British Athletics League Division 1, Match 4, Crawley

4th on the day 5th in the League

Bill Laws writes:

Reducing numbers

Match 3 at Gateshead had proved a nightmare with only 13 athletes competing for Belgrave. Last place had meant that relegation was a possibility as Match 4 approached and rumours were rife that Blackheath & Bromley were going to pull out all the stops to escape the drop. And as the Monday team faded away into the dusk it became clear that only 8 of our Gateshead heroes were going to make the short trek down the M23 to Crawley. It is at times like this that the team manager is expected to earn his crust.

The Cavalry arrives

BT’s profits leapt as telephone lines across the country fired into action with the result that on the day a comparatively large squad of 17 faced the marauding hordes waiting to seal out fate.

With the track events starting at 2.30pm attention turned to the first four field events. The hammer saw Mick Jones return, competing for the first time since a serious bike accident last winter. His 59.75m effort was a UK age record for 48 year olds and was good enough to win the B comp. Matthew Richards is now back in the grove and his good A string points meant we were off to a flying start. So too were the long jumpers with Boris Bojinov’s second in the B adding to Paul Ogun’s fourth spot in the A. Then 17 year old Daniel Gardner won the A pole vault but, with no B string, points were being sacrificed. Then to the discus where Leith Marar won the A event and Greg Beard had to settle for second in the B. So as the track started Belgrave had notched up 86 points out of the 112 on offer and we were in the lead.

So far this year Paskar Owor has been a virtual one man middle distance team. But this time he had some serious support. Returning from injury Steve Davies ran a season’s best in the A 800 to gain second ahead of former Belgrave runner Graeme Oudney who now races for Harrow. In the B race Paskar secured a sound third spot but then went on to win both the A 1500m and A 5000. Steve won the B 1500 just 7/100’s sec short of Paskar’s effort. And in the 5000 Richard Ward surprised all but himself gaining a fine third place in the B race. Sadly we had no competitors in the steeplechase which has been a disaster event this year.

And then a dip in our fortunes. Whereas in the Gateshead match we had maxed on high jump points in this one we had a big fat zero as our jumpers were either injured or at the World Champs. Jean Charles Roghi continued to prop up our weak hurdles efforts and was even persuaded to run the B 400. In the sprints Greg Cackett equalled his best 100m time of 10.45 sec. His second place in the A was nearly matched by Seun Marcus whose BAL debut saw a new legal best of 11.09 sec for third spot in the B. His trip down from Loughborough had been well worthwhile. Greg was persuaded to run his debut 200m. In the A race he recorded a respectable 21.80 sec from lane one. Clearly disappointed it was obvious that a long and rewarding first year in athletics had finally caught up with him.

Roller coaster ending

The shortage of numbers meant that neither of the relays would be contested opening the way for a late surge from our nearest rivals. But we had a few tricks up our sleeve. Mark Allen is now recovered from a nasty leg infection which had remained undetected by his local A and E despite several visits. His support in both the shot and javelin added big points and despite the fact that these events were held at the same time and he threw the javelin in shot shoes he finished third in the B javelin with a new lifetime best. Aaron Crawford foot faulted what was close to a winning effort so had to settle for fourth in the A javelin. He was not a happy bunny. But Greg Beard and Mark Allen were as they mopped up maximum points in the shot. And the final field event, the triple jump, also yielded good points with Paul Ogun third in the A and David Wellstead fourth in the B.

So with the final relays about to start Belgrave were in third spot. Blackheath and Bromley won the sprint relay and finished second in the long relay to add 30 points while we sat it out. But while that was not good enough to catch us Liverpool accumulated 14 points from the relays to overtake us by just 2 points. But to finish fourth in this match and fifth overall was to some a result worth having.

For you statisticians

We have mentioned before that if every A and B event is won the max points total possible is 508. The Belgrave and Premiership record is held by Belgrave for a team of all first claim athletes (No HCA’s) at 434 points.

This year in Match 3 at Gateshead Belgrave’s small team of 13 athletes only contested 356 of the points on offer and scored 201 – a “strike rate” of 57%.

In Match 4 384 points were contested and the team of 17 scored 268 points – a “strike rate” of 70%

Imagine what a full team contesting all 508 points could achieve. We’ve been there before. Can we do it again?

Our Physio

Tony Ganio has been able to look after the jumps squad at matches only because Chris Lewis volunteered early season to provide physio services to Belgrave athletes on match days so freeing Tony from this role. Chris has worked on both Belgrave and Gateshead athletes and at the Gateshead match the Gateshead physio helped the Belgrave squad. Such support has been really appreciated by the athletes of both clubs and our thanks go to Chris for his support this year.

100m: 2 G Cackett 10.45/0.9; 3 S Marcus 11.09/0.7. 200m: 6 G Cackett 21.80/?; 8 S Marcus 23.11/?. 400m: 8 C Webb 52.45; 7 J-C Roghi 51.83. 800m: 2 S Davies 1:52.61; 3 P Owor 1:56.2. 1500m: 1 P Owor 3:53.87; 1 S Davies 3:53.94. 5000m: 1 P Owor 14:48.41; 3 R Ward 15:12.51. 110mH: 8 J-C Roghi 16.39/-0.4; no B competitor. 400mH: 7 J-C Roghi 54.16; no B competitor. 3000mSC: no competitor. HJ: no competitors. LJ: 4 P Ogun 7.09/-0.5; 2 B Bozhinov 6.7/-0.7. TJ: 3 P Ogun 14.36/-1.7; 4 D Wellstead 13.76/-0.2. PV: 1 D Gardner 4.80; no B competitor. SP: 1 G Beard 16.73; 1 M Allen 14.61. DT: 1 L Marar M40 50.36; 2 G Beard 44.34. JT: 4 A Crawford 60.67; 3 M Allen 52.48. HT: 3 M Richards 60.77; 1 M Jones 59.75. 4x100m: no team.. 4x400m: no team.

Match result: 1 Kent AC 364; 2 Windsor SE&H 298; 3 City of Liverpool 270; 4 Belgrave 268; 5 Blackheath &B 260; 6 Gateshead 250; 7 Harrow 241; 8 Crawley 213.

Final league positions: Kent AC 28 (1275); City of Liverpool 25.5 (1206.5); 3 Windsor SE&H 22 (1138); 4 Gateshead 18 (1097.5); 5 Belgrave H 16 (1040); 6 Harow 15.5 (1058); 7 Blackheath &B 12 (995); 8 Crawley 7 (903).

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.