Written by DB   

The sheer joy of competition failed either to fully transcend the distance to Crawley for the first match(though John Ratcliff did journey from Somerset and do 7 events!), or the dominance of E&E or the lack of a B Final in the competition and there was a low response to MIke May's invites ,though the Nicki/y's ladies were relatively buoyant.

In fact,apart from E&E,we were the best teams on parade and our 13 athletes took 2nd in both matches,though a distance behind the leaders.

Of our 6-strong ladies team,there were max points performances from Joan Trimble(W50A 100 15.2/W50 400 74.6),Camilla Thrush(W35 HT/JT 33.75/26.16),Nicki Murphy - celebrating her 45th! - (W35 TJ 8.25) & Mary Waddington(W50 TJ 6.12),whilst Surrey County President Rachel Disley had another fine tussle with DMV's Janet Ray over 1500 and Nicky Atkins raced when she probably should not have done! Final scores - E&E 175,K&P 124,Cro 71,DMV 62,SoC 9.

In the Men's match,just 7 paraded but still managed 2nd overall. Ant Budarkiewicz(4.36.1) & David Bell(4.47.6),both destined to answer the BAL call three days later,won the M40 1500s,John Ratcliff took the M50 400/LJ(60.9/4.34) & the scribe nicked the M60 HJ.TM Mike May was well pleased with a 61.9 400(2nd);Coach Chuck mixed it well with athletes 10 years younger;and another 60 y.o,Bob McDonough was no slouch at M60 1500(5.31.3).Final scores - E&E 166,K&P 99,DMV 86,SoC 78,Cra 71,Cro 63,RSB 24,S&D 6.