Southern Men's League 02.05.09

Southern Men's League team start with a win.

Accustomed to beginning with heavy defeats due to clashes with other events, this year the Southern Men’s League team started the season very brightly with a narrow win at Ashton Playing Fields on Saturday. With tremendous support from family and friends urging on the home side, Woodford finished the day on 120.5 points, with a strong Enfield team second on 117 points and Ashford third on 110.5 points.

The day started with the Hammer and Fergus Harford throwing 38.22m (2nd) and Devon Douglas throwing 38.10m (1st B). Both were later to compete in the Shot, where Fergus putt 6.63m and Devon recorded 14.72m (3rd). Devon was to follow up with 43.26m (6th B) in the Discus and Tom Norman throwing 50.86m (1st A). Meanwhile Nick Dowsett recorded 6.22m in the Long Jump to finish 2nd A.

The next field event was the Pole Vault with Carl Rendera vaulting 1.50m to finish 5th. With very little winter training due to injury, Gareth Dyball finished 3rd in the High Jump, recording 1.85m.

The track events kicked off with the 400m hurdles and, after a 3 year absence from competition, Dan Bray finished with a time of 57.35 (2nd A) and Martin Holgate ran 1.04.35min (2nd B). Next on the track was the 100m with Sam Watts recording 11.24 sec (3rd A) and training partner Ben Peacock a time of 11.40sec (2nd B). They both later wrapped up wins in the 200m with Sam clocking 22.20sec (A) and Ben 22.67sec (B).

In the 800m, Ashley Mildenhall recorded 1.55.80 (2nd A) and Ronnie Sparke set a very fast time of 1.53.78 to finish 1st B. Ashley was later to compete in the 1500m with a time of 4.17.84 (4th). Fellow team mate Darren Southcott finished 2nd in the B string with a time of 4.29.43.

Keith Newton jumped 12.95m (3rd A) in the Triple Jump which was followed by the Javelin with Sam Turner throwing 53.10m (2nd A) and Jay Boddington recording 49.13m (2nd B) respectively.

Veterans Richard Holland and Paul Chase picked up precious points in the 5000m. while in the 3000m steeplechase Martin McClean ran a solid debut leading for most of the way but unfortunately slipped back to 2nd with a time of 10mins 37.10, while cross-country and road manager Terry McCarthy ran a positive race, finishing with a time of 11.49.07mins (2nd B).

In the 110m hurdles Beijing Olympian Daniel Awde blitzed home in 14.62sec (1st A) with Alan James following up in 21.48sec (4th B). Another man making a welcome return to racing after nearly a year out due to injury was James Wright, competing in the 400m. James finished with a time of 50.54sec (3rd A) and team mate Alex Brown was 1st B with 49.64sec.

In the closing events victory was secured with wins for the 4x100m and 4x400m teams
The 4x100m team of Carl Rendera, Ben Peacock, Sam Watts and James Wright set at time of 43.93 to claim top spot. James Wright dipped for the line and narrowly grabbed victory by 0.1sec from Ashford.
The 4x400m team of Dan Bray, Dan Awde, Ashley Mildenhall and Alex Brown rounded off the day with a superb run of 3.24.55min.

Once the results from the other 4 fixtures in the Division had come in, we were placed equal 2nd in the table of 25 clubs - a great start!

The next fixture is on the 15th May at Battersea Park. If you think you can help out, please get in touch with Gladys Bird as it would be great to build on this performance. Details regarding the next match will be sent out shortly.