Golden Jubilee Cup Results - 2006: Semi-Final, TVAC Eton

Bels ease into the Cup Final

Above: Darvin Edwards enters the competition at 2.00m - and there's plenty more to come.

Un-seeded - but still the team to beat

A hiccough in 2005 kept us out of the final – and therefore left us un-seeded for 2006. That made for an interesting pre-match draw to see which clubs would face each other. Belgrave’s token was one of the last to be drawn from the bag – and there was a muted groan from some of the assembled team managers as Windsor’s Dennis Daly announced: “Team 6 – Belgrave Harriers – will be in match 1.” At least the opposition thought we were certs to make it through to the final this time.

The men’s line-up was hit by the withdrawal of Phil Wicks – suffering from a painful leg – while the women missed Eva Massey – a competitor in the Throwsfest the previous day where her car was broken into and items stolen.

It was an early start for the field eventers. Long jumper Richard Danso was making big efforts but that plasticene strip was acting like a magnet for his take-off foot while Diana Holden, short on training, was giving a solid start in the hammer. Vertical take-off men Cameron Johnston and Darvin Edwards were meanwhile sitting out the early heights in pole vault and high jump.

Track events kicked off with the 10,000m and Simon Jones, deep into half marathon training, sat in the bunch for the first lap before it was obvious that nobody else was going to take up the pace. He moved ahead and 37 minute pace became 33 … and then 31 as he wound it up and went further and further away.

Matt Douglas and Hannah Stares wrapped up the long hurdles events, the 800s were good with a 2nd from Chrissie Foster and a blistering last lap from Shugri Omar, and when news came from the field that Richard had got it together in the long jump and Cameron was equal first in the pole vault, suddenly the Bels were a dozen points clear.

Above left: Hannah Stares wrapped up the long hurdles. Right: Two wins and two second places for Julie Hollman before a knock in the hurdles took her out of the relays.

Mick Jones arrived just as the hammer started and with no warm-up throws, his first effort went wide of the sector. But that one sighting shot was all that he needed and his next effort took him into the lead. As usual at TVAC, the discus throwers were relegated to the outside of the arena where Scot Thompson’s 47.30m was good for 2nd.

In his first big competition for the Bels, Darvin Edwards was talking about coming into the high jump at 2.05; that got talked down to 2.00m by “management” but he was comfortably over and up to 2.15 before he had any problems. A third attempt was necessary but then minutes later, in his first try at the height, he soared over 2.20m to take the lead. Two of his trials at 2.25m were oh! so close. Not yet 20, Darvin competed for St. Lucia in the Commonwealth Games but is now living in London and benefiting from the coaching of Trevor Llewellyn.

Multi-eventer Julie had a busy schedule

Julie Hollman had a busy schedule, winning the long jump by getting on for a metre, taking 2nd in both shot and javelin which were held simultaneously and then moving on to the sprint hurdles. Fiercely competitive, Julie really went for it over the barriers and was streets ahead until she hit the last one a corker and so nearly fell. Somehow our ace multi-eventer kept upright and had enough momentum to cover the final stretch and stay ahead, crossing the line with her ankle buckling beneath her. It was a brave finish – but there was no way she could be put at risk with further action so the relays would have to do without her.

Also in plenty of action, Jennifer Culley was 2nd in the 100m and 3rd in the 400m, both with good times – but in each case our blue and yellow vested rivals from Windsor took maximum points. Darren Chin also suffered at the hands of the local club as youngster Rion Pierre ran an extraordinary 10.39 with the wind speed being variously reported as 0.0 and 1.2mps; in truth there was no wind reading at all but it was probably around 3.0mps. Ryan Thomas wasn't having anyone in front of him however, he romped away from the men's 400m field and was stronger than anyone in the home straight.

The scorers had us around 25 points clear but this was no runaway victory as Windsor kept nicking a few back and with Pete Willis (preferring something longer) and Sarah Gailey (preferring something shorter) giving their all but running at unfavoured distances the gap came down to less than 20 – and we still hadn’t got a male 1500m competitor sorted out. But we worried needlessly: already winners of earlier events, Matt Douglas was untroubled in the high hurdles and Shugri Omar stepped into the 1500m slot – two more maximums. And as if it was expected that we might be in trouble, the cavalry arrived in the form of Tim Benjamin and Mark Lewis Francis, roaring into the car park on quad bikes – and expecting to train. Ok, we couldn’t offer anything to Birchfield’s MLF but Jason Hussain very graciously accepted a non-scoring role in the 200 to allow Tim to have a workout instead; some workout – 20.93, albeit windy.

Above left: A late start to the season saw Shugri Omar win both 800m and 1500m. Right: A break from half marathon training saw Simon Jones attempt his first track 10k and end up with a comfortable win.

David Wellstead was unable to go with Windsor’s international Julian Golley in the “triple” but his 14.66w was a best ever and Michelle Nestor matched his position in the women’s competition – this time ahead of our rivals. Still afflicted by knee problems, spear man James Everard was unable to reach out to the 60m arc that he breached several times earlier in the year – but it was another win – and he has an operation scheduled at the conclusion of the season.

Always impressing with her “gutsy” performances Catherine Bryson could do nothing about Hayley Yelling, who ran away from the 1500m field, but there was no way that she’d let anyone else go ahead and fought hard for her 2nd place.

After a long wait shot putter Chris Gearing moved into action in the last field event of the day. He’d set a season’s and outdoor best of 17.17m the previous day in the Throwsfest at Birmingham and another improvement would have been nice. But with the next best thrower over three metres in arrears, 16.97m proved to be a very acceptable winning mark.

Veteran Bruce Barton filled in at steeplechase again where we made more ground on our rivals and, not seen in our teams for a while, we welcomed back Caroline Wilson – a solid 200 was followed by two great relay runs.

Above: Sprint relay boys - Tim Benjamin, Darren Chin, Ian Deeth and Jason Hussain.

Tortured by mental arithmetic, the team managers were rescued by the announcer just before the relays who informed that Belgrave were 30 points ahead. We’d have to have several disasters in the relays to lose now. The girls were good! Even with Julie Hollman the sprinters would never have beaten Windsor so were very well pleased with their second place – and in the four lap event they went even better – clearly winning and setting a season’s best. Led off by Ian Deeth who gamely came along just to run the relays, the 4x100 men were headed by Windsor – who were then dq’d. But anything Windsor could do, we could do better and celebrations at “winning” the 4 x 400 were cut short by those dreaded and remarkably familiar words: “Would the Belgrave Team Manager please report to the Track Referee.” Sure enough an obstruction after a takeover meant “nil points” for the long relay boys – and a winning margin of 38 points came down to 23.

Men. 100m: 2 D Chin 10.59/nwi. 200m: 1 T Benjamin 20.93w/4.0. 400m: 1 R Thomas 48.1. 800m: 1 S Omar 1:53.49. 1500m: 1 S Omar 3:57.49. 5000m: 5 P Willis 16:20.60. 10000m: 1 S Jones 31:21.59. 110mH: 1 M Douglas 14.50/1.3. 400mH: 1 M Douglas 50.60. 3000mSC: 5 B Barton 10:50.08. HJ: 1 D Edwards 2.20. LJ: 1 R Danso 7.03/-0.4. TJ: 2 D Wellstead 14.66w/3.1. PV: 1= C Johnston 4.40. SP: 1 C Gearing 16.97. DT: 2 S Thompson 47.30. JT: 1 J Everard 56.99. HT: 1 M Jones 64.14. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 41.75 (I Deeth, J Hussain, D Chin, T Benjamin). 4x400m: dq Belgrave (M Douglas, S Osho, J Hussain, I Deeth).

Women. 2 J Culley 12.47/nwi. 200m: 3 C Wilson 25.56. 400m: 3 J Culley 56.9. 800m: 2 C Foster 2:20.63. 1500m: 2 C Bryson 4:38.17. 3000m: 6 S Gailey 11:05.03. 100mH: 1 J Hollman 14.73/1.3. 400mH: 1 H Stares 59.95. HJ: 4 H Stares 1.55. LJ: 1 J Hollman 6.06/-1.3. TJ: 2 M Nestor 10.67/nwi. PV: no competitor. SP: 2 J Hollman 12.23. DT: 4 D Holden 29.23. JT: 2 J Hollman 38.71. HT: 3 D Holden 47.47. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 49.78 (C Foster, C Wilson, H Stares, J Culley). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:51.80 (C Foster 60.0, H Stares 58.3, C Wilson 56.9, J Culley 56.7).

Match: 1 Belgrave 270; 2 Windsor SE&H 243; 3 Woking 175; 4 Epsom & Ewell 153; 5 Exeter 152; 6 Medway & Maidstone 134; 7 Swindon 106; 8 Bournemouth 92

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