MANDALE Harriers, having failed in a bid to amalgamate with Middlesbrough and Cleveland Harriers, have dropped a bombshell by applying to change their name to Middlesbrough AC - and the move has been ratified by the North of England Athletic Association.

The flourishing Teesside outfit was ready to join forces with their arch-rivals in a bid to form one of the strongest athletics clubs in the North-East, but although nearly 65 percent of Middlesbrough and Cleveland members voted in favour of the merger at an EGM last month it narrowly failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority.

The Mandale committee had already been mandated to proceed by club members, who were overwhelmingly in favour of the amalgamation, but were stopped in their tracks by Middlesbrough and Cleveland's hair's breadth rejection.

Now Mandale, who wish to be instantly identified as a Middlesbrough-based club, have also received the blessing of the North Eastern Counties Athletics Association to change their name from Mandale Harriers & AC (Cleveland) to Middlesbrough Athletic Club (Mandale). Their application was approved by the North of England AA in Leeds earlier this week.

Bill McGuirk, chairman of the NECAA, said: "We see no objection to Mandale changing their name to identify themselves with their home town.

"There is already a club called Middlesbrough and Cleveland Harriers, but there are several towns and cities, including Liverpool, Hull and Sunderland, which have two or more clubs bearing a place name."

It is expected that the club will be known simply as Middlesbrough AC in the various track and field competitions they enter this summer.

* Morpeth Harrier Rob Holladay will defend his title in Sunday's 20th Yuill Homes Redcar Half Marathon, which incorporates the North-East championship. The organisers are confident of reaching 1,000 entries for the event which will start at 10.30am, being preceded by a wheelchair race (10am).