INSIDE TRACK 27th Issue- March 2003
( The Official Newsletter of Gateshead Harriers & Athletic Club )

Editorial:
Last year’s accounts show that your committee spent £30,137 on our member’s activities. We must continue to try to expand the benefits membership gives, but we need also to continue our fund-raising activities.
Money comes from all sorts of sources - £600 from the Young Athletes Team, for example (though costs were much more than that), plus the sterling efforts of mums, dads with bag-packing, helping at Open meets like The Tartan Games, etc., our assistance from sponsors, some from U.K. Athletics, and so on.

Many people do not realise the full range of activities we undertake – recreational running, junior athletics, wheelchair events for those with disadvantages, plus the ‘fit ones’ in winter and summer.
The Community Amateur Sports Club status introduced by Gordon Brown during 2002 will hopefully give us some help from the treasury. As Tony Gardner states in his column below:

HAVE U £50 4 US ?
Because if you have, by logging onto ‘www.givenow.org’ with your credit card available your donation will leave your bank balance at £50.00 and arrive in our bank account at £64.00.
This coming season sees the first time that our young athletes team will compete together as a club, instead of boys and girls separately. I am sure we all hope this will go well.
Also on 19th July our senior men and women compete together as a single team in their Cup match. Another first!!
Exciting times lie ahead!!

Chris Betts

SUBS NOW DUE!!

£15.00
( £5 second-claim )
( £10.00 UNDER 11 YRS )
( £25.00 FAMILY )

NEW!! NEW!!!
Pay by www.givennow.org
The renewal rate has been kept as low as possible. Members who have joined recently are already deemed to have paid for this coming year.
You get:

• Free NoEAA registration.
• Full range of track / field / cross country / road teams with highly subsidized transport cost available.
• Equipment purchases.
• Winter indoor hall hire @ £84.25 / night.
• National / Territorial entry fees refunded.
• Coach education fees paid.
• And many more!!

STADIUM ENTRY PASSES
Under 11 yrs. £15.00 yr.
Students / Unemployed £20.00 yr.
Full-time waged persons £30.00 yr
BENEFITS
These give free entry to the stadium up to three times a week.

If you had to pay twice a week for 50 weeks a year this would cost you:
Under 11 yrs (once / week) £65.
Students under 16 yrs: £130.
Anybody over 16 yrs: £250.

The swipe cards can be purchased from Anne Pye in the club office.

FIRST / SECOND CLAIM ETC
1st claim members are full members.
2nd claim members can compete only with the Young Athlete boys & girls teams, the junior men & women teams and / or the senior men team.
All members may purchase a stadium swipe card from the office.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
In the last newsletter we told you that the club had just been registered as a charity by the Charity Commission. Since then we have been exploring various ways of gaining benefits from being a charity. The easiest benefit is that the club can claim 28p for every £ we receive in gift aid. Hence subs can be gift aided and the club will then receive 28% extra from the taxman at no cost to anybody - so come along and pay your subs - and let the taxman pay up too!!
I recently attended a talk which was about fundraising. The speaker pointed out that it is very hard for voluntary organisations and charities to obtain large amounts of money because too many charities are competing for too little money (we will try). However most money is received from personal contact. It got me thinking that we could possibly help each other by donating a small amount as gift aid and letting the taxman add to it. For example if 100 people donated £50 each we would receive £5000 plus an extra £1400 from the taxman. So if anybody wants to help this way a small amount can soon become a large sum.
Next year the Club will be celebrating its centenary. A subcommittee has been formed but we are looking for ideas to mark the event. Please feel free to contact me with any ideas.
Can I take this opportunity to wish everybody every success for the coming track season and thank all athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers for the hard work and dedication this winter. Tony Gardner

GIRLS REPORT
As we begin to plan our goals for the track season we can reflect on yet another excellent winter.
The season started as always at the Sunderland with excellent performances for Charlotte (1st U20), Mary (1st U15) with talented newcomer Laura Wright (4th U15).
Our U15 team enjoyed a great day at the Blaydon Relays with Samantha, Laura Wright and Chloe finishing in Silver position ably backed up by Lyndsey Dodsworth and Nicola Douglas.
In the opening fixture of the Harrier League the U15s once again excelled with Mary 1st, Samantha 5th, Chloe 6th, backed up by Lyndsey, Nicola and Kirsty won team Gold.
At Sunderland, Jan Lawton's U13s Saoroah Favior and Claire Baudouin finished 9th and 16th respectively, certainly two to watch for the future.
Meanwhile our U15 Squad made the journey to Mansfield and the National X.C. relays. Mary, Laura and Samantha finished a credible 7th team with Mary posting the 3rd fastest time.
November saw Charlotte once again on representative duty, this time for the North of England competing in the Belgium Cross Cup, making the trip to the continent worthwhile finishing in 4th position.
In a great all round effort our Ladies finished in Silver position in the inaugural Harrier League "Davison Shield". U13 Saoroah and U15 Mary winning their respective races with notable peformances from Claire (8th U13) Laura (3rd U15) Samantha (6th U15) Chloe (7th U15) Nicola11th U15) Lyndsey (13th U15)
The North Eastern X.C. Championships in December produced 2 Champions in our group with Charlotte (U20) and Mary (U15). Charlotte's performance was even more notable having been North Eastern Champion in all age groups. Excellent performances from Laura Wright and Saoroahearned Bronze medals with U15's winning team Gold and U17 / U20 stalwarts Charlotte, Susan and Laura McKernan gaining team Bronze.
Manchester and the Northern Championships - an excellent turnout produced some great performances with Mary finishing U15 Champion repeating her U13 Gold of 2 years ago. Charlotte finished just out of the medals in 4th position after a gruelling U20 race concluding a great day of Cross Country running.
At the English Schools Championships despite the long journey to Brighton, notable performances were recorded by Susan, Laura McKernan, Laura Wright and Chloe, our group is delighted that Mary's magnificent 7th position in the inter Girls event has earned her a well deserved England Vest!!.
We all congratulate Mary and wish her well in the Home International in Dublin.
Thanks to Jan Lawton for her excellent work with the younger girls, John McKernan for his continuing help on those cold dark winter training nights and special thanks to all the athletes for their positive attitude to training and competition.

Bob Hind

BOYS REPORT
The season started off with Blaydon Relays and the U13 Boys with John Gibson, Nial Flannery and Tom Perrins finished 2nd team, the U15s went one better taking 1st team place, they led all the way. The team was Sean Hall, Will Pike, and Simon Watson. The next race was at Chester le Street and John Gibson, a recent new member, came home in first place - a great run. In the U15s Simon Watson was also first, Will Pike was 4th and Adam Carmichael was 26th from the fast pack. This gave the team first place.
The following week at Farringdon, John Gibson had another great run, this time he was 2nd running from the fast pack. Ryan French was 11th, Richard Kaufman ran well to place 14th, giving them 2nd Team. In the U15s Sean Hall, another new runner, ran well for 2nd spot. He was backed up by Will Pike, David Shanley and John Stacey.
In the National Cross Country Relays at Mansfield, the team of Sean Hall, Will Pike and Simon Watson were 7th team out of approximately 50 teams.
The next race was another Harrier League, new members were well to the front with Tom Perrins and Daniel Young 3rd and 4th from the slow pack, and John Gibson 5th from the fast pack, - 1st team place once again. In the U17s.
The club took part in the Sherman Cup at South Shields. The Cup is won by the club with the best results over all age groups. The U13s started well when they finished 2nd team.
John Gibson leading everyone home in 1st place was backed up by Tom Perrins (4th) Daniel Young (10th) Nial Flannery (21st) and Richard Kaufman (30th). The U15s won once again, - another first place for Simon Watson and some great packing by Sean Hall (4th) Angus Miller (6th) and Adam Carmichael (9th).
In the North Eastern Cross Country Championships the U13s and U15s both finished third team.
At the Durham Relays, there was a new race for mixed teams of girls and boys and Gateshead “A” finished 2nd and the “B” team was 3rd.
At Blaydon the U13s were first team, again John Gibson winning from the fast pack. Tom Perrins was 4th, also from the fast pack, Ryan French was 20th, newcomer Nick Mingola 20th, and Richard Kaufman 35th. In the U15s Mark Douglas in his first race for Gateshead ran well to finish 4th, Will Pike 7th, and James Stacey 16th gave them 2nd team place.

Our last race to date was Gosforth Road Race and Gateshead won the only race for younger runners, an U15 race, which Gateshead dominated. Simon Watson 1st, another new member Mark Brown 3rd, Will Pike just catching another newcomer Brian Knighton to finish 4th and 5th, and Scott Thomas was 11th.
I would like to congratulate everyone who has taken part. We have had some very good results and can look forward to a good track season with confidence.

Syd Robson.

WINTER CHAMPIONS
These are worked out on the basis of ten points to the first club member home, nine to next, and so on, over the six Harrier leagues and three championships, but with a minimum of 50% of events competed in.
Congratulations to Bob Weightman, Claire Baudouin and Laura McKernan – the only club members with a 100% record in the Harrier league!!

Senior men squad

Numbers declined during the season!!!

Some of under the 15 Girls Team

ERIC SMART
Master sprinter!!
Now aged 46 (I must take a picture!) Eric is a former Powderhall Sprint Champion – the prestigious sprint handicap held on New Year’s day at Musselborough, Scotland. He also won a silver medal in the World Masters Championships when they were held at Gateshead.
In July this year Eric is hoping to go one better when he competes in the world championships to be held in Peurto Rico and has entered the 100 / 200 / 400m events.
He is currently in the form of his life, and competing at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, this winter he won both the Scottish and British 60m and 200m titles and is running faster than ever.
Last year Eric was an ever-present in the club’s Senior men team in Division One, competing in the 200m event, and showing his younger team mates how it is done!
Eric needs help towards the cost of his entry to the world championships and anyone who can assist would be thanked enormously.

TUCK SHOP
Upstairs in the lounge – kit for sale as well, all proceeds to club funds.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!!!

INDOORS NEWS
Apart from the ‘muddy crowd’ with their cross-country and road races, there are more and more indoor meetings being held, and apart from the N.E, Northern and National Indoor championships for older members, Jarrow stadium run a winter ‘Grand Prix’ series of meets in which club members have featured prominently.
Grand Prix winners included:

Jarrow champions!!

Gateshead INDOOR MEETS
These have been well supported. The final meeting and presentation of trophies will be on Thursday April 17th

CONGRATULATIONS
To all our medallists (and others) in the various championships for whom there is no space (in the paper version) to record your achievements.

TRACK CLOSURE
Obviously we look forward to the resurfaced track which should last for twenty or more years once it is done.

CLUB FIXTURES FOR SEASON 2003

SOME CHAMPIONSHIP DATES
( we will reimburse entry fees if you compete in Northern / National Championships but not travel / accommodation )
NORTH EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIPS – Saturday / Sunday 10 / 11 May at Gateshead
NORTHERN JUNIOR (under 20) CHAMPIONSHIPS – 24 / 25 May – Liverpool
NORTHERN SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS – 21 / 22 June - Trafford
A.A.A. Under 17 / 15 Championships – Saturday / Sunday 16 / 17 August - Sheffield

NORTH EASTERN TRACK & FIELD LEAGUE- Each event £2 (sen) / £1.50 all others
23rd April – Monkton – 100 / 800 / DT / LJ / HJ
21st May – Gateshead – 200 / 1500 / SP / TJ / LJ / HJ
11 June – Monkton – 100 / 3000 / 400 / S / C / JT / LJ / PV / TJ
25th June- Monkton – 200 / 800 / 5000 / HT / LJ / HJ
16 July – Monkton – 100 / 1500 / S / C / DT / LJ / HJ
6thAugust–Gateshead - 200 / 3000 / 400 / 800 / SP / LJ / PV / TJ

N.B. – check the programme for precise details about age group events / registration times etc.

Photography
UK:Athletics and the Amateur Athletic Association of England will shortly be publishing Athletics Welfare which will be the policy and procedures of good practice in the sport and also includes what action to take if things go wrong. The club will take on board the principles of Athletics Welfare and when it is published a copy of the full document will be available in the office. Athletics Welfare will contain a section on photography. Our committee has preempted the publication of Athletics Welfare and produced its own procedure in relation to photographs appearing on our own website. The committee agreed the following statement on 17th February:

It is the Club's policy to promote its activities and the use of photographs can be part of this policy. If you object to your photograph, or your son's / daughter's photograph appearing in the Club's publicity material ( including the Club's website ), please contact the Club Secretary in writing. Letters can be addressed to the secretary c / o Gateshead Stadium, Neilson Road Gateshead.

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