UK Women's Athletics League Division Three Match 2, Liverpool

Great work by the Belles in Liverpool

Taking a team to the further flung reaches of the country is always problematic and with Team Manager Bob Bridges temporarily out of action Don Anderson stepped up to drive the majority of our squad in a minibus from Battersea to Liverpool on the morning of the match. A hold up on the M1 meant a late arrival but thankfully the organisers agreed to hold back the timetable half an hour and as our girls arrived they swung straight into action. With Don switching into timekeeper mode, Val offering her services as a track judge and Rex Bale, Jack Albrow and Mike Causer doing duty on the field we even earned a full score for our officials. Big thanks to them.

Amazing stuff

As the early results came in, with a great start in the 400m hurdles thanks to Louise Aylwin and Ashleigh Horrobin, soon the team were in third team spot ... and then third became second when we picked up two third spots in the 100m ... amazing stuff ... although Tamara Hamond was not impressed with her sprint performances and later put herself forward to run the 2k steeplechase as penance! It was wonderful to have Lou Blizzard and Sarah Murphy back in the team; both are now resident in the North and they boosted our middle-distance scores handsomely.

Awesome

As usual heptathlete Jodie Favell was everywhere. She normally manages at least one win and here it came in the long jump, and with Michelle Nestor taking second in the 'B' this became a high scoring event for us. Rebecca Pile was awesome in winning the 400 metres and followed up with a 200m 'B' win and last leg in the long relay.

Delighted

Vilma Thompson, Hazel Mead and sprinter Haylene Ryan made sure that all throwing events were covered and the only discipline not tackled by a Belgravian was the pole vault. Gradually, as the match drew to a conclusion and things levelled out the Belles were delighted with a final team place of fourth ... which takes them up to equal fourth in the division.

Time to catch breath ... before the long haul home again! Don - we couldn't have done this without you.

100m: 3 T Hamond 12.95/-2.5; 3 H Ryan 13.30/-4.0. 200m: 5 T Hamond 26.73/0.5; 1 R Pile 26.29/0.8. 400m: 1 R Pile 56.83; 6 K Curtis 62.54; n/s K Williams 64.72. 800m: 5 N Quispel 2:21.83; 6 M Noel 2:56.97. 1500m: 6 N Quispel 5:09.88; 6 L Blizzard 5:35.47. 3000m: 3 L Blizzard 10:35.80; 2 S Murphy 10:39.16. 100mH: 3 J Favell 14.53w/3.6; 3 L Aylwin 17.47w/2.7. 400mH: 2 L Aylwin 66.18; 1 A Horrobin 65.41. 2000mSC: 4 T Hamond 8:41.12. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 50.46 (T Hamond, L Aylwin, J Favell, H Ryan). 4x400m: 3 Belgrave 4:02.22 (K Curtis, A Horrobin, J Favell, R Pile). HJ: 8 M Nestor 1.40; 6 A Horrobin 1.35. LJ: 1 J Favell 4.99/0.5; 2 M Nestor 4.58/-1.3. TJ: 3 M Nestor 10.24/0.4; 2 A Horrobin 9.46/-1.8. PV: no competitor. SP: 7 V Thompson W60 7.94; 6 H Ryan 7.27. DT: 7 V Thompson W60 24.38; 6 H Mead 17.86. JT: 3 J Favell 34.74; 7 H Mead 19.39. HT: 8 V Thompson W60 22.31; 6 H Mead 18.86. Full results (pdf)

Match result: 1 Leeds City AC 212; 2 Reading AC 210; 3 Notts AC 206.5; 4 Belgrave H 183; 5 City of Liverpool 169; 6 Brighton & Hove AC 156.5; 7 Aldershot F&DAC 124; 8 Wakefield H &AC 114.

League positions after two matches: =1 Notts AC 14 (428.5); =1 Reading AC 14 (425); 3 Leeds City AC 10 (351); =4 City of Liverpool 9 (330); =4 Belgrave H 9 (324); 6 Aldershot F&DAC 8 (325.5); 7 Brighton & Hove AC 6 (297); 8 Wakefield H &AC 2 (216).

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