Men's British Athletics League Division One - 2003: Match 4, Wigan

1 Belgrave 337; 2 Shaftesbury B 324; 3 Woodford GwEL 302; 4 Sale HM 267.5; 5 Birchfield 259; 6 Windsor SE&H 234; 7 Newham &EB 231.5; 8 Trafford 216.

Youngest ever Belgrave team clinch league title

With the World Championships in Paris and the World Student Games in Cheju, Korea involving several of our top athletes this late and last match at Wigan proved once again a difficult proposition for the team management. Last year several teams could muster fewer than 20 athletes. This year we, and many of the other teams, made a determined effort to support this fixture with greater numbers. We turned to our younger members to back a small but elite squad of experienced seniors to clinch the League title.

And yet we still had gaps. Our competition started lamely with Mick Jones being partnered by the ever game Kevin Brown in the hammer and nobody in the pole vault! But soon it was precious points in the long jump before near maximum points in the discus followed by a high jump win from Ben Challenger who put aside his disappointment at missing out on Paris to support the team. A debut appearance in the 400m hurdles by junior Ryan Dinham followed, resulting in an excellent A string third place – a position emulated by under 23 Richard Ward in the A 800m. Adam Zawadski, back after missing the season through injury, gained maximum B string points in the 800m.

Then last year’s top points scorer Graham Beasley ran one of his fastest 100 metres of the season followed by an equally impressive B string win in the 200m. Sixteen year old Wade Bennett-Jackson won his debut B 100m while under 23 Tim Abeyie won the A 200m in a time only 1/100th slower than Graham’s. With no specialist 400m runner present Chris Moss and Richard Ward stepped in for a handful of valuable points. ( And so depleted were we that we failed to put together a long relay squad for the closing event. Fortunately by then victory had been assured.)

Contributing to an ultimately respectable points total were maximum points in the shot from under 23’s Greg Beard and Scot Thompson but with no recognised javelin exponent present we lost big points in the javelin. However this was our last glitch as the middle distance men sealed the win. First Spencer Barden ran away from a first class 5000m field only to repeat the feat 40 minutes later as he challenged a strong A and B combined 1500m field. Third in the A backed by Chris Moss’ win in the B gained more near maximum points. Junior Jonathan Blackledge made a fine debut at BAL level getting bronze in the B 5000m. Martin Dent fresh from more European travels still had enough fitness to finish second to Stuart Stokes in the 3000 steeplechase while Will Cockerell was disappointed not to break his pb.

And the final icing on the cake was an attack on the GB Club junior 4 x 100m relay record (41.32) by a Belgrave squad comprising of Wade Bennett-Jackson, Laurence Oboh, James Ellington and Set Osho. They finished second to a strong Shaftesbury team and only just missed the record. And so another league win – the seventh consecutive one to add to our earlier Jubilee Cup victory. The details of points scorers and other statistics will be added to the website in the near future . Meanwhile here are a few facts to be getting on with.

1. In this match the team included :- 2 under 17’s, 4 under 20’s and 5 under 23’s to make this the youngest ever team to compete for the Club in the Senior men’s British Athletics League.

2. Under 17 World Youth Games finalist Chris Gearing guested in the men’s shot and propelled the 7kg implement to 15.43m – a distance which would have won the B match if Scot Thompson had not been competing and of course broke the Club age record by a huge margin

3. In 2003 Scot Thompson amassed an incredible 129 points to put him at the top of Belgrave’s all-time list ahead of Jon Ridgeon ( 113 points in 1992), and Graham Beasley (101 points in 2002).

4. 6 athletes competed in all four of the 2003 BAL fixtures for Belgrave. These are:- Paul Beaumont (now a veteran!), Greg Beard, Kevin Brown, Julian Flynn, Seni Majekodunmi and Scot Thompson.

100m: A (1.3) 1 N.Smith (Shaftesbury B) 10.50; 2 Graham Beasley (Belgrave) 10.52; 3 M.Findlay (Newham &EB) 10.67; 4 A.Matthews (Windsor SE&H) 10.84; 5 S.Barnes (Birchfield) 10.90; 6 A.Hall (Woodford GwEL) 10.95; 7 G.Jones (Sale HM) 10.98; 8 L.Baird (Trafford) 11.12. B (2.8) 1 Wade Bennett Jackson U17 (Belgrave) 10.79; 2 A.Mensah (Shaftesbury B) 10.84; 3 F.Wright (Windsor SE&H) 10.93; 4 R.Tabares (Birchfield) 10.94; 5 D.Money (Sale HM) 10.95; 6 S.Plaskitt (Trafford) 11.34; 7 N.Dowsett (Woodford GwEL) 11.50; 8 J.Jegede (Newham &EB) 11.78. n/s (?w) 1 Tim Abeyie (Belgrave) 10.56; 2 James Ellington U20 10.68; 3 Laurence Oboh (Belgrave) 10.70.

200m: A (3.2) 1 Tim Abeyie (Belgrave) 21.15; 2 J.Alert-Khan (Shaftesbury B) 21.44; 3 G.Hedman (Woodford GwEL) 21.47; 4 F.Wright (Windsor SE&H) 21.85; 5 A.Williams (Birchfield) 22.10; 6 D.Ademuyemo (Sale HM) 22.16; 7 L.Baird (Trafford) 22.25; 8 T.Salou (Newham &EB) 23.97. B (0.9) 1 Graham Beasley (Belgrave) 21.14; 2 N.Smith (Shaftesbury B) 21.21; 3 R.Tabares (Birchfield) 21.93; 4 D.Money (Sale HM) 22.01; 5 M.Holloway (Windsor SE&H) 22.24; 6 R.Workman (Trafford) 23.06; 7 J.Wright (Woodford GwEL) 23.46; 8 L.Edwards (Newham &EB) 24.21.

400m: A 1 G.Hedman (Woodford GwEL) 47.49; 2 R.Moseley (Shaftesbury B) 48.32; 3 I.Lowthian (Sale HM) 48.65; 4 S.Plaskitt (Trafford) 48.79; 5 Chris Moss (Belgrave) 49.84; 6 R.Gardener (Newham &EB) 50.14; 7 R.Morgan (Windsor SE&H) 50.20; 8 G.Dujon (Birchfield) 50.47. B A.Wilkinson (Sale HM) 49.17; 2 R.Workman (Trafford) 49.61; 3 B.Gibb (Shaftesbury B) 50.01; 4 A.Davies (Woodford GwEL) 50.52; 5 G.Saunders (Windsor SE&H) 50.85; 6 T.Franks (Birchfield) 52.04; 7 Richard Ward (Belgrave) 53.58; 8 S.Rider (Newham &EB) 54.88.

800m: A 1 M.Shone (Woodford GwEL) 1:48.78; 2 J.Nolan (Newham &EB) 1:49.46; 3 Richard Ward (Belgrave) 1:53.65; 4 I.Salisbury (Trafford) 1:55.14; 5 J.Trapmore (Shaftesbury B) 1:55.82; 6 C.Bannon (Windsor SE&H) 1:56.33; 7 G.Cuddy (Sale HM) 1:58.03; 8 A.Swearman (Birchfield) 2:10.81. B 1 Adam Zawadski (Belgrave) 1:53.57; 2 T.Snow (Woodford GwEL) 1:54.03; 3 K.Kyereme (Shaftesbury B) 1:55.68; 4 R.Smith (Newham &EB) 1:56.66; 5 S.North (Sale HM) 1:57.47; 6 R.Lee (Windsor SE&H) 1:59.28; 7 D.Talbot (Trafford) 2:03.09.

1500m: A 1 M.Warmby (Newham &EB) 3:52.50; 2 M.Shone (Woodford GwEL) 3:52.92; 3 Spencer Barden (Belgrave) 3:53.86; 4 S.North (Sale) 3:59.31; 5 J.Trapmore (Shaftesbury B) 4:00.59; 6 C.Bannon (Windsor SE&H) 4:08.60; 7 I.Salisbury (Trafford) 4:10.39; 8 T.Payne (Birchfield) 4:10.50. B 1 Chris Moss (Belgrave) 3:54.01; 2 T.Snow (Woodford GwEL) 3:57.34; 3 J.Nolan (Newham &EB) 3:58.81; 4 S.Murphy (Shaftesbury B) 4:01.50; 5 G.Cornish (Sale) 4:01.74; 6 D.Talbot (Trafford) 4:12.03; 7 A.Swearman (Birchfield) 4:17.02; 8 S.Haughian (Windsor SE&H) 4:43.88.

5000m: A 1 Spencer Barden (Belgrave) 14:15.15; 2 G.Raven (Sale HM) 14:17.36; 3 D.Burrows (Birchfield) 14:18..46; 4 S.Haughian (Windsor SE&H) 14:24.66; 5 D.Mitchinson (Newham &EB) 14:29.07; 6 M.Murray (Trafford) 15:01.41; 7 T.Jackson (Shaftesbury B) 15:23.94; 8 T.Pamphlon (Woodford GwEL) 16:57.16. B 1 E.Wander (Birchfield) 14:34.31; 2 D.Augustus (Sale) 15:05.99; 3 Jonathan Blackledge (Belgrave) 15:06.81; 4 A.Magnall (Shaftesbury B) 15:23.94; 5 M.Draper (Windsor SE&H) 15:46.80; 6 G.Williams (Trafford) 15:58.22; 7 J.Wallis (Woodford GwEL) 17:26.93; 8 S.Rider (Newham &EB) 20:47.14.

100mH: A (3.4) 1 E.Dunford (Birchfield) 14.59; 2 2 A.Scott (Shaftesbury B) 14.62; 3 C.Akpabio (Woodford GwEL) 14.73; 4 C.Tye-Walker (Windsor SE&H) 15.01; 5 Noel Levy (Belgrave) 15.25; 6 G.Plunkett (Sale HM) 16.20; 7 I.Scholes (Trafford) 16.54. B (3.2) 1 G.Dunson (Shaftesbury B) 14.84; 2 B.McConville (Woodford GwEL) 15.16; 3 A.Hopkinson (Sale) 15.64; 4 Ryan Dinham U20 (Belgrave) 16.09; 5 A.Clements (Windsor SE&H) 17.40.

400mH: A 1 J.Christie (Windsor SE&H) 52.13; 2 R.McDonald (Shaftesbury B) 53.82; 3 Ryan Dinham U20 (Belgrave) 54.53; 4 R.Gardener (Newham &EB) 54.93; 5 R.Gascoyne (Sale HM) 55.85; 6 Kevin Deighton (Woodford GwEL) 56.44; 6 V.Booth (Trafford) 79.9. B 1 J.Wright (Woodford GwEL) 55.66; 2 A.Clements (Windsor SE&H) 56.14; 3 G.Lammie (Shaftesbury B) 57.59; 4 P.Beaumont M40 (Belgrave) 58.33; 5 A.Hopkinson (Sale HM) 61.34; 6 L.Crispen (Newham &EB) 64.49.

3000mSC: (mix of manual and electric times ?) A 1 S.Stokes (Sale HM) 8:53.5; 2 Martin Dent (Belgrave) 8:57.9; 3 C.Low (Shaftesbury B) 9:15.2; 4 A.Franklin ((Trafford) 9:19.8; 5 E.Wander (Birchfield) 9:26.6; 6 K.Murphy (Woodford GwEL) 9:37.6; 7 R.Lee (Windsor SE&H) 9:55.0; 8 S.Slater (Newham &EB) 11:31.61. B 1 S.Bailey (Sale HM) 9:03..68; 2 M.Hutchinson (Trafford) 9:43.31; 3 A.Murphy (Shaftesbury B) 9:52.87; 4 Will Cockerell (Belgrave) 10:04.28; 5 T.Walmsley (Windsor SE&H) 10:11.10; 6 L.Crispin (Newham &EB) 12:41.07; gst S.Vernon 9:04.42.

4x100m: 1 Shaftesbury B 41.70; 2 Belgrave 41.92 (Wade Bennett-Jackson U17, Laurence Oboh U20, James Ellington U20, Set Osho U17); 3 Windsor SE&H 42.21; 4 Sale HM 43.81; 5 Trafford 44.26; 6 Newham &EB 44.46; 7 Birchfield 44.74; 8 Woodford GwEL 45.67.

4x400m: 1 Sale HM 3:17.19; 2 Trafford 3:17.99; 3 Woodford GwEL 3:19.67; 4 Shaftesbury B 3:19.76; 5 Windsor SE&H 3:20.03; 6 Newham &EB 3:34.13; 7 Birchfield 3:36.93; no Belgrave team.

HJ: A 1 Ben Challenger (Belgrave) 2.15; 2 I.Holliday (Sale HM) 2.05; 3 D.Stone (Shaftesbury B) 2.05; 4= B.McConville (Woodford GwEL) and D.Plank (Birchfield) 1.90; 6 J.Heanley (Windsor SE&H) 1.90; 7 A.Mohamed (Newham &EB) 1.60; 8 A.Parry (Trafford) 1.50. B 1 G.Dunson (Shaftesbury B) 1.95; 2 C.Hall (Birchfield) 1.85; 3 James Tuson (Belgrave) 1.85; 4 B.Shiel (Windsor SE&H) 1.80; 5 P.Howard (Woodford GwEL) 1.75; 6= J.Jegede (Newham &EB) and G.Plunkett (Sale HM) 1.50.

Long Jump: A 1 D.Ritchie 7.71/1.0; 2 A.Hall (Woodford GwEL) 7.39w/3.5; no other wind readings known 3 J.Moore (Birchfield) 7.35; 4 Julian Flynn (Belgrave) 7.07; 5 M.Holloway (Windsor SE&H) 6.99; 6 J.Jegede (Newham &EB) 6.92; 7 R.Blair (Shaftesbury B) 6.68; 8 L.Harvey (Trafford) 6.35. B 1 N.Dowsett (Woodford GwEL) 7.00; 2 J.Heanley (Windsor SE&H) 6.98; 3 L.Edwards (Newham &EB) 6.88; 4 D.Galloway (Birchfield) 6.71; 5 James Tuson (Belgrave) 6.22; 6 R.Reeder (Sale HM) 5.95; 7 L.Baird (Trafford) 3.98.

Triple Jump: A 1 P.Ferdinand (Birchfield) 15.48w/4.3; 2 F.Akinsaya (Trafford) 15.24w/2.6; 3 C.Madeira-Coles (Newham &EB) 14.60w/3.6; 4 Julian Flynn (Belgrave) 14.49w/4.0; 5 S.Ojo (Woodford GwEL) 14.12w/2.3; 6 J.Heanley (Windsor SE&H) 14.07w/2.9; 7 R.Gascoyne (Sale HM) 12.81w/3.3; 8 R.Blair (Shaftesbury B) 12.63w/2.6. No other wind readings known. B 1 M.McKennan (Birchfield) 15.12; 2 Seni Majekodunmi (Belgrave) 14.17; 3 L.Harvey (Trafford) 13.96; 4 K.Newton (Woodford GwEL) 13.48; 5 T.Salou (Newham &EB) 13.34; 6 M.Holloway (Windsor SE&H) 12.10; 7 R.Reeder (Sale HM) 11.60.

Pole Vault: A 1 S.Simpson (Birchfield) 5.15; 2 A.Richardson (Trafford) 4.80; 3 C.Mills (Windsor SE&H) 4.70; 4 R.O’Briain (Shaftesbury B) 4.70; 5 B.McConville (Woodford GwEL) 4.50; 6 R.Kingman (Newham &EB) 4.20; 7 M.Frazer (Sale HM) 3.20; no Belgrave competitor. B 1= C.North (Woodford GwEL) and S.McLennon (Windsor SE&H) 4.40; 3 I.Noble (Trafford) 4.00; 4 S.Day (Shaftesbury B) 3.20; 5 J.Dougherty (Sale HM) 3.10; 6 S.Slater (Newham &EB) 2.80; no Belgrave competitor.

Shot: A 1 Greg Beard (Belgrave) 16.91; 2 I.McMullan (Trafford) 14.94; 3 A.Soalla-Bell (Shaftesbury B) 14.69; 4 E.Dunford (Birchfield) 13.59; 5 R.Earle (Woodford GwEL) 12.22; 6 S.Head (Newham &EB) 11.90; 7 G.Plunkett (Sale HM) 11.42; 8 A.Clements (Windsor SE&H) 8.66. B 1 Scot Thompson (Belgrave) 15.62; 2 N.Vince (Shaftesbury B) 13.72; 3 R.Bate (Trafford) 12.87; 4 G.Smith (Birchfield) 12.60; 5 R.Robinson (Woodford GwEL) 11.96; 6 M.Proctor (Newham &EB) 11.48; 7 J.Parkin (Sale HM) 10.72; 8 A.James (Windsor SE&H) 8.56. n/s Chris Gearing U17 (Belgrave) 15.43.

Discus: A 1 G.Smith (Birchfield) 52.29; 2 Scot Thompson (Belgrave) 51.80; 3 M.Proctor (Newham &EB) 50.39; 4 N.Thompson (Shaftesbury B) 49.14; 5 R.Bate (Trafford) 44.84; 6 R.Earle (Woodford GwEL) 40.96; 7 J.Parkin (Sale HM) 38.55; 8 S.Sammut (Windsor SE&H) 36.29. B 1 Kevin Brown (Belgrave) 50.38; 2 G.Plunkett (Sale HM) 37.71; 3 R.Robinson (Woodford GwEL) 37.04; 4 E.Dunford (Birchfield) 36.22; 5 A.Soalla-Bell (Shaftesbury B) 36.05; 6 J.Heanley (Windsor SE&H) 35.52; 7 B.Beauchamp (Newham &EB) 33.94.

Javelin: A 1 D.Parker (Shaftesbury B) 65.30; 2 J.Lundman (Newham &EB) 62.42; 3 N.Bevan (Birchfield) 56.46; 4 P.Cooper (Woodford GwEL) 54.76; 5 G.Plunkett (Sale HM) 54.67; 6 Scot Thompson (Belgrave) 53.31; 7 P.Ostapowycz (Trafford) 51.76; 8 J.Heanley (Windsor SE&H) 47.17. B 1 P.Howard (Woodford GwEL) 54.01; 2 D.Stevens (Newham &EB) 48.98; 3 M.Taylor (Shaftesbury B) 44.05; 4 R.Bate (Trafford) 42.07; 5 S.McLennon (Windsor SE&H) 41.98; 6 G.Smith (Birchfield) 38.59; 7 D.Ritchie (Sale HM) 37.89; 8 James Tuson (Belgrave) 32.09.

Hammer: A 1 B.Beauchamp (Newham &EB) 70.16; 2 Mick Jones M40 (Belgrave) 67.77; 3 A.Frost (Woodford GwEL) 64.28; 4 M.Bell (Birchfield) 62.16; 5 M.Floyd (Sale HM) 61.74; 6 S.Sammut (Windsor SE&H) 56.79; 7 G.Holder (Shaftesbury B) 54.09; 8 R.Bate (Trafford) 51.46. B 1 S.Bown (Newham &EB) 63.64; 2 M.Sutton (Birchfield) 54.34; 3 R.Earle (Woodford GwEL) 52.78; 4 A.James (Windsor SE&H) 45.04; 5 J.Parkin (Sale HM) 43.72; 6 N.Fogg (Shaftesbury B) 41.34; 7 Kevin Brown (Belgrave) 34.65; 8 D.Martin (Trafford) 31.87.

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