This was our second fixture in the NEYDL, and it was our turn to host it in conjunction with our team-mates from Birtley. Thanks again to Gary Curtis for keeping us right, and Ed Lown for team managing the Birtley side of things.
One of the first jobs of the day was to find an unwilling volunteer to do the announcing. A general shout out to the parents resulted in a deafening silence, but thankfully Morag turned up and stepped in to fill the void. Morag did a sterling job throughout the day, calling up athletes at the appropriate times, making announcements, and she wasn’t even phased when the PA system went down, as she just reverted to shouting the announcements out at the team tent area for a while.
I should also like to thank all the parents who helped out. It made things very easy, and meant a lot of the work was shared out, so it wasn’t just down to a few hardy soles at the end to put everything away, as we kept on top of things throughout the day.
Our 13 athletes covered 34 events in total. I’ll try writing the race report mentioning PBs and club records as I go along, but please do tell me if I miss anything as there was a lot of data to trawl through!!
Under 13 Girls
Anna Carr knocked a second off her 100m PB posting a time of 18.7, then went on to take 9 seconds off her 800m pb in a time of 3:18.4, going on to then set a new Long Jump PB of 2.28
Alanah Perowne claimed the 200m club record in a time of 34.1, and then went on to set a Long Jump PB of 2.97.
Lucy Nichol threw a discus PB of 9.6m which also meant she claimed a new club record for her efforts.
These 3 U13s girls, along with Niamh from Birtley, then ran in the 4 X 100m relay for 4th place, all of which contributing to the clubs points total.
U15 Girls
Only Caitlin Attley was in this category for TBH this time, but that didn’t deter her from claiming the 300m club record in 51.9 then taking 2.5 seconds off the club record for the 800m running 2:48.7
U17 Girls
Hope Moir ran 3:04.9 to claim some valuable points in the 800m A race, and then jumped 3.58 in the long jump to claim a new PB.
Anna Dorman then threw 8.26 in the javelin to set a PB and also claim the club record in that event.
Under 13 Boys
Henry Pickett managed a good solid PB in the 800m taking 3 seconds off his previous best at 3:05.3, then was just 1 cm off a long jump PB in 2.18 and was then called upon last minute to complete the 4 X 100 relay team to finish off his day.
Freddie Palmer had the promise of cash from his grandma there to inspire his performances, with hard currency on offer for each PB or club record he set. Not sure the poor lady knew what she was letting herself in for, as he spent the afternoon smashing club records and setting new PBs. He took nearly a second and a half off his 100m PB, claiming a new club record and equalling the new U15
boys record that stood for a matter of minutes later in the day, by running 14.4 seconds. He took 5 seconds off his own 800m club record to set a new PB of 2:33.5, and then went on to break his own discus club record, throwing 11.7m. I’m thinking of setting up a Just Giving page to help Freddie’s grandma cover the enormous financial debt she now finds herself with.
The first track outing for Liam Whitelaw also saw some impressive performances posted, with him narrowly missing out on club records. He ran the 200m in 33.0 less than ¾ of a second off the club record. He ran the 1500 in 5:42 running a very sensible and well-paced race, to come 3rd overall but was placed first in the B race earning the team valuable points. He then jumped 3.29 in the long jump to finish off his day.
Under 15 Boys
David Carr claimed the 100m record taking 3 10ths off his own record running 14.4 but this was very short lived. David then went on to take a huge 16 seconds off his 1500 pb setting a new club record of 4:55.7 and then set a long jump PB of 3.97.
Luis Nichol in then stepped up to run the 100m lowering the club record by a further 2 10ths of a second, posting a time of 14.2. He then went on to run a very solid 32.8 for the 200m, a mere second away from the club record.
Jake Moir (in the same race as David) also set a 1500m pb taking a massive 52 seconds off his last one, finishing in 4:57.7. Jake also competed in the sprint hurdles to set a club record of 17.6 and with it being his first attempt at the discipline, also set a PB. Jake then went onto win the discus competition setting a new club record of 17.6m and claiming a new PB in the process.
We had a David, Luis and Jake with 1 Birtley runner finish second in the 4x100m relay to finish things off for the U15 boy’s day.
U17 Boys
There were so few U17 boys, they combined this race with the U15 boys so there was a really good TBH battle between Zak, David and Jake, with Zak coming out on top and all 3 of then getting over the line collapsing to their knees and dry heaving for a while. I think it’s always nice to see races finished off properly!! Zak took a huge 24 seconds off his previous best in 4:55.1, just half a second ahead of David who was trying hard to spoil his day. Zak set PBs / claimed club records in the discus (11.93) and Long jump (4.33) and then formed part of the 4x100m team to round things up.
Things were very close between us and Blaydon with about 25 points in it at the last announcement, but Blaydon seemed to consistently beat us in every event after that. Jarrow / Phenix flyers also seemed to rally the troops and pipped us by a mere 6 points pushing us into 3rd position overall. The division standings now are Blaydon in first place, we are now in second place only 1 point behind. Jarrow / Phenix flyers are then 1 point behind us in third place.
Please bear in mind, if you are in Year 6 to Year 11, and you have been inspired by the fantastic performances above so that you are tempted to come along to the final fixture, then please let me know and I’ll have a chat about how you can get involved. We really do need everyone out we can muster if we want to try to win the division.
Dave Moir
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