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After last weekend's North Eastern Track and Field Championships, which saw some great performances by Birtley (full results here), Saturday saw the return of the Signal Relays, over 18 months since the last time they were held due to Covid throwing a spanner in the works. There were some amazing performances from all of the teams out (and we had multiple teams in some categories!), with special mentions going to the Masters ladies team of Lisa Short, Lorna Graham, Tracy Millmore and Ruth Dadswell, who were pipped to gold medal position by a mere 7 seconds, with our senior men just missing out on a medal position (full results on our results page). The relays also saw some of our Birtley joggers group out representing the club for the very first time - congratulations, we look forward to seeing more of you out over the upcoming XC season! Sunday saw the younger members of the club throwing, running and jumping at the Tartan Games at Gateshead, with lots of medals being won - lots of great performances, too many to mention here but full results are on our results page (a breakdown of the U11 can be found on the results page). Birtley girls swept the board, with a Birtley athlete in top place in all events and age categories - well done girls! Let's not forget Watergate multi terrain on Thursday, which again was well attended by Birtley athletes, both juniors and seniors/masters. A link to results will be posted once available.  
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Well done to everyone who ran this morning for our club at Gosforth Summer Relays. Some amazing performances across the board especially our Birtley Ladies who were superb winners. Results as follows (approx 3K). Teams 4. Birtley A 29.13
Next Relay event is The Signals on Saturday 28th August at Hetton Lyons Park. If you haven't already signed up please have a look at the details HERE and put your name down if at all possible. The "Birtley Bandwagon" is starting to roll and we want everyone to be part of our Team Success.  Photo by Tom Millmore  Photo courtesy of PJB As most of the more established members know, every year our club volunteers to help out on the finish line of the Great North Run. Last year didn't happen for obvious reasons, but this year it's back, and while it's in a slightly different format (starting AND finishing in Newcastle) our services are still required.
As almost anyone who has done this before will tell you, this is a really worthwhile thing to do - the finishers are so emotional crossing that line, and they really appreciate us being there to help, it's a great feeling. You'll also get a free top, a parking pass for the day, and lunch (Gregg's!) out of the deal, what's not to like! There's a bit of info below, we need 15 volunteers and the places usually fill up fast, so if you're interested please drop me an email birtleyribbons@gmail.com Thanks! It's on Sunday 12th September, and the estimated finish times are: Wheelchairs 10.00 Women 10.27 Men 10.45 Last runners 17.10 Helpers will need to be on site by 9.45 There will be official parking on the Town Moor with access in and out throughout the day. It is not expected that everyone will need to stay until 17.10. The duties will be to move finishers onto the grass and to keep the finish area (this year on the road) clear. Volunteers may be asked to help lay out finish packs next to our finish area should a bottleneck develop. We will need 15 volunteers and their top sizes about 2-3 weeks before the event. Car park passes and event passes will be given our with officials' tops. Packed lunches will be provided by Greggs.
Ed Moon and Izzy Hall recently travelled to Stockport to represent Birtley AC in a Quadrathlon. This event included a 75m Sprint, 600m run, Long Jump and The Howler!
Both athletes had a great day and really did the club proud. Ed won his long jump and finished in an impressive 3rd place overall. Huge congratulations to both Izzy and Ed! Kirsty Hutton attended our club session last night to be presented with a massive cheque for the money raised by our Coast to Coast relay. Kirsty had the following to say about the donation:- Thank you to Team Birtley AC who teamed together and ran the coast to coast relay, approximately covering 142 miles!!!  Emily's athlete of the month was Poppie Phillipson "Poppie has recently moved clubs to ours and is a great addition to our club. She is everything Birtley stands for. She always tries her hardest and aims for the best. She is extremely kind and always is lovely to other children and coaches. She is a lovely child to coach and I’m glad I have the pleasure of coaching her, along with Craig. She is a delight to our club and I can see amazing potential from her as an athlete and can achieve great things ! Well done Poppie !" Fiona's athlete of the month is Daniel Moran. Daniel has also been a recent addition to the club, and Fiona has this to say about him:- "He does what you ask, no complaints and tries hard." Well done to Daniel (apologies for lack of photo)  Müller have kindly offered us three pairs of tickets for the Müller Grand Prix/Diamond League event at Gateshead Stadium on Tuesday 13th July (5.50pm - 9pm) . If you would like to be considered for the tickets, please email me as soon as possible (deadline is Saturday evening) with the names of the people who would like to go. I need a name for each ticket you request, and will consider giving out more than two tickets, depending on responses, so if you wish to apply as a family, please do so.
Calling all Senior Men, Vet men, Senior Women and Vet Women!
After some very good recruitment during Covid, along with loads of good consistent training from existing members, we have chance to get our toes on the line as a team, and put Birtley back up there at the Northern 6-stage (Men) and 4-stage (Women) road relays on September 18th at Redcar. Minimum age for the Senior's event is 17 on 31st August. Each leg is approx 6.0km for Men and Women and it also serves as a qualifying race for the English Road Relay Championships (Men only), with the top 25 teams here qualifying for the national event which is scheduled to be on 9th October. We can enter more than one team to the Northerns, so please do say if you'd like to run, even if we already have 6 names. It would be great to get a couple of teams in as preparation for the 12-stage which will be held in March 2022. Obviously we still have Covid to contend with, but at present this is going ahead and so we should prepare for it as normal. If closer to the time circumstances change we will worry about that then, but for now lets get our names down and some teams entered and put all the hard work to some use! You can book your request to be on the team by placing a refundable deposit using this link. Any questions, please contact Adrian Bailes or comment below.
On Friday 25th and Saturday 26th June 2021, a surprisingly small group of athletes worked together to complete the club's relay, transporting a bottle filled with Irish seawater at Whitehaven all the way across to Roker, where it was emptied into the North Sea. The runners included experienced athletes and our more recent C to 5k graduates, and were ably supported by Lee Drummond and Rebecca Pottinger on bikes, who managed to pedal through the day and night for a total of 21 hours and over 142 miles. The video above (put together by Tom Millmore, who also did all of the organising, brilliant job Tom!) shows our athletes at various stages throughout the night and the following day, coping with delays, detours and the hideous weather that plagued most of the run, which didn't dampen their spirits but certainly ended up soaking their clothes! This journey succeeded in its main aim of raising money for the very deserving local charity "Heel and Toe", and the total currently stands at a fantastic £1,222. Thank you to all who have contributed, either by donating and/or running, driving or cycling almost around the clock, you are all amazing and we're sure the money will be put to very good use. Any further donations will of course be most welcome - this is the link.
 Later this evening (June 25th), Birtley athletes will leaving Whitehaven by foot, bike or support van at the start of a long journey east all the way back to the North Sea coast. The first runner will fill a water bottle from the Irish Sea - this will then be transferred between the various legs until Roker Beach, where the last runner will empty the water into the North Sea. The runners of the various stages are listed below, they will have cycle support all the way thanks to Lee Drummond and Rebecca Pottinger and hopefully they'll all be joined by our younger members on the latter stages. This is an epic relay of 142 miles, last done by the club in 2012, and is a huge undertaking - big thanks to Tom Millmore for his amazing organisation of both runners and support teams.  We are raising money for a very worthwhile cause, the local Heel and Toe Charity, and there is a JustGiving page set up on their behalf, link below. We are close to our target, please help us reach it before our runners reach the North Sea tomorrow!
Hi, following our raffle for the Diamond league tickets, we have made a donation to the Air Ambulance for £50 - many thanks for those who contributed. The donation was made on behalf of Birtley AC, but I had to give my name for the club debit card, hence my name on the receipt!   Huge congratulations to our Couch to 5K group on completing the course. They have really risen to the challenge and we are immensely proud of the progress we have witnessed over the last 10 weeks.
They were all a bit nervous before the dreaded 30 minute minute run but they smashed it! Most of them ran for nearly 40 minutes in the end and some even attempted the Harrass Bank finisher. We hope to see some of them in our Joggers Group sessions going forward. Our next Couch to 5K intake will be September 2021. This week saw two of our members completing Ultra Distance Races. Firstly, Jamie Graham completed the Cow Shed Backyard Ultra. He ran a staggering 70.84 miles over a lapped course in a time of 17 hours. What an amazing achievement. Secondly, Steve Palmer ran the Ultra North 55km (32.86 miles for those who use old money!) Steve is a new club member and we are immensely proud of his hard work and dedication. We also had a great turnout on Sunday at Churchill Playing Fields for the latest Northern Track League. Chris Perkins stormed to victory in the 400m along with Katie Francis in the 3000m. Michael Graham also wowed the crowds with his amazing javelin performance and a win in the 200m. Amy Drummond, Mia Openshaw, George Beevers, Kirstin Farquhar, Tess Graham, Lorna Graham, Mia Openshaw, and Rebecca Pottinger all represented the club and did us proud with their performances. Last week Graeme Swaddle, Amy Drummond (along with Nala), Rebecca Pottinger and Zoe Towers competed in the Derwent Reservoir 10 Mile trail race. It was a challenging race with plenty of hills and baking sunshine. The beer at the finish was certainly a welcome sight!  Sunday saw a return to racing at Whitley Bay for our young Birtley AC team, with an amazing first team place for the Birtley AC/Tyne Bridge partnership.
There were some really fabulous performances by our athletes at all levels. The U13 boys had a win with Noah Williamson in the 1500m and the discus, Gabriel Curtis in the Long Jump and 100m, and Callum Chambers in the shot. There were also some great efforts by Jamie Mcteer, Riley Weeks and Ollie King, and Ben Storey. The U13 girls were represented by Niamh Phillipson who took part in the 100m, 1500m, and Long Jump. Well done Niamh. The U15 boys saw a win for Martin Rahamann in the 200m, who also performed well in the 800m and 80mh. Mathew Drummond, Ben Brownless and Lewis Watson also gave some really great performances for their team. The U15 girls included Ami Leigh Dodds, Terri Bouma, Maggie Graham and Daisy Graham. The girls all gave their all in their events and made us proud. The U17 boys saw Chris Perkins win the 400m and 800m. George Beevers and Rowan Mason both had some fabulous results. The U17 girls saw Katie Francis win the 1500m and Abigail Thwaites did a great job in the 200m. It was lovely to see some of our newer members trying out track and field for the first time. They all tried to so hard for the team, while battling those first time nerves, so a special mention goes to Ami Leigh Dodds, Jamie Mcteer, Ollie King, Ben Storey and Niamh Phillipson. Huge congratulations on your efforts on the day. The team won by 40 points overall and a great day out was had by all. A relay is being organised for all Club members. The route will be from Whitehaven to Sunderland along the Sea to Sea (C2C) Cycle Path plus laps of the fields at Lord Lawson School, or if the school isn’t available we’ll detour to Chester le Street Riverside (C2C+). The idea of the relay is to encourage all Club members to participate in promoting the Club and to actively seek publicity for the event and therefore the Club. The relay will start at 8:00pm on Friday 25th June and continue through the night until the finish at Roker Beach before (hopefully) 4:00pm Saturday 26th June. There will be 24 legs on route, plus short legs at Lord Lawson or Chester le Street, with distances ranging from 2 miles to 11 miles and if you feel that 2 miles is too far then club members can still take part by completing a short leg, of 100m or above, at the school. Hopefully a social night can held soon afterwards for all Club members/family and friends (venue to be confirmed). The event will require a large amount of organising and also help from as many people as possible i.e. cyclists to be with the runners, drivers for support vehicles, help at Lord Lawson School, and of course RUNNERS. We will need at least 2 mini buses and drivers, 6 cyclists to take it in turns from start to finish, 24 runners (although of course more than one runner can be on each leg). Hopefully we can get local companies to sponsor towards the cost of the buses and also some event t shirts. We will also be asking members/parents/friends to raise sponsorship for Club funds and a local charity which will be confirmed. The Club has previously, successfully, done the event in 2008 and raised a large total for the Evening Chronicle Sunshine Fund. Everyone can take part in this unique event, (members/parents/guardians/friends) either as a runner on one of the relay legs or as a supporter. If you would like to take part please keep checking the face book page and/or web site, or if you need any further information send Tom a message or see him on Club training nights. Further information. For those who are considering taking part in the above event, I’ve detailed some further information below regarding the times that would have to be committed, i.e. pick up and drop off times. Minibus A - Pick up from Birtley 5pm with 5 runners, 2 cyclists, 4 drivers/helpers Minibus B - Pick up from Birtley 9:30pm with 4 runners, 2 cyclists, 2 drivers/helpers Minibus A - Leaves Penrith approx 3:15am to return to Birtley approx 5:45am with runners, cyclists and helpers wishing to go home. Minibus A - Pick up from Birtley 7:15am with 6 runners, 1 cyclist and driver to meet Minibus B at Rookhope Minibus B - Leaves Rookhope approx 8:30am to return to Birtley and will then return to relay on route at approx Waskerley. Buses will then follow runners and cyclists to Lord Lawson and Roker So the first 5 runners on Minibus A have to commit to leaving Birtley at 5pm and returning 5:45am. The next runners on Minibus B have to commit from 9:30pm to 9:30am. As you can see, if the event is to go ahead then we need people who are willing to commit to the above times. At least 24 runners (although some are willing to do more than one leg), 6 cyclists, 4 drivers/helpers are needed for the whole of the relay. There’s 6 weeks to go and to date there’s about 8 people who have offered to either run or help, although no one has committed to a particular leg or when they’re available to cycle or drive. There’s buses to book, hopefully t-shirts to organise and the route to be double checked, which need doing about 2 to 3 weeks before, therefore, unfortunately, if there’s not enough commitment in the next 3 weeks then to C2C+ relay will not be happening. The list of legs with times and distance is shown below, please message Tom (or email and it'll be passed on) if you’re available for any (especially Whitehaven to Rookhope). See this link for the route.  |
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