Track and Field League
The Association organises Masters athletics competition in the North East of England for men and women. To be eligible to join NEMAA athletes must be aged 35 or over, be a member of a UK Athletics affiliated club, and have bona fide residence in, or were born within the counties of Northumberland, Durham, Tyne and Wear or Cleveland.
One of NEMAA’s main flagship competitions is a Track and Field Athletics League which runs from mid-May to early August. There are actually separate leagues for men and women, contested over six meetings, all of which take place on Monday evenings at Monkton Stadium in Jarrow. At each meeting there are seven or eight events, a mixture of track races, jumps, and throws, and athletes compete for points in 5 year age-categories from 35 upwards. As a club, Crook and District AC have enjoyed several successes in the past, although in more recent times the Leagues have been dominated by two much larger clubs, namely South Shields Harriers and Jarrow and Hebburn AC. In 2025 the Crook men’s team edged out Jarrow to clinch their first title since 2016, whilst the wome’s team finished runners up to South Shields.
This year, strengthened by an influx of new members and with more participants generally, Crook made a determined effort from the outset to secure both league titles, and when the season drew to its climax on August 3rd, that is exacly what we achieved. The Men’s team comfortably retained their League title with an emphatic victory which saw them smash the 1000 points barrier and set a massive winning margin of 420 points over their nearest challengers. This has to be the biggest margin of victory in the history of the NEMAA T & F League by a country mile.
The Women’s League was a much closer affair, resulting in a protracted battle between Crook and South Shields. The two clubs were on identical points after the first two meetings (with the rest of the opposition already well adrift), but from this point Crook gradually pulled away to win by what ultimately turned out to be a comfortable 113 point margin.
So the 2026 NEMAA Track and Field season concluded with Crook and District AC crowned as League Champions in both the Men’s and Women’s Team Grand Prix competitions. The club’s success may have been due in part to the opposition not turning out the same large numbers of competitors compared with previous years, but it was mostly down to the strength of the Crook squads in terms of both quality and quantity.
NEMAA Men’s Team Grand Prix (Final Standings)
NEMAA Women’s Team Grand Prix (Final Standings)
