Welcome everyone to the second edition of the official newsletter of Sunderland Harriers & A.C.
November has not been as busy in terms of racing thanks to the unpredictable weather, but, nevertheless I hope you enjoy the read whilst having a brew and a biscuit or two.

TOEING THE LINE
This section provides a brief description of races and results that our members have participated in.

10 Years of Podium 5k
Down at the Steven Burke cycle track in Barrowford, two of our athletes, brothers Joe and Scott Armstrong competed at the tenth anniversary of the Podium 5k. The event is a no frills series of graded races that attracts the best athletes in both the UK and Europe.
Quite a stellar field a sixeable prizepot was assembled for what was a fantastic night of racing.
All athletes in the 5k event were set of in six waves, based on predicted times and ability.
Joe Armstrong, in fine form produced the best race of his life as he ran 14:02, a huge personal best of 12-seconds. A superb performance indeed, but Joe was agonisingly two seconds short from breaking the Sunderland Harriers & A.C. club 5k road record.
The record is currently held by the legendary Brian Rushworth (14:00).
Not to be outdone, brother Scott who is a very accomplished 800m runner, went in at the deep end at the 5k distance.
Scott floated around the course as he ran 14:42, a whopping 15-seconds personal best.
The podium finishers were as follows:
Men: 1. Robin Hendrix (Adidas Belguim) 13:35; 2. Ossama Meslek (C.S Esercito) 13:37; 3. Phil Sesseman (Leeds City AC) 13:37.
Women: 1. Hannah Nuttall (Charnwood AC) 15:18; 2. Jess Bailey (Leven Valley) 15:24; 3. Elise Thorner (Yeovil Olympiad & Wells City Harriers) 15:40

Norman Woodcock Memorial Road Relays
Reigning champions, Sunderland Harriers & A.C. sent four teams to the event.
Despite not being at full strength due to various fixture clashes and other commitments, the twelve athletes once again gave their all.
The A-team of Craig Gunn (8:14), Grace Carroll (9:30), and 16-year old Ben Anderson (9:27) finished in 7th position.
The B-team of Michael Edwards (9:19), Charlotte Stidolph (10:41), and Steven Gordon (9:57) finished in 21st position.
The C-team of Lauren Flaxen (11:17), Katie Dickinson (11:35), and Doreen Dickinson (12:48) finished in 43rd position.
The V40 team of Sam Thurlbeck (8:36), Kay Stephenson (10:46), and Steve Rankin (8:04) – second fastest time of the day, finished in 2nd place.
Doreen Dickinson was the fastest V60 woman of the day.
Heaton Harriers Memorial 10k
There were p.b’s aplenty as six club athletes competed in this historic race, of which preceded an impeccable 2-minute silence remembering the heroes that lost their lives in both World Wars one and two.
Jordan Taylor (41st) led the way as he scorched round in a time of 34:54.
Kevin Johnson (92nd) ran 37:34 – a 39-seconds personal best.
David Wilkinson (103rd), gearing up for the Brass Monkey half marathon, ran a seasons’ best of 38:10.
Newcomer, Anthony Lawson (113th) made his debut at the distance and ran 38:25.
Chris Dwyer (115th) ran 38:33.
Our lone female representative, Amy Coulson (338th) ran 48:52.
The race was also the N.E.C.A.A 10k road chasmpionships.
The medal winners were as follows:
Men: 1. Adrian Bailes (Birtley AC) 31:12; 2. Connor Marshall (Morpeth Harriers & AC) 31:20; 3. Lewis McConnell (Birtley AC) 31:52.
Women: 1. Lucy Crookes (Tyne Bridge H) 35:31; 2. Helen Warburton (Tyne Bridge H) 35:50; 3. Alex Sneddon (Jarrow & H AC) 36:10.
The event also stages races of a shorter distances for the junior age-groups.
In the 5k, Joe Willis and Samuel Main both finished on the podium as they finished second and third respectively.
Joe continued with his impressive winter form as he blasted his way round to a seven second personal best of 16:24.
Samuel, a newcomer to the sport, was equally impressive as he produced an astonishing 3-minutes personal best recording 17:50.
New York Marathon
Stephen Jackson travelled across the pond to tackle the tough New York marathon, a course not known for super fast times.
Out of 55,530 finishers, Stephen finished in 106th position with a time of 2h 29m 23s, finishing as the fifth Briton to cross the line.

Brampton to Carlisle 10-mile
This race has a lot of history, starting way back 72-years ago and it is the oldest 10-mile road race in the country, superbly organised by Border Harriers.
Four athletes made their way across the notorious A66 motorway to compete in the Northern 10-mile road championships.
Michael Barker (64th) narrowly missed out on a personal best as he ran an impressive 56:02.
Sam Thurlbeck (74th) knocked a huge 2-minutes and 19 seconds off his personal best as he recorded 57:00.
Jordan Scott (88th) warmed up for his upcoming marathon in Malaga with a solid 57:38.
Chris Newby (134th) ran a very impressive 60:25.
The podium finishers were as follows:
Men: 1. Carl Avery (Morpeth Harriers & AC) 48:42; 2. Lawrence McCourt (Morpeth Harriers & AC) 48:54; 3. Daniel Connolly (Mercia Fell) 49:03.
Women: 1. Steph Pennycook (Leeds City AC) 54:34; 2. Annabel Simpson (Fife AC) 55:55; 3. Rachel Brown (Border Harriers & AC) 58:04.

Gibside Fruitbowl
Blackhill Bounders hosted the return of the popular Gibside Fruitbowl Race which is held in the grounds of ther National Trust Gibside Estate.
The undulating seven mile trail race provides a scenic route, taking runners past all of the major Gibside landmarks.
The club only had the one member competing, Paul Redman finished 26th in a time of 47:30 and topped his age category (V60).
The podium finishers were:
Men: 1. Conrad Franks (Gateshead Harriers) 42:35; 2. William Abbot (Unattached) 42:48; 3. Jake Parmley (Morpeth Harriers & AC) 42:53.
Women: 1. Alex Sneddon (Jarrow & H AC) 43:55; 2. Laura Chapman (Jesmond Joggers) 45:34; 3. Sarah Kerr (Claremont RR) 46:02.

Euro-XC Trials
The club had both Joe and Scott Armstrong make the journey to Sefton Park in Liverpool to compete in the European Cross Country Championships trials. The brothers lined up with top athletes from across the UK at the invite-only event, racing in the short-course distance.
Joe completed the challenging course of approximately one mile in 04:53 to finish in 18th position. Scott clocked 04:59 to finish in 22nd place.
The race was won by Joshua Lay (Rugby & Northampton) in 04:31. Tyler Bilyard (Great Yarmouth & District) came second in 04:33 and Jack Higgins (Tonbridge) was third in 04:35.
British Masters Home International XC Championships
The 35th British and Irish Masters Cross Country International Championship took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The event is an annual Masters Cross Country race held between England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales and first took place in Wrexham, Wales in 1988.
Experienced international veteran Paul Merrison, winning his ninth consecutive England vest, represented England in the Over-65s race and was the first counter home for the team, finishing in sixth place.
Paul recorded a time of 23:59 over the 6km course, but unfortunately came away without a medal with the team placing fifth. It was one of the closest ever competitions, with just seven points covering the five teams.

NEHL HARRIER LEAGUE – ELTRINGHAM FARM
Over 800 athletes were chomping at the bit to race at the new venue for the latest cross-country fixture hosted by Prudhoe Plodders. However, thanks to Storm Bert, the fixture was postponed due to the driving safety for everyone attending. Conditions were appalling, despite the course being runnable. The fixture will be organised at a later date in the season.
The senior women currently sit top of Division 1 and the senior men sit joint third, 2 points off top spot.
Both teams are well placed for an assault on the league title.
Could both teams become champions in the same seasson?
It hasn’t been done in the clubs history.
The next Harrier League fixture is at Wrekenton on Sunday 19th January 2025.

HISTORY CORNER
In this edition, we look back at the exploits of Sunderland Harriers & A.C. at the North East Cross Country championships in years and decades gone by. Over the championships’ history, many international athletes, including Olympic medallists and world record holders, have been involved in the chase for medals.
Sunderland Harriers have won the individual championship title a total of 20 times, shared between six athletes, with one of them, Brian Rushworth, having the record number of wins with 10 victories, beating Morpeth Harrier and 1966 Commonwealth marathon champion Jim Alder, who has nine wins.
Rushworth’s record run of victories started in 1986 when he had Steve Cram, the Olympic 1500m silver medallist and world mile record holder, back in third place. He won again at Silksworth in 1987 with Cram as runner-up this time, and the shipyard joiner made it a hat-trick of wins the following year. But in 1989, Cram gained sweet revenge by winning the race, with Rushworth in third place.
Rushworth won again in 1991 and 1992 with wins over Mark Hudspith (Morpeth Harriers &AC) and Dave Beris (South Shields Harriers & AC), before Gateshead Harriers international steeplechaser, Colin Walker (Gateshead Harriers), beat him in 1993.
With another four wins under his belt in defeating Chester-le-Street’s Stewy Bell (Chester le Street) in 1994 and 1997, plus wins over the Morpeth Harriers pair of Ian Hudspith (1998) and Alan Shepherd (1999), Rushworth got back on track before closing in on Alder’s record.
It was at Summerhill, Hartlepool, that Alders’ record from 1975 was finally broken when Rushworth defeated Andrew Caine (Tynedale AC) by just five seconds.
Mark Hood was the next Sunderland Harrier to get his name onto the trophy after he gained three victories in a row in 2006/2007/2008.
He had Morpeth Harrier Ian Hudspith behind him at Herrington Country Park, with Rushworth in fourth. The next year he headed another Morpeth Harrier in Chris Sampson with Rushworth winning another medal in third.
Hood’s third win came at Wrekenton where he had comfortable victory (39:26) over a third Morpeth Harrier, Nick Swinburn (39:55).
You will have to go back to 1911 that a Sunderland Harrier first won the North Eastern title with Frank Reay taking the plaudits. He also won in 1912 before the outbreak of the first World War put an end to competition.
In Archie Jenkins’ interesting book "Whipper In" it says Frank Reay was the first of many great Sunderland Harriers. Born in 1885, Frank stayed at the Bridge Hotel managed by his German father Julius with his mother and three brothers and one sister.
He was fifth in his first Morpeth to Newcastle Road Race in 1908 and second the following year. He then ran what was described as the best road race performance in the North East. Reay winning the 1910 race when taking advantage of a favourable wind. His time of 73:17 stood for many years.
A few weeks later Reay won the North Eastern Cross Country title and in 1911 he retained both the Morpeth and NECCCA titles.
Sadly, on May 30th 1918, it was reported that Sergeant Frank Reay of the D.L.I had been killed in action.
The citation said: He was employed at the North Eastern Breweries and was a well-known athlete winning nearly 100 races of the 150 he took part in from 1903 to 1912.
He regularly placed in the military races and in France he won the regimental and brigade cross country. Reay was the founder of the Sunderland Athletes Volunteers Unit and left a widow, the daughter of Captain Featherstone of Sunderland.
Tom Grady scored a double win in 1922/23 and D. Hopkins won in 1927 then there was a long wait before for the next medallist in Graham Smith in 1985. The clubs’ last winner was Patrick Martin in 2009.
Current club coach Glenn Forster is the only athlete to have won a medal in each age category from boy to senior at the Championships.
The men’s team, have won the championship 14 times with their last win coming in 2008.

NORTH EASTERN XC CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024
Entries have now closed for this event.
The club entries have been submitted and a fantastic turnout is expected as 51 entries have been submitted ranging from Under-13’s to the Senior Men and Women’s races.
Please note that entries are still open for the Under-11’s race. Entries will be done on the day, if any under-11 would like to race, please contact your coach or register your interest on the club Facebook page.

CHRISTMAS PARTY 2024
The eagerly awaited club Christmas Party will be held at The Barnes Pub on Saturday 21st December 2024.
The tickets are now on general sale and are £5 each. The price of the ticket includes a hot and cold buffet, disco and raffle.
If you would like to purchase any tickets please approach any club committee member.
Alternatively, you can purchase tickets by paying directly to the club bank account, please use your name as a reference when paying.
All details are on the club Facebook page.
For the raffle this year, we have decide to approach local businesses for donations. If anyone would like to make a donation of a prize to the raffle, please kindly do so.
If anyone knows of any business that would like to make a prize donation, please contact myself or Colleen Compson.

BOXING DAY PUDDING RUN
This years event will be held on Thursday 26th December 2024.
The event is open to all club members as well as family and friends.
All abilities are welcome.
For those of you who haven't taken part in this seasonal event, it's your chance to give it a try. For those who have enjoyed the event since it was restarted in 2016, here's your chance to have another bash. We are hoping to better the record 68 finishers from 2018.
For those who are unfamiliar with the event it takes the form of a sealed handicap and will be held over the Sunderland 5k course. The sealed handicap was a regular feature of North East road races up to and including the 1960s, before it dwindled out.
Final placings will be decided using sealed handicaps which our organisers, no really, calculate in advance. Everyone is in with a chance of winning.
More details on how to enter will be released very shortly, please keep an eye out on our club Facebook page.

NORTHERN CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2025
Team Manager, Jimmy Johnson, is now taking names for the above-mentioned event.
The event will take place at Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire on Saturday 25th January 2025.
Jimmy has already put a post on the club Facebook page, if you are interested in racing please register your interest by commenting on the post.
The club will be providing transport to ensure that our athletes, coaches, parents/guardians and supporters get to and from the event safely.
The deadline for entries is 19th January 2025.
More details will be posted in due course.

CLUB KIT
The club training kit range is now complete and the Total Sport website is now live.
Just head to the club section, and scroll down and click on Sunderland Harriers. The unique password is: SuNharri3r5
There is currently a 10-day turnaround for all orders, so be quick if you are Christmas Shopping.
For anyone looking to buy any running footwear, club members receive a 15 per cent discount on ALL orders over the value of £75.00, this includes free delivery with Sportshoes.com
If anyone would like the discount code for December, please get in touch with Jimmy Johnson.

UPCOMING RACES
Sun 01/12: Croft Circuit 10k (Darlington).
Sun 01/12: Run Northumberland 10-mile.
Sat 14/12: NECAA Cross-Country Championships (Temple Park).
Sat 21/12: Saltwell 10k (Saltwell Park, Gateshead).
Sun 22/12: Loftus Poultry Run (8-mile) (Loftus, Teeside).
Thu 26/12: Sunderland Harriers & A.C. Boxing Day Pudding Run (Silksworth, Sunderland).
Sun 29/12: Town Moor Half-Marathon & Marathon (Town Moor, Newcastle).
Wed 31/12: Barcelona 5k (Barcelona, Spain).

QUIZ CORNER
It’s a numbers game, all answers are numbers!!
Q1: How many times have the Sunderland Harriers & A.C. men’s team won the North East XC team championship? A: 11. B: 14. C: 16.
Q2: How many squares are there on a standard chess board? A: 49. B: 81. C: 64.
Q3: How many times have Sunderland Harriers & A.C. men won the individual North East XC championship?
A: 17. B: 20. C: 22.
Q4: What is the square root of 169?
A: 13. B: 16. C: 19.
Q5: How many laps of an athletic track would you need to run to complete a distance of 10,000 metres?
A: 24. B: 22. C: 25.
The first person to submit all correct 5 answers to me will win a small prize.
Email your answers to jaj160477@hotmail.com

The answers to the October newsletter quiz are as follows:
Q1: Glenn Forster, represented Great Britain at the 1985 Marathon World Cup in Hiroshima, Japan. What position did Glenn finish?
Answer: 41st
Q2: How many times has Brian Rushworth won the North East Cross-Country title?
Answer: 10
Q3: Which former Sunderland Harrier has most recently broke the 3-hour barrier for the marathon, and what was her time?
Answer: Alice Smith