Well THAT was a great match (if a bit toasty!). Another win, 3 points ahead of Blackheath and Bromley. They were obviously somewhat put out, as evidenced by the desperate ‘scrabbling around’ to find extra points for them or less for us! If they had filled just 2-3 more of their 13!!! gaps they would have beaten us. But they didn’t so that’s why we won and they lost!
With 3 points in it EVERYBODY who turned up contributed towards this win. Top of the leader board however has to be our Florence who scooped 21 points over 8 events! AND ran legs of both relays! Followed closely by Katie Hopkins, 16 points over 6 events (also running in both relays). ‘Little’ brother George Hopkins matched sis’s score of 16 over his 5 events AND jumped PB’s in both the high jump and a 27cm!!! PB in triple jump. Another high scorer on the day as ever was Dave who scored 14 points over 5 events AND ran the relays for us! And Eleanor, thankfully, reliably threw everything there was to throw to keep those points coming in!
On the day it was those hardy endurance lot out there that I really felt for, I mean it was SWELTERING and no lovely cool shower to run through like at Bracknell! I had to question the sanity of our team when FOUR non-scoring ladies turned up for the 5000m!!!, Fiona, Charlotte, Kylara and Natasha (all MAD!) – But quietly extremely proud of our gutsy girls. A joy to have Kylara back on the team, hadn’t seen her for a while and there was no escape from me when I spotted her at park run. Seems no form has been lost since we last saw her, I put her in as a non-scorer and she only went and won the race! Followed closely by Lucia to win the A string and Lou coming in to score second in the B string (having already scored max points in her 800m race). Kylara then went on to score for us filling in an unexpected gap in the 1500m and came 2nd in her race for those vital 3 points 😊
The boys ‘only’ had to run a 3000m at this match, welcoming John Hutchins to our team who ran an incredible 9:06 in that heat putting himself 18th in the UK V40 rankings! Connor ran the 3000m B string and secured 2nd place as a warmup for the 3k steeplechase in which a PB was earned (possibly helped by the fact there was no water jump – but I won’t tell anybody that!). B string steepler was endurance ‘chief’ Gamble – who also secured a PB (Ssssshhhh!) and a very respectable second place with his splendid technique! Well done both!
It was even too hot for the 800m really but that didn’t stop Martin from running a PB of 2:02 AND then going on to score second place in the 1500m! On B string 800m Ollie, also ran a PB and also scored second place in his B 1500m race! ….Spooky!
Great to have Chloe back with us for this match, kicking off with a win in the A string 800m, filling in for the B string 200m then winning the A string steeple by 12 seconds! Sadly, probably her last outing with us which is a real shame, we will miss your enthusiasm, dedication and great team spirit, thank you for being on our team Chloe and we wish you all the best for the future.
An interesting outcome on the 200m, 3 of our sprinters ran EXACTLY the same time, Ricky, Thomas and Jake all ran 23.1!!! Jake also ran a PB in the 100m for 2nd place in his race ,Thomas and Ricky also picked up points in the 100m and 400m and ran legs of the relays. The ‘Doctor’ ran a respectable ns 100m and leg of the 4x100m and Matt ran a PB in the 100m securing himself an age group ranking of 34th in UK. For the girls Fara and Tash ran the 100m races, Fara after jumping a PB in the long jump and Tash before securing 2nd in her 400m. Lauren ran just outside a PB in the 200m and 3rd in the 400m, and finished off with great legs of both relays.
On the hurdles Dave scooped an easy second place but we couldn’t fill the B string because unfortunately Kas had car trouble and couldn’t join us ☹, on the 400h Dave also scored In A and Ian won the B race.
Worthy of a big shout out here is Rory’s performances on the day which won us 14 points over just 4 events! Rory won the B high jump, threw a PB to secure 2nd place in shot, won A string hammer and throwing close to a PB in the discus. Dad Paul won the B string hammer by throwing nearly twice the distance of 2nd place!
On pole vault, Sam won her A string then went on to score in the A string 100h and high jump before running a leg of the 4 x 100m, getting back to form after struggling with injuries (Hooray!).
Last but not least, Roy scored us 9 points over 3 events coming 2nd in all of his throws: shot, javelin and then filling in for Kas with a very respectable throw in the discus.
Wow! I managed to get it all on one page! Sorry if I have missed anybody out. Next match 10th September at HOME! So hopefully something to celebrate afterwards, I’ll keep you informed. It just remains for me to say well done everyone for really pulling out the stops at this match we were against tough opposition with a somewhat depleted team but we NEVER GIVE UP! And that’s what I love about this team 😊
One more thing – CONGRATULATIONS to Ben Golding for passing your driving test (first time). AWESOME!