NoE T&F League 1: It's a Win !
The combined Wallsend / Blyth team got off to a fantastic winning start in the first fixture of the North of England T&F League at Whitley Bay on Saturday 1st May. In what is the team’s second season in the League they narrowly edged-out a resilient Middlesborough & Cleveland AC/Hartlepool team to claim victory by only three points.
The match at Churchill Playing Fields took place in typical early season conditions, with a chilly breeze blowing in off the North Sea coast, although there was a fortunate absence of any rain in an arena that lacks any spectator cover.
Last year was the first season in which these two clubs have entered a combined team, and they enjoyed four third-placed finishes in their inaugural summer, but Saturday’s fixture saw their first-ever team victory in what is a seven-team competition.
There were some isolated event wins for the team, but success was driven as much by the willingness of athletes to turn their hand at unfamiliar events and the efforts of the team managers to ensure that the team was represented in almost all events.
The overall scores are combined from both mens and womens competition, and there were individual male successes in the 5000m ‘B’-string for Wallsend club stalwart Mick Baker, for Blyth’s U20 Craig Birch in the ‘A’-string Triple Jump and for Wallsend newcomer Paul Waller in the ‘B’-string event. There was also a win for the 4x100m quartet of Craig Birch, Paul Waller, Rob Kirtley and Andy Hunter in the relays.
In the womens competition, Wallsend’s Kerry Bentham won the ‘B’-string 400m, Danielle Hodgkinson was an impressive winner of the ‘A’-string 1500m and there was a marvellous double in the 3000m, with Blyth’s Helen Morris winning the ‘A’-string and Wallsend’s Chrystal Skeldon the ‘B’-string. Emma Osbourn of Wallsend - in her first season for the club – won the ‘B’-string Hammer.
Wallsend / Blyth were designated host clubs for this first of four fixtures and great credit should go to the two team managers, Ralph Dickinson and Martin Telford for their sterling efforts in ensuring that the match went ahead in the most smooth of manners.
Full results can be found at:
www.northernathletics.org.uk/FileUploads/4E.doc
And photos of the event at :-
http://tinyurl.com/2wo4qv9
Match result
1. Blyth / Wallsend 355pts
2. Midd & Cleve / Hartlepool 352
3. Scarborough 267.5
4. Tynedale 266
5 Houghton 243
6 Rich & Zetland 240.5
7 Blaydon / Elswick 231
Next fixture is at Middlesborough on Saturday 5th June
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