Men's Southern League Division 4 (S), Horsham
Southern League climb back begins
By mustering three-quarters of a team with a mixture of injury returnees, novices and others who have not recently competed regularly in the British League, we raised the standard of this division four match with a liberal dose of performances the like of which are rarely seen in Men's Southern League Division Four (South). Although nominally a Sutton/Belgrave joint team, only ID Akindele from Sutton joined in the fun.
ID himself looked impressive as he smoothly streaked away from the field in the 100m but stepped into a non-scoring role for the 200 to let in 16 year-old Melvyn Anukam. Mel's first ever athletic competition resulted in a B 200m win - and as he ended the afternoon in the winning 4x100 team can point to a 100% win record in his short athletic career. It was great to see Ryan Dinham back in action, winning the A 200m and contributing hugely to both relays; we wish him luck in his late quest to get something out of the remainder of the season.
Two fine runs over 400m came from Ian Deeth, recovering from hamstring problems, and the experience which he passed on freely to young Mel and others was invaluable.
Triathlete and world aquathlon champion Richard Stannard turned out for the 5000m and immediately ran away from the field, lapping runners within four circuits and moving on to overtake the whole field at least once with three laps still remaining. It required full concentration by the lap scorers and his 15:13-odd was just three seconds outside his best (he has only run one track 5k before) and was almost two minutes faster than the second man across the line in our match.
James Kelly demolished the 1500m line-up with Mark Humphrey piling up points with season's bests in the B 1500m and A 800m. New man Kwesi Menyah did some useful triple jumping and Cameron Johnston's 4.40 pole vaulting, backed up by Louis Samms was a tonic in the jumps department.
The throws were good too, thanks to veteran Chris Privett, ubiquitous trainee team manager Michael Peacock and James Everard, who was surprisingly beaten with a last round throw in a high standard javelin competition.
A couple of hurdlers, a distance man or two and some high jump competitors, and we could have romped this match. It won't always be like this of course, especially when BAL and MSL matches clash and we have less hands available for transport, etc., but our climb back up the Southern League divisions began here at Horsham.
Men. 100m: 1 I Akindele U20 11.1; 1 I Deeth 11.7; n/s 1 K Adjepong 11.8. 200m: 1 R Dinham 22.6; 1 M Anukam 23.5. 400m: 1 I Deeth 50.2; 2 M Peacock 56.9. 800m: 2 M Humphrey 2:05.1; 4 R McMillan 2:29.8. 1500m: 1 J Kelly 4:04.1; 1 M Humphrey 4:25.0. 5000m: 1 R Stannard 15:13.7. LJ: 5 K Menyah U20 5.03; 3 L Samms 4.97; n/s G Wilson 6.66. TJ: 3 K Menyah U20 12.07. PV: 1 C Johnson 4.40; 2 L Samms 2.80. SP: 2 C Privett 10.69; 2 M Peacock 8.96. DT: 1 L Marar (Redhill &SB) 51.93; 4 J Everard 27.75; 4 M Peacock 24.20. JT: 2 J Everard 58.83; 3 M Peacock 34.44. HT: 1 C Privett M45 43.19; 3 M Peacock 17.82. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 46.4 (M Anukam U20, Ian Deeth, Ryan Dinham, I Akindele U20); 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:34.3 (A Huntley 55.3, R McMillan 61.0, I Deeth 49.5, R Dinham 48.5).
Teams: 1 Poole 206.5; 2 Crawley 165; 3 Belgrave/Sutton 155; 4 Horsham 133.5; 5 Redhill & Surrey Beagles 96; 6 Istead & Ifield H 86; 7 Swale 62.
Above: The 4x400m winners. Andrew Huntley (third from left) ran his first ever race for a 55.3 split, Richard McMillan (extreme right) held steady with a pleasing 61.0, Ian Deeth (left) let rip with a 49.5 to move up to second, and international 400 hurdler Ryan Dinham (second from left) celebrated a low key return from injury by turning it on over the last 200 for a team win and an individual split of 48.5.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.