British Athletics League Results & Reports 2007: Match One, Copthall Stadium, Barnet

Belgrave straight into the relegation zone!

Bill Laws reports:- If somebody predicted that a quarter of the way through next season's football Premiership Manchester United would be in the relegation zone what would you say? Impossible.

If somebody had predicted that a quarter of the way through the BAL Premiership season Belgrave would be in the relegation zone again you would have said “impossible”. Well, after this opening match at Copthall it’s a reality. We avoided the wooden spoon by just 8 points.

A depleted squad

The problem for the team managers was that with two large groups training in USA, the BUSA championships taking other athletes and yet more struck down by injury and illness we could only muster a team of 22 on the day of which only 18 were regular first team members. This depleted squad mixed and matched to get as many points as possible but even then seven events went uncontested. So 94 points were not contested at all, and a further 104 points were chased by non-specialists who scraped a return of 26. So in effect just 26 points were culled from a further 198 on offer. Bearing in mind that if a team wins every event they score 508 points it doesn’t take Einstein to work out that from the remaining 310 points on offer we scored a further 202 towards our final total of 228 points. So there were a few big points scorers and some excellent performances to lift the spirits of the team managers who generally had a glazed look in their eyes and fixed grins. Somebody remarked they looked like Gordon Brown on speed!

Maximum in the high jump

The only max points came in the high jump won by Samson Oni ahead of Ben Challenger who now competes for Woodford Green. Darvin Edwards won the B high jump and also was ahead of Ben on count back so a good scalp there for Darvin. Joe Ive equalled the winning height in the pole vault but we missed Cameron Johnston who pulled out the day before with a virus. Richard Danso gained a third spot on the long jump and it was a big blow when Darragh O’Farrell failed to appear for the long and triple. It turned out his car had broken down on the motorway, Sadly, we had asked Adrian Phillips to compete in the Southern League.

Above: EDM was used to electronically measure the long throws. Unfortunately one of Tom Dobbing's efforts in the javelin was not recorded properly but discussion with the judges got him with another throw which took him to second place in the B competition. Pictures by Jeremy Hemming (contact him for copies of this and his other photos).

Bless the throwers

Scot Thompson was rushed to hospital Friday night and Leith Marar stood in as a late substitute in the discus to get second in the B event. Mark Allen threw pb’s in the hammer and discus and won the B shot to become our biggest individual points scorer of the day. With Chris Gearing gaining third in the A shot and Mick Jones throwing over 62m in the hammer on one training session since last August the throwers were adding significantly to our points tally; and then two 2nds came in the Javelin with Wes Smith throwing two pb’s to just pip Tom Dobbing in the last round. Bless the throwers.

Top ranked men in the 5,000m

Only one track event contained our top ranked men and that was the 5,000m. Stephen Sharp ran a superb pb to finish second in the A event while a below par Phil Wicks won the B. William Sharman was doubtful to race following a lengthy lay off due to injury but did support the team to gain silver in the high hurdles. Darren Chin gained good points in the hotly contested sprints. And there were some golden oldies contributing too. Our past high jumper Richard Aspden was persuaded to run the A 400 and although last, ran a creditable 50.4. He was rewarded with the last leg in the sprint relay. Richard is in Government service based in India and is back for a few months so with little training his performances were amazing.

44-year-old Paul Beaumont again turned up willing to cover anything and gained good points in the A400H, B110H, and B400. We had to restrain him from doing the steeplechase, which contained William Cockerell who is now just 7 points from becoming our next track and field points Centurion. This man wants it and when it happens it will not be more deserved!

Above: Shugri Omar tackles the 800m in the opening league match at Copthall Stadium, Barnet. Eventual winner, Oliver Teasel of Birchfield, leads. Picture by Pat Mead.

Début by young members

And finally to our young members who made their BAL début. The 800 was manned by Shugri Omar and George Martin, who were slightly overawed by the occasion but will gain from the experience, and Alex Bodin set his best 1500 time. Luke Sergeant ran well in the B200 among company he could not have dreamed of a week ago. He contributed to the sprint relay along with Richard Aspden, William Sharman and Darren Chin all of whom were instructed to get the baton round safely for last spot. They finished sixth in 43.47, which reflected the fighting spirit right to the end. Sadly with no 400m men the long relay was abandoned and at the last gasp our long held sixth place drifted to seventh.

And finally thanks to the Belgrave supporters and to Tony Ganio, sports masseur, whose magic hands eased tired legs and kept the team on track.

Results: 100m: 4 D Chin 10.6/nwr; 6 W Sharman 11.1/nwr; n/s 5r1 L Sargeant U20 11.8/0.1. 200m: 6 D Chin 21.76/0.4; 6 L Sargeant U20 22.91/0.4. 400m: 8 R Aspden 50.4; 7 P Beaumont M40 no time. 800m: 6 S Omar 1:56.0; 6 G Martin U20 1:59.1. 1500m: 7 D Anderson 3:58.53; 6 A Bodin U20 4:05.32. 5000m: 2 S Sharp 14:02.30; 1 P Wicks 14:24.50. 110mH: 2 W Sharman 14.34/nwr; 8 P Beaumont M40 24.32. 400mH: 8 P Beaumont M40 59.6; no B competitor. 3000mSC: 7 W Cockerell 10:08.38; no B competitor. HJ: 1 S Oni 2.15; 1 D Edwards 2.10. LJ: 3 R Danso 6.89w/2.8 (6.79/0.7); no B competitor. TJ: no competitor. PV: 2= J Ive 5.00; no B competitor. SP: 3 C Gearing 16.84; 3 M Allen 15.66. DT: 6 M Allen 49.94; 2 L Marar 49.70. JT: 2 W Smith 64.97; 2 T Dobbing 64.41. HT: 5 M Jones 62.72; 4 M Allen 53.60. 4x100m: 6 Belgrave 43.47 (W Sharman, D Chin, L Sargeant, R Aspden). 4x400m: no Belgrave team.

Teams: 1 City of Manchester 332; 2 Woodford Green w EL 321; 3 Birchfield H 286; 4 Shaftesbury Barnet H 268; 5 Newham & Essex Beagles 267; 6 City of Sheffield 235; 7 Belgrave H 228; 8 Trafford AC 221.

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