Southern Men's League
Athletics in the UK is organised on similar lines to football. There is a premier league (the British Athletics League) which comprises four divisions of eight teams and a number of area leagues (eg Northern, Southern, Midlands, Eastern). The Southern area league stretches from Peterborough to Cornwall and is by far the biggest. It also includes many of the strongest athletics teams in the country.
The Southern Men's League comprises two regional divisions of twenty-five teams plus 6 area leagues each of 16 teams. Each team competes in six fixtures a season and against four other clubs. Over the season each club meets all the others in their division. The season runs from early May to early August.
Serpentine has teams in Divisions 1, 3 and 4S of the Southern Men's League. The progress of the men's first team is shown below.
Each fixture comprises a full track and field programme (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 3000m steeplechase, high jump, long jump, triple jump, pole vault, shot, discus, javelin, hammer, and 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay). Each team has two competitors ('A' and 'B' string) and there are separate ('A' and 'B') races for each track event – with the exception of the 1,500 metres, 5,000 metres and steeplechase events where all competitors run together. There are therefore 36 events to cover in an afternoon – which is why we need a good sized squad for each of our teams.
Points scoring is a simple: 5 for first, down to 1 for fifth for each event. The team with the most points wins the fixture. Aggregate points for all six fixtures determine the league position and the top five teams are promoted and the bottom five teams are relegated at the end of the season.
Every point is valuable and it is therefore important that we enter competitors in every event.
Contacts
| Overall coordinator | JT Wong | tel: 077 2029 1108 |
| Division 1 |
Robin Kindersley Andrew Reeves |
tel: 077 4905 1717
tel: 077 2556 3075 |
| Division 3 | Charles Lescott |
tel: 079 4661 5335 |
| Division 4 |
Alessandro Brandimarti |
tel: 079 8594 9774 |
Men's first team: progress through the Southern League
| Year | Division | Team position | Result |
| 1990 | Division 7 | 21 out of 30 | |
| 1991 | Division 7 | ||
| 1992 | Division 7 | 3 out of 25 | Promoted |
| 1993 | Division 6 | 6 out of 25 | Missed promotion by 2.5 pts |
| 1994 | Division 6 | 1 out of 25 | Promoted |
| 1995 | Division 5 | 3 out of 25 | Promoted |
| 1996 | Division 4 | 3 out of 25 | Promoted |
| 1997 | Division 3 | 2 out of 25 | Promoted |
| 1998 | Division 2 | 10 out of 25 | |
| 1999 | Division 2 | 14 out of 25 | |
| 2000 | Division 2 | 21 out of 25 | |
| 2001 | Division 2 | 17 out of 25 | |
| 2002 | Division 2 | 19 out of 25 | |
| 2003 | Division 2 | 18 out of 25 | |
| 2004 | Division 2 |
Promoted |
|
| 2005 |
Division 1 | ||
| 2006 |
Division 1 |
||
| 2007 |
Division 1 |