Sedgefield Harriers held its annual dinner and awards night in March. The club is 20 years old in 2025 and the event kicked off the celebrations of this milestone.

Harriers’ chair, Sue Dobson, welcomed guests and thanked all who had been involved in organising and coordinating the night. During the evening, the 2024 annual awards were presented, in a range of categories:
Newcomer - Graham Price
Track and field - Frances Malcolm
Cross country - Chris Lines
Volunteer - David Graham
Club runner - Sadie Abel
Individual performance - Sadie Abel
Endurance - Rosie Warnett.
The Club Member of the Year award is now the Ali Horton Trophy, in memory of member Ali Horton. The trophy was presented to Beth Raine by Ali's sister Claire, a special guest at the event.

Other awards presented on the night included those for the monthly Time Trials and performances in a series of Grand Prix races during the year. The Time Trial winners were Jessie Davies (female overall), Lisa Darby (fastest female), Paul Cowell (male overall), Mark Raine (fastest male), and Peter Milburn (highest age graded percentage).

The female Grand Prix winners were Rosie Warnett (overall), Sadie Abel (senior), Rosie Warnett (V40), Jane Spink (V45), Marie Walker (V50), Sue Dobson (V55), Trina Price (V60), and Susan Milburn (V65).

The male Grand Prix winners were Justin Cox (overall), Rory Letts (U18), Aidan Maloney (senior), Andrew Featherstone (V40), Declan Munnelly (V45), Justin Cox (V50), David Walker (V55), and Peter Milburn (V60).

The club is grateful to all of the individuals and businesses who donated prizes for the event raffle, including From Loft to Loved, Aubergine Café, The Herd & Herb, and Back of Beyond Bookshop. The raffle raised £500 for Cancer Research UK.

Sedgefield Harriers will once again host the popular Neptune Relays event, on Wednesday 30th April. Held in Hardwick Park, the event features races of four stages of approximately 1.7 miles each on a course around the park, starting and finishing in the temple field. There will be a staggered start to the relays, with the men’s teams (including veteran categories) setting off at 6:45pm and all other teams starting at 6:55pm.

There will be trophies – and the traditional prizes of fruit – in numerous senior and junior categories, including one for nonclub runners. The entry fee per team is £16 for club/affiliated teams and £18 for unaffiliated teams. Entry is on the night only, with registration opening at 5:00pm at the visitors’ centre.

For more details about the event, contact secretary@sedgefieldharriers.co.uk..

The County Masters tournament was hosted by Redcar Squash Club in January. This is a competition based on various age groups, the youngest being over 35 with no upper age limit. Sedgefield Squash Club was well represented across several age groups, resulting in appearances in a few of the finals. Sedgefield’s successes were:

Colin Langley won the over 40s, with Francis Jones runner up
Patrick Billany won the over 50s
Ian Williams was runner up in the over 60s
Gordon Peden was plate winner in the over 60s.

That’s an impressive haul of titles at county level for the club!

Back on the home courts, the Individual Handicap final was contested between Stephen Rowsby and Oliver Walls, watched by a lively crowd of spectators, who were treated to a five-game thriller. The winner on the night was Oliver Walls - many congratulations to him.

Three club members were picked for the Durham & Cleveland County squad to play in Carlisle against Northumbria, Cumbria and Lancashire. Congratulations go to Rob Pearce and Oliver Walls, and to Matthew Bond who was making his debut for the county.

The last few weeks have seen record numbers of members playing in the internal leagues and squash friendlies. This is a very encouraging statistic and is in part down to the new booking and payment system that the club invested in last year, called Manage My Match.

The county has a junior coaching programme in place and Sedgefield was proud to be asked to host this on a Sunday morning in February, when junior players of all ages come together from various clubs to improve their technical and match playing skills.

If you would like to get involved in squash or racket ball, you can contact the club at info@sedgefieldsquashclub.co.uk.

We’re now into the last few weeks before the 2025 cricket season gets underway, and stamina shouldn’t be an issue after the fantastic effort of Ben Swindale, Luke Henderson, Phil Reynard and David Budd, who on 22 March completed an incredible 38.5 mile, nine hours run from Bedale to Sedgefield.

It was all to raise the funds to buy the equipment that will allow matches to be live streamed online and the club is delighted to confirm that the fundraising target was met, so thanks go to everyone who donated.

Extra thanks are also due to juniors Gideon Welsh, Tommy Hartshorn and James Watt, who a couple of weeks earlier completed their own fundraising walk across the Cleveland Hills, carrying their cricket bags, and playing some impromptu cricket along the way.

And in their own inimitable way, the 4th XI, better known as The Winkers, raised money for the cause with a pub crawl around Sedgefield.

The cricket itself gets underway on Easter Saturday with the 1st XI at home to Guisborough, starting at 12:00 – get yourselves along! l-r Ben, David, Luke and Phil complete their ultra run at Sedgefield Cricket Club

Lee Maddison with Chris Foster in Antrim

St. Edmund’s FC is celebrating its 60th birthday this year, so look out for more about that significant milestone soon. In the meantime, the team has a lot football to get through between now and the end of the season.

At the time of writing this, there are 10 league games to go and a cup semi-final scheduled for 30 March. So the games will come thick and fast when the lighter nights arrive. St. Edmund’s expects to finish mid-table in the league and still hopes for cup success.