Northern Mens Inter Club Knock-Out Cup 13th July 2003

Richmond and Zetland Harriers Senior Men’s team were in action on consecutive weekends, first in the NML and, on Sunday 13th at Clairville Stadium, Middlesbrough, in the first round of the combined Northern Inter-Clubs Knock-Out Cup and Plate. Having seen their promotion hopes dive at Jarrow the previous Saturday, the team were determined to take something from their 2003 T&F season. The competition format was simple; the usual 17 individual events plus the 10,000m and two relays, one man per event, no B-strings and 6,5,4 etc scoring - the top two teams make the Cup Final and the next two make the Plate Final. On paper the Club from Division 3 were rank outsiders, up against Leeds City and Kingston-upon-Hull AC from Division 1 and Durham City, Morpeth and New Marske Harriers from Division 2 but a Final place was the incentive.

Dave Armstrong winning long jump

The team was close to full strength with the addition of Eric Williams from Manchester, Dave Armstrong back from Iraq and Adam Harker making his debut; only missing a sprinter with “Kush” out with a hamstring strain, Matt Prosser away on holiday and Dean Wilkinson at work.The day’s competition opened with the hammer and John Wild threw 35m80 for 3rd place. Dave Armstrong was next to compete, the long jump being first of two events and he won with a season’s best 6m10. Event 3 was the 10,000m at 12 noon which sort-of doubled as the NE Counties Championships - but no publicity meant no great field, Shaun Purkiss-McEndoo and Mike Brooks competed as guests and Hull didn’t have a competitor so there were just 7 runners for the 25 lap race. The bright sunshine and 30 plus temperature deterred everyone from making it a fast race, survival being a more appropriate thought. Dave Swinburne of Morpeth and Eric Williams ran the first half together before Swinburne opened-up a gap that grew to 20 metres. Eric didn’t concede and pulled level by the bell but had expended a little too much in the chase and couldn’t hold on to his younger rival, finishing 2nd in 33:10.8. Shaun had a gutsy race, finishing 4th, just outside 35 minutes and taking the scalp of Tony Livingstone of New Marske; Mike finished inside the 40 minute mark in 7th place. There were only four competitors in the pole-vault and Dan Brooks cleared the opening height 2m10 for 4th place before breaking-off to compete in the 400m hurdles. Dan’s three points gained in the polevault gave the Club 18 after four events and took them into an unexpected lead, one point ahead of Morpeth. Dan then ran 66.5 for 4th place in the hurdles, Morpeth were last and the new 21 point total was two ahead of Leeds. John Wild was giving away height and weight to 6’5” Paul Reed of Morpeth and aptly-named Mark Gulliver of Leeds, who finished 1 and 2 in the discus, but John’s 3rd place throw of 33m50 earned 4 points and the Club still lead. James Wardman elected to run the 800m and his race tactics were to go for it, but going through the bell with Sean Moralee of Durham inside 60 seconds when recovering from a foot injury proved a little too ambitious. Moralee pulled-away around the top bend and two others passed James down the home straight to leave him 4th in 2:07.3. In the absence of a first-choice sprinter, Mark Flannery stepped into the breach and his eagerness to do well saw him false start first and then, in order not to be disqualified, he sat a little long and the race was gone. Mark was disappointed with his time of 13.2, albeit into a headwind, as he has run a whole second faster this season. Scott Wardman was similarly disappointed with his 10:37.0 for the 3000m steeplechase, as Chris Swale of Hull and Sean O’Grady of New Marske turned the race into a procession, but his 3 points for 4th place kept the Club in contention. Events 10 and 11 were the high jump and triple jump, both starting at 2 pm and both events that Sam Stanislaus had won at the previous weekend’s League match. Sam made an inspired choice with the high jump and won the event with a PB 1m79. Dave Armstrong competed in the triple jump; he was 3rd with 11m92 and the 4 points earned took RZH back to the top after 11 events. Dan Brooks maintained the Club’s lead with his third event of the day, 21.2 in the 110m hurdles and another 4 points for 3rd place but, with athletes having several events, the pressure was starting to tell. Mark Flannery had three more events - placing 5th in the shot with 9m17, 2nd in the javelin and splitting the giants Reed and Gulliver with a throw of 37m96 and 5th in the 200m with a season’s best time of 25.7. Adam Harker made his debut for the Club in the 400m wearing a lightweight cast to protect his broken wrist, an injury which had prevented him training and now hampered his racing, finishing 5th in 56.7. Ken Harker was another middle-distance Harrier whose race plan was to get to the front and give-it-a-go but he too paid the price on the last lap and finished 4th in 4:22.4. The last individual track race saw Jon Orange line-up against three other Northern Vets plus a young Mike Burrett of Leeds, but again nobody from Hull. Burrett pulled the field around all the way from the gun, to the bell in around 15 minutes and then sped away to win from Rob Hand, Les Atkinson and John Hunter. Jon had come into the race a little tired from a 2 hour bike ride and had nothing left in his legs when it was needed - 5th place in 1:21.2, a PW this season.

Match scores showed that Durham had briefly held first place after the 400m before Leeds powered away. With four wins from the last six events up to the relays, they were clear leaders with 73 points, 4 ahead of Durham and 6 ahead of Morpeth; RZH were in 4th place with 62 points, 10 points ahead Hull and 17 in front of New Marske. Leeds won the 4x100m relay and Hull the 4x400m; Durham maintained their advantage over Morpeth and the Harriers had two 5th place finishes. The end result was success; the Club now travel to Cudworth with Morpeth and six other Clubs on Sunday 24th August to contest the Northern Inter-Clubs Knock-Out Plate Final.