Men's Southern League 2001: Match 2, Hastings
A team manager’s worst nightmare came true early in the day when Bob Bridges turned up at the Wandsworth Depot to collect the minibus – only to find that it had not been returned by the previous user. A gang of athletes now had to face an unplanned rail journey to Hastings and the possibility of missing half the meeting. Down on the South Coast the hammer kicked off with just Mike Small as our representative. John Osazuwa should have been the senior partner of our hammer duo but with no possibility of his arrival in time for the event he had given up and gone home; a possible 10 points shrank to an actual 4. From that point on it was a struggle to get back on terms with the other clubs. As the track events got under way our team arrived and although some were a little short of warm-up time, at least they made it.
Jon Squirrel, now coached by Judy Vernon, notched up some good hurdles points but it was on the field that we had our only double wins with Ezra Clarke and James Hilston in the triple jump and Faroe Islander Heri Ziska and veteran Mike Small in the discus. Amazingly, at the end of the day, in spite of having only one competitor in six events and none at all in the long jump – we ended up 2nd. But it was very tight and it could so easily have been last place.
The 5k saw Knut Hegvold and Will Cockerell set off with a mission to alternate the lead every two laps and help each other to reasonable times. Knut immediately went to the front and two laps later Will duly moved ahead for his turn. Only two Highgate runners took up the challenge but unfortunately, when it came to the start of lap 6, Knut was some 4 seconds back and unable to play any further part in the pacing. Will towed the Highgate man for a further six laps whereupon the north Londoner let loose for a runaway win. Will was now losing ground and soon found himself facing a successful attack from the second Highgate man – and Knut, who had the audacity to pip Will in the home stretch. An entertaining race!
Teams: 1 Highgate H 112.5; 2 Belgrave H 106; 3 Hastings AC 104; 4 Croydon H 101.5; 5 Portsmouth 101.
100m: 2 M.Russell 11.1; 1 D Akinbogun 11.7. 200m: 2 J.Hilston 24.0; 3 G.Ross 24.6. 400m: 3 D.Akinbogun 52.8; 4 A.Daniel 54.1. 800m: 4 K.Quinn 1:59.4; 3 L.Greatorex 2:03.3. 1500m: 4 K.Hegvold 4:16.0. 5000m: 2 K.Hegvold 15:29.1; 2 W.Cockerell 15:32.6. 110mH: 1 J.Squirrell 18.4. 400mH: 1 J.Squirrell 57.5; 2 J.Panton 68.1. 3000mSC: 3 W.Cockerell 10:34.0. HJ: 1 J.Hilston 1.90. TJ: 1 E.Clarke 13.95; 1 J.Hilston 13.55. SP: 2 M.Small 12.48; 4 J.Squirrell 8.23. DT: 1 H.Ziska 41.85; 1 M.Small 38.06. JT: 1 M.Small 41.66. HT: 2 M.Small 45.54. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 45.3 (D.Akinbogun, A.Daniel, J.Panton, M.Russell). 4x400m: 3 Belgrave 3:34.0 (A.Daniel 55.6, J.Hilston 52.5, J.Panton 52.7, D.Akinbogun 53.2).
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.