Golden Jubilee Cup Final, Bedford

Close! But Belgrave win Cup Final again

1 Belgrave 218; 2 Sale H Manchester 204; 3 Woodford Green with Essex Ladies 193; 4 Birchfield H 191; 5 Shaftesbury B 174; 6 Trafford AC 152; 7 Windsor SE&H 149; 8 Team Solent 104.

As surprise winners of the inaugural Jubilee Cup for combined men's and women's track and field teams in 2002 we knew the opposition would be seeking to prevent a repeat Belgrave victory. With Birchfield fielding a strong men's team and Sale's women looking particularly threatening it was going to take the united efforts of our men and women to retain the trophy. With many of our stars unable to attend it would be down to everyone to put in top performances. And so it turned out as a relatively weak start left us trailing the likes of Birchfield, Sale and Woodford Green.

Mick Jones, only just back from adventures in Canada, was in the land of nod when he should have been reporting for the hammer. Fortunately Kevin Brown stepped in but his single point was lost in the discus where injury relegated him to fourth spot. At the same time junior Roy Collier was trying to tame a huge stadium pole as he equalled his pb in the pole vault - all this because his Belgrave pole had gone missing from our home track. With both our main jumpers injured Roy answered a late call up and seemed to enjoy competing at this level. Another late call up was Kassa Tadesse who despite lack of fitness finished an excellent second in the 10000m to signal the start of a team comeback which eventually would see us again victorious.

And the women were exceeding expectations too. Diana Holden threw a season's best to finish fourth in the hammer (one better than last year) and then managed a sixth place in the discus. Meanwhile Michelle Nestor squeezed a fifth spot in a closely contested long jump while Maureen Knight occupied the same spot in the high jump as she embarked on a busy afternoon schedule. But we needed better placings to move up the scorecard. The ever reliable Matt Douglas stormed to our first win in the 400 hurdles only to be yet again frustrated as the electric timing failed during the first track race. Then second for Chris Moss in an 800 which he seemed to have won but somehow his nemesis Matt Shone dipped him on the line. Graham Beasley then got another silver in the 100m to be followed by a win from Sean Baldock in the flat 400. Third in that race was a lacklustre Du'aine Ladejo but that was no surprise as Sean dipped under 46secs for the second time this season. Only two tenths outside the all time Cup record (Ewan Thomas in 2001 at the Gold Cup) Sean is coming into top form before the World Champs in Paris. At about this time Ben Challenger was unlucky not to clear 2.25 in the high jump and had to settle for a first place tie with the evergreen Dalton Grant. And on the far side of the stadium Lucy Webber, recovering from a broken finger, battled for a valuable silver in the pole vault. In the triple jump Caroline Stead gained bronze for more valuable points.

Kevin Nash was down to move house (yes again!) but delayed it for a day. It is so pleasing to think that Kevin is now one of our bankers for max points following his big breakthrough and pb at the AAA's champs. And he didn't disappoint. Neither too did Graham Beasley who ran a 200m pb into a headwind to soundly beat Birchfield's 400m star Daniel Caines. Not to be outdone Amy Spencer won the women's 200m and to prove she is over her injury problems ran close to a season's best. And then Stephen Sharp gave us more of the same, beating the talented Woodford junior Chris Reynolds in a sprint for the line to make the 1500m another exciting and closely contested race. What a feast of high quality competition we were watching.

Meanwhile in the javelin Stuart Faben struggled following his suspected broken ankle scare but in the shot Greg Beard once again improved his pb to gain silver and more points. Silver too for Will Cockerell in the 5000. Will has competed in this race for the last 3 year's - finishing fourth, third and now second. Will is predicting a win next year and it would be foolhardy not to take that seriously! So with the relays to go Belgrave had moved into a small lead over Sale and Birchfield. The next four races would decide the winners. First the women's sprint relay was won by Sale but closely followed by the Belgrave squad. Then the men's sprint relay in which the baton was dropped at the first changeover. No names, no pack drill but Laurence was desolated!. Fortunately Sale were also disqualified so no damage. Then to the women's long relay in which the Belgrave squad pipped Sale thanks to a resounding second leg by Michelle Carey timed in the low 53's. Michelle is Korea bound for the World Student Games (along with Matt Douglas) and could be a medal contender in the 400H (along with Matt Douglas). And so to the last event the men's long relay with the trophy ours. Birchfield were out to salvage some pride and with Daniel Caines, Du'aine Ladejo and Bradley Yiend got within 0.05 of the Cup record. But Matt Douglas, Dan Donovan, Chris Moss and Sean Baldock got the silver and we were home and dry.

John Jeffery says he only smiles at the big matches when we are certain to lose. There were one or two grimaces early on but nothing to worry about. Great match!!!

Men.

100m: 2 G.Beasley 10.59/-1.0. 200m: 1 G.Beasley 20.77/-0.5. 400m: 1 S.Baldock 45.99. 2 C.Moss 1:49.29. 1500m: 1 S.Sharp 3:52.48. 5000m: 2 W.Cockerell 15:13.19. 10000m: 2 K.Tadesse 31:05.91. 110mH: 2 M.Wedge 15.24/-2.0. 400mH: 1 M.Douglas 49.8. 3000mSC: 1 K.Nash 8:59.86. 4x100m: dq Belgrave. 4x400m: 2 Belgrave 3:12.52 (M.Douglas, D.Donovan, C.Moss, S.Baldock). HJ: =1 B.Challenger 2.20. LJ: 2 D.O'Farrell 7.01/2.0. TJ: 3 S.Majekodunmi 14.54w/2.7. PV: 7 R.Collier U17 2.80. SP: 2 G.Beard 17.53. DT: 4 K.Brown 49.35. JT: 5 S.Faben 61.78. HT: 8 K.Brown 32.16.

Women.

100m: 4 A.Onuora U20 12.47/-2.4. 200m: 1 A.Spencer U20 23.65. 400m: 7 H.Stares 58.67. 800m: 5 J.Mitchell 2:13.45. 1500m: 5 J.Mitchell 4:37.76. 3000m: 5 R.Powell U20 10:38.04. 100mH: 5 H.Stares 14.91/-2.3. 400mH: 2 J.Culley 59.29. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 47.10 (A.Onuora U20, J.Culley, C.Wilson U20, A.Spencer). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:44.42 (C.Wilson U20 59.7, M.Carey 53.8, H.Stares 56.2, J.Culley 54.8). HJ: 5 M.Knight 1.60. LJ: 5 M.Nestor U20 4.90/1.7. TJ: 3 C.Stead 12.34/2.0. PV: 2 L.Webber 3.40. SP: 5 E.Massey 13.51. DT: 6 D.Holden 30.53. JT: 6 M.Knight 38.07. HT: 4 D.Holden 51.44.

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