NEHL Wrekenton – 19th Jan 2025
by Brad Wight
This fixture is normally the first of the season but has been moved to midwinter to take advantage of their weather-proof carpark after so many races suffered with water logged fields last year. What a difference it made – instead of the savannah-like plains, we had absolutely frozen solid mud. I’m not sure about the rest of you but my lower legs took a battering from the uneven rock hard ground and were aching for several days! It did make for some very fast times though.
We were missing lots of XC regulars due to a clash with the Brass Monkey but this problem wasn’t unique to our club and we had several months prior notice. Thankfully, we had some very good XC runners available for their first race of the season, notable Joanna Beckett, Alex Hird and Andy Simpson, and also a couple of lads making their NEHL debut, Chris Alborough and Anth Sayers.
Adelaide and Eleanor, XC ever-presents so far this season, raced in the two lap U11 event, both pushing themselves to the limits in the freezing conditions. Well done girls!
The Ladies had a solid team out with Amy Etherington first home followed by Joanna, Amanda and Lisa to make up the counting team. Backing them up was another debutante, Lianne Steed, Patricia, who had a very good run, and Sarah F.
Unfortunately the ladies remain in a relegation spot and will really need a big turnout at Alnwick to avoid the drop. There are two postponed races yet to be rearranged but it’s proving hard to find a weekend that doesn’t clash with a regional or national championship of some sort, meaning there’s a possibility we’ll have another four race season. As soon as we hear anything concrete we’ll let you all know.
The V65 men had another solid outing, Geoff, Andy and Mark counting for the team with Richard coming home 4th. Gerry unfortunately had to withdraw early on but will be back at the next race I’m sure!
Ponteland have a narrow one point lead over our defending champs going in to Alnwick.
The senior men enjoyed a great day of racing. Anth Sayers and Chris Alborough finishing 2nd and 3rd overall in their first race! They’ll both be promoted to the medium pack for the next race but even with the time deficit they would’ve finished very high up at Wrekenton. Andy Simpson cut through from the medium pack to finish 3rd ahead of Ben Etherington (slow), Alex Hird (medium), and myself (slow) having a good run to complete the counting team. Behind me were a complete B team of Joe Addison (medium), Ian T, Paul C, Andy Hodgson, Peter Coser and Darren F, with Adam Newby also finishing.
The outstanding result, coupled with division leaders Newcastle University being hampered by students being on holiday, has resulted in us being only two points off the top of the pile! Newcastle Uni are clear at the top, a single point ahead of Wallsend in 2nd, and we are a point behind them. Two teams to go up. All left to play for at Alnwick! Lets have a massive push to get as many runners out as we can and I’d like to appeal to the faster lads who don’t particularly like XC, to take one for the team and help us win some silverware!
Incidentally the fastest time of any runner on the day was ex-Crook U20 Rory Hart who cut through from the fast pack to finish 14th overall.
We’re sorting a coach out for Alnwick on the 1st March, the plan is that we’ll have a few pints afterwards and leave around 7PM. Details are on Spond and will be updated as we get more info. Please let us know if you’re coming!
Brad
