Belgrave Harriers - Men's British Athletics League Division One

Belgrave's British League points scorers 2001

Reports by Bill Laws

Men's British Athletics League Division One - 2001

1	Belgrave H	1363.5	29
2	Birchfield H	1220	24
3	Woodford Green with Essex Ladies	1180.5	22
4	Newham & Essex Beagles	1062.5	18
5	Shaftesbury Barnet H	1074	17
6	Border AC	1042	15
7	Sale H Manchester	1009.5	15
8	Blackheath H	752	4

Train Spotting! Team members on Newcastle Railway Station.

Justin Chaston - the Man of the Match gets stuck into a can of local brew and a sausage roll.

Steve Sharp - all smiles after a brilliant 1500m win.

Deeth and Bayley - sprint dudes.

Photos by Pat Mead

Match 4, Jarrow, 18 August 2001.

It's Europe again as Bels. win British League for fifth successive year

All results are provisional.

Teams: 1 Shaftesbury Barnet H 341; 2 Belgrave H 332.5; 3 Sale H Manchester 307; 4 Border AC 290; 5 Birchfield H 281; 6 Woodford Green with Essex Ladies 253; 7 Newham & Essex Beagles 205.5; 8 Blackheath H 169.

100m: 3 D.Chinn 10.60/0.5; 2 G.Beasley 10.70/0.7. 200m: 3 G.Beasley 21.30/1.4; =7 I.Deeth 22.09/1.6. 400m: 4 G.Dearman 48.4; 2 T.Bayley 49.21. 800m: 8 R.Hayman 2:00.08; 8 P.Freary 2:12.5. 1500m: 1 S.Sharp 3:47.84; 1 A.Zawadski 3:48.21. 5000m: 2 S.Barden 14:08.96; 2 A.Stewart 14:51.43. 110mH: 3 N.Owen 14.42/1.6; 6 A.Bennett 19.44/3.3. 400m: 8 A.Bennett 56.33; 5 N.Owen 57.90. 3000mSC: 1 J.Chaston 8:46.29; 1 L.Hurst 9:26.60. HJ: S.Oni; J.Tuson hts not known. LJ: 3 D.Thompson 7.08/nt; 4 J.Tuson 6.54/-0.2. TJ: 7 F.Mepandy 14.10; J.Tuson 11.76. PV: 2 I.Tullett 5.00; 1 B.Flint 4.80. SP: 2 L.Newman 16.28; 7 K.Brown 11.97. DT: 3 K.Brown 51.76; 1 L.Newman 51.17. JT: 3 C.Green 66.73; 3 W.Smith 55.76. HT: 1 D.Smith 68.70; 2 J.Osazuwa 61.32. 4x100m: 4 Belgrave 42.22 (D.Chinn, I.Deeth, G.Beasley, G.Dearman). 4x400m: 3 Belgrave 3:14.8 (T.Bayley 49.3; I.Deeth 49.2, G.Beasley 47.8, G.Dearman 48.5).

Match 3, Eton, 7 July 2001.

White knuckle ride ahead - Birchfield and Woodford close the gap

This was the match where we intended to extend our lead at the top of Div. 1 thereby taking the pressure off the last fixture scheduled for Jarrow! Our first thoughts went to strengthening events which previously had produced few points. But unbeknown to us, it was to be the middle distance races that were to let us down badly. And the bad news of absentees increased as the countdown to match day proceeded.

We knew that Neil Speaight was taking time off from a heavy racing schedule. No worries, plenty of cover. Then Adam Zawadsky was offered an England vest for a match in Cork. No worries, plenty of cover. Then Alistair Mclean Foreman was offered an England vest for the match in Cork. A little worried, but still some cover. Then Jason Lobo also twinged a calf muscle in training. Oh dear, where's the cover? Well, the 'D' plan was to run Mark Miles in the A 800, with Spencer Barden doubling the 'B' 800 and 1500. Steve Sharp agreed to run the 1500 but had had 2 weeks off with a virus. And on the day, Spencer twinged a calf muscle after the 800, so no B 1500 runner. Oops! And for the 5000, Paul Freary phoned in to say he too had pulled a hamstring and was out of the 5000. So whereas in Match 2 the 400, 800, 1500 and 5000 had produced 108 points, this time they mustered only 47 points and the Match was already lost. But no criticism of the stalwarts who ran their hearts out. The standards were considerably higher with really good class competitions. It was good to see Geoff Dearman finally putting a decent 400 together, while Tim Bayley ran his normal gutsy race to get near to his pb with a 47.71 clocking. And our star in the 5000 was Alaster Stewart who ran another pb in a race won by Kenyan Ellvid Kirui. (Never heard of him? Us neither - another one of Birchfield's imports.) Kirui had previously won the steeplechase in which an out of sorts Kevin Nash finished a brave 4th.

Despite all efforts we couldn't fill the 'B' string slots in the ‘chase, nor the 400H B. In the A 400H, Matt Douglas was only caught by Duaine Ladejo on the line and although only 100ths of a second separated them, was given a hand timing of 49.9 to Dwaine's 49.8. But Matt was well pleased with his third sub 50 effort in 10 days.

Another pleased hurdler was Neil Owen who is improving steadily and ran a season's best with a legal 13.97 in the high hurdles.

In the long and triple jumps we missed Phillips Idowu who was nursing a heel injury while Darren Thompson was away warm weather training in Lanzarote. The long jump points were well down as Julian Flynn once again found it difficult to get near the take off board. But it was this year’s first time outings for Ben Challenger and Ben Flint that added respectability to the vertical jumps and producing near maximum points. Ben won the high jump with 2.20 and Ian Tullett finished just ahead of Ben as the pole vault was abandoned following a downpour.

As for the throws - the hammer, alias Mick and Dave, once again gave maximum points but only after Dave had two no throws and was threatening to miss the cut. Not the afternoon to be a team manager. Noteworthy in the javelin was the first appearance of Clifton Green, whose grandfather was none other than the celebrity and past member, Jimmy Green. In the meantime, the sprints were clocking up points as per our predictions. We were missing Chris Lambert, who was also in the England Cork team while the English Schools Championships had taken Tim Abeyi and Andrew Bennett plus many of our good youngsters. Nonetheless Graham Beasley ran well to get 2nd in the A 200, while Darren Chin ran very well to win the B 100. The sprint relay squad saw the welcome return of Matt Russell and the first appearance of Ian Deeth. This untried and very young squad led until the line when Woodford Green's sprint sensation Emedolu, who had previously equalled John Regis' League 200 record with 20.52, thrust himself ahead of Graham, but 41.07 was an excellent time for such a youthful and unpractised squad.

And as the afternoon progressed we watched the point scores. After 4 events we were 6th, after 7 events 5th, after 12 events 4th until with only the long relay to go, we were up to 3rd spot. A quick calculation showed that we needed to win and Woodford Green needed to come no higher than 6th for us to get 2nd place.

And we had the team to do it. The Madrid wizards running in a different order with Tim Bayley lead off man. After one lap we were 2nd, WG were 3rd. After a blinding 45.8 split from Chris Rawlinson, we were well clear with WG still 3rd. Newham's Ewan Thomas couldn't make any impression on Chris recording 45.6 for his efforts. On lap 3, we saw our lead extended by Geoff Dearman as WG were pushed down to 4th. As the last circuit progressed, our eyes were not on Sean Baldock but on the race downfield where the Sale athlete was closing on Woodford Green. But to no avail - we had missed second spot by two and a half points.

White knuckles, disappointment and then the realisation that a similar result in Match 4 and we would not be in Europe next year.

This would now make the trip to Jarrow a much more serious affair. Particularly as the second demotion spot could go to any one of Border, Shaftesbury or Sale, and they will be forced to put out teams that could beat all but our best.

Teams: 1 Birchfield 340; 2 Woodford Green with Essex Ladies 311.5; 3 Belgrave H 309; 4 Newham & Essex Bgls 275; 5 Sale H Manchester 259.5; 6 Border H 249; 7 Shaftesbury Barnet H 242; 8 Blackheath H 201.

100m: 5 G.Beasley 10.65/1.4; 1 D.Chin 10.60/0.7.200m: 2 G.Beasley 21.48/-1.3; 5 I.Deeth 22.4/-0.5. 400m: 4 G.Dearman 47.64; 2 T.Bayley 47.71. 800m: 8 M.Miles 1:53.71; 8 S.Barden 1:54.17.1500m: 5 S.Sharp 3:47.95. 5000m: 5 A.Stewart 14:45.76; 4 R.Hayman 15:18.19. 110mH: 4 N.Owen 13.97/0.8; 3 R.Sear 14.7/1.9. 400mH: 2 M.Douglas 49.9. 3000mSC: 4 K.Nash 9:21.01. HJ: 1 B.Challenger 2.20; 2 R.Aspden 1.95. LJ: 5 J.Flynn 6.94/1.4;6 J.Tuson 6.64/1.9. TJ: 3 F.Mepandy 14.74/-0.3; 4 J.Flynn 13.81/0.0. PV: 2 I.Tullett 4.90; 1 B.Flint 4.80. SP: 4 L.Newman 16.66; 6 S.Thompson 12.91. DT: 4 L.Newman 52.21; 4 S.Thompson 45.99. JT: 4 C.Green 60.80; 4 W.Smith 54.53. HT: 1 M.Jones 73.53; 1 D.Smith 65.63. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 41.07 (M.Russell, I.Deeth, D.Chin, G.Beasley). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:08.18 (T.Bayley, C.Rawlinson, G.Dearman, S.Baldock)

Full result

Match 2, Birmingham, 2 June 2001

World Champs qualifier for Mick Jones - 76.43m hammer throw!

League lead opens up for the Bels.

We approached Match 2 determined to extend our winning margin but mindful that Newham in second spot could spring some surprises. After all, it was this match last year which saw Newham hand us an unexpected defeat.

But as we looked at the Table after Match 1 we also noted that Birchfield, Sale and Shaftesbury were filling the minor placings along with relegation certainty Blackheath. Birchfield are always dangerous at home and no doubt would rectify their poor Match 1 result. As for Woodford Green we would be interested to see if their Match 1 performances had been a flash in the pan or the start of a realistic attempt not only to remain in Division 1 but also to finish in the top half.

Coming one week after the European Clubs we wondered how many of our Madrid team would make this one. Fortunately most of them. In the opening track event Chris Rawlinson lined up in the A 400m hurdles determined to sort out his hurdle 7 change down problems. Unfortunately for him the difficulties remained. Fortunately for us he got the winning start we expected. Not so in the B where 17 year old Andrew Bennett stood up out of the blocks and ambled round some 3 seconds below his recent best. It then transpired that he had included 10 sausages in an over large breakfast and wondered why he didn't feel too good!

It was good to welcome Andrew Walcott and Chris Lambert back in the sprints. Andrew disappointed himself and us in the 100m and went home feeling unwell. But Chris had a good return after an injury induced absence of over a year and Graham Beasley acquitted himself well in the 200m after his exciting debut for us in Madrid.

But, once again it was the middle distance men who provided the backbone of a big score. Neil Speaight, gaining in confidence with every race was unlikely to repeat the error of Match 1. Timing a fierce sprint perfectly he overhauled Shone of Woodford sufficiently far ahead of the tape to allow us to be well impressed. And then Adam Zawadsky did the same in the B - maximum points in the 800m.

Steve Sharp making his debut 1500m for us did exactly the same as he slid through the field having been badly boxed with 200m to go. Spencer Barden who had led most of the race finished second in the combined race and won the B - maximum points in the 1500m.

And in the 5000m, we were treated to the most exciting of finishes with Paul Freary chasing a 60m deficit at the bell to catch and pass Kyereme of Shaftesbury, who died the death and dropped to 5th. Paul has been concentrating on 1500m recently posting a 3.51 effort and his extra pace and stamina showed in this one. Alaster Stewart also ran sensibly and gained near maximum points finishing second in the B.

And the steeplechase - well we will forget about that!

You will have noticed that Matt Douglas did not compete in the 400 hurdles, but he was there gaining valuable points in the long jump, high jump and both relays. Not exactly relaxing but very enjoyable. Matt's mucker, Geoff Dearman, was also another returning athlete and got back to winning ways in the B flat 400m, but in the A event, Sean Baldock in lane 8 had an average run and was well beaten by Jared Deacon of Border. We noted with some satisfaction that the 400, 800, 1500 and 5000m had contributed a massive 108 to our points score. Excellent points too in the hammer with both Mick and Dave over 70m but with Mick putting together the best series of his life to eventually reach 76.43 - a world championship B qualifying distance. He didn't need reminding of this but it was nice of UK Athletics CE - Dave Moorcroft - to come across and congratulate Dave and his family who attended in force and worked the magic.

Back from the injury that prevented an appearance in Madrid, Lee Newman won the A shot with Scott Thompson second in the B. Almost as good were the points in the discus with Kevin Brown and Scott Thompson. Valuable points in the javelin too from Wesley Smith and the ubiquitous Scott who had delayed leaving the stadium due to notice of train problems at New Street Station. A Belgrave vest over street attire plus a pair of trainers were the only clues that this man had been press ganged to fill a javelin slot just minutes before making his escape.

Good to see Farel Mepandy back and getting silver in the triple jump and great to welcome new signing Charles Lefrancois, who is just returning to high jump competition after a layoff of several years due to serious injury. Better points in the pole vault, with a first time appearance in the senior A team by Scotland based Ian MacKenzie, backing up the ever reliable Ian Tullett.

And so to the results after a second place in the sprint relay and an easy win in the long relay. There we were, some 56 points clear of Birchfield with Woodford Green again third - a result sufficient to move them up to second spot after 2 matches, just 17 match points ahead of Birchfield. Newham had many disappointments and finished, for them, a disappointing 5th. But the big surprise was that Sale finished seventh and now occupy that position in the league just ahead of last placed Blackheath.

Unless they extract something, Sale could be relegated, which for a Club that won the league 4 years ago, is unthinkable.

Teams: 1 Belgrave H 377; 2 Birchfield H 321; 3 Woodford Green with Essex Ladies AC 307; 4 Shaftesbury Barnet H 264; 5 Newham & Essex Beagles 255; 6 Border H 230; 7 Sale H Manchester 209; 8 Blackheath 209.

100m: 7 A.Wallcott 10.94/2.1; 2 C.Lambert 10.61/3.6. 200m: 4 G.Beasley 21.37/0.9; 2 C.Lambert 21.38/4.1. 400m: 2 S.Baldock 47.66; 1 G.Dearman 48.08. 800m: 1 N.Speaight 1:50.71; 1 A Zawadsky 1:53.42. 1500m: 1 S.Sharp 3:53.25; 1 S.Barden 3:53.45. 5000m: 1 P.Freary 14:40.1; 2 A.Stewart 15:09.59. 110mH: 4 N.Owen 14.19/1.3; 3 R.Sear 14.43/4.0. 400mH: 1 C.Rawlinson 50.57; 7 A.Bennett 57.48. 3000mSC: no Belgrave competitors. HJ: 4 C.le Francois 2.05; 5 M.Douglas 1.85. LJ: 2 J.Flynn 7.13; 3 M.Douglas 6.64. TJ: 2 F.Mepandy 15.18; 4 J.Flynn 14.17. PV: 2 I.Tullett 4.80; 2 I.Mackenzie 4.20. SP: 1 L.Newman 17.39; 2 S.Thompson 14.24. DT: 5 K.Brown 50.83; 1 S.Thompson 47.62. JT: 6 W.Smith 58.50; 4 S.Thompson 47.45. HT: 1 M.Jones 76.43; 1 D.Smith 70.86. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 41.72 (C.Lambert, D.Chin, G.Beasley, M.Douglas). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:12.02 (M.Douglas, G.Dearman, T.Bayley, S.Baldock).

Match 1, Copthall Stadium, 5 May 2001

Anguish for the Team Managers - but Bels. win opening match

Every year we await the return of many of our team from various warm weather training camps with some trepidation. On average about 30% return injured. This year it seemed more like 80% as inquiry after inquiry brought forward another tale of woe.

Add to this the fact that the British Universities T&F Championships had been scheduled for the same weekend and the anguish of the Team Managers was pitiful to behold! In many events we were destined to run our 5th or 6th strings and fortunately for the team they all performed above expectations.

A measure of the problems was evident in the short sprints where long jumper Darren Thompson ran a creditable 10.93 but only to finish last in the A event while triple jumper Phillips Idowu bettered this with a 10.81 to finish a higher than expected second in the B 100m.

Sean Baldock moved down to the B 200m to win with a windy 21.43 sec and confirm to coach Mark Gregory that all was on target for a fast 400m. But the one lap event was suffering from a shortage of our more experienced members who were otherwise engaged at the BU Champs in Glasgow. So we blooded 18 year old Jon Simpson and 20 year old find Tim Bayley and to everyone's surprise they came up with the goods with two fine second places.

The damage limitation exercise was going well as we moved to the longer distance track events. Whereas in past years our middle distance squad had little depth we now have a fine collection of athletes two of whom made impressive debuts in the 800m. Both Neil Speaight in the A and Adam Zawadsky in the B got boxed and left themselves too much to do to catch winning Woodford Green men - Matt Shone and Andy Brown, both of whom kicked well at the right time. Impressively Shone doubled up in the 1500 and managed to outsprint Mark Miles. But another second spot was acceptable as we were beginning to realise that Woodford Green, who traditionally see-saw between Div. 1 and Div. 2 had been recruiting strongly in the winter. Strangely, Woodford were weak in the 5000m and Paul Freary's usual 4th spot in the A and Ric Hayman's 3rd place in the B moved us slightly ahead in the match score. A lead that was to be further extended as Kevin Nash pipped Lee Hurst in the steeplechase with Kevin third in the A and Lee first in the B.

Again, every year we believe Ian Wells won't make our premier team and each year he proves us wrong. No change in 2001 as our 39 year old gained 3 valuable points in the B high hurdles. In the A race, Erese of Woodford ran an impressive 13.84 with Neil Owen third in a windy 14.12 secs. Fortunately, Ian was not required to run the 400H where Jon Squirrel and 17 year old newcomer Andrew Bennett (2nd) acquitted themselves well. But Ian was press ganged into the long relay and seemed pleased with surviving a sub 55 sec effort.

Meanwhile, the field events, running in parallel with the track displayed a similar mix of fortunes. Mick Jones and Dave Smith - the two finest hammer throwers in the country - swept aside the opposition to get proceedings off to a fine start. Then two wins in the long jump with Darren Thompson hitting a legal 7.48m on his first attempt prior to nipping off to the 100m. Julian Flynn added good triple jump B points to his B long jump win with Phillips Idowu easily winning the A triple jump off a short run up.

The pole vault was an unmitigated disaster. Newham men won the A with only 4.70m and the B with just 4.60m. Meanwhile, in this exalted company we achieved precisely "nil point". Mile Edwards who had flown in from Texas for this one event was inconsolable. By now, Newham were making an impressive points surge. The javelin result took them ahead of Woodford Green but their inroads into our lead faltered as Kevin Brown and Lee Newman together collected 50 points from the shot and discus. Kevin, who had been dragged out of retirement for this match, declared himself highly delighted with his efforts, as too were the team managers.

It remained for us to get the baton round in both relays and victory seemed assured. Mind you the sprint relay team did not contain a single sprinter so there was just a little pre-race tension around as the techniques of baton changing were debated. Add to this the last minute replacement of Nick Dawson with Jon Simpson who was warming up for the long relay and you get the picture. And they finished 6th with a creditable 44.15sec time considering the poor changeovers.

So a fine win and excellent start to our 2001 campaign. But had we learnt enough for the team selection for the European Champion Clubs Cup in Madrid? We think not.

Teams: 1 Belgrave H 345; 2 Newham & Essex Beagles 326.5; 3 Woodford Green with Essex Ladies AC 314; 4 Border AC 278; 5 Birchfield H 271; 6 Sale H Manchester 233; 7 Shaftesbury Barnet H 229; 8 Blackheath H 178.5.

100m: 8 D.Thompson 10.93/1.1; 2 P.Idowu 10.81/1.5. 200m: 8 N.Dawson 21.77/2.1; 1 S.Baldock 21.43/3.3. 400m: 2 T.Bayley 48.71; 2 J.Simpson 49.24. 800m: 2 N.Speaight 1:52.99; 2 A.Zawadsky 1:54.84. 1500m: 2 M.Miles 3:52.95; 5 N.Hliouat 3:59.30. 5000m: 4 P.Freary 14:50.66; 3 R.Hayman 15:07.98. 110mH: 3 N.Owen 14.12/3.2; 6 I Wells 16.95/0.5. 400mH: 5 J.Squirrel 55.21; 2 A.Bennett 56.29. 3000mSC: 3 K.Nash 9:11.51; 1 L.Hurst 9:25.81. HJ: 4 R.Aspden 2.00; 4 S.Oni 1.90. LJ: 1 D.Thompson 7.48; 1 J.Flynn 6.69. TJ: 1 P.Idowu 16.32; 4 J.Flynn 13.89. PV: - M.Edwards nh. SP: 1 L.Newman 17.25; 3 K.Brown 13.43. DT: 2 L.Newman 57.38; 1 K.Brown 51.71. JT: 5 T.Kitney 52.34; 3 W.Smith 51.05. HT: 1 M.Jones 71.71; 1 D.Smith 68.38. 4x100m: 6 Belgrave 44.15. 4x400m: 5 Belgrave 3:25.2.

Home - Back to top of page - Contact Belgrave Harriers at belgraveharriers@btinternet.com