Start Fitness North Eastern Harrier League - 2007/08

Sunderland Harriers Senior Men captured the North Eastern Harrier League title for the 10th consecutive year when they easily won the final fixture at Prudhoe.  The seniors held onto the Sisterton trophy after starting in eighth position in the league after the first meeting at Blaydon.   They then climbed to the top of division one by winning the five remaining fixtures.

The trophy that Sunderland Harriers have made their own could easily have been lost on that first meeting when only the bare bones of six senior men turned out to represent the club.  Had the club failed to field a complete team, then they would have been penalised with additional points and would have lost the league title, were it not for stalwarts like Fred Judson finishing in 189th from the medium pack and new member Neil Metters making his cross country debut finishing in 143rd from the slow pack.

On the final fixture at Prudhoe Norman Younger junior returned to the Harrier League competition to cross the finish line first for Sunderland Harriers senior team from the slow pack.   Younger battled through the gale force winds to finish in second place (31:56) on the toughest course of the six meetings.  The second counter was club captain Michael Hill with a good run to finish in 16th (34:23) from the slow pack.  Not far behind Hill was an improving Neil Metters, also from the slow pack, who finished in 27th (34:45).   Seventeen year-old Metters has progressed from finishing in 143rd at the start of the season to 27th on the final fixture and now moves up to the medium pack next season.  Steve Potts was the next counter to cross the line finishing in 34th (30:04) from the fast pack, Keith Elliott finished in 38th (35:12) from the slow pack and Tom Doughty was the last counter from the fast pack in 46th (30:23).

At the start of the Prudhoe meeting Sunderland Harriers senior women were level on points with Heaton Harriers and had a strong chance of winning their first ever Harrier League trophy, however on the day Heaton managed to overhaul Sunderland by just two points.  After finishing runners-up this season hopefully they can build a team that can take the title from Heaton next season.

Michelle Holt, who has shown great improvement throughout the cross country season finishing in the top four in five of the six meetings, finished in third place (23:42) from the fast pack.  Louise Noble answered the call-up to help the senior team with the title challenge, and led the field from the slow pack until she went of course on the back field.  Noble followed Holt across the finish line to finish in fourth place (23:46).  Hayley Reed was the last counter home finishing in 15th place (24:43) from the fast pack.

In the individual grand prix Steve Potts was third in the senior title, Tom Doughty won the veterans title with Tim Field finishing in third.  Michelle Holt just lost out on the senior women's individual title by one point to Gateshead's Kim Simpson and finished in second place.

North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships - 8th December 2007

Sunderland Harrier Mark Hood retained his title in the North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships, held at Summerhill - Hartlepool, with a superb run on a course that was turned into a quagmire after the relentless rainfall.  Hood (pictured) crossed the finish line in the senior men's 12K event 26 seconds ahead of runner-up Chris Sampson of Morpeth and clocked a time of 39:44.  Brian Rushworth also had a great run with his time of 40:17 to claim the bronze medal.  At the age of 44 it is believed Rushworth is the oldest ever winner of an individual medal in the championships.

A late withdrawal of Patrick Martin meant it was unlikely that the club would also retain their team title, and eventually the club had to settle for silver, with third counter Steve Potts finishing in 12th (41:57), veteran Tim Field in 14th (42:20), veteran Tom Doughty in 19th (43:04) and Damien Weston 52nd (47:06), giving the club a combined points score of 101.  Morpeth with five runners in the first eleven won the team title with 52 points and Gateshead Harriers finished third with 164 points.

Sunderland Harriers finished in fifth place in the senior women's event and only four points short the bronze medals, with Michelle Holt finishing in 14th (35:22), Hayley Reed in 26th (39:06) and Gillian Barry in 28th (39:22).  The race winner was former Wallsend Harrier, Sonia Thomas (31:29) now running for Sale.  Chester-le-Street won the team title.

In the Under-13 girls event Sunderland finished fourth team after Charmaine Porter was sent the wrong way while leading the field and eventually finished in fourth place.  The under-13 boys won team silver after good runs from Michael Wilson 15th, Luka Irvine 19th, Ben Craig 24th and Mark Chapman 26th.  The under-15 team finished in second place with Jake Archer in fifth, Joe Campbell 18th, Liam Houghton 21st and Philip Hope 23rd.  The under-17 team finished third with Liam Wintrip 18th, Dave Watson 24th, Michael Kilbride 26th and Karl Fairclough 30th.

Sherman Cup/Davison Shield - 27th October 2007

Sunderland Harriers finished in third place in the Sherman Cup, held at Temple Park, after going into the final event with a four point lead over Gateshead and a 29 point lead over the competition winners Morpeth.

The under-17 men's race was the last and the deciding event of the day.  Morpeth Harriers won the race with 20 points to Sunderlands 60 points in the three-to-count team race.

Sunderland Harriers under-15 boys won their race with Jake Archer in third, Philip Hope in seventh and Liam Houghton in tenth.  The senior team finished fourth with Steve Potts in fourth place, Damien Weston in 12th and George Harden in 23rd.

In the under-13 boys race Michael Wilson finished in fourth place and led the Sunderland team to finish in the same position.  Backing up Wilson was Mark Chapman in 16th and Andrew Grago in 26th.  The under-17 team finished in fifth place with Nathan Reed in 14th, Karl Fairclough in 21st and Jonathan Davies in 25th.

Sunderland Harriers had a poor turn out in the Davison Shield competition and only managed to finish two complete teams.  In in the senior women's race a rejuvenated Michelle Holt (pictured) finished runner-up to Gateshead's Kim Simpson.  Holt missed out on the gold medal by just 14 seconds with her time of 23:39.  Charmaine Porter was the only other medallist, claiming the silver medal in the under-13's race.