Report by Bill Laws, pictures by Patricia Mead

Match 4, Barnet Copthall Stadium, 13 August 2008

Down and out of the Premiership!

Above: James Kelly - a second B 5000m win and his fourth BAL Premiership outing over the distance this summer.

Big problems and the match hadn’t started yet

Our poor result in Match 3 meant that the chances of avoiding relegation were slim. We would need a full strength team to be confident of bouncing back and we already knew that Mark Allen would be unavailable due to family commitments. Imagine the state of the team managers when in the week before this match first Scot Thompson pulled out and then Louis Evling-Jones – both due to injury. Bearing in mind these three have been our big multi event point scorers (together they contributed 79 points in Match 2) then you get the scale of the problem. It would have been easy to rollover and call it a day but the call went out and the troops responded.

New faces and golden oldies help out

Our first new face was Sam Colgate who had been given clearance to vault for Belgrave thanks to the positive support of his previous club Woking AC. And Sam responded by equalling his season’s best to win the B event while Cameron Johnston matched with good points in the A. So, great points in the pole vault and a good start. Very senior veteran Chris Privett provided support in the hammer, discus and shot to scrape precious B points while veteran Abi Ekoku cancelled other plans and arrived to give us further points in the A discus and shot. Abi has not trained or thrown a discus for over twelve months and his near 47m effort was truly impressive. Mick Jones (yes another veteran) arrived early and gained an excellent fourth spot in the A hammer.

Then the ups and downs

With all our specialist long jumpers injured Gary Wilson and Dave Wellstead were drafted into the long jump which benefited from following winds of up to 5.5m/sec. Unfortunately they both trailed in last in the A and B in what turned out to be a high class competition won with a windy 8.12 metres! While the jumpers benefited from a huge following wind the sprinters in the home straight were finding an equally large headwind daunting. Nonetheless Wade Bennett Jackson powered to a fine second spot in the A 100 and fourth place in the A 200. William Sharman completed his fourth win of the season in the sprint hurdles and gained third spot in the B 200. The 800m proved fast races but we achieved good points with Steve Davies finishing fourth in the A race and Neil Speight second in the B event. Steve then went on to gain a good second in the A 1500m while Mark Pollard also gained a valuable second place in the B 1500 in his best track race of the season.

Making his League debut of the season in his most detested event, the 3000 steeplechase, Will Cockerell joined Graham Hyett to scrape further valuable points but once again the 400m provided scant pickings.

We gained valuable points in the 1500m where Steve Davies (left) and Mark Pollard collected two second places. Below right: Gary Wilson returned to the triple jump with renewed vigour after his last leg relay run to leap a season's best.

Still in seventh spot we gained valuable points from the 1500m and then a third in the A 5000m from Simon Jones with James Kelly repeating his Match 3 win in the B 5000. Then Samson Oni won the A high jump with 2.25m which ironically was the same height Tom Parsons was to clear the following day (Sunday 17^th Aug) to reach the Beijing Olympic final. Ryan Dinham, who has been injured for 18 months and is about to resume training also turned up to support as best he could and was drafted into the B high jump, 100m B and 110H B but could not make the contribution we needed. But he came and his support was much appreciated by all. And our final debutant for the season was Wes Smith who 11 months ago broke his arm while throwing the javelin. Now recovered from surgery Wes flew in from Finland for his first competition since the accident and tentatively threw  just under 53m to back up James Everard  who gained a useful fourth in the A javelin. And suddenly the team was in fifth place ahead of rivals Shaftesbury Barnet and Birchfield.

The relays were getting close and once again it was looking difficult to put together a sprint relay squad. Determined to get the baton round for points the team management pulled Gary Wilson out of the first round of the triple jump. He had never run a 100m before let alone a relay so was placed on the last leg where he only had to receive the incoming baton. Wade led off, handing over to William Sharman on the back straight. William, boosted by a strong tail wind surged into the lead and handed to 400m man Ryan Thomas. Ryan ran a great bend and handed to Gary who took the baton, no problem, and proceeded to tear down the home straight with enormous strides to gain an unbelievable third spot against well rehearsed specialist sprint teams. Gary then returned to the TJ buoyed by his triumph and leaped a season's best to gain second in the A event. It was now very close. We had the beating of Birchfield but also needed to beat Shaftesbury Barnet who were busy gaining massive points winning both A and B triple jumps. Sadly our weakness in the long relay showed where we trailed in last of seven teams. At the last knockings we had failed to catch Shaftesbury by just six points. Disappointment reigned in the Belgrave camp but also there was a tinge of incredulity in so far as this mix and match team had come so close to pulling off an incredible escape.

Demoted we are. Unlucky in losing so many key men in this match we were. But in all honesty it was the general lack of success in earlier matches which had brought us to this point.

100m: 2 W Bennett-Jackson 10.68/-2.0; 8 R Dinham 15.05/-6.7. 200m: 4= W Bennett-Jackson 22.15/-4.7; 3 W Sharman 22.25/-3.2. 400m: 8 R Thomas 49.82; 6 P Burkart 50.42. 800m: 4 S Davies 1:50.40; 2 N Speaight 1:52.97. 1500m: 2 S Davies 3:52.94; 2 M Pollard 3:55.74. 5000m: 3 S Jones 14:43.29; 1 J Kelly 14:49.55. 3000mSC: 6 G Hyett 9:47.46; 6 W Cockerell 10:22.19. 110mH: 1 W Sharman 14.17/-4.2; 8 R Dinham 17.16/-3.9. 400mH: 7 S Reidy 55.68; 4 J-C Roghi 54.67. HJ: 1 S Oni 2.25; 8 R Dinham 1.50. LJ: 8 G Wilson 6.76w/3.4; 8 D Wellstead w/2.7. TJ: 2 G Wilson 14.73w/1.5; 6 D Wellstead 13.31w/2.5. PV: 4= C Johnston 4.60; 1 S Colgate 4.60. SP: 6 A Ekoku M40 13.76; 8 C Privett M45 9.88. DT: 6 A Ekoku M40 46.61; 7 C Privett M45 32.66. JT: 4 J Everard 57.78; 5 W Smith 52.97. HT: 4 M Jones M45 62.16; 7 C Privett M45 38.82. 4x100m: 3 Belgrave 41.75 (W Bennett-Jackson, W Sharman, R Thomas, G Wilson). 4x400m: 7 Belgrave 3:19.82 (P Burkart 50.9, N Speaight 50.2, M Anukam 50.2, R Thomas 48.6).

Match: 1 Newham & Essex Beagles 356; 2 Woodford Green wEL 304; 3 City of Manchester 291; 4 Enfield & Haringey 279; 5 Shaftesbury Barnet H 268; 6 Belgrave H 262; 7 Birchfield H 250; 6 ; 8 Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow 157.

Above: Ryan Thomas takes the baton from Will Sharman in the sprint relay which saw the Bels snatch a surprising third place.

Above: Left. Darren Gauson returned to the scene of the 2007 race that put him out of action for six months when he was tripped and badly injured - 2008 saw him take third place in the 1500m. Centre: First time in the team and close to a personal best for steeplechaser Graeme Hyett. Right: Mark Pollard ran to second in the B 1500 having already filled a gap in the 800m.

Match 3, Barnet Copthall Stadium, 2 August 2008

Deep in the mire

Injury epidemic brings us down

Belgrave has eight sub 10.8 sprinters but on the day before this match only two were available for competition. On match day this had fallen to just James Ellington as Darren Chin had pulled an abductor doing Friday evening start practice. But worse still was to come; James had a trapped sciatic nerve which reduced his stride length. As a result of these woes the sprints produced meagre points and we couldn’t even get a sprint relay squad to the start line. And it didn’t end there. Set Osho, running the B100, tweaked a back injury and pulled out of the A400m. New member Ryan Preddy sportingly moved up to cover but not surprisingly struggled to match exalted company. Junior Melvyn Anukum was drafted into the B400m at the last moment and also ran in a scratch long relay team which did well to manage fifth spot.

Matt Douglas pulled a hamstring in the A400H and limped at walking pace for a few precious points. Jean-Charles Roghi ran well for third place in the B400H.

And the injuries weren’t confined to the sprinters as Scot Thompson pulled out of the shot after his first throw which tweaked an old injury and multi-eventer, Louis Evling Jones, struggled through the long and high jumps with Achilles tendon problems – yet somehow managed to gain a fine second spot in the B110H after William Sharman had continued with his third win in the A event for us this season. At last some good sprint points.

Traffic problems didn’t help

Those who travelled early to this joint fixture (with UKWL Div 1) found the traffic easy. But just one hour later and the M1 and M25 were gridlocked. The hammer was a bit later than usual in the programme and Mick Jones got stuck in this traffic finally giving up and returning home as we informed him by phone that the final cut after the third round had taken place. Mark Allen only got one throw in and finished way down in the A event. Earlier, Scot Thomson arrived after the discus had started so missed that event and Samson Oni arrived after the start of the high jump and competed without warm up. The team managers had seen nothing like it in 30 years!

With several of our regular middle distance men unavailable a newish look distance squad produced a welcome rush of points. Phil Burkart stepped down a distance to get fourth spot in the A800m while Mark Pollard running round for points in the B800m fought hard for fifth. Mark went on to gain second in the B1500m while Darren Gauson, making a welcome return, took the lead in the A1500m only to get pipped down the home straight. Simon Jones and James Kelly made it a double victory in the A and B 5000 to produce maximum points. New member Graeme Hyett brought respectability to the ‘chase, finishing close to his best in a good class field; but no B runner meant more squandered points.

Our sole pole vaulter Cameron Johnston fought hard for a season’s best of 4.60m and spearman James Everard, body still aching from injury sustained while high jumping in BAL3, was close to 60m to place 4th.

But when the final count was announced, Belgrave were down in an unenviable seventh spot just a tantalising 24 points off fifth place. It was a case of “what might have been” on a day when nothing went right. Relegation beckons.

100m: 4 J Ellington 10.78/-1.8; 8 S Osho 11.61/-1.0. 200m: 8 J Ellington 22.38/-0.6; 5 W Sharman 22.02/+0.7. 400m: 8 R Preddy 48.90; 8 M Anukam 52.09. 800m: 4 P Burkart 1:52.93; 5 M Pollard 1:56.07. 1500m: 3 D Gauson 3:51.41; 2 M Pollard 3:58.00. 5000m: 1 S Jones 14:34.67; 1 J Kelly 14:52.93. 3000mSC: 7 G Hyett 9:47.71. 110mH: 1 W Sharman 13.95/-0.3; 2 L Evling Jones 14.71/-0.8. 400mH: 8 M Douglas 71.60; 3 J-C Roghi 54.37. 4x400m: 5 Belgrave 3:19.88 (R Preddy 49.2, J-C Roghi 50.4, Melvyn Anukam 50.9, S Osho 49.4). HJ: 2 S Oni 2.15; 7 L Evling-Jones 1.85. LJ: 6 L Evling-Jones 6.94/1.1; 5 G Wilson 6.94w/3.2. TJ: 4 G Wilson 13.90/-1.9; 5 D Wellstead 13.22/0.4. PV: 6 C Johnston 4.60. SP: 5 M Allen 15.57; 1 S Thompson 15.06. DT: 6 L Marar 49.43; 5 M Allen 43.90. JT: 4 J Everard 59.94; 6 S Thompson 40.98. HT: 7 M Allen 50.57.

Match: 1 Newham & Essex Beagles 363; 2 Woodford Green wEL 314; 3 Enfield & Haringey 313; 4 Shaftesbury Barnet H 306; 5 Birchfield H 255; 6 City of Manchester 231; 7 Belgrave H 231; 8 Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow 128.

Above: Louis Evling-Jones was struggling with a sore Achilles tendon but nevertheless placed 2nd in the B sprint hurdles. Simon Jones was in great fettle, going to the front early and then running away from the 5000m field.

Match 2, Thames Valley Athletic Centre, Eton, 5 July 2008

Above great points came in the throws.  Scot Thompson (left) placed 4th in the A shot and discus and 6th in the B javelin. Mark Allen (right) won the B shot and hammer, and took 3rd in the B discus.

Swirling winds gusting to 5m/sec were to have a big effect on the track performances at this second Premiership match. All clubs had very different teams from the tough first match in Birmingham due to losing athletes to several clashing overseas events. Belgrave were struggling like many others and fielded a small team of just 23 athletes including three making their debuts at this level. Our hopes were not high!

Mark Allen - a revelation

However a good start saw the team leading after just three events. Mick Jones made a welcome return as the hammer led off proceedings. Mark Allen, who had spent three months earlier in the year joining William Sharman under the command of John Anderson filming Gladiators for Sky TV, had promised us good results from a truncated training regime. And what a revelation! He produced a series of throws each progressively beating his previous best ending up with a 59.54m mark which added over 6m to his best and won the B event by 15m. Buoyed by this he moved to the discus, and got one throw in to gain third in the B event while at the same time starting the high jump and reached a respectable 1.80m before setting his sights on the shot where a 15.45m effort was good enough to win the B event. A total of 36 points from Mark, which were to play a big part in the team exceeding the predicted targets set by the team managers. The other two members of our throws squad also performed valiantly with Scot Thompson throwing a big season’s best of 54.12m to gain fourth in the A discus, 15.92m for fourth in the A shot and 46.97m for sixth in the B javelin. Then James Everard contributed with a fifth spot in the A javelin and followed his previous match pole vault contribution with a high jump effort that gained points but again would have challenged a competent limbo dancer.

Above: newcomers to the team - Sean Reidy (left was 4th in the A 400 hurdles with Jean-Charles Roghi (right) 2nd in the B event.

22 points from the 400 hurdles

The track started much better than Match 1. First up was the 400 hurdles. Sean Reidy making his first appearance in Belgrave colours ran sensibly into a huge headwind down the back straight and finished fast moving from seventh to fourth over the last three hurdles. Jean Charles Roghi then added good points with a fighting second spot in the B event. Twenty two welcome points from an event which has proved a problem over recent years. Then the 800, with Neil Speaight winning the A race, moving from last to first down the home straight. In the B event Jon Blackledge had to take the lead on lap one as the swirling wind prevented any breakaways. Even then the bell was reached in only 58 secs. Normally this would have set up the fast finishers and sure enough Jon was gobbled up down the back straight but showed a welcome improvement to his finishing speed failing to get first spot by just .04sec. More excellent points!

Quality competition

Alex Nelson of City of Manchester won the 100m in a legal time of 10.38sec and completed the double by winning the 200m in 20.49sec which is a Premiership League record, an Olympic A standard qualifying time and the fastest legal time by a Brit this year. The wind was kind to the sprinters but such was the quality of the competition that Wade Bennett Jackson had to settle for fifth in the A 100m and sixth in the A 200m. Idi Akindele ran close to his pb’s gaining seventh in the B100m and a very creditable third in B 200m. William Sharman got us back to winning ways in the A high hurdles and Louis Evling-Jones gained a valuable second place in the B highs to keep the points flowing. But then just a trickle of points from the steeplechase where we had just one competitor and from the 5000 where James Kelly struggled with a thigh strain. The B 5000 man was James Fairbourn who also was making his first appearance at this level. Unfortunately the strong field prevented him from scoring more points. At other matches his 15.42sec effort would have more richly rewarded. Early days for this young man and he will be back fitter and faster. Another first timer, Philip Burkart, joined Stephen Sharp in the 1500, which again was wind effected, but more good points were added with solid third placings in both the A and B events. Sadly the only jumps event which came up to scratch was the TJ. Adrian Phillips competed with a thigh strain in the long jump and Gary Wilson went through the motions in his less favoured event but with David Wellstead rung 22 points out of the TJ. Cameron Johnston jumped solidly to get PV points but Louis Evling Jones failed three attempts at his opening 4.20 height and will need to iron out some wrinkles before next week’s decathlon trials.

Scratch squad takes the sprint relay

And at the end of an afternoon where we had fluctuated from first to fifth we came to the relays where we had insufficient specialists to give hope of many points. Some wheeling and dealing combined with a little arm twisting meant we could at least start relay teams. The 4 x 100 started with sprinters Wade and  Idi, with decathlete Louis Evling-Jones running the bend handing over to hurdler William Sharman, And while the hugely talented competing teams were making a hash of the early changeovers the Belgrave scratch squad looked as though they had been together for years. A series of smooth handovers meant that William was leading down the home straight chased by Daniel Plummer and Mark Findley who had earlier run 10.42 for third in the A 100. And much to his and everyone’s delight William prevailed. Not by much but a win is a win and we took the 16 points which moved the team to fourth spot. The long relay squad was equally disparate, with 1500m man, Philip Burkart, joining 800m winner Neil Speaight to back up Set Osho and Ryan Thomas who had run nearly identical times in the A and B 400. Set had finished seventh in the A 400 while Ryan had finished third in the B. So we weren’t expecting great things and again were pleasantly surprised with a storming fourth place in the long relay and in the match and in the League. We never fail to be surprised at the way results and league positions change from match to match. But there is one exception Newham and Essex Beagles are clear ahead and it would take a miracle for any other team to prevent them from taking the League title this year.

100m: 5 W Bennett-Jackson 10.55/0.6; 7 I Akindele 10.93/-0.5. 200m: 5 W Bennett-Jackson 21.36/0.8; 3 I Akindele 21.80w/3.0. 400m: 7 S Osho 48.76; 3 R Thomas 48.69. 800m: 1 N Speaight 1:52.25; 2 J Blackledge 1:55.16. 1500m: 3 S Sharp 3:55.39; 3 P Burkart 4:00.87. 5000m: 7 J Kelly 14:59.68; 8 J Fairbourn 15:41.90. 110mH: 1 W Sharman 13.77w/2.7; 2 L Evling-Jones 14.81w/3.2. 400mH: 4 S reidy 54.68; 2 JC Roghi 54.19. 3000mSC: 8 D Mason 10:48.79. HJ: 8 M Allen 1.80; 6 J Everard 1.50. LJ: 8 A Phillips 6.80w/4.3; 4 G Wilson 6.57/1.1. TJ: 4 G Wilson 14.20w/3.5; 1 D Wellstead 13.96w/2.2. PV: 4 C Johnston 4.40; - L Evling-Jones nh. SP: 4 S Thompson 15.92; 1 M Allen 15.45. DT: 4 S Thompson 54.12; 3 M Allen 47.02. JT: 5 J Everard 59.18; 6 S Thompson 46.97. HT: 4 M Jones M40 61.80; 1 M Allen 59.54. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave H 41.26 (W Bennett-Jackson, I Akindele, L Evling-Jones, W Sharman). 4x400m: 4 Belgrave H 3:20.28 (P Burkart 51.4, R Thomas, N Speaight, S Osho).

Match: 1 Newham & Essex Beagles 341; 2 City of Manchester 310; 3 Woodford Green wEL 308; 4 Belgrave H 289; 5 Enfield & Haringey AC 275; 6 Birchfield H 248; 7 Shaftesbury Barnet H 221; 8 Windsor SE&H 185.

Above: Just over 200m to go in the A 800m and Neil Speaight comes round the outside to launch his attack.

Match 1, Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, 8 June 2008

Below: In his second attempt at the height, high jumper Samson Oni came so close to clearing a lifetime best of 2.33m at Birmingham.  He'd already equalled his best ever and set a division record at 2.30m.

Above: William Sharman outruns Newham's Gianni Frankis in the sprint hurdles and clocks a season's best of 13.70. Below, left to right:  James Ellington had an indifferent start in the 100m and couldn't quite get back into contention in a race where 1/10th of a second covered 2nd to 6th places. Wade Bennett-Jackson placed second in the B 100m.  Winner of the B non-scoring 100m and 4th in the B 200m was Jason Hussain with 10.87 and 21.58.

Samson Oni - Olympic qualifying height

The League organisers were rewarded with a high class competition which produced a number of excellent performances, a host of pb’s and one Olympic A standard performance from our own Samson Oni.

But for Belgrave the situation was not so rosy. At least twelve key A string men were unavailable and with a points prediction of 281 our best hope was a solid fifth place. But even that was to prove optimistic. We started badly.

Our first three events, the hammer, pole vault and long jump were expected to yield just 32 points out of a possible maximum A and B string total of 84. Spearman James Everard insisted on vaulting for a point and cleared a height that would have proved a challenge for a competent limbo dancer. Add to that our B string long jumper had three fouls and the points amassed to a meagre 27. We were in seventh spot.

A rewarding day for Louis ... a season's best for William

But 2007 AAA’s champion decathlete Louis Evling-Jones was at the start of a rewarding days work. First a pb in the A string long jump (7.38) then a 1.90m high jump which he had to curtail in order to race the B high hurdles earning an excellent third spot in another huge pb of 14.49 sec. To cap a good day’s work he led off the long relay to hand over in second spot. And to add good points we had two of the best performances of the day as first Samson Oni decimated the high jump field to record an Olympic qualifying A standard height of  2.30m into a tricky headwind; he missed 2.33m by the narrowest of margins to promise even greater feats in the future.  And just before this William Sharman posted a huge season’s best to win the A high hurdles in 13.70 sec. Even more bouncy than usual he was rewarded with last leg in the long relay and to the surprise of everyone he held form to the line but was completely shattered in the process. He was silent for about 2 minutes afterwards which was another record. The sport needs more characters like William. In the 400m hurdles Matt Douglas made a return after a horrendous 18 months dogged by injury. Treating his first track outing as a training day he worked hard, adding the B400 and long relay to his schedule. Fortunately he emerged unscathed.  Jean-Charles Roghi made his debut for Belgrave in the B 400m hurdles and gained an encouraging fifth place.

Above left: Jonathan Blackledge (1) finished strongly in the 800m to squeeze past Andy Brown of Woodford Green wEL (8) for third place, but Frank Baddick (Newham & Essex Beagles 5) jumped them both. Above right: Dave Mason (11) and Alex Bodin tackle the steeplechase. It was Alex's first run over the barriers and his 10:13.07 will surely be reduced.

Alex takes up the challenge

On the track Jon Blackledge moved down in distance to gain third spot in the A 800. Joe van de Toorn found himself in what was to be a faster race in the B 800m going through in 53 sec and predictably suffering from 200m out. He will have learnt a lot from that and will soon be reducing his best times. Steve Sharp left his surge in the 1500m too late but moved from sixth to second in the home straight while junior Nick Goolab, in his first BAL match, showed a similar turn of speed to be rewarded with a pb and third in the B race. Mark Pollard had been due to race the 1500 but moved up to the 5000m to cover a late withdrawal. Sadly the extra distance and heat took its toll and he drifted back after a forceful start. James Kelly held up better in the trying conditions to gain a creditable third in the A race. Steeplechasers are as rare as hen’s teeth so youngster Alex Bodin has taken up the challenge and in his first race over the barriers clocked a creditable 10min13sec which should be suitably reduced in his next outing.

Above: Dwain Chambers (1) ran 10.28 in the non-scoring 100m, chased by Martin Blencowe (11).

Fastest 100 of the day

The sprints provided much interest. Dwain Chambers ran the fastest 100 of the day in the non scoring A guest race which also saw the first appearance of Martin Blencowe who has just returned from studies in the USA.  Jason Hussain won the B guest 100m and gained fourth in the match B 200m. Chris Lambert struggled in the A 200 and appeared to have an injury. He withdrew from the sprint relay and Jason stepped in to complete a quartet led off by Dwain Chambers which was pipped by a good Newham squad who ducked under 40 secs but nonetheless we recorded our fastest time for a number of years. The other sprint squad members James Ellington and Wade Bennett Jackson had earlier found the match 100’s of high quality where fractions of a second meant the difference between first and last.

The throws failed to amass their usual number of points but it was good to see Scot Thompson adding to his total with good efforts in the shot, discus and javelin. Mark Allen made a welcome return after a break.

All in all a below par performance but at least one place better than the opening match last year. We’ll give the team managers another chance to get it right in match 2 at Windsor on 5^th July. Be there!!

Samson Oni won “man of the match” as part of the UKA Challenge which incorporates BAL matches and other meetings. His cheque is no doubt winging to him as you read this.