Men's Southern League 2003: Match 3, Battersea Park
1 Milton Keynes AC 125.5; 2 Belgrave H 119; 3 Dartford H 97.5; 4 City of Portsmouth AC 96.0; 5 Bexley H 94.0.
The result of this match hinged on the last event, the 4 x 400m relay, where Milton Keynes AC finished well clear of the home team to win the match by a 6.5 points margin. The ‘Spanish Plume’, the area of extremely hot weather, had moved northwards to settle over southern Britain, and triple jump winner David Wellstead remarked that without a cooling breeze, Battersea felt hotter than Valencia the previous weekend where he competed for the Club in the European Clubs Cup. David’s event was one of two in the field where we scored double firsts, the other being the shot where Greg Beard and Grant Sprigings did the business. Grant also competed in the discus as a non scorer, his distance of 33.52 just 3cms short of that of new member Max Marsden, second in the B, with Greg taking second in the A (42.76). In the javelin Wesley Smith’s last two almost identical throws (54.64 and 54.70) ensured that he won by a comfortable margin. In the jumps James Tuson made a welcome return to form in the long jump with second place (6.44), an event in which Chris Huggins won the B (6.20) and went on to do the same in the triple jump. U17 Roy Collier achieved yet another pb (1.75) in the high jump.
The highlights of the track events were the three double wins in the 400m flat, 400m Hurdles and 5,000m. U17 Set Osho demonstrated what a talent he is by winning the B in 48.8 seconds, faster than Ian Deeth’s winning time in the A (49.3). Matt Douglas and Ryan Dinham showed total control in the lap hurdles where Matt's 50.5 turned out to be a Southern League record (the old one had stood to Mark Bishop of Havering since 1990). In the 5,000m Hassan Raidi and Club Secretary Roger Alsop were likewise dominant in the gruelling heat. Finding someone to compete in the 3,000m steeplechase is always a problem particularly in these conditions but Warren Lynch and 110m Hurdles winner Paul Beaumont duly obliged - and survived, Warren being rewarded with third place in the A with a respectable time of 11:08.5.
The thirty degrees temperature did not seem to please the equipment too much - the public address system gave up, a malfunctioning camera shutter ruled out photo-finish (and hence electric timing) and a bracket snapped on the pole vault bar support during the first practice jump !
100m: 3 G.Baksh 11.7; 4 J.Regis U20 12.5; n/s 1 K.Adjepong 11.6; 2 M.Fasolo 12.1; 3 N.Travers-Griffen 12.3. 200m: 4 R.Dinham 23.5; 2 K.Adjepong 23.3; n/s M.Fasolo 24.5; N.Travers-Griffen 24.5. 400m: 1 I.Deeth 49.3; 1 S.Osho U17 48.8. 800m: 5 J.MacRae U17 2:12.9; 5 A.Cowmeadow 2:17.3. 1500m: 3 L.Greatorex 4:23.9; 4 A.Cowmeadow 4:50.1. 5000m: 1 H.Raidi 15:50.8; 1 R.Alsop 15:55.6. 110mH: 1 P.Beaumont M40 17.6. 400mH: 1 M.Douglas 50.5; 1 R.Dinham 54.6. 3000mSC: 3 W.Lynch 11:08.5; 4 P.Beaumont M40 13:11.3. 4x100m: 4 Belgrave 46.6 (C.Huggins, K.Adjepong, J.Regis U20, G.Baksh). 4x400m: 4 Belgrave 3:55.3 (R.Collier U17 57.9, G.Baksh 55.0, A.Cowmeadow 62.8, L.Greatorex 59.6). HJ: 4 J.Tuson 1.80; 1 R.Collier U17 1.75. LJ: 2 J.Tuson 6.44; 1 C.Huggins 6.20. TJ: 1 D.Wellstead 13.59; 1 C.Huggins 12.82. PV: cancelled - damaged equipment. SP: 1 G.Beard 15.76; 1 G.Sprigings 12.36. DT: 2 G.Beard 42.76; 2 M.Marsden 31.55; n/s G.Sprigings 31.52. JT: 1 W.Smith 54.70; 5 C.Privett 32.63. HT: 5 G.Sprigings 25.27; 5 C.Privett 22.29.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.