Golden Jubilee Cup Semi-Final, Bedford

1 Belgrave 313; 2 Thames Valley H 207; 3 Harrow 159.5; 4 Channel Islands 146.5; 5 Crawley 140; 6 Swansea 130; 7 Havering Mayesbrook 128; 8 Woking 126.

Can you imagine a major club event without the presence of the irrepressible Maria Sharp?

Maria placed 3rd in the 800m.

More pictures.

A dominating performance and Belgrave enter the Cup Final as favourites

A third of the way into this match and it was not so much a question of ‘would we win’ but whether or not the men would ‘outpoint’ the women! In reporting this match it is a case of ‘assume first place unless otherwise stated’. The immense strength and depth of the team resulted in a final points total of 313 out of a possible 342, or to put in another way, a pass with distinction of 92%. The men who have 20 events compared with the women’s 18 scored 163 points out of a possible 180 (90.6%) and the women collected 150 out of a possible 162 (92.6%). However, Stuart Faben’s desperately bad luck resulted in the men not turning out anyone for the javelin and instead of a certain 9 points (which would have made the men 95.6%) we scored nil.

Poor Stuart had stepped on a casually discarded bottle left lying on the track in the indoor warm-up area. He badly turned his ankle and was taken to hospital. At first it was thought that he might have a fracture but we later learned that the ligaments were damaged. The AAA the following week are sure to be out of the question now – but Stuart is being positive and is hoping to get back to throwing for the later league matches.

The track events started with the men’s 10,000 metres and Hassan Raidi, in his first ever stab at the distance within the confines of a stadium, gave us maximum points. Meanwhile, over at the long jump, Darragh O’Farrell performed right up to form to win with 7.26m.

A highly motivated (when is she anything but?) Amala Onuora prepared for her trip to Paris for the ‘Youth Olympics’ the following weekend by clocking 12.0 seconds in the 100m and she later anchored the winning 4 x 100m relay team. Just as Amala dominated the women’s sprint, so too did Graham Beasley for the men and with seven or eight events gone we had yet to witness a competition that did not feature a claret and gold clad athlete at the head of the field. Julie Hollman was not best pleased with her long jump but delighted with her 1.81m high jump – a season’s best – however, they were both wins. Our triple jumpers excelled with a longest ever leap from David Wellstead and a best since ’96 from Caroline Stead – both aided by the stiff breeze. Double wins also came from vaulters Paul Williams and Lucy Webber – although Lucy had to share first place with a rival.

It couldn’t last, of course, and the irrepressible Maria Sharp was the unlucky person to find herself “only” in third when she tackled the 800m. She then spent the next half an hour hoping that she wouldn’t be the only one to miss out on a win! Kevin Nash gave her hope as he ignored the pace of an early leader in the steeplechase and seemed destined for 2nd. However, Kev knew exactly what he was doing (and that the early leader had over-reached himself) and he too was soon continuing the winning spree. Maria was put out of her suffering eventually by a kindly Matt Wedge – who obliged her by also placing third in the sprint hurdles.

Diane Holden, although not breaching the 50 metres barrier on this occasion, won the hammer and believes that a solid winter’s training, which she lacked last year, will allow her to step up a gear. Shelley Newman in the outside throwing area did not seem to be distracted by the regular passage of cars behind the cage on the way to the overflow car park. Her third effort of 55.42 metres was her best. And while the women scored heavily in the throws, so too did the newly blond Mick Jones for the men. One of the happiest souls in the team was Greg Beard whose 16.17m in the shot heralded a return to form in a big way. Greg also placed second in the discus. Shot putter Eva Massey whose training is going really well was slightly disappointed with her 15.71m although it was not far short of her season’s best. Maureen Knight placed second in the javelin where she deputised for Goldie Sayers, on Under-23 international duty in Poland.

What a welcome sight it was to see Chris Moss back on the track after his knee injury. He’s missed a lot of conditioning work but was always in control of the 800 metres. Another forcing his way back into the action was one-lapper Geoff Dearman, winning the non scoring 200m before later setting the long relay boys off on another maximum pointer. In the scoring 200m the powerful Laurence Oboh defied anyone to pass him in a tight race and Jennifer Culley also found some tough competition in the women’s event where she placed third. Jennifer later ran an unpressed anchor leg split of 56.7 seconds which helped the team to their best time of the season (3:51.2) and had earlier taken the 400 hurdles in 63.3 – a busy afternoon. Rachel King, who has been running brilliantly this year, was a class apart in the sprint hurdles where she won with 13.4 seconds as the second placed runner was still attacking the final flight of barriers; she was unlucky that electric timing was not being used for she would surely have clipped the stadium record. It was Hannah Stares’ turn to take a break from the hurdles, switching to the flat 400m where she won in 55.9 – and after her legs had stopped hurting she did it all again in the relay. Sean Baldock was able to run a couple of seconds below par to sew up the men’s race.

In the longer distances the hot and breezy conditions made pace judgment difficult but Rosalie Powell coped well in the 3000m to remove nearly a quarter of a minute from her previous best. Julie Mitchell showed her usual front running approach in the combined Match 1 and 2 1500m; although she was outpaced in the last lap to cross the line in third, Julie was a clear Match 1 winner. Steve Sharp was masterful in the men’s 1500m while Allen Graffin threw in a 64 second lap towards the end of the 5000 to ensure that he was alone for the final circuit.

Men

100m: 1 G.Beasley 10.6/1.5. 200m: 1 L.Oboh U20 21.8. 400m: 1 Sean Baldock 47.4. 800m: 1 C.Moss 1:55.1. 1500m: 1 S.Sharp 3:51.0. 5000m: 1 Allen Graffin 14:58.9. 10000m: 1 H.Raidi 32:23.5; 110mH: 3 M.Wedge 15.3. 400mH: 1 M.Douglas 50.2. 3000mSC: 1 K.Nash 9:02.7. HJ: 1 R.Aspden 2.05. LJ: 1 D.O'Farrell. 7.26. TJ: 1 D.Wellstead 14.61w/2.4. PV: 1 P.Williamson 5.00. SP: 1 G.Beard 16.17. DT: 2 G.Beard 44.31. JT: no Belgrave competitor. HT: 1 M.Jones 67.97. 4x100m: 3 Belgrave 42.7 (L.Oboh U20, D.Donovan, M.Wedge, S.Baldock). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:17.6 (G.Dearman 48.2, C.Moss 49.5, S.Osho U17 49.0, M.Douglas 50.9).

Women

100m: 1 A.Onuora U20 12.0 (1.6). 200m: 3 J.Culley 25.0. 400m: 1 H.Stares 55.8. 800m: 3 M.Sharp 2:15.6. 1500m: 1 J.Mitchell 4:31.2. 3000m:3 R.Powell U20 10:30.3. 100mH: 1 R.King 13.4. 400mH: 1 J.Culley 63.3. HJ: 1 J.Hollman 1.81. LJ: 1 J.Hollman 5.96. TJ: 1 C.Stead 12.48w/4.8. PV: =1 L.Webber 3.50. SP: 1 E.Massey 15.71. DT: 1 S.Newman 55.42. JT: 2 M.Knight 35.06. HT: 1 D.Holden 49.09. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 48.2 (R.King, C.Wilson U20, M.Nestor U20, A.Onuora U20). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:51.2 (C.Wilson U20 59.5, H.Stares 58.0, J.Hollman 57.0, 4 J.Culley 56.7).

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