The final meeting of the 2024 North East Youth Development League (Division 1) took place at Whitley Bay on Sunday. Darlington and Allerton went into this fixture just 1 point ahead of North Shields Poly after picking up a 1st, 2nd and 3rd from the opening 3 fixtures.
The Division 1 title was on the line, and realistically, it was only between Darlington/Allerton and North Shields Poly, with Gateshead lying in a distant 3rd place, needing a win and an unlikely bottom 2 placing for the teams ahead of them. As well as having a 1 point advantage over NSP, we also had an overall points lead of 87 from the previous fixtures, meaning we could afford to finish 1 place behind NSP at this fixture, as long as we didn’t lose by 87 points or more over the day’s events!
With the Churchill Fields track being North Shields Poly’s home venue, it is always a difficult place to take a team to win as NSP always have a strong turnout of athletes at home. Indeed, the first fixture here saw a dominant win for NSP on 715 points with Darlington only managing 3rd place, finishing 92 points behind on 623. Based on that result, needing to stay within 87 points of them was always going to be a big ask but everyone was ready to fight for every place, every second and every metre! Blue and White Facepaint, nail varnish and ribbons were on show, and that was just the boys!
Despite having a significant part of our U17 Girls team missing through holidays or illness, we still took a strong team to Whitley Bay. Some athletes were making their first NEYDL appearance and some others bravely volunteered to take part in an event they’ve never done before, putting the team before their own personal preference which was fantastic to see! A hastily arranged field event training session was put on by the coaches to give them an opportunity to practise new events before the big day!
Taking one for the team!
As usual for Whitley Bay, it was a breezy day and not particularly warm for the time of year, and the action started late morning with field events. The Hammer is a particularly underrepresented event that the team managers and coaches pinpointed as an area where we could gain additional points, if only we could convince some athletes to try it! In addition to the ever dependable Tomos Cowell; Owen Ovens, Beth Johnson and Ella Bartholomew-Millar all stepped out of their comfort zone to try to gain valuable points in an event where we’d usually miss out.
Beth and Ella were only up against one other competitor (ironically from rivals NSP!) at U15 level. It would normally have seen a 9pt gain for them, so as long as the girls could get a valid throw in, the tactics would be a success. Easier said than done of course, but the girls were brilliant! Beth reached 13.2m to finish 2nd, taking 7 points and Ella, after 2 fouls, managed to find the outfield throwing 12.16m, taking another 7 points as a ‘B’ points scorer. A potential 9pt loss turned into a 5pt gain. Brilliant attitude and effort from the girls!
Owen has been ‘Mr Multi Event’ this season. In amongst taking his GCSE’s, he’s always willing to maximise the events he can participate in to get the team valuable points. Hammer was another new one for Owen, throwing the 5kg ball and chain out to 13.5m and another important 7 points for the team tally.
Hurdler Hugo Douglas-Reeves and 1500m specialist Sasha Patterson both opted to throw the Discus, with multi-talented Hugo narrowly missing out on 1st place by just 88cm, but still achieving a PB! Jessica Hutchinson, making her NEYDL debut and in only her second ever competition, came 2nd in the Discus, 1st B athlete in Javelin and 3rd in the Shot, finishing just 41cm off 1st place in the latter event!. Charlotte Owens also threw in the Javelin for the first time in competition, finishing 2nd A athlete.
Daniel I’Anson, usually a middle distance runner, turned his hand to a couple of potentially promising events for him to progress with next year. Firstly in the 100m Hurdles alongside English Schools hurdler Hugo D-R. With no competition, it was maximum points as Hugo finished in 13.8s and Dan in 16.9s. Next up for Dan was Triple Jump. With next to no training in this event, he won with an excellent jump of 11.41m (This is 24cm further than the best Durham jump at Schools Inter-Counties… Very promising Dan!). 2nd in Triple Jump was Max Graham with 11.27m on NEYDL debut, again taking maximum A and B athlete points.
Other Field Performances
Jacob Addison and Monty Bowden dominated U13 Javelin, gaining maximum points as A and B athletes throwing 24.96m and 24.36m respectively. Both boys extended their own PB’s and Jacob increased his existing club record by 7cm! Bill Marshall and Travis Harrison repeated that feat for the U15’s with an amazing league and club record of 44.42m for Bill (Apparently, he actually broke the league record twice during his throws!) and a 36.22m PB for Travis, up from his previous best of 34.19m. Lottie Graves came 2nd for U17 Girls with 16.48m. U13 Anna Lloyd also improved her PB from 8.36m to 11.67m for 3rd place (6pts).
Tomos won an amazing 27 points by himself which is not out of the ordinary for him this season, winning Shot, Discus and Hammer including first time throws over 30m in Hammer and Discus! A massive achievement and a contribution this season from Tomos! Travis backing him up again in the Shot with maximum points for a B Athlete. Lottie grabbed another 2nd place in the Shot with 10.21m, backed up by Madison Miller with maximum B points. Jacob Addison won his U13 Shot competition by 15cm for his second win of the day and another PB for Anna Lloyd in the girls competition, improving from 4.26m to 4.64m, earning 3 points as B athlete.
Other performances in the Discus included another new PB for Jacob Addison of 18.88m, up from 17.14m, to secure 2nd place. Bill Marshall was 3rd overall with 21.40m and finished best ‘B’ Athlete to gain us maximum U15 points alongside winner Tomos Cowell. Lottie Graves also took another 2nd place with 23.63m to earn 7 points.
We had a few middle-distance runners giving High Jump a go as a secondary event. Daniel Callaghan, usually a 1500m runner, scored maximum points winning the U13 High Jump with a 1.30m PB (9pts). Debutant’s Archie Herbert finished 2nd for the U15’s jumping 1.50m (7pts) and George Hunter achieved 1.45m (7pts B Athlete) an identical height to James I’Anson but finishing higher on countback.
Another 1500m runner, Sasha Patterson, secured an important 2nd place and a PB in her U13 High Jump (7pts) clearing 1.30m. Beth Johnson (1.20m) finished 5th ‘A’ Jumper in U15G category. Caitlin Lloyd, running 800m later in the day, also won 6 invaluable points by clearing a PB height of 1.10m in the U17 competition, finishing 3rd. Thomas Hill also won his usual 9 maximum points in his last ever NEYDL Pole Vault competition, going over 4.20m, and fittingly, setting a new league record in the process!
In Long Jump, George Togher achieved a new PB of 3.44m, Philip Roycroft 4.29m and Max Graham 4.65m won 10pts for the boys and Isabelle Holdcroft 3.43m with a PB, Izzy Edinboro 4.82m and Elizabeth Clay 4.15m won 19pts for the girls. Jess Sweet also won 7pts in Triple Jump with 10.26m
100m
In U13’s Ollie Curran practised his 1500m finish with a blast over 100m in 14.12s for 7pts and for the girls, Anna Lloyd competed at the distance for the first time in 17.5s and George Togher produced yet another PB performance finishing in 14.8s. U15 Philip Roycroft finished in an impressive 12.8s for 5pts with brother Oscar finishing in 16.34s. U17’s Hugo D-R had to remember not to jump hurdles as he ran 11.4s for 6pts and a new PB, with Noah Wilson on debut running a superb 12.9s as the B athlete.
U15’s Isabelle Holdcroft completed her 100m in a 14.1s PB for 5pts with Lexi Adams also finishing in 14.7s. Ever dependable Elizabeth Clay and Jess Sweet both earned 7pts as A and B athletes in 12.9s and 13s respectively.
200m/300m
Monty Bowden set a new PB in 29.4s (7pts) and George Togher also set a new PB in 30.9s, both competing for U13 Boys in the 200m, while Matthew Foster finally went sub 27 in 26.9s (5pts) and Aiden Patterson 28.3s both running for the U15’s. The U17 race saw new boys Max Graham run 25.1s (6pts) and Noah Wilson 26.7s (3pts). U13 Jessie Horton-Thomas ran 35.1s before more points were collected by U15 Girls Isabelle Holdcroft 30s (6pts) and Lexi Adams 30.9s (3pts). The double act of Sweet and Clay for the U17’s again brought home 14pts. 26.7s for Jess and 27.4s for Elizabeth.
Middle distance stars once again dominated the points earned in the 300m races with Rowan Steel 41.2s (7pts), Philip Roycroft 43.5s (7pts B Athlete), Luke Gardner 43.6s, George Hunter on debut 47.7s, Matilda Owens 45.7 (6pts), Ella B-W 53.6s (1pt) and Caitlin Lloyd in a PB of 49.2s (5pts). All of the above taking on their 2nd or 3rd event after competing earlier in the day.
Middle Distance
Another area of strength (we really have few weaknesses!) is our 800m/1500m squad. Matthew Foster made it 4 out of 4 in the U15 800m this NEYDL season winning in 2:13.9, followed shortly by Luke Gardner in 2:16.8 for a maximum 16pts. Multi eventer James I’Anson also finished in 2:33.2. U17 Freddie Hall took 6pts with his 3rd place finish in 2:09.6, followed by Daniel I’Anson in a 2:14.1 PB for 5pts and Owen Ovens in 2:16.30.
Sasha Patterson also won 6pts for 3rd ‘A’ runner in 2:38.1 and Ella Harcourt continued her middle distance education completing 2 laps in 3:10. Caitlin Lloyd was the sole U17 girl. Usually a 1500m runner, Caitlin looked like she may fall to the back of the pack after a fast opening 200m but she showed grit and determination to not only stay with the pack, but using her endurance, a storming finish pulled her clear for a superb 2nd place in a PB of 2:35.8.
Ollie Curran and Daniel Callaghan dominated the U13 1500m field with 16 maximum points in 4:49 and 5:05.5 respectively. Rowan Steel had a fantastic battle to the line with rival and friend James Sturman from NSP, unfortunately Rowan was held off into 2nd place in 4:24.5 (7pts). Tomas Hoole also had his race of the season, knocking 7 seconds off his previous PB to pick up 7pts for B athlete in 4:40.2.
Jessie Horton-Thomas was just outside her PB in the U13 Girls race in 6:06.7. Matilda Owens grabbed 7pts for best B athlete with her Allerton teammate Natasha Pointon taking the full 9pts for the team maximum points. Charlotte Owens was only a few seconds outside her PB in 5:12.10.
Hurdles
A maximum 9pts for Monty Bowden running a new PB and club record of 13.2s! Beth Johnson also ran 13.5s as they both won their 75m Hurdles races, with Ella B-W also picking up 7pts for best B athlete. Izzy Edinboro was 2nd (13.5s) in her 80m Hurdles for 7pts and as previously mentioned, Hugo and Dan with the full 16pts in their race. The virtue of having a wide variety of events covered and having at least 2 athletes in each event. B athletes are a huge potential source of points as if you are the only club with a second participant, it’s a guaranteed 7pts. Equivalent to a 2nd place finish for an A athlete!
A Big Thank You
Firstly, a huge thank you to Simon Clay for stepping up to take over as team manager for the season. I’m sure everyone will agree he’s done a first class job, together with Andy Harrison and Glen Hilton from Allerton in picking and managing the team, the constant whatsapp messages with changes of events, last minute dropouts, injuries, illness and holidays! I hope they’ve managed to have time to enjoy the performances but I know they take a great deal of pride in seeing the effort and teamwork that the athletes put in across both clubs.
Secondly, thank you to coaches Andy H, Tom A, Bernie C (Wes, Jamie and Amy), Brian T and Glen at Allerton and the many others that aren’t always visible at the events, but put their own time in to coach our juniors to be the best they can be. A fantastic group of coaches that love to see the juniors progress and grow, both as athletes and people.
The commitment of Parents’ time and money, Jamie with the club tent, hot chocolates, cakes, biscuits and snacks, Penny and her camera capturing the amazingly talented athlete’s performances, the track and field officials, timing officials and club officials dealing with scoring and organising the events… It wouldn’t work without everyone pulling together as one. Well done everyone!
Finally, to those that juniors that have competed in their last NEYDL who’ve shown fantastic commitment to the team’s success over the last few years. Best of luck and I’m sure we’ll continue to hear about your fantastic performances in the Senior League! Apologies if I’ve missed anyone out but we’ll be losing Thomas and his guaranteed 9 points in the Pole Vault, Madison and Jack in the throwing events, Joshua in multi events and Jess in the sprints and jumps. A large selection of U17 middle-distance runners will also be leaving next year in Freddie, Owen, Zara, Savannah and Freya!
Final Results
Anyway, enough waffling… What happened in the end? Well, long story short… We absolutely smashed it!
| Overall | Final Match Points / Overall Table | Match 4 – Points | League Points | Overall Points |
| 1st | Darlington/Allerton | 863 | 21 | 2856 |
| 2nd | North Shields Poly | 706 | 19 | 2612 |
| 3rd | Gateshead | 567 | 14 | 2283.5 |
| 4th | Harrogate | 278 | 13 | 2011.5 |
| 5th | Birtley/Jarrow/Phoenix Flyers | 445 | 11 | 1943 |
| 6th | South Shields/Elswick | 386 | 6 | 1529 |
Even with regular points scorers like Jack Wood, Zara Jones, Freya Talman, Savannah Tarn, Kyle Sridhar, Finn Pentland-Rice, Lucie Hammond, Donny Tarn and Isla Massingham missing, the team produced an outstanding performance on away soil and produced the highest points scoring performance of the season from any team, beating the previous best by 94 points!
Not only did we beat North Shields Poly to guarantee the league win, we outscored them by 157 points on their patch. To put this into perspective, that’s the equivalent of 17 event victories… in 1 day!
Stats Time…
For those that enjoy stats, spreadsheets, numbers and geeky stuff, Andy H has pulled together some interesting information!
Total Athletes across the team – 87 (54 from DHAC)
| U13 Boys | 8 |
| U13 Girls | 6 |
| U15 Boys | 15 |
| U15 Girls | 9 |
| U17 Men | 9 |
| U17 Women | 7 |
Total Event Involvements (Including non-scoring / excluding relays) – 536 (314 from DHAC)
| U13 Boys | 48 |
| U13 Girls | 36 |
| U15 Boys | 67 |
| U15 Girls | 59 |
| U17 Men | 45 |
| U17 Women | 59 |
League Total Points (Excluding relays) – 2,516 (1,695 from DHAC)
| U13 Boys | 252 |
| U13 Girls | 108 |
| U15 Boys | 379 |
| U15 Girls | 261 |
| U17 Men | 291 |
| U17 Women | 404 |
Top DHAC Scorers per age group (Total Points)
| U13 Boys – Jacob Addison | 68 |
| U13 Girls – Lucie Hammond | 35 |
| U15 Boys – Tomos Cowell | 106 |
| U15 Girls – Beth Johnson | 69 |
| U17 Men – Jack Wood | 67 |
| U17 Women – Jess Sweet | 92 |
Top DHAC Scorers per age group (Points/event – Out of 9)
| U13 Boys – Ollie Curran | 7.83 |
| U13 Girls – Sasha Patterson | 6.80 |
| U15 Boys – Tomos Cowell | 8.89 |
| U15 Girls – Matilda Owens | 8.00 |
| U17 Men – Thomas Hill | 9 |
| U17 Women – Izzy Edinboro | 8.09 |
*Fun Fact… Four athletes did the maximum 3 events at all four fixtures (Tomos Cowell, Beth Johnson, Jess Sweet and Lottie Graves!)
We’ll see you next year with a very different looking team and the challenge of defending the title!