THE BATTLE for the Start Fitness North-East Harrier League senior men's title has hotted up at the halfway stage of the season as Gateshead leap-frogged over arch-rivals Morpeth by winning the third fixture at Blaydon.

Led home by race-winner Ryan Stephenson, who took full advantage of a five minutes start with the slow pack to head the field by 66 seconds, Gateshead - winners in the opening fixture at East Cramlington and then losing out to the Northumbrians at Farringdon - turned in their best performance of the campaign so far, packing their six counters in the first 25 to finish 42 points clear of Morpeth to head the Division One table by one point.

Morpeth, despite being without most of their big guns, still provided the two fastest runners, scratch-markers Eoin Everard, who finished 31st overall, and Great Britain international Nick Swinburn, 37th.

In the women's race, Heaton Harriers, who have won the championship for the last four seasons, could lose their crown to Tynedale Harriers, who have won the last two fixtures to take a three point lead at the top of Division One. And defending women's grand-prix champion Jane Mooney now faces a challenge from new Morpeth clubmate Ashley Gibson, who was fastest from the scratch runners, giving away four minutes start at Blaydon. The race was won by Newcastle University's Rosie Tarbuck, who beat fellow slow-packer Kelly Dodds, of Heaton, by 64 seconds.

Selected results - Senior Men: 1 R Stephenson (Gateshead, Slow Pack +5 mins) 28 mins 33 secs; 2 M Proctor (SP) 29.39; 3 J Oliver (Sunderland, SP) 30.05. Fastest: 1 E Everard (Morpeth, Fast Pack, scr) 28.12; 2 N Swinburn (Morp, FP) 28.31; 3 R Stephenson 28.33.

Teams - Div 1: 1 Gateshead 47; 2 Morpeth 89; 3 Sunderland 136; 4 Heaton 159; 5 South Shields 178. Placings after three fixtures: 1 Gateshead 4 pts; 2 Morpeth 5; 3 Heaton 11; 4= Sunderland and South Shields 13.

Women: 1 R Tarbuck (Newcastle Univ, SP +4 mins) 22.54; 2 K Dodds (Heaton, SP) 23.48; 3 C Simpson (Chester-le-Street, Medium Pack +2 mins) 24.07. Fastest: 1 A Gibson (Morpeth, Fast Pack, scr) 21.12; 2 J Mooney (Morp, FP) 21.32; 3 C Simpson (ClS, MP) 22.07.

Teams - Div 1: 1 Tynedale 43; 2 Durham City 48; 3 Wallsend 55; 4 Heaton 64. Placings after three fixtures: 1 Tynedale 4 pts; 2 Heaton 7; 3= North Shields Poly and Durham City 13 pts.

n Chester-le-Street's Scottish cross country champion Freya Murray and Tynesider Ryan McLeod won automatic selection for next month's European Cross Country Championships by each finishing third in the McCain Cross Challenge and Trials at Sefton Park, Liverpool.

Murray (27 mins 32 secs) finished behind Hallamshire's Hatti Dean (27.05) and Charnwood's Gemma Steel (27.09), with Durham City Harrier Rosie Smith, the 2009 North-East cross country champion in 12th place (28.09).

Tipton Harrier McLeod, son of former Olympic Games 10,000m silver-medallist Mike McLeod, clocked 29 mins 24 secs for the 9.8K, behind Aldershot's defending champion Andy Vernon (29.19) and Bedford's Mark Draper (29.22). Morpeth's Jon Taylor was 11th in 29.53, with New Marske's Ricky Stevenson 17th (30.05) and Richard Morrell 36th (30.52).