Wednesday nights 10k race was the first in the clubs championship for 2013/14, and the members responded in numbers. The area around Monkseaton High School was awash with the red and white of Elswick.

The race started under the standard conditions for an English spring night-slate grey skies and a biting wind from the North Sea. A record field faced the starter with 378 finishing the 10k course.The starting area presents a problem for the organisers,in that the number of parked cars prevents many athletes from making a swift start, and led to David Thompson sustaining a nasty cut on his legs due to being jostled, and coming off second best with a parked car. Once the race progressed, at the end of the first lap, race winner Marc Fenwick and Ross Floyd were in close contention, with PHILIP SANDERSON having a superb run in 5^th spot. The winning margin was increased at the conclusion of the race with Marc Fenwick coming home comfortably from Ross Floyd. PHIL SANDERSON dipped under 34 minutes to finish in 6^th place overall and 2^nd.0/45.LEE AGER also ran strongly and finished in 34:22-8^th spot.

The highlight of the evening was ALISON DARGIE who is improving with each race to take the Womens prize in a P.B. of 37:27.

Amazing Alison Dargie

JASON CLARK was our next finisher in 42^nd place in 37:33,with ANDREW HARTLEY-52^ND.IN 38:07.The four counters enabled Elswick to be 6^th team overall.

OTHER MALE PLACINGS:

DAVID THOMPSON-63^RD-38:43 PB,MARTIN CROWE-90^TH-40:05,ANTHONY BEYNON-103^RD-41:16PB,LEE COULSON-143^RD-42:35,ROB WILSON-145^TH-42:42PB,TOM HANSON-153^RD-42:58PB,ROBERT EMSON-207^TH-45:52,STEVE CURRY-218^TH-46:24,MEL REED-287^TH-49:55PB.

on form: Bob Wilson

WOMENS PLACINGS:

VAL WILSON- 43:15 PB, JILL BENNETT-210^TH-45:53PB, MARIE DROZDOWICZ-215^TH-46:18, MARY LISLE-224^TH-46:39PB, LALAGE BROWN-250^TH-48:22PB, DENISE HUDDLESTON-269^TH-49:10, JOANNE LUCKING-294^TH-50:29, CHRISTINE LEE-321^ST-52:54, VIVIENNE KIRCHIN-332^ND-53:58PB and TINA McIVER-351^ST-55:52.

Smells Like Team Spirit!

There were many P.Bs on the night so congratulations to all concerned, and a reward for all the hard training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

A good mid week event, organised by North Shields Poly, with most finishers able to collect their goody bags before the heavens opened once again. FW

Last Sunday, Elswick Harrier, Lee Bennett ran as part of the North East Counties team at the UKA Intercounties Fell running Championships in Settle, Yorkshire. Lee finished in 47th place and was the teams third counter. The North East team finished in 6th place overall in a race featuring 19 county teams. The team was lead home by a great run from Morpeths Nick Swinburn who was 2nd overall. If you are interested in fell running, a full calendar of fell races can be found on the Fell Runners Association or the Northumberland Fell Runners websites. JB.

Due to the fact that the M65+ and women’s championships race was the firstrace of the day, the boys in red, accompanied by team supporter Kim, decided to give themselves the best chance of success by travelling down on Friday 17th May and staying overnight at Donnington Park Travelodge.

The day dawned dry and bright with a bit of a breeze, unlike the torrential rain back in the North East. We started with a light breakfast for the men and Kim took advantage of the fact that she was not competing on this occasion, so tucked into a full English!!
The journey from Donnington Park to the venue took just 40 minutes so our squad arrived fresh and eager to register, get warmed up and race.
The first leg runner for Elswick was Mark who, in spite of complaining of a very disturbed night’s sleep due to sharing a room with world champion snorer Steve, completed his leg handing over in an excellent first place in 19mins. 08secs. for the 3 mile undulating course. (This later turned out to be the second fastest time in the M65+ category). Mark’s fine run gave us a leading margin over Oxford City A.C. of 23 seconds.
Next off was Steve who is still on the come-back trail from injury but ran a gutsy leg to handover in second place with his time of 20mins. 44secs. which was 50 seconds down on the new leaders Oxford. Lying in third place at this point were Trentham Running Club just 23 seconds behind Elswick. This left Harry on the anchor leg with the task of trying to maintain the silver medal position which he did by finishing in 20mins. 12secs, increasing the lead on Trentham to 44 seconds.

Elswick’s combined team time was 1 hour 0mins and 04secs.
Elswick has an excellent record at this event having previously collected one team gold medal, two team silver medals and one team bronze medal, in the various age categories, dating back to 1990.
The Elswick representatives were proud to ensure the red vest was present this year and were delighted to support other North East teams – North Shields Poly, Tyne Bridge and Sunderland Harriers who were competing in the younger age categories.
Altogether, there were 188 teams entered for this increasingly popular national Masters event.
It would be great to have a much bigger turn out from Elswick Harriers next year at the 27th staging of the National Relays.

Report by Kim and Harry Matthews

We began our road trip North to Thurso by leaving Ponteland, got to Morpeth and someone forgot their make up bag, so we went back home, returned to the A1 and north we went to Dunbar for lunch and stopped off in Dundee to drop off Lalages daughter with said make up bag.  We then headed back onto the A9 to Inverness for our first stop at Lalages sisters house.

Day 2 started with a 6 mile run around River Ness. We then popped to Loch Ness where Mary (official photographer on this trip) was snapping happy on her phone. After a bite to eat in the Dores Inn we were back on the A9 Thurso bound (the end of the world).

We awoke to a fantastic view and a hearty breakfast before setting off to Dunnet Head – the most northerly point stopping en route to see a fantastic sight – a highland cow!! Mary was rather excited to see that!

One of the Locals

We then continued our journey to John O Groats posing at the famous sign which highlighted we were 387 miles from Newcastle! We ambled around the harbour looking for a spot of lunch only to find the power had gone in the whole area – which added to the fun of our travels watching bikers and cyclists complete their journey from Lands End.

On we went to Duncansby Stacks with a latte in Mary’s hand which soon turned into a frappe.

Well day 4 was the Castle of Mey 10k a well organised event by North Highland Harriers.  The route began at the Castle of Mey and we headed down the Caithness coastline to Scarfskerry with spectacular views of Orkney and Dunnet Head (officially the most northerly point of the UK), after 5k the race looped back up onto the main road back up to the village of Mey for another 4k before turning left to run down the driveway to the Castle of Mey where we were cheered to the finish by Lalages parents and bagpipes.  Mary in her pink socks was 6th Master and came in at 47.55, local lassie lals was 9th Master coming in at 50.34 and Joanne was 10th Master coming in at 51.04! The highlight for Jo was the scenic route, local lassie had her mum and dad cheering her in at the end and for Mary a local lad saying Oh I love your socks!!!

Amazing times considering the Caithness head on wind but a beautiful dry sunny day with an excellent goodie bag, containing our new beannie hats and water bottle – made a nice change from a tshirt!  We have come to the conclusion that a Master is a Scottish veteran – a much more acceptable term – we are rather proud of our new title – Masters!!

Well worth the trip if you want to combine other activities such as Munro bagging, fishing, wildlife spotting and sightseeing of this totally unspoilt land.  Good craic and banter to be had by all.  Lalage, Joanne and Mary

It was my privilege as women’s captain to put together no less than 5 female teams for the evening.  The ‘A’ team held the lead in the womens race for most of the race, after the fastest WV time of the race by Alison Dargie, who also had the joint second fastest womens time of the night in 11:24. Sam Crowe stepped up to the mark with her fast second leg and Yam Thiru brought the team home in a superb second place, behind Wallsend and ahead of Jarrow and Hebburn in the 4th fastest WV time of the race. A very credible result with some top performances in what was a highly competitive relay.

Yam Thiru, full steam ahead.

Our other four womens teams all enjoyed an evening of good running, strong team spirit and there were many positives to draw upon.  A great effort by all concerned. See table below for Elswick teams and times. (JB)

The men of team Elswick turned up in good time, numbers and positions were allocated. There was good camaraderie amongst the troops. The lads warmed up and were ready to race. Leading out the first legs were debutant Adam Hands, Paul Jones, Tom Hanson and Mel Reed. Each runner gave it their all from the congested start, right through to the handover.

Next up and taking over for leg two was Lee Bennett taking over from Adam, Rambo Thompson taking over from Paul and Rob Wilson taking the baton from wor Tommy Hanson. Mel bravely flew the flag as an incomplete team (Sterling work Mel!) With the weather holding out, the lads were right in amongst their peer groups of fellow harriers. Lee running strong, Rambo running back into some great form and Rob steadying the ship for his team. Time to bring home the bacon!

Team one, now in a strong position, new recruit Lee “with the swagger” Agger! Took over from the lean and lithe Lee…..Rambo rocketed through and handed over to Jay “the cool” Clark…..Rob handed over leg three to another new recruit, wor Rob “the gorilla” Emson!

Now the lads were at the business end of the race….the shakedown continued and battling for their teams overall placing…..It was all hard fought out there….tussle’s with fellow harriers ensued!

Lee touched down in 5^th place overall and the fastest Elswick leg time….great result team one! Jay galloped through for team two in a very creditable 22nd position. A determined run by Rob saw team three come home in a respectable 61st position (these three lads were all Vets). A great effort! Lots of talking points amongst the lads followed, their own two miles of guts and determination, saw them through.  You were all credit to the club. Job Done! (GB)

Thanks to our friends at Wallsend Harriers for hosting such a successful night.

Lee Ager, speedy 3rd leg.

Club results below, full results available at: http://www.wallsendharriers.com/index.html      Photos by Brian Waites, more on Elswick Facebook . click on image below to enlarge results.

Minutes

In the second NE track league meeting of the season, three Elswick athletes excelled themselves at Monkton Stadium yesterday evening. Running in the Jimmy Hedley Cup 800m race, Phil Hurst was the run away winner in a time of 1:53. Joe Walker also enjoyed a superb race with a new pb time of 2:07 in the 800m. Elswick sprinter, Andy Greenwell proved to be in great shape with a win and a pb of 52:3 in the 400m. A promising start to the track season by all concerned. Congratulations lads.

Some of the Elswick Gang before the race.

Phil Sanderson and Lee Bennett both ran strongly to finish in the top ten and as the leading vets. Harry Matthews also received a prize in the V60 category. Club results were as follows:

6 0:39:19 SANDERSON, Philip  Elswick Harriers MV 40-49 492 MV 40-49 1 7 0:39:20 BENNETT, Lee  Elswick Harriers MV 40-49 636  126 0:48:38 BEYNON, Antony  Elswick Harriers Snr M 543  154 0:49:40 MATTHEWS, Harry  Elswick Harriers MV 60-69 622  182 0:50:51 JARDIN, David  Elswick Harriers MV 40-49 956  215 0:51:55 COULSON, Lee  Elswick Harriers Snr M 450  221 0:52:01 STEPHENSON, Susanne  Elswick Harriers LV 45-54 321  225 0:52:08 MATTHEWS, Kim  Elswick Harriers LV 45-54 162  261 0:53:06 RICHARDSON, Angela  Elswick Harriers Snr L 216  277 0:53:33 RICHARDSON, James  Elswick Harriers MV 50-59 706  285 0:53:54 CORKHILL, Gary  Elswick Harriers Snr M 707  303 0:54:39 DROZDOWICZ, Marie  Elswick Harriers LV 45-54 301  377 0:57:06 DIXON, Stephen  Elswick Harriers Snr M 437  418 0:58:09 REED, Mel  Elswick Harriers MV 50-59 729  419 0:58:10 HUDDLESTON, Denise  Elswick Harriers LV 35-44 201  542 1:02:35 WILSON, Susan  Elswick Harriers LV 45-54 53  575 1:03:33 LEE, Christine  Elswick Harriers LV 65+

More Photos by Brian Waites and others are available to view on the Elswick Facebook page. Full results on the Sunderland Strollers website.

Racing to the finish on Roker beach, photo :Brian Waites

VAANEE_Newsletter

VAANEE_Track_&_Field_fixtures_2013