Weather played havoc with fixtures in the North East Harrier League and cross country in general. Thornley and Lambton were both postponed in 2023-24 and Druridge Bay in 2024-25 reducing the chances for members to race. A similar problem of waterlogged parking was the cause of each postponement.
Members also took part in the Northern Cross Country Championships in Sedgefield.
As a club we were sad to see the end of racing at Akley Heads in November. In 2014 bringing back a fixture to Durham on an interesting course was vital with a lack of parking or shrinking footprints making existing fixtures difficult. For a small club leading on this fixture and hosting the North East Cross Country Championships in 2016 was a great achievement. The best Derwentside A.C. performance in the fixture was left until the last day with Sarah Wingfield gaining promotion to the medium pack in the women’s race. A couple of our favourite pictures are below.
Over the course of the last year Senior members have run 74 times at cross country in the North East Harrier League, North East Cross Country Championships and Northern Cross Country Championships.
Nine of our Junior athletes have participated in cross-country competitions throughout the year. Miguel, Rodrigo, and Espen have all made steady progress throughout the season. Rodrigo produced one of the best performances of the year at Aykley Heads, finishing in second place.
Six of our girls have participated in cross country this year, including Izzy, Lucy, Emily, Skye, Darcy and Holly. All have competed well and are making progress. Lucy again qualified for the English Schools cross country championships and is inspiring others to achieve the same. Both Emily and Lucy qualified for the NABGC Cross Country championships at Layer Marney in Essex. Both did really well finishing in 1st and 3rd.
Hopefully more of our athletes will compete in these events next year. We had two teams competing in the young athletes’ relays at Birtley, both a boys’ team and a girls’ team. It was a close race between the two, with the girls just coming ahead of the boys by four seconds. Izzy had put in an excellent run at the Sunderland Open Cross Country competition at Farringdon.