Harriers Rushworth leads way in NE Championship Hall of Fame

With the cancellation of this month’s North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships, through the Covid crisis, this is the first time the event has not taken place since the birth of the championship in 1894.

This is not counting the years of missing competition during the two World Wars.

Over the championship’s 126-year history many international athletes, including Olympic medallists and world record holders, have been involved in the chase for medals.

Sunderland Harriers have won the individual championship title, a total of 20 times during this period, shared between six athletes. With one of them, Brian Rushworth, having the record number of wins with 10 victories, beating Morpeth Harrier and 1966 Commonwealth marathon champion Jim Alder, who has nine wins.

Rushworth’s record run of victories started in 1986 when he had Steve Cram, the Olympic 1500m silver medallist and world mile record holder back in third place.

He won again at Silksworth in 1987 with Cram as runnerup this time. The shipyard joiner made it a hat-trick of wins the following year. But in 1989, Cram gained sweet revenge by winning the race with Rushworth in third.

Rushworth won again in 1991 and 1992 with wins over Mark Hudspith (Morpeth) and Dave Beris (South Shields), before Gateshead Harriers inter

Brian Rushworth.won a record 10 NECCC Championship titles.

national steeplechaser, Colin Walker, beat him in 1993.

With another four wins under his belt in defeating Chester-le-Street’s Stewy Bell in 1994 and 1977, plus wins over the Morpeth pair of Ian Hudspith (1998) and Alan Shepherd (1999), Rushworth got back on track before closing in on Alder’s record. It was at Summerhill, Hartlepool, that Alders’ record from 1975 was fi

nally broken when Rushworth defeated Tynedale’s Andrew Caine by just five seconds.

Mark Hood was the next Sunderland Harrier to get his name onto the trophy after he gained three victories in a row in 2006/2007/2008..

H e h a d M o r p e t h’s I a n Hudspith behind him at Herrington Country Park, with Rushworth in fourth. The next year he headed another Morpeth Harrier in Chris Sampson with Rushworth winning another medal in third.

Hood’s third win came at Wrekenton where he had comfortable victory (39.26) over a third Morpeth runner Nick Swinburn (39.55).

You have to go back to 1911 that a Sunderland Harrier first won the North Eastern title with Frank Reay taking the plaudits. He also won in 2012 before the outbreak of the first World War put an end to competition.

In Archie Jenkins’ interesting book “Whipper In” it says “Frank Reay was the first of many great Sunderland Harriers. Born in 1885, he was fifth in his first Morpeth to Newcastle Road Race in 1908 and second the following year.

"He then ran what was described as the best road race performance in the North East. Reay winning the 1910 race when taking advantage of a favourable wind. His time of 73.17 stood for many years.

“A few weeks later Reay won the North Eastern Cross Country title and in 1911 he retained both the Morpeth and NECCCA titles. Sadly, on May 30th 1918, it was reported that Sergeant Frank Reay of the D.L.I had been killed in action.”