UK Women's Athletics League 2005: Match 3, Abingdon
Division Four Champions
It was fitting that the last match of the year took place at the same stadium that twelve months earlier had seen us miss promotion by just 2 match points. This time everything came right and it would have taken an almighty disaster for the Belles to have missed out again. But it wasn’t just promotion that we were looking for – an unbeaten 2005 campaign would be nice. Blackheath & Bromley weren’t going to make it easy for us and when the opening event – the pole vault – saw two B&B stars and no other competitors, it was tantamount to giving them an 18 point head start.
Hannah Stares started the recovery by winning the 400 hurdles and then Claire Robinson took the 800m. As the jumps and throws results then started coming in, we crept slowly towards the lead. Double wins came from Sarah Wellstead and Katryna Euridge in the long jump, a double again in the "triple" with Sarah again and Michelle Nestor close behind her, and it was almost a maximum score in the high jump as well thanks to Hannah and Michelle.
With Julie Hollman in the line-up, no-one was going to get near our sprint hurdle duo, and as Julie then turned her attention to the shot where she partnered Eva Massey, it was top points again. It remained for Laura Fox and Jacquie Loney to do the business in the discus and we were away and clear.
Congratulations to all who made the league campaign a success - every point scorer - every judge and timekeeper - and especially Team Managers Cynthia and Bob who kept the momentum going. It'll be tougher next year in division three, but there's no reason why we cannot do it again in 2006.
100m: 4 J Culley 12.73/0.8; 2 K Euridge 12.87/1.5. 200m: 2 J Culley 25.59/-0.8; 2 R Lewis 26.81/0.6. 400m: 4 R Lewis 60.06; 4 L Collier 64.35. 800m: 1 C Robinson 2:12.35; 3 S Gailey 2:18.90. 1500m: 6 R Powell 5:00.41; 4 V Goodwin 5:29.15. 3000m: 7 L Cooper 11:26.46; 1 A England 11:32.26. 100mH: 1 J Hollman 14.23/-0.5; 1 H Stares 14.87/1.0. 400mH: 1 H Stares 63.27; 2 V Goodwin 74.22. HJ: 1 H Stares 1.50; 2 M Nestor 1.50. LJ: 1 S Wellstead 5.87; 1 K Euridge 5.29. TJ: 1 S Wellstead 11.53; 1 M Nestor 11.43. SP: 1 E Massey 15.17; 1 J Hollman 12.53. DT: 1 L Fox 39.77; 1 J Loney 32.66. JT: 7 H Mead 18.10; 6 J Loney 6.50. HT: 4 J Loney 40.42; 2 E Massey 34.26. 4x100m: 3 Belgrave 50.39 (J Culley, H Stares, L Collier, K Euridge). 4x400m: 2 Belgrave 3:54.88 (C Robinson 58.2, R Lewis 60.2, H Stares 61.2, J Hollman 55.2)
1 Belgrave H 223; 2 Blackheath & Bromley H 209; 3 Herts Phoenix 174; 4 Thames Valley H 142; 5 City of Stoke AC 134.5; Medway & Maidstone AC 116; 7 Kingston upon Hull 83.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.