Men's British Athletics League Division One - 2002: Match 1, Copthall Stadium

Anguish for the Team Managers - but Bels. win opening match

Every year we await the return of many of our team from various warm weather training camps with some trepidation. On average about 30% return injured. This year it seemed more like 80% as inquiry after inquiry brought forward another tale of woe.

Add to this the fact that the British Universities T&F Championships had been scheduled for the same weekend and the anguish of the Team Managers was pitiful to behold! In many events we were destined to run our 5th or 6th strings and fortunately for the team they all performed above expectations.

A measure of the problems was evident in the short sprints where long jumper Darren Thompson ran a creditable 10.93 but only to finish last in the A event while triple jumper Phillips Idowu bettered this with a 10.81 to finish a higher than expected second in the B 100m.

Sean Baldock moved down to the B 200m to win with a windy 21.43 sec and confirm to coach Mark Gregory that all was on target for a fast 400m. But the one lap event was suffering from a shortage of our more experienced members who were otherwise engaged at the BU Champs in Glasgow. So we blooded 18 year old Jon Simpson and 20 year old find Tim Bayley and to everyone's surprise they came up with the goods with two fine second places.

The damage limitation exercise was going well as we moved to the longer distance track events. Whereas in past years our middle distance squad had little depth we now have a fine collection of athletes two of whom made impressive debuts in the 800m. Both Neil Speaight in the A and Adam Zawadsky in the B got boxed and left themselves too much to do to catch winning Woodford Green men - Matt Shone and Andy Brown, both of whom kicked well at the right time. Impressively Shone doubled up in the 1500 and managed to outsprint Mark Miles. But another second spot was acceptable as we were beginning to realise that Woodford Green, who traditionally see-saw between Div. 1 and Div. 2 had been recruiting strongly in the winter. Strangely, Woodford were weak in the 5000m and Paul Freary's usual 4th spot in the A and Ric Hayman's 3rd place in the B moved us slightly ahead in the match score. A lead that was to be further extended as Kevin Nash pipped Lee Hurst in the steeplechase with Kevin third in the A and Lee first in the B.

Again, every year we believe Ian Wells won't make our premier team and each year he proves us wrong. No change in 2001 as our 39 year old gained 3 valuable points in the B high hurdles. In the A race, Erese of Woodford ran an impressive 13.84 with Neil Owen third in a windy 14.12 secs. Fortunately, Ian was not required to run the 400H where Jon Squirrel and 17 year old newcomer Andrew Bennett (2nd) acquitted themselves well. But Ian was press ganged into the long relay and seemed pleased with surviving a sub 55 sec effort.

Meanwhile, the field events, running in parallel with the track displayed a similar mix of fortunes. Mick Jones and Dave Smith - the two finest hammer throwers in the country - swept aside the opposition to get proceedings off to a fine start. Then two wins in the long jump with Darren Thompson hitting a legal 7.48m on his first attempt prior to nipping off to the 100m. Julian Flynn added good triple jump B points to his B long jump win with Phillips Idowu easily winning the A triple jump off a short run up.

The pole vault was an unmitigated disaster. Newham men won the A with only 4.70m and the B with just 4.60m. Meanwhile, in this exalted company we achieved precisely "nil point". Mile Edwards who had flown in from Texas for this one event was inconsolable. By now, Newham were making an impressive points surge. The javelin result took them ahead of Woodford Green but their inroads into our lead faltered as Kevin Brown and Lee Newman together collected 50 points from the shot and discus. Kevin, who had been dragged out of retirement for this match, declared himself highly delighted with his efforts, as too were the team managers.

It remained for us to get the baton round in both relays and victory seemed assured. Mind you the sprint relay team did not contain a single sprinter so there was just a little pre-race tension around as the techniques of baton changing were debated. Add to this the last minute replacement of Nick Dawson with Jon Simpson who was warming up for the long relay and you get the picture. And they finished 6th with a creditable 44.15sec time considering the poor changeovers.

So a fine win and excellent start to our 2001 campaign. But had we learnt enough for the team selection for the European Champion Clubs Cup in Madrid? We think not.

Teams: 1 Belgrave H 345; 2 Newham & Essex Beagles 326.5; 3 Woodford Green with Essex Ladies AC 314; 4 Border AC 278; 5 Birchfield H 271; 6 Sale H Manchester 233; 7 Shaftesbury Barnet H 229; 8 Blackheath H 178.5.

100m: 8 D.Thompson 10.93/1.1; 2 P.Idowu 10.81/1.5. 200m: 8 N.Dawson 21.77/2.1; 1 S.Baldock 21.43/3.3. 400m: 2 T.Bayley 48.71; 2 J.Simpson 49.24. 800m: 2 N.Speaight 1:52.99; 2 A.Zawadsky 1:54.84. 1500m: 2 M.Miles 3:52.95; 5 N.Hliouat 3:59.30. 5000m: 4 P.Freary 14:50.66; 3 R.Hayman 15:07.98. 110mH: 3 N.Owen 14.12/3.2; 6 I Wells 16.95/0.5. 400mH: 5 J.Squirrel 55.21; 2 A.Bennett 56.29. 3000mSC: 3 K.Nash 9:11.51; 1 L.Hurst 9:25.81. HJ: 4 R.Aspden 2.00; 4 S.Oni 1.90. LJ: 1 D.Thompson 7.48; 1 J.Flynn 6.69. TJ: 1 P.Idowu 16.32; 4 J.Flynn 13.89. PV: - M.Edwards nh. SP: 1 L.Newman 17.25; 3 K.Brown 13.43. DT: 2 L.Newman 57.38; 1 K.Brown 51.71. JT: 5 T.Kitney 52.34; 3 W.Smith 51.05. HT: 1 M.Jones 71.71; 1 D.Smith 68.38. 4x100m: 6 Belgrave 44.15. 4x400m: 5 Belgrave 3:25.2.

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