With May, came the Southern Athletics League in Braunton. All of us were worried about the weather, having travelled from the north down and others cutting across the country, we all faced heavy storms followed by bright sunshine, which didn’t bode well for the Sunday Match.

The team that travelled totalled 10. This included partners drafted in to officiate, an injured Pippa heading up the officials of Claire Wadey and Tom Matthews. Cheerleader in the form of Anna and Athletes Bilen Ahmet, Chris Dack, Gareth Cook, Ed Paxton, Harriet and Gordon Lester. More than slightly thin on the ground.

However, this did not stop us enjoying all you can eat burgers on the Saturday night in Ilfracombe with a couple of beverages too, before getting a good night’s sleep ready for what we knew was going to be a tough day.

With Sunday, came glorious sunshine! We arrived at the track to information that Wycombe had sadly not been able to travel down, leaving plenty of points up for grabs, even with such a small team, it was a bunch known for digging deep and going a bit mental! Which happened. With Chris and Gareth covering all the throws, juggling this with helping our official team and cheering everyone else on. Ed stepping into extra events on top of his usual pulling in even more points for Team Kingston. Both Bilen and Gordon ended up doing dodecathons (I may of made this word up, but it was around 12 events each, maximising on Wycombes absence), with Harriet following up the rear completing all 17 events available to a single athlete.

Unfortunately, even with everyone’s hard work, I’m sure we all went home and slept incredibly well, we still fell short of Oxford and Braunton, both of which had very strong teams and was a fight between them for 1^st and 2^nd place!

Although we may have had a small squad, we made up for it in team spirit and a great weekend was had by everyone!

See you all in Perivale on Saturday 17th June!

First of all, here are the total match scores from both match 1 at Sutton on 30^th April and from Sunday 4^th at  Kingsmeadow.

An excellent final score where K&P lead from the first track event of the U15 hurdles and there was no looking back,  Herne Hill only started to become a concern as the final results filtered through.

The only event we could not fill was the U13 800m. For 2017, we only have seven U13 paid up athletes – and a lot are only in the first year of competition and first year in this age group, apart from Alfie.  Therefore, the quality of our U13s, to hold up against the might of Herne Hill, Croydon who far more athletes in this age group is phenomenal.   Our U15s, we are very strong in quality and recording fab track, field and jumps results.  Despite Olly Wilson having to withdraw from the 1500m due to sickness, we were fortunate to have William  Bourne already warmed up and thought he was competing as a non scorer….Vanessa Hammett slapped a K on his vest and he ran his personal best of 5.20.0.for third in the B race while new signee, Max Biddulph ran a personal best 4.39.0 for third in the A.    The strong combination of stamina and speed from the Dickson brothers, Jack and Max, both in the 800m and 300m is awesome.  Jack got a double win in 2.07.4 and 38.5 and 2 seconds clear in the 300m.  Max was 2nd and 1st in both the B in 2.17.1 and  40.4 (which would have also beaten the second A runner.)  Our U15 Sprinters of Thomas White, Tarun Ramphul  Patrick Gubbay (these two competing in second outing) with Jaami Qureshi debuting – may yet break the U15 4 x 200m club record provided all are fit and available for 9th July.  These  4 athletes in a  4 x 100m would be thrilling.   Thomas & Tarun recorded 12.4 in the 100m,  Tarun 3rd in 200m A in 25.4 while Jaami looked disappointed with his time 26.9 for 2nd in the B. Certainly a great debut race.  Patrick ran the non-scoring 200m and seemed pleased with his 26.4.   Thomas left early but still competed in 3 events and winning the team 15 points.  His hurdling is fast for 1st in A race 13.8 and he’s very useful with the discus for 2nd place in the B with 22.89m.  Thomas’ hurdling partner, Freddy Crosby also collected us 15 points. 1st B string in 15.9.  He also Triple jumped 10.25m for 2nd in the A.  Losing out by 7 cm. And finished 3rd in the B  long jump – 4.31m. Kai our A jumper produced  4.60m. Not obtaining PB's but doing their best.  Fortunately, to complete our 4 x 200m relay in the absence of Thomas, Michael Webb-Bourne took the second leg. Team finished 3rd in 1.49.2.

Luca di Libero in the discus and shot performed majestically with 25.93m (PB) and. 9.08m. for 2nd and 3rd in the A.   And fantastic support by Tom Williams, back from knee injury, in the TJ where he was 1st B – 8.80m and 3rd B shot – 6.66m.

U13s – Alfie Westley threw a pb in the javelin for 3rd 21.87m when he was aiming for 20m.  It’s all coming together for him; so I don’t think he minded his 4th place in the 75m hurdles in 17.4.  While his partner in both events, Finnian Chang, ran faster in the B race for 3rd 17.0 and threw a PB in the javelin 14.17m. Our young sprinters, Ned Rose and Thomas Darke did the 100m, 200m and HJ with Ned.  4th = 14.0 and 28.9, Thomas finding his feet in the tough competition with 15.4 and 33.3. In the HJ they earned us 9 points but had to leave the event early due to a clash in events. Bear in mind, both boys are year 6 at Primary and were running against year 7s – and that’s a big difference at that age.  Great that they can use this Summer to learn to progress.  A promising duo of Charlie White and Sam Atkins in the 1500m – Charlie  5.10.7 and 3rd A runner, while Sam recorded 5.26.9 for 1st B runner – great job lads and first year in this age group and kindly did the long jump too!  The mature athletes will recognise the surname Atkins.  And Charlie, of course, is Thomas’ younger brother who has been itching to grow up to score in the track meetings.

Thanks for all the help;  Peter Shilling was the starter, Cashel for being the track marksman, Stuart Dickson, Humphrey Waddington track judge with Mary and  Peter Waddington assisting.  Also to Frank Schubert and Susanne Dietrich for all the field judging and our parents helping and assisting with handing out the numbers because I had to type out the results!  Namely, Susan Westley, Ulrike Chang, Richard White, Ian Williams and last of all, Pat Logan for mentoring our U11s: Nico Clarke, Ollie Cooke and Sam Bishop.  Our future U13s – got to keep them moving through.  Fantastic day of athletics and it’s always a bonus to WIN the home match. We can do it again at Woodcote on 9th July!