fears that the fixture would be in jeopardy, but conditions were fine underfoot and another excellent turnout of runners from across the region assembled for the second fixture of the series.
Wallsend's womens team were buoyed by the return of Danielle Hodgkinson to local competition. Now posted in the UK, serving soldier Danielle has not long returned from an overseas billet in Afghanistan, and she has been training occasionally with the club over the past few weeks. Keen to run in last weeks Northern Championships in Blackburn, Danielle's was unable to compete as she was not on the club's official entry, but she more than made up for that disappointment as she scorched to a hugely impressive victory over the snow-covered course.
Running from the slow pack, Danielle was soon forging a lonely furrow at the head of the field - her only company coming in the run-in to the finish as she met the leading U20 runners using a smaller loop than that for the Senior runners. Crossing the line, Danielle had over one minute to spare ahead of runner-up Jane Mooney.
Danielle's victory also gave her the sixth best time on the day - but as this was within 50 seconds of Gateshead's Kim Simpson fastest time, there was much satisfaction for the race-rusty Wallsend Harrier.
The dominant manner of her victory drew most of the attention from spectators and supporters, but behind Danielle there were some equally impressive runs from Wallsend athletes, as Gina Howorth, in 14th, and Emma Walton - one place behind - closed in the three scoring positions to give the club a fully deserved team victory - for the first time in the recent history of the club and offering a deserved reward for years of patient effort and hard work.
Vicky Hindson, running from the fast pack, continued her fine form to post the 12th fastest time on the day, and there was further support from club Captain Lisa Walker, Emma Moir, Kerry Bentham and Jo McCullough.
The overall league positions could not be closer after two events, as only two points separates the top five clubs.
Team Result
1 Wallsend 30 pts
2 Heaton 38
3 North Shields 56
4 Sunderland Strollers 70
5 Tynedale 82
6 Gateshead 97
7 Blyth 109
8 Durham 114
9 Blaydon 126
10 Elvet Striders 142
Team Positions (after two events -unofficial)
1 Tynedale 6
2 North Shields 6
3 Heaton 7
4 Wallsend 7
5 Durham 8
6 Sunderland Strollers 9
7 Gateshead 13
8 Alnwick 19
9 Blyth 19
10 Sunderland Harriers 23
In the Mens competition, Wallsend's grasp on the Division One title that they won last year became ever more tenuous as they slipped to a 7th place finish whilst both Morpeth and Sunderland Harriers consolidated their positions at the head of the table.
The Town Moor course was officially declared as 6.6 miles, but it was a Harrier League race that was clearly on the 'long side' as was proved by the ease with which the fast pack runners moved through the earlier starters. Only three of the slow pack eluded the faster runners, as Gosforth's Thomas Walker held off Heaton's Ben Cross to record an excellent victory.
Sunderland's Gavin Massingham recorded the fastest time on the day, ahead of the two Morpeth lads, Mathew Nicholson and Ross Floyd, as their respective clubs fought out a fierce battle for the team prize with the Wearside club finally prevailing.
For Wallsend, Dave Daniels and Ken McPherson both moved through from the medium pack to provide the club's first two finishers, and there was impressive support from Dan Weatherill, Steve Volpe, Dave Young and Mick Baker to close-in the team scorers - all six finishing within the first one hundred places in an excellent field of 319 runners.
Wallsend mustered a fine turnout of nineteen runners for this second fixture, but their sterling efforts were not enough, however, to prevent the Division One title slipping away, as the club now sits ten points adrift of Morpeth and Sunderland with three fixtures remaining.
Division One Team Result
1 Sunderland 58 pts
2 Morpeth 72
3 South Shields 176
4 Low Fell 185
5 Alnwick 200
6 Heaton 217
7 Wallsend 248
8 Tynedale 297
9 Sunderland Strollers 308
10 Elswick 309
Team Positions (after two events)
MEN
1 Morpeth 3 pts
2 Sunderland Harriers 3
3 South Shields 8
4 Heaton 9
5 Wallsend 13
6 Elswick 14
7 Alnwick 14
8 Low Fell 14
9 Tynedale 15
10 Sunderland Strollers 17
In the younger age groups, Wallsend turned out two representatives, both of whom ran with some distinction. In the U15 Boys race, Ryan Hall ran strongly to finish 8th, while Keiron Draper came home 6th in the U13 Race.
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