North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships – Saturday 14th Dec 2024

by Brad Wight

Saturday saw the 118th running of the North Easterns at Temple Park, South Shields. It was a bright sunny day, cold but no wind to speak of. Pretty good conditions for racing in. Parts of the course were quite muddy but thankfully nowhere near the quagmire we had in 2023!

Adelaide and Eleanor were the only Crook Juniors racing and took part in the U11s one mile non-championship race. They both ran very well and enjoyed the experience.

The senior men only had eight runners out following a couple of late injury withdrawals. Our race was supposed to be 12K but was only 10K for some reason. I didn’t really notice until after I’d finished because I just treated it as three laps and didn’t really look at my watch.

New signing Chris Alborough came 33rd overall in 38:14. A very respectable time for the terrain. Chris is a Durham Fell Runner and has joined us on the same terms as Joe Addison, effectively being “first claim” for both clubs but in different disciplines. Sam Etherington was a minute behind Chris, then there was a bit of a gap to the rest of us. Joe Addison 3rd, Jackson Wills 4th, myself 5th, and Ben Etherington our 6th and final counter. Bringing up the rear was Matty Brimm and Peter Coser. It’s important to remember that having as many runners out as possible helps the team result as the more Crook vests we get ahead of our opponent’s counters, the worse their score becomes.

Crook finished 11th out of 18 complete teams. Not as good as last year where we came 7th, but much better than the likes of Gosforth, Alnwick, and Elvet Striders who didn’t have full teams out.

Our ladies were up last, only four turned out but what a four they were. Again, the course was much shorter than advertised which was slightly disappointing.

New member Sarah Attwood showed her class cutting through the entire field to finish 16th overall after missing the start and giving over a minute away to everyone else. I think Sarah would’ve made the top ten had she been on the line when the gun went off!

Amy Etherington ran her usual rock steady metronomic race to finish 34th, very closely followed by Jo Raine in 40th. Captain Lisa, on the comeback, brought the team home in 61st place. Crook finished in 7th place out of 18 complete teams but the table was very tight and we easily could have been higher – there’s no handicapped packs at the championships, everyone sets off together unlike league races where Lisa, Jo and Amy have to give a few minutes head start to the slow pack. This sets the ladies team up very well for championship performances!

Thanks to Eleanor’s mam and grandad for helping me put the tent up, to all the runners who helped take it down, and to Colin Everson for marshalling all day. Very much appreciated!

The next XC races for your diary are the Birtley Relays (including NEMAA champs) on 12th Jan, enter via Spond, and the next round of the Harrier Leaue at Wrekenton on 19th Jan. This clashes with Brass Monkey so Lisa and I could really do with all available runners to help out!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and I’ll hopefully see you all at a parkrun over the hols!

Brad.