 This talented trio, despite being in their first year as U13s, have been mopping up the top spots in their recent races, with today proving to be the pinnacle of their year so far, with a fantastic first place finish at the NATIONAL XC Relays at Mansfield. Huge well done to Kitty and Nell Graham, and Olivia Murphy (seen above with their coach Gary Curtis) - can't wait to see what they get up to over the next 12 months!
Young athletes at the club take note - this is what you might achieve if you try hard, train well and believe in yourselves. Let's see lots more of you out there competing over the winter months, and get your entries in for the upcoming North Eastern XC in December (see noticeboard page for sign up details). Full results can be seen here
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Some great mentions for our younger athletes in Bill McGuirk's blog report which can be read in full HERE - well done all of you! Some excerpts can be seen below:- Gateshead’s Josh Blevins and Birtley’s Chris Perkins entered the unknown after moving up from the under-17 age group last year to contest six-mile for the first time but you would not have believed it as they were locked together shoulder-to-shoulder for the first two circuits well clear of their rivals. Having their first HL outing of the campaign it was Birtley twins Kitty and Nell Graham who dominated from the off. The duo, members of the winning team the previous weekend at the Northern Athletics XC Relay Championships, led throughout with victory going to Kitty who had a 12 seconds cushion at the line over her sister. Three fixtures in and it was the same result as far as the top two finishing positions. Wrekenton, Druridge Bay and now Lambton. Another Birtley one-two with victory going to Poppie Phillipson who finished 16 seconds ahead of her team-mate Izzy Hall. Message from Tom Millmore:- National XC Relays this weekend is being streamed live on YouTube. It’s a massive event on the calendar and Team Birtley have had medal success in the past and have taken teams of various age groups over the past 20 odd years. This year?? One single team entry. Although, the team entered are the current U13 girls Northern Road and XC Relay champions and also the National Road Relay silver medallists. So why not log on and give the girls your virtual support, their race starts 11:50am. Have a good one girls!!! Unfortunately it is becoming more apparent that some athletes are attending weekly training sessions without paying the required subs. This is a reminder for all athletes who participate in training sessions on a Tues and/or Thurs, that you must pay the weekly subs of £2. This is not optional. Payment can easily be made via the weekly subs link within the Birtley Athletics website. It is important that these subs are paid as they pay towards the cost of hiring Lord Lawson facilities, as well as for Insurance purposes. Therefore it has been agreed that from Tues 1st November we will reinstate what we did prior to Covid and that is for everyone to meet in the sports hall at 6:45pm to register with their coach before training commences. Registering prior to training will help: 1. monitor attendance against payment of subs 2. record attendance for Health & Safety purposes 3. provide opportunity to make club announcements No groups should gather outside as all coaches will wait in the sports hall. Thanks Birtley Athletics Committee JUNIOR ATHLETE SAFETY To ensure our junior athletes are kept safe, parents/guardians are reminded that they must consult with Coaches when dropping off or picking up children from training or sporting events. This ensures children are safely handed over from parent/guardian to Coach or vice-versa. Can I also remind parents/guardians that Coaches have a duty of care to any child in their charge, so contact details must be kept up-to-date for Coaches to use in the event of an emergency. Please email our Club Secretary to update your contact details at [email protected] THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION Stephanie Young, Welfare Officer Parking cost is £4 per vehicle, to cover the charge that the landowners make for use of the Estate. PLEASE HAVE YOUR CASH READY - payment point is as indicated at the end of the purple mark up adjacent to the castle at the Lambton access image. The entrance to the Estate is at the Bonemill Lane gated entrance indicated at the image with the route to parking highlighted. Dogs are allowed as long as they are kept on a leash. What3words location for the gate is drew.stews.hiding The nearest postcode to the entrance is NE38 9JD - the entrance itself doesn't have a postcode ... it's a set of gates! There is a one-way system in operation, indicated by the yellow mark-up which indicates route to leave. It's clearly signposted. Please don't attempt to leave the way you entered the Estate. Information for volunteer marshals and set-up helpers is further down the page. Thank you in advance if you've stepped up to help out the club and allow the event to take place - we couldn't do it without you!  Birtley are helping to organise the event, as we have done in previous years. We need to marshal six points on the course, plus help to set up and take down the course, and you can sign up using the link below - all welcome, you don't even have to be a member of the club, so please feel free to bring along family and friends! You don't need to miss out on your own race to marshal, we just need enough volunteers to be able to swap out when the time comes around for your own race to take place. Please remember that every other harrier league you've attended this year has been organised by other clubs, and that without willing volunteers none of them would have happened - this is the only time in the year we'll ask you to help out with a harrier league event, please help us show the region that we may be a small club but we can step up when needed!
   All groups
Please note that for Tuesday 27th September and Thursday 6th October we will meet at Birtley Swimming Baths Car Park Durham Association of Boys & Girls Clubs are inviting the following young athletes, along with their parents/relatives and coaches, to their annual Celebration of Youth Awards evening at the Ramside Hall, Carrville, Durham on Monday the 24th October starting at 7pm.
A buffet will be provided for everyone after the presentation at approximately 8.30pm. Your support will be greatly appreciated and they look forward to seeing you on the night for a truly inspirational evening.  The weekend started off with the first North East Harrier League match at Wrekenton. We had a slightly diminished squad since lots of our athletes were due to race on the Sunday, but we still did really well. The youngsters set the standard, with the U11 girls finishing first and second in their race (Poppie Phillipson and Izzy Hall taking the honours), and Ed Moon taking fourth place for U13 boys with only 9 seconds between him and first place. The U13 girls managed to get a full team out, finishing in 7th place, and both U15 boys and girls and U17 men were represented too. Senior women didn't quite manage a full team, but the three ladies who competed all did the club proud, and the senior men's team finished in a respectable 10th place in division 1, despite being severely depleted. All results can be seen HERE. Sunday saw 5 teams take part in the Northern Road Relays at Manchester Sports City. The teams all did well, with the men finishing in a high enough position to be invited to take part in the ERRA Road Relays on 8th October at Sutton Park. The stars of the day however were the U13 Girls, with Gary Curtis providing the race report below:- To sum up today's performance. Kitty Graham was first leg “the racing leg” which proved to be the fastest leg. Early on looked like it could run away from us as the leader came out of the stadium with a sizeable lead but Kitty dug deep and ran a real hard race to keep Birtley 29 secs off the leader in 4th and 30 secs ahead of 5th place. Then came Olivia Murphy who went out of the stadium nice and smooth coming out about 200m off the leader but closing, she was chasing 3 as she went out of sight round the back of the Etihad to emerge a couple of minutes later in first place with an 80m lead, and to prove she hadn’t went off too quick she then finished the leg 42 seconds ahead of 2nd place. Then came Nell on the glory leg with the added incentive to overtake the boys and on she went, pushing all the time running 31secs seconds faster than 2nd place and finishing the race in style. Results can be seen HERE  Birtley Athletics Club are sad to announce the passing of honorary member Alison Hopkins. Alison started out at the club as a parent of Richard and Fiona, who were competing athletes for many years; she then went on to coaching the 8 – 11 year old group. Alison was a valued, reliable and much loved club member throughout her 15 or so years at the club. In her coaching role, she helped develop hundreds of children who came to the club, she was always kind and patient and always on hand to guide the children and offer advice to other coaches. She give up her time on weekends, supporting young athletes at races, cheering them on. She always helped at clubs social events and was an active club committee member. As well as the above, she was also a prolific fundraiser for the club, raising thousand of pounds through car boot sales, which often involved a 5am start on a Sunday morning. The money raised was vital to the club to give the young athletes opportunities. Alison was an absolute asset to the club and will be sorely missed. She retired from club duties, to spend more time with her family and her legacy lives on through Fiona, who has taken over the mantle as under 11 coach at the club. Our condolences go to the Hopkins family at this difficult time. Alison's funeral will take place on the 16th August at 10:30am, at Durham Crematorium, South Road, Durham, DH1 3TQ and then Washington Arts Centre, Biddick Lane, Washington, NE38 8AB for the wake. The Durham City Run Event is taking place on Friday 15th July and they are looking for 10 volunteers from our club to help marshal the event.
Volunteers will be needed at 4.30pm for registration and will be finished by around 8.30pm. A packed lunch will be provided. Please inform Val if you're able to help Series 1, Episode 1: Climategames discussions with the ReSea Project.Imagine if for every kilometre that you ran, swam, cycled or walked, you could remove plastic from the ocean and fight climate change? Well, thanks to Climategames and ReSea project, you can do just that. Logging every time you run, swim, cycle, or walk outdoors, Resea Project will remove 100 grams of plastic (or the equivalent of five 500 ml single-use plastic water bottles) from oceans and rivers. Watch our first Climategames discussions below to find out more!
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It’s the NEYDL next Sunday 26th June at Monkton which Birtley as a club are hosting. So far only 1 athlete has put their name down and for a club that has plenty of junior members have to say this is disappointing. All athletes U13 to U17 can give it a go - it’s the ‘Youth Development League’, the best place to try out new events and have a go at a run, jump and throw. Best of all, it's all free to the athlete as your club pays for affiliation to the league. Come represent your club on what is usually a great day had by all. Let’s try and get more kids competing in this please. Sign up sheet on our Noticeboard page If you thought the number of athletes were low the offer of volunteers to help is none existent. Birtley are hosting this event so we need help on track and field events, timekeepers, announcers, results, result runners, team managers etc. Anyone can help, you don’t have to have a child competing to help run it, just be willing to help the club for the day. So last plea for athletes and helpers please. As this Thursday is a bank holiday, training will not be taking place at Lord Lawson. However, individual coaches may be planning their own sessions, possibly at different times of the day - please check with your coach and keep an eye on this news page and/or FB for any session updates.
Its time to hang up your trainers and club vests, put your feet up and have a drink or two! Saturday 11th June from 2pm at the Angel View opposite the Angel of the North with bus stops right outside for getting there and back again (no. 21 bus route). A family friendly pub and if it's lovely weather we can all sit outside. If it’s not so good we can sit inside as it’s a big place! No need to pre order food just order at the bar if you're hungry. See you there  |
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January 2026
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