The course is a regular on the harrier league calendar and has also hosted the North Eastern Cross Country Championships but it has rarely been as muddy as it was for this opening league meeting.
It's a great system that not only creates better competition but is also a test of a club's strength in depth as points are awarded over the season for the team championship.
In the men's race it was great to see two of the region's up and coming stars battling it out at the front at Senior level. Eighteen year old Calum Johnson of Gateshead Harriers took the lead early in the race and had Morpeth's Jonnie Nisbet, who is only 17, for company as they showed a lot of more experienced runners how it was done.
As the race wore on, Johnson's endurance started to show and by the time he entered the last lap he had a comfortable lead.
With the top 2 finishers having come through the junior ranks and the fastest 3 runners all being young International athletes, the future of North East running certainly looks to be in good hands.
Provisional results from the Senior Mens race can be found by clicking here.
The slow pack runners were creating a good competition as Tyne Bridge Harriers Jordan Mullinger and Natalie Batey headed affairs and at halfway it was anyone's race. However, working her way through from the medium pack was Elswick's Masters International Alison Dargie. As the race entered the final third, Mullinger had created a gap on her clubmate but Dargie was looking strong and went into the lead with less than a mile to go.
Newcastle Uni's Emily Stewart was closing the leaders down and although Dargie was safe at the front, a strong final 400m metres took Stewart into second place. Dargie's margin of victory was 24 seconds at the line with Stewart taking 2nd place by 3 seconds. Mullinger although leading for much of the way, finished 3rd and had the satisfaction of being first slow pack runner to finish. Fastest time of the day obviously went to Stewart with Dargie second fastest. Third fastest went to Durham's Aiveen Fox who finished 35th from the fast pack.
For full female results click here.
More video footage from the mens race can be found by clicking here.
For the ladies race video, click here.
See below for some pictures of the day and to see more in HD courtesy of Sportypix click here.