Men's Southern League 2003: Match 1, Battersea Park

1 Serpentine R 123.5; 2 Bracknell 115; 3 Belgrave 113; 4 Oxford City 105; 5 Ipswich 51.5.

The men opened their account with a host of good performances with the youngsters in the team gaining a clutch of personal bests and gaining valuable points in the process to help the team to a total of 113 points for third place, just behind Bracknell with 115. Hosts Serpentine won the match with 123.5 points.

Sixteen year old Roy Collier won the pole vault with 2-60 metres, and was fourth in the high jump clearing the same height (1.65, pb) as the second and third jumpers but having more failures. He is becoming a force on the track too with a pb of 56.5 in the 400m (3rd B string). Jamie MacRae, also 16, ran a pb in the 800 (2:07.9), tackled the 1500 and also leapt 5.03 in the long jump to place 2nd. Chris Catto jumped a metre further to come 2nd in the A competition. A third under-17 competitor Gary Mabbutt had a super 400/800 double with 56.4/2:13.3. Kwadjo Adjepong won the 200 in 23.7 and the 100m B race in 11.6. In the 5,000 metres Malachi Byansi set the pace and the others were content to sit behind him until they took off with four laps to go. Warren Lynch with a good winter of road and cross country behind him, also overtook Mal, finishing 4th in the A race, with Mal 2nd in the B.

Paul Beaumont made it a hurdles double triumph winning the sprint in 20.1 and ducking under the minute for the lap event.

There were Belgrave double wins in both javelin and triple jump. Moritz Wendt was getting too much height with the spear at first but flighted his last effort perfectly for his best effort of 43.09. Chris Privett gave good support in this event (35.18) and in the shot with a 2nd B placing (10.41). Greg Beard with good rotational technique heaved that monster 7.26kg weight beyond 15 metres. Back to the triple, David Wellstead won the A with 13.17 and Chris Huggins the B with 12.36. The discus saw Greg Beard in action again placing second with 38.59.

It was a close call in the 4 x 100 relay as we saw in the Womens League the week before. Anchor man Kwadjo's dip at the line was not quite good enough to get the verdict as Don Anderson's photo finish picture proved. In the 4 x 400 the Bels came second again with 3:42.8.

This fixture was hosted by Serpentine but we had an officials team which was probably a record for an 'away' match, seven for the track and five for the field - that was in addition to team manager Bob Bridges, who did his customary hammer and pole vault events, and assistant Paul Beaumont.

Mix of manual and auto times. 100m: 3 P.Walsh 11.96/?; 1 K.Adjepong 11.60/1.2; 200m: 1 K.Adjepong 23.68/0.9; 5 R.McMillan 29.41/0.5. 400m: 4 G.Mabbutt (U17) 56.35; 3 R.Collier (U17) 56.54. 800m: 4 J.MacRae (U17) 2:07.81; 3 G.Mabbutt (U17) 2:13.29. 1500m: 5 J.MacRae (U17) 4:30.39; 3 M.Byansi 4:38.97. 5000m: 4 W.Lynch 16:42.0; 2 M.Byansi 17:04.4. 110mH: 1 P.Beaumont M40 20.01/1.5. 400mH: 1 P.Beaumont M40 59.36. 3000mSC: no competitor. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 47.1 (C.Huggins, D.Wellstead, P.Beaumont, K.Adjepong). 4x400m: 2 Belgrave 3:42.8 (P.Beaumont 53.7, R.Collier (U17) 57.0, 3 J.MacRae (U17) 57.2, G.Mabbutt (U17) 54.9). HJ: 4 R.Collier (U17) 1.65; 4 P.Beaumont 1.00. LJ: 2 C.Catto 6.02; 2 J.MacRae (U17) 5.03. TJ: 1 D.Wellstead 13.17; 1 C.Huggins 12.36. PV: 1 R.Collier (U17) 2.60; 2 R.Bridges (M50) 1.04. SP: 1 G.Beard 15.05; 2 C.Privett 10.41. DT: 2 G.Beard 38.59; 3 M.Wendt 21.06. JT: 1 M.Wendt 43.09; 1 C.Privett 35.18. HT: 5 R.Bridges (M50) 22.29; 3nt C.Privett.

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