BWFAC Northern League 3rd Round
Match
Ellesmere
Port 5th July 2009
What a great result in this third match of the 2009
season. To beat the current leaders, West Cheshire, on their own cabbage patch
and by a whopping thirty-six points was a fantastic achievement and full credit
to the entire team on their efforts.
Everybody
contributed to the final result and it would be wrong to single out individual
successes without also mentioning those people who “took one for the team”
by competing in events other than their own.
Praise then to
the likes of James Fahey and Jon Rutter in the dreaded 400mH AND
the high jump before they both competed in their main events. Same for the
women where Sarah Goff (long and triple jump), Katie Holder
(shot) and Tanya Wright (Hammer) all stepped out of their comfort zone
to record valuable team points.
On the track, the
sprinters had a stunning day, nobody finished lower than third in either men’s
or women’s races up to 400m and they completed a great day by dominating in the
relays too. Led off by U/7’s Katy Wyper, and Lucy Mansfield, 1st
in the 100m & 200m ‘A’ respectively and Alicia Johnston who took
first place in both ‘B’ strings plus Laura Deegan and Katie Holder,
both third in the 400m. Gemma Unsworth, Loryn McCrudden and Nia
Rutter joined this quintet to complete the relays. For the men, Alex
Bale at last shook off his ‘unlucky second’ tag to take the 200m as well as
equalling the winners time in the 100m for a very close call. His training
partner, James Fahey, tired from his hurdle race took second in the 100m
but stormed back to take the 200m ‘B’ race. There was an outstanding new PB and
BWFAC record for Brent Starkie in the 400m in 48.8secs and it was
good to see the return to form of Ted Romney, back from uni taking the
‘B’ string 400m. Alex, Ted and Brent were joined by newcomer Marcus Quarmby
in a thrilling finish to the afternoons racing as they pipped Liverpool
Pembroke in the 4x400m relay to round off a great day. This followed a fine
sprint performance in the 4x100m by the quartet of Nick Costello, Louis
Schofield, Jon Rutter and Declan O’Hara.
Not to be
outdone, the longer distance stars also proved their worth; in particular a
notable ‘team within a team’ of Antony Ford and Stuart Robinson
stormed home in the 5000m, lapping all the other competitors to take both the
‘A’ and ‘B’ string titles by over a minute from their closest rivals. There was
another PB by Luke Minns in the 800m and great support from Chris
Essex-Crosby in the ‘chase, plus solid ‘B’ string runs for Luke Berry
and U17 Marcus Quarmby in 1500 and 800 respectively.
For the women, Gemma
Unsworth ran strongly in the 1500m and another there was a log awaited and
welcome return to action for Andrea Mason 
(pictured) who contested the 3000m.
There were very useful points in the ‘B’ events too with Sam Smith, Carolyn
Robbins and Stasia Bligh all inside the top two for the middle
distances. In the hurdles, Liz Hodgson once again ran superbly in the 400 to
take a great ‘A’ string win with support and new PB from Sarah Goff who
also contested the high hurdles as part of a very busy afternoon.
It was a similar
story in the field where the BWFAC strength in depth shone through. For the
men, two ‘A’ string and two ‘B’ string wins for Laurence Harwood and Bob
Wyper (Hammer) and Declan O’Hara and Jon Rutter (PV and TJ). Bob
also contested the Shot and Discus with Dave Myerscough whilst there was
a good team effort from training partners Nick and Louis at
javelin.
In the women’s
field events, where would we be without Katie Wood? A ‘young’ U17, Katie
has supported the seniors all season and was rewarded for her efforts with a
new PB in the shot before competing in the hammer and discus too. Great effort Katie!
Speaking of U17’s, those very promising rising stars Loryn McCrudden and
Tanya Wright took both ‘A’ & ‘B’ wins in the Pole Vault where BWFAC
totally dominated as fellow vaulter Declan won the men’s event.
Then, almost as expected nowadays, Nia Rutter shone in both her main
events, LJ & TJ, where she took ‘A’ string wins as well as a ’B’ string win
at the high hurdles and then a very useful leg in the relay.
Elsewhere, it was
good to see Laura Gillhespy back in the team. Although injury kept her
off the track, she supported the team well by competing in the discus. Same too
in the High Jump, where Hannah Dickson returned to league competition
for the first time this year. Hopefully we will see more of these two later in
the season.
All in all this
was a really powerful team effort that maximised the points and restricted West
Cheshire to second spot. A similar result at home in the last match will see BWFAC
rightly crowned champions –again- and go into the Promotion play-offs on a
high.
Let’s not be too
complacent though, West Cheshire are preparing a strong team for the final
match as well as a day out at the seaside, so be we need to be at full strength
gain to ensure victory. It could come down to just a few points!
Well done
everyone, see you on 2nd August.
Derek Newton