Men's British Athletics League Division One - 2003: Match 2, Birmingham

1 Belgrave 371; 2 Newham & Essex Beagles343; 3 Birchfield 291; 4 Sale H Manchester 269; 5 Woodford Green wEL 267; 6 Windsor SE&H 236; 7 Trafford 203; 8 Shaftesbury Barnet 200.

It's looking like a two horse race as Bels and Beagles break away

Being a team manager should come with a health warning! Once again the League clashed with a number of other high power meetings including BMC speed trials at Watford and three (yes three) AAE fixtures which had been inserted into the fixtures calendar at a late date after all was thought to be done and dusted.

This time Belgrave lost 17 of it’s A team men to clashing fixtures and in some events such as the javelin and hammer where we have little depth we saw a large drop in points. But the positive side was that many of our juniors and recent juniors seized the opportunity to make their mark at the top level with Scot Thompson competing in all four throws as he concentrated on dispatching the discus sufficiently far to ensure selection for the European Under 23 Championships. Graeme Oudney and Derek Watson completed our young Scottish contingent and ensured good middle distance points although we couldn’t muster a B team 800 man.

The meeting itself got off to a less than slick start due to massive jams on the M6 which prevented many officials reaching the venue including Simon Fennel (the match scorer with his laptop and software). Fortunately all our early competitors had stayed overnight at the local Holiday Inn and were invited to the official opening after refurbishment. Highlights included a 30 minute stand up act from comedian Tom O’Connor followed by a barbecue and refreshments. Newham and Essex Beagles had also reserved the same hotel and it soon became clear that they had assembled a team which could well reverse the Match 1 result where they had pushed us hard to the end.

And so it turned out. With hand cranked scoring, a shortage of officials to operate distance boards and flags on the jumps it was not clear how we were progressing until the first match score after seven events confirmed our worst fears – we were trailing Newham by a big margin. And yet we were scoring well with a sensational double win in the long jump. Nobody present could remember when this was last achieved and all credit to stalwart Julian Flynn who won the B event with a season’s best. But the star performance belonged to 18 year Onen Eyong who has trained little this year due to A levels and missed last season due to injury. His spring off the board caused a lot of positive comments from fellow competitors.

It was not until mid afternoon that events turned our way signalled by Sean Baldock’s victory over Du’aine Ladejo in the 400 in his season’s best time. And then it came thick and fast with Dave Anderson winning a truly exciting 5000 by the thickness of a vest followed by double wins in the high hurdles with Dominic Girdler claiming a pb despite hitting hurdle seven and Noel Levy powering through to take the B race on the dip. But all the time Newham were there or thereabouts and we just couldn’t make big inroads into their lead.

It was not until event 13 (out of 19 total) that we achieved some daylight. First Graham Beasley powered into a bend headwind to clock his season’s best in the 200 to be followed by Tim Benjamin emulating the win and gaining his season’s best as he cruised to a fine B string victory in this his first outing in Belgrave colours. But Newham were hanging in with silver and bronze performances. We then won the sprint relay with our fastest time since the 2001 European Clubs Cup but Newham were second. But then to event 18, the steeplechase, where Martin Dent repeated his match 1 victory. Instead of Kevin Nash in support we had a debut performance from Simon Marwood which not only ensured maximum points but also lowered his pb by 6 seconds. (Kevin had already lowered his 1500 pb so we had a trio of happy chasers). And more to the point Newham had a seventh and a fifth placing which meant we lined up for the long relay knowing that Newham needed to win and we would have to be disqualified for Match victory to be denied. And we were not let down as the Michael Parper handed to Geoff Dearman (making a welcome season debut after injury) in third place - a position not relinquished on the last leg by Dan Donovan who once again doubled both relays in addition to his 100 outing.

At the end of a nail biting afternoon the general consensus was that Match 3 is going to be something special.

100m: A (1.9) 1 D.Plummer (Newham &EB) 10.50; 2 K.Ellis (Trafford) 10.63; 3 M.Teitz (Birchfield) 10.69; 4 Darren Chin (Belgrave) 10.69; 5 A.Condon (Sale HM) 10.73; 6 R.Moseley (Shaftesbury B) 10.83; 7 U.Ugono (Woodford GwEL) 10.92.
B (0.6) 1 Mark Findlay (Newham) 10.77; 2 Dan Donovan (Belgrave) 10.80; 3 A.Adebowale (Sale HM) 10.92; 4 D.Bradley (Birchfield) 10.96; 5 (Windsor SE&H) 11.02; 6 I.Kennedy (Shaftesbury B) 11.05; 7 W.Pobie (Woodford GwEL) 11.06; 8 D.Scott (Trafford) 11.17.

200m: A (1.6) 1 Graeme Beasley (Belgrave) 21.00; 2 D.Plummer (Newham &EB) 21.13; 3 A.Potter (Woodford GwEL) 21.56; 4 A.Condon (Sale HM) 21.72; 5 K.Ellis (Trafford) 21.88; 6 (Windsor SE&H) 21.90; 7 M.Tietz (Birchfield) 21.98; 8 B.Gibb (Shaftesbury B) 23.15.
B 1 Tim Benjamin (Belgrave) 21.19; 2 G.Hedman (Woodford GwEL) 21.28; 3 D.Walker (Newham &EB) 21.59; 4 A.Adebowale (Sale HM) 22.05; 5 (Windsor SE&H) 22.23; 6 D.Scott (Trafford) 22.25; 7 A.Williams (Birchfield) 22.65; 8 L.Achike (Shaftesbury B) 23.94.

400m: A 1 Sean Baldock (Belgrave) 46.32; 2 D.Thorne-Ladejo (Birchfield) 46.49; 3 M.Brown (Newham &EB) 46.84; 4 G.Hedman (Woodford GwEL) 47.08; 5 M.Hylton (Windsor SE&H) 47.79; 6 I.Lowthian (Sale HM) 47.79; 7 R.Moseley (Shaftesbury B) 47.99; 8 R.Workman (Trafford) 48.99.
B 1 M.Audu (Woodford GwEL) 47.19; 2 A.Gordon (Newham &EB) 49.01; 3 J.McIlroy (Windsor SE&H) 49.10; 4 Enee Udo Obong (Belgrave) 49.39; 5 G.Dujon (Birchfield) 49.57; 6 A.Wilkinson (Sale HM) 49.67; 7 L.Baird (Trafford) 49.78; 8 B.Gibb (Shaftesbury B) 50.64.

800m: A 1 M.Farah (Windsor SE&H) 1.50.84; 2 L.Besini (Birchfield) 1.50.91; 3 I.Sailsbury (Trafford) 1.51.88; 4 S.Bailey (Sale HM) 1.52.25; 5 Graeme Oudney (Belgrave) 1.52.65; 6 T.Snow (Woodford GwEL) 1.53.29; 7 P.Cooper (Shaftesbury B) 1.58.20; 8 A.Mohammed (Newham &EB) 1.58.20.
B 1 A.Donaldson (Newham &EB) 1.55.21; 2 B.Whitby (Windsor SE&H) 1.55.52; 3 G.Cuddy (Sale HM) 1.55.69; 4 O.Teasel (Birchfield) 1.56.05; 5 R.Scott (Woodford GwEL) 1.56.93; 6 D.Scott (Trafford) 1.57.38; 7 R.Dennes (Shaftesbury B) 2.05.25; no Belgrave runner.

1500m: A 1 M.Farah (Windsor SE&H) 3.49.08; 2 S.Bailey (Sale HM) 3.51.60; 3 P.Whitehouse (Birchfield) 3.53.17; 4 O.Laws (Newham &EB) 3:54.30; 5 Derek Watson (Belgrave) 3.55.27; 6 A.Renfree (Shaftesbury B) 4.03.37; 7 T.Egerton (Trafford) 4.04.31; 8 D.Barratt (Woodford GwEL) 4.23.87.
B 1 B.Whitby (Windsor SE&H) 3.51.01; 2 Kevin Nash (Belgrave) 3.55.86; 3 I.Grime (Newham &EB) 3.56.39; 4 R.Goodwen (Sale HM) 4.00.69; 5 C.Jones (Trafford) 4.08.82; 6 A.Swearman (Birchfield) 4.08.95; 7 P.Groom (Woodford GwEL) 4.21.89; 8 A.Magnall (Shaftesbury B) 4.26.18.

5000m: A 1 David Anderson (Belgrave) 14.03.96; 2 P.Riley (Trafford) 14.03.97; 3 S.Haughian (Windsor SE&H) 14.04.89; 4 M.Openshaw (Birchfield) 14.14.57; 5 G.Raven (Sale HM) 14.23.91; 6 N.Addison (Shaftesbury B) 15.01.40; 7 A.Barber (Newham &EB) 15.04.42; 8 (Woodford GwEL) 18.21.20.
B 1 A.Franklin (Trafford) 14.19.43; 2 D.Burrows (Birchfield) 14.46.99; 3 R.Lee (Windsor SE&H) 14.49.03; 4 G.Comish (Sale HM) 14.49.53; 5 Paul Freary (Belgrave) 15.01.28; 6 A.Magnall (Shaftesbury B) 15.32.35; 7 S.Major (Newham &EB) 15.55.48; 8 (Woodford GwEL) 18.21.25.

3000mSC: A 1 Martin Dent (Belgrave) 8.58.24; 2 T.Payne (Birchfield) 9.16.75; 3 J.Sear (Woodford GwEL) 9.28.99; 4 J.Bailey (Sale HM) 9.36.97; 5 T.Hyde (Windsor SE&H) 9.37.43; 6 D.Talbot (Trafford) 10.28.58; 7 B.Hellmers (Newham &EB) 11.28.00.
B 1 Simon Marwood (Belgrave) 9.07.70; 2 S.Bailey (Sale HM) 9.28.57; 3 M.Hutchinson (Trafford) 9.42.34; 4 T.Waumsley (Windsor SE&H) 9.42.86; 5 S.Major (Newham &EB) 9.58.31; 6 R.Breen (Shaftesbury B) 10.22.35; 7 H.Wyber (Woodford GwEL) 10.40.48.

110mH: A (2.0) 1 Dominic Girdler (Belgrave) 13.78; 2 D.Malins (Newham &EB) 14.00; 3 L.Collins (Sale HM) 14.33; 4 E.Dunford (Birchfield) 14.99; 5 L.Okoroafo (Woodford GwEL) 15.20; 6 C.Tye-Walker (Windsor SE&H) 15.42; 7 M.Hutchinson (Trafford) 20.45; 8 M.Taylor (Shaftesbury B) 25.82.
B (w?) 1 Noel Levy (Belgrave) 14.89; 2 G.Dunson (Shaftesbury B) 15.06; 3 J.Wright (Woodford GwEL) 15.34; 4 ? (Newham &EB) 15.43; 5 E.Dunford (Birchfield) 15.77; 6 A.Clements (Windsor SE&H) 16.75; 7 I.Scholes (Trafford) 18.67.

400mH: A 1 A.Borsomato (Sale HM) 50.77; 2 O.Theadore (Birchfield) 50.97; 3 J.Christie WSE 52.56; 4 Noel Levy (Belgrave) 53.00; 5 S.McDowell (Shaftesbury B) 53.54; 6 O.Thomassen (Newham &EB) 54.05; 7 L.Okordafo (Woodford GwEL) 56.10; 8 I.Scholes (Trafford) 67.28.
B 1 B.Yiend (Birchfield) 51.28; 2 L.Collins (Sale HM) 51.58; 3 A.Clements WSE 54.05; 4 K.Deighton (Woodford GwEL) 55.31; 5 G.Dunson (Shaftesbury B) 55.58; 6 C.Ball (Trafford) 57.95; 7 Paul Beaumont M40 (Belgrave) 58.26; 8 B.Hellmers (Newham &EB) 64.96.

4x100m: 1 Belgrave 40.47 (Dominic Girdler, Dan Donovan, Tim Benjamin, Graham Beasley); 2 (Newham &EB) 41.00; 3 (Birchfield) 42.28; 4 (Woodford GwEL) 42.51; 5 (Shaftesbury B) 44.53; 6 (Windsor SE&H) 45.63; 7 (Sale HM); 8 (Trafford).

4x400m: 1 (Birchfield) 3.11.76; 2 Belgrave 3:12.6 (Michael Parper 48.6, Geoff Dearman 48.2, Dan Donovan 48.3, Enee Udo-Obong 47.5); 3 (Sale HM) 3.12.48; 4 (Woodford GwEL) 3.14.66; 5 (Newham &EB) 3.19.00; 6 (Windsor SE&H) 3.19.28; 7 (Trafford) 3.24.32; 8 (Shaftesbury B) 3.32.45.

High Jump: A 1 D.Grant (Woodford GwEL) 2.15; 2 I.Holliday (Sale HM) 2.10; 3 Richard Aspden (Belgrave) 2.00; 4 J.Van Heerden (Newham &EB) 2.00; 5 C.Hall (Birchfield) 1.95; 6 D.Stone (Shaftesbury B) 1.95; 7 B.Shiel (Windsor SE&H) 1.80; 8 J.Clare (Trafford) 1.75.
B 1 R.Griffiths (Newham &EB) 1.85; 2 James Tuson (Belgrave) 1.80; 3 Plunkett (Sale) 1.80; 4 J.Wright (Woodford GwEL) 1.80; 5 M.Taylor (Shaftesbury B) 1.70.

Long Jump: A 1 Onen Eyong U20 (Belgrave) 7.24; 2 C.Davidson (Newham &EB) 7.10; 3 M.Dowsett (Woodford GwEL) 7.10; 4 S.Faulkner (Birchfield) 6.89; 5 M.Taylor (Shaftesbury B) 6.67; 6 O.Akinsanya (Trafford) 6.60; 7 R.Reader (Sale HM) 6.30; 8 J.Golley (Windsor SE&H) 6.18.
B 1 Julian Flynn (Belgrave) 7.12; 2 S.Wells (Woodford GwEL) 6.82; 3 O.Baptist (Shaftesbury B) 6.57; 4 T.Salou (Newham &EB) 6.51; 5 L.Harvey (Trafford) 6.32; 6 A.Clements (Windsor SE&H) 5.93; 7 G.Plunkett (Sale HM) 5.84; 8 D.Galloway (Birchfield) NJ.

Triple Jump: A 1 T.Oke (Woodford GwEL) 16.16; 2 N.Thomas (Newham &EB) 16.06; 3 L.Achike (Shaftesbury B) 15.45; 4 M.McKernan (Birchfield) 14.86; 5 J.Golly (Windsor SE&H) 14.65; 6 J.Hilton (Sale HM) 14.58; 7 Seni Majekodunmi (Belgrave) 14.33; 8 L.Harvey (Trafford) 13.96.
B 1 S.Ojo (Woodford GwEL) 14.32; 2 S.Baptist (Shaftesbury B) 14.03; 3 C.Madera Cole (Newham &EB) 14.01; =3 David Wellstead (Belgrave) 14.01; 5 D.Sanderson (Sale HM) 13.53; 6 I.Salisbury (Trafford) 11.11.

Pole Vault: A 1 S.Simpson (Birchfield) 5.30; 2 I.Tullett (Shaftesbury B) 5.00; 3 Ben Flint (Belgrave) 5.00; 4 C.North (Woodford GwEL) 4.80; 5 C.Mills (Windsor SE&H) 4.60; 6 A.Richardson (Trafford) 4.60; 7 R.Griffiths (Newham &EB) 3.60.
B 1 Paul Williamson (Belgrave) 5.00; 2 S.McLennan (Windsor SE&H) 4.40; 3 I.Noble (Trafford) 4.40; 4 M.Davis (Birchfield) 4.40; 5 M.Taylor (Shaftesbury B) 3.40; 6 S.Slater (Newham &EB) 2.10.

Shot: A 1 M.Proctor (Newham &EB) 16.76; 2 Scot Thompson (Belgrave) 15.84; 3 I.Macmullan (Trafford) 15.04; 4 M.Wiseman (Sale HM) 14.50; 5 C.Bryce (Woodford GwEL) 14.30; 6 A.Soala Belle (Shaftesbury B) 13.19; 7 E.Dunford (Birchfield) 13.17; 8 E.Scott (Windsor SE&H) 11.10. B 1 S.Litton-Hayes (Newham &EB) 15.41; 2 Greg Beard (Belgrave) 15.30; 3 J.Nicholls (Sale HM) 13.73; 4 N.Thompson (Shaftesbury B) 12.34; 5 R.Earle (Woodford GwEL) 12.02; 6 R.Bates (Trafford) 11.98; 7 G. Marshall (Birchfield) 11.70; 8 B.Shiel (Windsor SE&H) 7.24.

Discus: A 1 Scot Thompson (Belgrave) 52.72; 2 M.Wiseman (Sale HM) 50.19; 3 N.Thompson (Shaftesbury B) 48.19; 4 M.Proctor (Newham &EB) 47.70; 5 R.Bate (Trafford) 44.89; 6 R.Earle (Woodford GwEL) 42.07; 7 E.Dunford (Birchfield) 36.65; 8 S.Sammut (Windsor SE&H) 35.34.
B 1 Kevin Brown (Belgrave) 50.84; 2 S.Litton-Hayes (Newham &EB) 46.34; 3 A.Rollins (Trafford) 40.29; 4 A. Soalla-Bell (Shaftesbury B) 39.87; 5 G. Plunkett (Sale HM) 36.34; 6 C.Bryce (Woodford GwEL) 35.24; 7 E.Scott (Windsor SE&H) 34.07; 8 S.Hale (Birchfield) 33.48.

Javelin: A 1 M.Roberson (Newham &EB) 73.64; 2 M.Allan (Trafford) 71.14; 3 M.Taren (Birchfield) 62.01; 4 G.Plunkett (Sale HM) 56.96; 5 P.Howard (Woodford GwEL) 55.54; 6 Wesley Smith (Belgrave) 55.36; 7 A.Clements (Windsor SE&H) 44.39; 8 S.McDonald (Shaftesbury B) 34.34.
B 1 N.Bevan (Birchfield) 60.28; 2 J.Lundman (Newham &EB) 60.10; 3 P.Cooper (Woodford GwEL) 53.43; 4 C.Hoghff (Trafford) 53.13; 5 Scot Thompson (Belgrave) 49.51; 6 M.Wiseman (Sale HM) 44.80; 7 J.Bond (Windsor SE&H) 40.47.

Hammer: A 1 B.Beauchamp (Newham &EB) 70.48; 2 M.Floyd (Sale HM) 65.59; 3 M.Bell (Birchfield) 61.45; 4 C.Howe (Woodford GwEL) 59.11; 5 C.Walsh (Shaftesbury B) 58.17; 6 S.Sammut (Windsor SE&H) 57.84; 7 John Osazuwa (Belgrave) 54.72; 8 R.Bate (Trafford) 51.28.
B 1 S.Brown (Newham &EB) 64.44; 2 S.Peacock (Birchfield) 58.54; 3 G.Holder (Shaftesbury B) 57.49; 4 R.Earle (Woodford GwEL) 53.51; 5 A.James (Windsor SE&H) 48.53; 6 Scot Thompson (Belgrave) 42.81; 7 M.Wiseman (Sale HM) 40.23; 8 J.Hurst (Trafford) 35.03.

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