Written by MM and NA   

Views from The Court

Full results on TPOT & TOPS

Vets League 2011 – Match 2 - Ewell Court - 23rd May – Men

Not quite as good a result as at match 1, as we came 4th behind Epsom, Hercules and Croydon Harriers, but things are fairly close between 2nd and 4th, so that we are 3rd overall, on equal league points with Croydon Harriers, but 5 match points behind. All three clubs had a similar number of gaps, but Hercules managed to score highly in a lot of events. We had two wins again, this time courtesy of our M65s, Maurice Joyce (1st M60 Pole Vault) and Chuck Isetts (1st M60 200m). Times in the sprints were nothing to write home about because of strong headwinds, but at least we were spared the rain that also afflicted the North London & Herts division match at Barnet (Copthall) on the same evening.

As in match 1, we had two people making their debut in this league. Mike Maranzano, days after turning 35, and in training for a marathon made a great debut, being narrowly beaten on the line, and coming second in the 800m, and in the 3000m Jon Cook came a good third in the M50 race. We had other 2nd places from Andy Arbour in the M35 3000m, and Ollie Oladele in the M35 200m on the track and Rob Lowe in the Javelin (M35) and the Shot (M40) in the field.

The last two matches in June are only a week apart, on 13th June at Croydon, and 20th June at Kingsmeadow, so I will be trying to recruit for both matches, starting next weekend.

Mike May

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And now for the Ladies

It was a chilly, if not cold and gusty evening at Ewell Court but despite this there were wins from Nicki Murphy (31.4), Jo Regan (31.6) and Joan Trimble (31.7) in the 200m. Unfortunately Epsom and Ewell were strong in the middle and distance events but were challenged by Maggie Stacey’s debut run for the vets league in the 3000m (11.57.2). Rosaline Darby (over 50) returned to the track after a break of many years by running a respectable 13.56.1 in the 3000m.  Caroline Jeffcote continued her success in track as a relatively  new comer to running by finishing 2nd place to Epsom and Ewell (3.53.6) in the 800m. Out on the field we again had wins from Jo Regan and Nicki Murphy (O50) in the long jump (4.41m,3.74m). Camilla Thrush won the shot putt (9.26m) and javelin throw (24.70m) while team mate Debbie Singleton (O50) reaped in extra points in the same events (8.20m) shot putt, (14.20m) javelin throw. Feeling unwell at the beginning of this meeting Susannah Dietrich ran non-scoring 200m (32.7) and javelin throw also non-scoring 13.81m

The grand finale was the 4 x 400m relay. Two teams were in competition – Epsom and Ewell and Kingston. Epsom and Ewell took the lead for the first lap pursued by Susanne Dietrich, Dina Frances reeled in the Epsom runner on the 2nd lap while on the 3rd and 4th laps Joan Trimble and then Nicki Murphy took control winning by 6.8 seconds! It was very exciting to watch!! Well done!

After the 2nd meeting Kingston and Poly women’s team finished a very comfortable 2nd place and we are still in 2nd place overall and look pretty solid.

Nicky Atkins