Report by Bill Laws, pictures by Patricia and Alan Mead, John Powell and Leo Coy.

Match 1  Match 2  Match 3  Match 4  All-time Belgrave BAL points scores Rankings on points scored for 2009

Match 4, Derby, 22 August 2009 

On his way back to full fitness, Dan Mulhare ran 14:49.97 for 2nd in 5000 metres after he'd already notched up 3rd place and 3:53.78 for 1500 metres.

Back to the Premiership

With promotion assured we expected problems in motivating athletes and sure enough Monday’s weak team became even weaker by Friday and on the day injuries reduced us to a bunch of walking wounded.

On two occasions Belgrave have sent teams with as few as 18 members into the fray. This time we were 16 until spectator Paul Beaumont volunteered to fill gaps so we were ended up with 17. The match format and events uncannily mirrored those of the first match at Abingdon. Ten weeks had passed and here we were with a joint fixture with BAL Div 3. Once again strong in the throws yet not so strong elsewhere. With 34 individual events to cover plus the 2 relays this was to be a test for our squad of Spartans. The absence of our two top decathletes focused the minds as battle commenced – the aim to top the league ahead of a resurgent WSEH who could still pull a flanker.

Left: Pole vaulter Sam Colgate had a massive clearance at 4.20m - but then didn't go any higher.

Below: Mark Wiseman was made man of the match for his 54.34m discus throw.

A curate’s egg

Following negotiations at the team hotel B string horizontal jumps man Joe Evling-White lined up with Sam Colgate for the opening event, the pole vault. Joe had been a good junior decathlete (one of John Anderson’s squad who had been a big points scorer in Belgrave’s junior teams 5 years ago) and has recently returned from walkabout in South America. Unfit but keen, his first attempt at an opening height bombed. Then a Border athlete wiped one of the uprights delaying the competition by 20 minutes. The delay seemed to work wonders for Joe who was able to withdraw from the competition after clearing 3.20m for third in the B string. Sam waited patiently to enter at 4.20, had a massive first time clearance and then failed to progress; but better than expected points in the pole vault. Meanwhile Mark Wiseman (fresh from his medal haul at the World Masters) winged the discus to 54.34m, a distance which was to gain him the man of the match award. Three weeks earlier Mark Allen had thrown in great pain. Now he showed he was on the way to recovery by winning the B event. Maximum points!

The first track events were, like the curate’s egg – good in parts. Better points came in the 400 hurdles. Sean Reidy finished fourth in the A string while Matt Douglas who claimed to have trained twice last week set a season’s best to gain second spot in the B race. Sean was a bit disappointed with his time and was rewarded by being promoted to the A string 400, A string 110H and lead off man in the sprint quartet. Matt was rewarded with the A800, high jump and sprint hurdles. But his illusion of fitness was found out in the 800 where he went with the pace for 100m, looked OK at the bell and then jogged what he described as the hardest lap of his life. His match was over as new joint team manager John Powell submitted the first of the days 12 change of competitor slips. Two very slow last places in the 800 were followed by disappointments in the 100m. First Captain James Ellington eased out of the blocks, accelerated into the lead and eased over the last 10m for second place. He reported a ham string problem and couldn’t contest the 200m later. The same thing happened in the B race to Set Osho. Long jumper Jodie Chappell was drafted into the A200m while Jason Hussain back from injury and who had planned to run an easy B400 found himself risking all in the B200.

A rollercoaster ride

As the afternoon moved on and the points scores were periodically announced it was becoming clear that Gateshead had put a strong team together and would win by large margin. But all the remaining teams were posting good and poor results so that at any time less than 20 points covered seven teams. The result would go to the wire. There was some brighter news from the track where in the 1500m we lined up two members of our champion road relay team. Dan Mulhare has missed most of the season due to injury and had agreed to test his fitness by running the 1500m and the 5000m, events separated by only 55minutes. In the 1500m Dan was joined by UK junior 3000m champion Nick Goolab. Dan had left Edinburgh on the 7.30am train and arrived in good time for the 1500 race (combined A and B). Starting in the pack with Nick on his shoulder Dan moved through as the pace wound up to finish an excellent third in the A race behind Gateshead’s Ryan McCloud. Nick raced well to gain more valuable points, finishing second in the B event. Dan seemed to have recovered well as the 5000m race got under way. Aware that training had been limited he took the lead with 5 laps to go only to be caught on the last lap by Notts AC’s Martin Whitehouse. Mal Byansi scored good points in a slow Brace.

Marks of distinction

While points in the track events were progressing in fits and starts the throws specialists were having a field day.  Mark Wiseman added a B shot win and a fourth in the B javelin to bring his points total to 34 for the day. But the team contribution came from Mark Allen with first in the A shot, first in the B discus, third in the A hammer, seventh in the A javelin plus sixth in the B high jump. Five events and a highest ever one match total for Belgrave of 48 points put Mark in the record books.

With Tom Gardner making a good scoring debut to gain third in the A high jump, plus some useful points from the triple jumpers, we had somehow covered all events except the B chase.

A squad of walking wounded then carried the baton around for a few extra points in the sprint relay but the long relay proved a challenge to far.

Premiership return

And at the final count we had returned to the Premiership in style. The final League points totals indicated that it been a clear win. But we knew that WSEH had struggled too on the day and it all could have been a lot tighter. With the predicted demotion of Trafford and the surprise demotion of Sheffield from the Premiership next year’s matches should be more Southern based which hopefully will encourage greater support from our athletes. John Powell is on a mission to ensure we assemble bigger and better teams to take the challenge forward. He’s behind you!

Footnote. Great to see so many old friends at the Derby meeting. Ireland based past joint team manager Leo Coy is holidaying with his family in Norfolk and drove over to support and photo the team. Coaching legend John Anderson came to oversee Mark Allen’s efforts and remade contacts with Joe Evling-White who will be embarking on a schedule set by John for next year. And Dave Denton who runs the Epsom race series plus the Nonsuch relays chewed over old times on a day when the sun shone and all was well with the world.

100m: 2 J Ellington 10.66/-0.9; 3 S Osho 11.21/0.3. 200m: 7 J Chappell 23.08/?; 8 J Hussain 24.14/0.1. 400m: 5 S Reidy 51.03; 6 J Hussain 52.24. 800m: 8 M Douglas 2:51.47; 7 P Beaumont M40 2:32.60. 1500m: 3 D Mulhare 3:53.78; 2 N Goolab 3:55.91. 5000m: 2 D Mulhare 14:49.97; 5 M Byansi 16:36.84. 110mH: 8 S Reidy 15.85/-0.7; 8 P Beaumont M40 20.39/0.1. 400mH: 4 S Reidy 54.01; 2 M Douglas 54.41. 3000mSC: 6 M Morgan 10:07.35. HJ: 3 T Gardner U20 1.90; 6 M Allen 1.75. LJ: 5 J Chappell 6.65; 5 J Evling-White 5.77. TJ: 4 D Wellstead 13.98; 4 J Evling-White 12.89. PV: 4 S Colgate 4.20; 3 J Evling-White 3.20. SP: 1 M Allen 15.32; 1 M Wiseman M40 15.08. DT: 1 M Wiseman M40 54.34; 1 M Allen 44.19. JT: 7 M Allen 49.92; 4 M Wiseman M40 43.74. HT: 3 M Allen 57.21; 2 M Richards 53.75. 4x100m: 6 Belgrave 43.86 (S Reidy, S Osho, J Chappell, J Ellington).

Match result: Gateshead H & AC 381; 2 Basingstoke & MH AC 323; 3 Kent AC 291; 4 Belgrave H 272; 5 Notts AC 260; 7 Windsor, Slough Eton & Hounslow AC 241; 8 Border H 136.

Above: South Coaster Jody Chappell had a nine hour journey but his jumping kept the Bels in the hunt.  Kyle McCarthy covered five events - including two 400 metre runs. Spearman James Everard also filled in at high jump, pole vault and hammer! Photos by John Powell.

Match 3, Gateshead, 1 August 2009

Promotion secured

With several of our athletes living on the south coast, travelling to Gateshead was always going to be provide logistical problems. Cars seemed to be the favoured mode of transport. Numerous road works and speed restrictions are the constant bane of travel in the UK and once again the M25 is suffering at the hands of civil engineers. Longest recorded journey time was by Jody Chappell who slated a nine hour trip. But then we heard the Windsor team coach had lost a wheel on the M1 and their journey time was a record setting eleven hours! Who says League athletics is fun?

John Powell joined Bill Laws to manage a team which became smaller and smaller as the week progressed. Eventually 18 hardy souls presented themselves for competition at a rain spattered and very windy Gateshead track. In conditions more like autumn than summer the match was to yield yet another fighting victory from a team which just wants to win.

Frantic chase to keep all events covered

Match 2 had seen major points accumulated by the throws squad. We knew this match would not have top shot and discus man Mark Wiseman who was busily defending his world masters titles in Finland. Then Mark Allen called to report injury but pluckily drove up to take standing throws in the hammer, shot and discus. His normal massive total of A string points became much smaller but nonetheless made an essential contribution. Top hammer man Matthew Richards too had pulled out two days earlier, again with injury, so the hammer team was completed by javelin specialist James Everard who also pole vaulted and high jumped for points. Decathletes Louis Evling-Jones and Kyle McCarthy added nine events between them in a frantic chase to keep all events covered.

Sprinters set the pace

On the track the sprinters set the pace with James Ellington defeating strong fields in the 100m and 200m, recording impressive times in head winds which had been gusting up to 4.5 m/sec. Set Osho stepped down to win the B100 and almost got up for a win in the 200m. Louis Evling-Jones gained an unexpected third spot in the A400 to add more points. Mark Pollard and Shaun Moralee were caught out for speed in the 800’s but made amends with good points in the 1500’s. They then ran legs in the long relay as the shortage of numbers finally told on a weary squad. In the 5000m James Kelly got a rare win over Simon Jones who had not interrupted a high mileage training schedule but again, much better points from our middle distance men. Graeme Hyett made a welcome return in the steeplechase and had hoped that his heavy army training would have given him some fitness. Sadly this was not to be and he suffered along with Matthew Morgan who went off too fast and paid the price.

The wind caused all kinds of problems for the hurdlers but Will Sharman, despite his late call up for the World Champs., produced another clear win in the 110H A event backed by Kyle McCarthy’s third spot in the B race. Earlier an unfit Matt Douglas finished a creditable 5th in the A 400H but in the B Paul Beaumont tripped over a hurdle but had the presence of mind to stay in lane and finish. At 46 years of age we keep saying farewell to Paul but he keeps coming back when needed.

The highlight of the jumps was Sam Colgate’s win in the A pole vault with a season’s best of 4.63m. Also jumping a season’s best was Jody Chappell in the last round of the long jump with Kyle winning the B. Jody also triple jumped and his partner, Joe Evling-White made his debut in the senior team having been a major player in our junior teams of six years ago. The high jump competition clashed with the sprint hurdles, shot and javelin due to timetable drift, so we gained fewer points than hoped as neither Kyle nor James could get back for the higher heights.

All afternoon there had been big variations to the team positions as each club appeared to follow a good event with a poor one. As the relays approached it was clear that Belgrave still could lose the winning spot they found themselves in after the passage of 34 events (17 A and 17 B). Jody Chappell ran the second bend as he joined the three specialist sprinters in the short relay. Will Sharman led off with a fine effort out of the blocks. A fumbled handover to Set Osho, but then a good back straight saw Jody take the baton safely running a good bent to transfer to James Ellington who was fully 8m down on the Kent AC man. Another display of top class sprinting from James saw the gap close, slowly at first but then more rapidly as he saluted the anticipated victory. Dragging tired bodies to a better than expected 7th spot the long relay men concluded another memorable win. A moment of celebration and for some the long slog home knowing that promotion back to the Premiership had been secured.

100m: 1 J Ellington 10.66/-3.5; 1 S Osho 11.04/-3.6. 200m: 1 J Ellington 21.44/-1.7; 2 S Osho 22.02/-3.4. 400m: 3 L Evling-Jones 48.57; 5 K McCarthy 51.05. 800m: 5 S Moralee 1:52.63; 6 M Pollard 1:57.47. 1500m: 3 S Moralee 3:56.16; 2 M Pollard 3:58.02. 5000m: 4 J Kelly 14:43.02; 1 S Jones 14:43.66. 110mH: 1 W Sharman 14.30/-1.8; 3 K McCarthy 15.73/-1.9. 400mH: 5 M Douglas 55.49; 8 P Beaumont 78.97. 3000mSC: 6 M Morgan 10:18.34; 4 G Hyett 10:43.98. HJ: 5= K McCarthy 1.83; 6 J Everard 1.73. LJ: 3 J Chappell 6.90w/4.4; 1 K McCarthy 6.69w/3.1. TJ: 5 J Evling-White 12.81/0.4; 4 J Chappell 12.21/1.0. PV: 1 S Colgate 4.63; 6 J Everard 2.40. SP: 5 M Allen 12.77; 3 L Evling-Jones 12.03. DT: 5 L Evling-Jones 43.93; 5 M Allen 37.33. JT: 6 J Everard 56.11; 3 L Evling-Jones 47.68. HT: 8 J Everard 23.02; 7 M Allen 21.64. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 41.44 (W Sharman, S Osho, J Chappell, J Ellington). 4x400m: 7 Belgrave 3:32.47 (M Douglas, K McCarthy, S Moralee, M Pollard).

Match result: 1 Belgrave H 306; 2 Windsor SE&H 288; 3 Gateshead H 287; 4 Kent AC 283; 5 Basingstoke &MH 259; 6 Liverpool 272; 7 Notts AC 249; 8 Border H 247.

Below: Star of the show was James Ellington with a 100m/200m 'A' string double and a scintillating run on last leg of the sprint relay. Regular 5000m runner James Kelly (22) was joined by Simon Jones (2). Photos by John Powell.

Match 2, Thames Valley Athletic Centre, 4 July 2009

Above: Set Osho cruised to a 47.6sec win in the A string 400 metres.

Above: Moving up the all-time points rankings in a big way, Mark Allen scores heavily in every match. At Eton he was 2nd in the B hammer and winner of the B discus and shot - 34 points! Photo by Derek Riley.

We're on course

A good result from match two to consolidate our number one position was the target as team managers checked on the availability of key athletes in the two weeks prior to the Eton meeting. As National 12 stage road relay champions we have always been able to be competitive from the 800m upwards. But numerous text messages and emails soon showed that a shock was in store. Overseas races plus several injuries ruled out most of our middle distance stars. The result was that we started the match with no B race competitors in the 800m, 1500m, and 3000s/c. Indeed if recent dad Will Cockerell had not stepped in at the last minute we may have had no B runner in the 5000m. Fortunately in all other departments support was strong and winning still seemed a probability as pre match points estimate showed somewhere between  356  and 362 points were possible barring mishaps on the day. But - there were mishaps.

It started so well with Matthew Richards again getting second in the A hammer backed by Mark Allen’s second place in the B. Mark went on to bag huge points by winning both the B shot and B discus as Mark Wiseman confirmed himself as a valuable addition to the team by winning the A discus and gaining bronze in the A shot. Later in the day the final throws event, the javelin, was to see the welcome return of Wes Smith competing for the first time since he broke his arm throwing in 2007. He finished second in the B while James Everard relished the high standard by registering a 62.29m effort for fourth in the A. Combined, the four throwing disciplines had pulled in a massive 96 points from a possible maximum of 112 points.

Above left: Big points from the big men - Matthew Richards and Mark Allen earned a second place each in the hammer. Above right: All eyes on Gary Wilson as he opens his long jump account.

Below left: Kyle McCarthy damaged his hand in pole vault practice two days earlier but it didn't slow him down in the hurdles where he placed 3rd in the B event. Below right: Man of the match Will Sharman was the class act in the sprint hurdles. Photos by Derek Riley.

Electric timing system refused to operate

Two hours into the meeting the track started with the usual 400 hurdles. Sean Reidy ran a season’s best for third place in the A event but had to settle for a hand  timing as the electric timing system refused to operate – a situation which was not rectified for the rest of the match and caused much frustration. Matthew Threadgold struggled in the B but had run 2 seconds quicker two weeks earlier so clearly has time to get things sorted. In the following 100m races runners had the double aggravation of no wind speeds or electric timing. Good points accumulated in the A race with James Ellington, after a terrible start, getting edged into second by U23 Champion Rion Pierre. Wade Bennett-Jackson won the B 100 in the same time as Pierre but felt a slight hamstring pull and his day was over. William Sharman who had won the 110H by a huge 0.6 sec was drafted into the A200 to replace him and in his first race over this distance this year recorded a respectable 22.0sec while Jason Hussain racing in the BAL for the first time since a major operation in 2008 was pleased with his third spot in the B200 in 22.1. Later we were to gain maximum points in the 400m as the rejuvenated Set Osho cruised to a 47.6sec win in the A event and Louis Evling Jones stormed to a win in the B race with 48.7.

Disaster was hitting our jumps squad

Meanwhile disaster was hitting our jumps squad. In the long jump it started well with Gary Wilson finishing fourth in the A and Jody Chappell second in the B. But when Gary returned for his speciality event at which he is currently ranked 9th in the UK trouble struck. During warm up for the triple jump the 13m board was not secured and Gary twisted an ankle and he rightly decided not to take part in the competition bearing in mind next week’s trials. Jody replaced him, jumping in flats and he too picked up a slight injury. At about the same time Darvin Edwards injured his back without  clearing a height in the high jump. Decathlete Kyle McCarthy cleared 1.90m for what turned out to be third place in the A event before rushing to the B high hurdles where he ran a season’s best to gain another valuable third spot. Kyle competed with an injured hand which had resulted from a freak accident involving a pole breaking during vaults training. He was later to run the third leg in the long relay where again we finished third. A bit of pattern for him there! With Gary and Darvin bombing out, approximately 30 points went down the chute but the pole vault results redressed the balance as Sam Colgate (another returning from injury) gained second place in the A with 4.50m while the consistent Cameron Johnston won the B.

Middle distance races … a mere 33 points out of a possible 112

All afternoon Belgrave had slugged it out with hosts WSEH who had been having trouble with their middle distance events too. They out gunned us in these events but not by much. Mark Humphries tried hard to break his pb in the 800m going through the bell in 59sec but paid the price and finished at the back of the field. Richard Ward also came off the physio’s couch to be our sole representative in the 1500 and struggled to seventh place, but there was better news in the 3000 steeplechase where Matthew Morgan produced a solid third spot. However there were only four competitors in the B ‘chase with the third placer running 11min. 53 and last man 14min. 08 and with no B representative we missed out on some soft points. Without wishing to rub it in too much the four middle distance races had accumulated a mere 33 points out of a possible 112 which confirms that in most of the leagues the standard of middle distance races remains high and there is no easy race.

So to the last two events – the relays. By now Belgrave were leading WSEH by just 16 points, a nice buffer but disasters are never far away and it would need some cool thinking to see this one home safely. First the decision had to be made as to who would replace the injured Wade. After some head scratching the order was decided. Set Osho led off from lane 1 running a storming bend to hand to Jason Hussain just level with WSEH. Pierre ran a great back straight to open up a sizeable gap for our rivals but James Ellington moved into overdrive around the bend to pass the baton in the lead to William Sharman who needs no second invitation to show boat and milked the applause as this scratch team move 1.4 seconds clear of a good WSEH squad. 41.3 is highly respectable and is well up this years rankings.

Our lead was now 18 points as the final event, the long relay started. We couldn’t get caught but that did not stop fighting efforts from 18 year old Melvyn Anukam, Sean Reidy, Kyle McCarthy and Louis Evling-Jones who held on for third place in a respectable 3min 19.3secs. Our final points score was 333 giving a victory over WSEH of just 14 points. Well done to them. It had been an enjoyable roller coaster day of team athletics.

Man of the match was William Sharman whose 13.8sec 110H victory had equalled a long standing League 1 manual timed record held by Colin Jackson. If the electric timing had been available he would be the outright record holder now. That’s life!

Big thanks too to Jonas Dodoo for being the team’s sports therapist for the first time. He was thrown in at the deep end and looked after not only Belgrave athletes but also those from Gateshead who under a reciprocal arrangement will provide Belgrave athletes with physio cover at the next match in Gateshead. Put the date in your diary – Saturday Aug 1^st 2009.

100m: 2 J Ellington 10.6; 1 W Bennett-Jackson 10.5. 200m: 6 W Sharman 22.0; 3 J Hussain 22.1. 400m: 1 S Osho 47.6; 1 L Evling-Jones 48.7. 800m: 8 M Humphrey 2:06.4; no B competitor. 1500m: 7 R Ward 3:58.2; no B competitor. 5000m: 5 J Kelly 14:53.0; 5 W Cockerell 16:01.2. 110mH: 1 W Sharman 13.8; 3 K McCarthy 15.4. 400mH: 3 S Reidy 53.3; 6 M Threadgold 56.6. 3000mSC: 3 M Morgan 10:09.5; no B competitor. HJ: 3 K McCarthy 1.90; - D Edwards no ht. LJ: 4 G Wilson 6.63; 2 J Chappell 6.45. TJ: 5 D Wellstead 13.93; 6 J Chappell 11.03. PV: 2 S Colgate 4.50; 1 C Johnston 4.40. SP: 3 M Wiseman 14.94; 1 M Allen 14.82. DT: 1 M Wiseman 50.74; 1 M Allen 45.67. JT: 4 J Everard 62.29; 2 W Smith 49.22. HT: 2 M Richards 58.35; 2 M Allen 53.44. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 41.3 (S Osho, J Hussain, J Ellington, W Sharman). 4x400m: 3 Belgrave 3:19.3 (M Anukam U20 50.8, S Reidy 50.1, K McCarthy 49.6, L Evling-Jones 48.8.

Match result: 1 Belgrave H 333; 2 Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC 319; 3 Basingstoke & MH 285; 4 Kent AC 281; 5 Gateshead H 258; 6 Border H 249; 7 City of Liverpool 233.5; 8 Notts AC 218.5.

Above: Melvyn Anukam sets the 4 x 400m quartet off on first leg.  Sean Reidy hands the baton to Kyle McCarthy at the end of leg two. Division Secretary Ivor Wiggett hands the man-of-the-match award to William Sharman for his record equalling 13.8 in the high hurdles.

Below: Matthew Richards again took second place in the hammer but couldn't quite reach his 60.06 pb set in match one. Photo by Derek Riley.

Match 1, Abingdon, 6 June 2009

Above left : A personal record came for James Kelly (2) in the 5000 metres. Right: Jonathan Blackledge claimed the scalp of Notts AC's Richard Hill in the 800 metres with manually timed 1:50.9. Sadly the first three were missed by the photo finish equipment and Jonathan's personal best will therefore have to remain at 1:50.89. 

A heartening victory

Cold, showery, blustery weather was not conducive for good performances on this opening fixture of a new track and field season. Nonetheless some exhilarating competition resulted in two personal bests as Belgrave cruised to a heartening victory in a match which started controversially.

The double fixture with Div 3 meant an 11.00 o’clock start involving the discus and pole vault. As the vaulters warmed up it was becoming clear that there was insufficient adjustment on the uprights and sure enough the event had to be cancelled. Points were divided up amongst declared competitors and we lost a good opportunity to gain a good start. Cameron Johnston was less than impressed as he had missed the inter counties to be injury free for this; and our second string, decathlete Kyle McCarthy, had to delay his début for a few hours. The three vaulters who travelled down from Gateshead were not too pleased either. The discus was also proving tricky in steady rain but another welcome debutant for Belgrave, Mark Wiseman, used his vast experience to beat the conditions to reach 51.06m and win by over 6 metres as the rest floundered.

Glided through the field