SAL match no. 4 - Stevenage - Race report

A record contingent of 32 Serpies wasn't enough for our team in Stevenage to get a win: the three other clubs, well ahead of us in the league, were just too strong on the day and we finished in fourth place with 153 points.

Picture from SAL match no. 4 - Stevenage - Race report

Our opponents for the day were Eastbourne Rovers, Ashford AC and Stevenage & N Herts (host club).

You know it is going to be a tough match when you show up with your largest turnout so far in the season (over 30 people) and in the first two events of the day, where we normally score plenty of points, there are seven women in the Pole Vault and seven women in the 400mHds. However, we didn't give up and competed in all events with some great performances including PBs; unfortunately, the other clubs also had some amazing racing and at the end we finished in fourth place. 

FrankW shotThanks to everyone who competed and for making it a great and fun day out: we had some debuts, with Izzy C smashing the 5000m in under 17:25.83, and Vinh back from Singapore to get some points in. We were at the front in many of the middle distance races (Tash S, Daisy G and Laura C were all either first or second in their strings; and so did Baz, Julian B, Bart P and Dani D in their races), although most of field events proved once more to be our achilles heel, but not all: Miles K and David R had a great long jump competition and both finished second with PBs; as did Mary D in the discus. A special thank you to Luke P, Caroline M and Inger B for their flexiblity in filling any gaps we had in the team at the cost of competing "slightly" outside their comfort zone (and it was not the first time this season). Also to Frank W for what it can probably be the "shot" of the season.

Massive thanks also to our officials (Ian and Sally Hodge, Andrew Maynard, Sammy Li, George Allan and Steph Vaatz), who had to deal with a lot of strict and bossy judges and contributed to our team score with 20 points.

Final scores of the day were:

  1. Stevenage & North Herts 212
  2. Ashford AC 192
  3. Eastbourne Rovers 156
  4. Serpentine 133

Full results are on the SAL website and on our website as well.

The last SAL match will be our home match in Battersea on Saturday 19th August: nothing is compromised and we can still save the season and avoid relegation, but we need to be out at full stength and win the match: and we can definitely do it! Everyone is welcome to take part, the sun will be shining and it will be another great day out for our club. 

Looking forward to seeing many of you in August.

Nick Barberis
SAL men's captain

Submitted: 12 July 2017

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