BWFAC
Northern League 2nd Round Match
Litherland
6th June 2009
Once again, a fine
spirited performance saw the senior team finish a very creditable second in the
match. Also once again it was the West Cheshire team that pipped us, but this
time by only 28 points, which means that Blackpool Wyre and Fylde are
lying second overall with two matches left.
All credit must go
to the women who performed really well on the day and produced some outstanding
results for the temporary, stand-in, assistant, deputy, team manager, Leigh
Newton. The women scored an impressive total of 13 wins at ‘A’ and ‘B’ and
were way in front of their nearest competitors.
The ‘A’ string
winners were led by Nia Rutter with two ‘A’ string victories in the long
jump and triple jump where she was ably supported by two outstanding U17’s Katy
Wyper and Beth Towers who picked up the ‘B’ string wins in the same
events. A further double victory at ‘A’ and ‘B’ in the pole vault with Loryn
McCrudden and Tanya Wright, also U17’s, demonstrated what a talented
squad of pole vaulters we are able to draw on. A similar story in the sprints
where Laura Davies and Lucy Mansfield took ‘A’ string wins at 100
and 200m respectively. Once again Katy Wyper proved her abilities as she also
took the 100m ‘B’ string win. Elsewhere two other U17’s outlined the great
future for the ladies team as Sam Smith (800m) and Katie Wood
(hammer) took ‘B’ string wins with the support of U20 Katie Holder in
the shot who also scored a ‘B’ string win.
The rest of the
team should not be overlooked however, a tremendous team performance all round
from the ladies including a notable effort from the returning Isabel Cairns
who contested all four throws to score some very valuable points – terrific
performance from all the women!
Not quite as good
for the men this time. A depleted team was further hampered by the loss of Luke
Berry early in the match after suffering a bad fall in the 400mH, an event
he only entered to “Take one for the team”. His fall meant missing the rest of
the day’s events and a trip to hospital later – Glad to report that Luke is now
OK and back in training. Well Done Luke.
There were just
two ‘A’ string winners this time from the men’s team. A great 5000m saw Stuart
Robinson continue his good run of form whilst Brent Starkie also
shrugged off the poor conditions to race home in the 400m, before anchoring the
team to a fine second spot in the final event, the 4x400 relay.
There were better
results from the ‘B’ string events, in particular James Fahey scored 2
victories at 100m & 200m whilst Declan O’Hara demonstrated his
versatility by taking the triple jump ‘B’ string win. There were some other
strong performances that merit mention, Jono Prowse had a hard 1500m and
narrowly finished 2nd just one tenth of a second behind the winner, Jon
Rutter worked hard for two second spots in long and triple whilst the U17
contingent of Louis Schofield and Alex Billington together with
training partner Nick Costello all performed well before joining up with
Jon Rutter to form a great team in the 4x100m relay.
A very good effort
from everyone who attended, but once again the lack of numbers was the biggest
downfall with more than a dozen events overall uncontested. That is just too
much to make up, even with the quality of the athletes on show.
Still on now to
Ellesmere Port for round three, a good performance in the remaining two matches
would still see the team through to the promotion play-offs and there is just a
chance we could go there as league champions, but it will need a great effort
and all events filled.
Well done
everyone, see you at the next match.
Derek Newton