UK Women's Athletics League Division Four - 2004: Match 3, Abingdon

What a nail-biter

With just the 4x400m to go Belgrave led the match. A slender half a point was the margin over Cardiff, with Havering & Mayesbrook half a point further adrift; a single point covering three teams! If only it could have all stopped there, for with those team positions combined with the results from earlier matches, Havering & Mayesbrook and Belgrave H would be promoted to Division Three. There were so many combinations of what might happen in that final 4 x 400m relay and in fact our team ran tremendously - but it was Cardiff that got home first with Belgrave second - and we stay in Division Four for another year.

We could have found two additional points in so many places: Diana Holden - a certain winner of the hammer got lost en route, Jacqui Smiter injured her arm practising the pole vault and couldn't take part (and later went to hospital), and in administering help to Jacqui, Gail Porter missed her last javelin throws and probably missed the cut as a result. The misfortunes were many. But as Hannah Stares reminded us when it was all over, "we might not have gained promotion but had in fact given it a pretty good go with a very small team".

Winner of the SEAA Heptathlon the previous week, Hannah was in good form, winning both B hurdle races and scoring well in the high jump as well. Caroline Stead, talking about retirement before next season, was a double jumps winner, and with Olympic Team member Shelley Newman turning out for the discus backed up by Laura Fox, and Northern Ireland Shot Putt Champion Eva Massey dominating her event accompanied by Belinda Heil, the throws gained us massive points. Still troubled by a hamstring problem, Captain Jennifer Culley nevertheless won the long hurdles race and placed second in the 200m, and another who has been suffering from injury, multi-eventer Julie Hollman, was busy winning the sprint hurdles, the B 200m, and having a nightmare long jump competition.

We were desperately short of specialist sprinters and middle-distance runners but thanks to those who are game for anything, the team sheet was full, and when one saw the effort put in by lead-off runner Liz Horrobin in the long relay, one can see that with determination like this, our halt along the road to the top division is sure to be a temporary one.

Of course, the scorers could easily have slipped up to the tune of one or two points - but as the team headed home the scores were announced as -

1 Cardiff 202; 2 Belgrave 201; 3 Havering Mayesbrook 196.5; 4 Radley 179; 5 Kingston upon Hull 169.5; 6 Stoke 118.

100m: 6 S.Gailey 13.7; 3 M.Nestor U20 13.5. 200m: 2 J.Culley 25.9/1.7; 1 J.Hollman 24.6. 400m: 5 S.Gailey 62.7; 6 L.Cooper 74.7. 800m: 6 L.Horrobin 2:32.2; 6 D.Hearn 2:46.2. 1500m: 6 L.Horrobin 5:08.9; 5 D.Hearn 5:49.3. 3000m: 4 L.Cooper 11:13.0; 3 C.Eastham 13:08.3. 100mH: 1 J.Hollman 14.4/0.0; 1 H.Stares 14.5/0.6. 400mH: 1 J.Culley 61.3; 1 H.Stares 61.9. HJ: 3 H.Stares 1.55; 2 M.Nestor U20 1.50. LJ: 1 C.Stead 5.50; 5 J.Hollman 4.02. TJ: 1 C.Stead 12.20/1.9; 2 M.Nestor U20 10.77. PV: nht J.Smiter; nht G.Porter. SP: 1 E.Massey 15.30; 1 B.Heil 10.61. DT: 1 S.Newman 55.01; 1 L.Fox 38.96. JT: 5 B.Heil 26.56; 4 G.Porter 24.80. HT: 2 B.Heil 38.85; 4 G.Porter 27.94. 4x100m: 6 Belgrave (D.Hearn, M.Nestor U20, S.Gailey, J.Hollman). 4x400m: 2 Belgrave 3:56.5 (L.Horrobin 63.8, J.Culley 57.7, H.Stares 58.1, J.Hollman 56.9).

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