UK Women's Athletics League Division Three Match 1, Aldershot

Above: Still smiling at the end of a long hot day at Aldershot. Michelle Nestor leaped 5.00m to place 4th in the Long Jump. Pictures by Alan Mead

The Belles fight hard to place fifth at Aldershot

Missing our team manager Bob, the team did him proud by eventually placing fifth in the match. Early high scores in the 400 metre hurdles, thanks to Jodie Favell and Ashleigh Horrobin, set us on the right track and even though our lack of longer distance runners held us back we seemed to be fairly solidly in fifth throughout the afternoon. Rebecca Pile made a big impact with a 400 metres division record and then 3rd in the 200m. At the end of the afternoon we finished strongly with third place in both relays and a win in the javelin so went home pretty satisfied ... only to find that somehow we'd finally been placed second to last. However, a week later when all the officials points were added into the scores and various other adjustments were made, we were back in 5th (only 20 points off fourth) and in a much better position to fight to stay in the division.

100m: 5 H Ryan 13.10; 3 S Bovill 13.25/-1.7. 200m: 3 R Pile 25.95; 6 H Ryan 27.20/-3.2. 400m: 1 R Pile 56.90 (league record); 4 K Curtis 63.46. 800m: no competitor. 1500m: 7 M Noel W45 6:02.73. 3000m: 7 M Noel W45 12:36.22; no B competitor. 100mH: 4 J Favell 15.38; 2 J Case 19.58. 400mH: 1 J Favell 63.54; 2 A Horrobin 65.63; n/s K Curtis 67.19. 2000mS: no competitor. HJ: 8 M Nestor 1.40; no B competitor. LJ: 4 M Nestor 5.00; 7 H Bottin 3.97. TJ: 4 M Nestor 10.41; 3 S Bovill 9.21. PV: no competitor. SP: 8 V Thompson 8.12; 6 H Mead 6.97. DT: 8 V Thompson 22.30; 7 H Mead 19.00. JT: 1 J Favell 34.09; 3 H Bottin 22.84. HT: 8 V Thompson W55 24.78; 7 H Mead 22.40. 4x100m: 3 Belgrave 51.69 (K Curtis, R Pile, J Favell, H Ryan). 4x400m: 3 Belgrave 4:11.78 (K Curtis, 64.8, J Case 67.9, J Favell 61.4, R Pile 57.7).

Match result: 1 Notts AC 222; 2 Reading 215; 3 Aldershot F&D AC 201.5; 4 Liverpool161; 5 7 Belgrave 141; 6 Brighton & Hove AC 140.5; 7 Leeds City AC 139; 8 Wakefield 102.

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