SAL - Match 3 report - St Albans, July 9th
Third match of the season for our SAL team: we finished in fifth place after a dry day and some solid performances
Round three of the SAL season took us St Albans's scenic Abbey View track, which not only offered nice views of the cathedral but also the finish of stage 6 of the Green Belt Relay route.
The weather forecast promised a chance of regular showers throughout the day, not ideal for a venue that provided no shelter, but luckily the rain stayed away, apart from a few drops during pole vault warm ups.
We once again faced though competition, but were determined to pick up valuable points in our quest to stay in division 2.
The women's squad was relatively small but managed to fill as many events as possible, even if it meant going straight from finishing one race to the start of the next event. Among the standout performances of the day were Holly's 800m (2:20.7) and Katy's 1500m (4:46.5 - a 6 second PB), Meghan and Holly unlocking new skills in the 100m hurdles and triple jump and a great team effort in 4x400m where Sophie held off a charging Victoria Park runner, despite having just finished the 2000m steeplechase a few minutes earlier.
On the men's side special mentions go to Ewan and Nic Barberis for doing countless laps on the track, with and without steeples in the way, Jeremy for doing all the sprints and relays as well as Stuart who got 1st and 2nd places in the hurdles among a flurry of other events. It was also great to see some new and returning athletes - Luke, Deb and Nic Browne.
And we shouldn't forget to mention Mary Davies, who's been a fixtures in the women's team for years, covering all the throws and often helping out to cover other events, too. 
At the end of last season Mary competed in her 50th SAL for Serpentine and we finally found time to get her a trophy!
At the end of the day, we came 5th overall, which means we're still in with a chance to avoid relegation with a strong performance at the last event in Eltham on 19th August.
Thanks again to everyone who competed as well as our officials Malcolm, Andrew, George and Deb.
Final standing for the day is as follow
| 1 | St Albans | 273 |
| 2 | Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets | 229 |
| 3 | Huntingdonshire AC | 220 |
| 4 | Woodford Green with Essex Ladies | 202 |
| 5 | Serpentine RC | 164 |
| 6 | Highgate Harriers/Mornington Chasers | 144 |
If you're interested in finding out more about SAL, please get in touch with the team captains Holly Woodhead and Frank Womelsdorf
Framl Womelsdorf
SAL men's captain
Submitted: 27 July 2023