News

STEEPLECHASE TRAINING DAY

A steeplechase training day has been arranged for Sunday 4 March at St Mary's University in Twickenham, any athletes who aspire to run in steeplechase events or would just like to understand the event more are welcome. It is about a 45 minute drive from BBH, there is no charge, approximate times are 10.00 - 3.00 but these are to be confirmed. Likely format will see, technical 'barrier' type coaching in the morning and then an endurance run in Bushy Park after lunch. Please contact Alan Swetman on 07961 267105 or e-mail Alan Swetman for more details and/or to reserve a place.

February News Letter - Part 1

February News Letter - Part 2

JADE SOARS TO SOUTH OF ENGLAND POLE VAULT TITLE

The Club’s track and field season, at least in its Indoor version, could hardly have got off to a better start than with JADE BREWSTER’S victory in the South of England Indoor Under 17 Pole Vault competition, which confirmed the talent she showed in the winning last season’s national title at Under 15 level. Furthermore, using a new pole, she smashed her previous personal best of 3.30m by clearing at the first attempt 3.40m, and then had a near miss at the Sussex record of 3.52m.

The Club’s hurdlers and sprinters looked in fine fettle in the first indoor sprints meeting at Horsham, particularly MOLLIE ADAMS and HELEN MORTON, who has already been involved in indoor combined events competition. MATT BAKER, another nationally ranked combined eventer, finished a creditable eighteenth in the England National Indoor Heptathlon at Sheffield, scoring 4458 points with personal bests in the 60m Hurdles and Shot Putt, an excellent performance in his first senior competition.

The National ranking lists for Under 13 athletes, included ERIN BATEMAN (Pentathlon) and CATRIONA JAMIESON (Javelin).

SUSSEX SCHOOLS & SUSSEX MASTERS CHAMPIOSNHIPS

The Schools Cross Country Championships, taking place this year at Lancing, are unusual in that most of our club runners wear the vests of their schools, and are sometimes not noticed performing very well. In the Junior Girls race, ERIN BATEMAN ran a very sound race (15th in 12m51s), and won a gold medal as part of the Burgess Hill School for Girls team. MEGAN ALLETRTON also did well (20th in 13m10s), closely followed by KATIE PERRIN (23rd in 13m23s). There was a splendid effort from NICOLE ALLEN who, in a classy Intermediate Girls race, finished eighth (15m04s), and as we have come to expect, our two Senior Girls, CAMILLE COWAN (5th in 19m05s) and ROSIE INMAN (7th in 20m13s) both had good races.

In the Junior Boys race, JACK MILNTHORPE was our leading finisher (15th in 16m28s), though it was MARCUS RAMAGE (16th in 16m33s) and JACK SOLOMON (28th in 17m41s) who gained silver medals as part of Brighton College’s second placed team. GREGOR RAMAGE (34th in 17m30s) and JOE WEST (38th in 17m33s) also ran creditably in this race. BEN COLLIER secured an individual bronze medal (3rd in 19m46s) in the Intermediate Boys race with Tanbridge House team mate WILL THOMAS fourteenth in 20m55s. DAN PIDGEON was twenty-seventh (21m42s), also for Tanbridge, but it was EUAN RAMAGE (17th in 21m01s) who gained a gold medal in Brighton College’s winning team. Also spotted was JAMES WINSBURY (49th in 23m56s), running for Christ’s Hospital. Also running for Christ’s Hospital, FRANCIS SCARR was seventh Senior Boy to finish (25m49s). which earned him a team silver medal. Also in the Senior Boys race, RYAN BOWYER was fifteenth (27m08s), though JASON WOOLDRIDGE’S return to racing after injury, unfortunately prove to be premature as he had to drop out.

Also held at Lancing was the Sussex Masters Championships and Club officials involved with this event were delighted when REBECCA ADAMS gained third place in the Over 35 competition (27m36s) and ELSPETH TURNERalso took third place in the Over 45 race (28m05s). SHEENA BASSETT was 27th in the Over 45 race (35m23s). There were three runners in the Men’s race, CHRIS LEE (35th in 43m31s) in the Over 50s race with RON SHANNON (36th in 43m36s) in the same race. BILL CRAWLEY, one of the oldest in the race, finished 16th in the Over 60 Men’s race (47m38s).

GIRLS & BOYS TEAMS IN CLOSE MATCHES IN SPORTSHALL LEAGUE

At the latest Sportshall league event held at Tanbridge school the two leading Clubs, the Blue Stars and Crawley again fought out the leading places in both the Girls and Boys events, with the Blue Stars eventually winning the Girls match by nine points, scoring 266 points to Crawley’s 258 and losing the Boys match by the same margin, scoring 280 points to Crawley’s 289.

In the Under 15 Girls 2 lap race Emily Cox ran well to win the A event in 23.1s. There was also a double victory in the 4 lap races, where Kat Bajorinaite ran 48.3s to take the A string and Lucy Milnthorpe won the B event in 50.2s. Emily Cox and Kat Bajorinaite teamed up in the Standing Long Jump, with Emily taking second place in the A event with a leap of 2.20m and Kat winning the B event with 2.17m. There were also wins for the eight lap paarlauf team and the 4x2 lap relay team.

The Under 13 Girls had a really good afternoon with double firsts in both the Vertical jump, where Jade Lindo and Caroline Wirth leapt 58cm and 51cm respectively and in the Shot Putt, where Emma Garry won the A event with an excellent putt of 8.40m and Erin Bateman won the B event with 6.46m. Erin showed her versatility by dominating the 6 lap event running 1m19.2s and then taking second place in the A string of the Standing Long Jump with 2.11m, and Emma Garry won the B event with 2.10m. Caroline Wirth won the Speed Bounce with a score of 76 and then won the B string 4 lap race in 52.7s, with Tabby Lee taking third spot in the A event in 53.3s.

In the Under11 Standing Long Jump Abbie Lee and Ella Sharp both took third places, jumping 1.99m and 1.81m respectively, and the 4x1 lap relay team cemented the final match result, needing to beat the Crawley team to ensure victory, they took second place with the Crawley team pushed back to fifth place. In the Under 15 Boys events there were wins for Jack Milnthorpe in the B 4 lap race in 47.3s, with Ross Carter taking second place in the A event in 46.6s. Jack also took a second placing in the B string Standing Long Jump, where Jacob Dean leapt 2.39m to take seond in the A event. There were also two second placings in the Speed Bounce with Joe west scoring 73 in the A event and Chris Dunstan, competing out of his age group scoring 64 in the B event. The 8 lap paarlauf team had a convincing win and the 4x2 lap relay team were also victorious but by on the slimmest margin.

In the Under 13 Boys events there was a triple win for Andrew Price, who seems to improve with every outing, he won the 2 lap sprint in 21.9s and then went on to take the Standing Long Jump with an outstanding leap of 2.42m and to show his versatility he won the Shot Putt with 7.09m. Elsewhere Tom Mackman took second spot in the 6 lap race in 1m17.5s and Zac Massey filled a similar position in the Vertical Jump wit a leap of 50cm. The 8 lap paarlauf team replicated the Under 15s with an equally easy victory in 1m40.7s.

Jordan Levey won the 2 lap sprint in the Under 11 events in 23.5s and then took second place in the Standing Long Jump with 2.00m. In the latter event Josh Barnett won the B string with 1.96m, having earlier won the B string Speed Bounce with a score of 50, where Jake Sinclair was second in the A event with a score of 52. These results mean that the final fixture on 18th February is crucial to the final league outcome, with both Boys and Girls teams needing to win to have a chance of becoming overall league champions for the season.

GOOD PERFORMANCES AT BEXHILL FOR LEAGUE RACE

The January weather and the remoteness of Bexhill played havoc with our attendance at the latest Cross Country league fixture on 14th. Nevertheless, seven of our Under 13 girls competed with ERIN BATEMAN performing characteristically well finishing in fifth place (12m00s). MEGAN ALLERTON had a welcome return to form after the county championships, finishing in an excellent tenth place (12m15s), with CAROLINE WIRTH completing our scoring team in sixteenth place (12m49s). The team finished in fourth place with 31 points, which leaves us fourth for the season so far. ROMY van der VEEN (28th in 14m09s); TABITHA LEE (29th in 14m16s) and INDIA FROUD (31st in 14m29s) made up a second scoring team in eighth place and ABBY LEE finished thirty second. Once again CAMILLE COWAN (8th in 19m26s) and ROSIE INMAN (12th in 19m46s) shone in the Senior Women's race. SHEENA BASSETT'S 61st position (25m13s) enabled us to finish fifth as a team and retain our fifth position for the season. It looks as if both Cami and Rosie, who was again first U20 to finish, will pick up overall individual medals if they run as well as usual at the last league meeting at Lancing.

Four under 15 Boys ran and protected our sixth team place for the season. WILL THOMAS was twelfth (15m12s); DAN PIDGEON seventeenth (15m51s) and JOE WEST, who always competes (24th in 17m13s). Will's brother EUAN THOMAS, battled round in 27th (17m41s). the scoring team were sixth (53pts) on the afternoon. With only two runners at the Under 17 Men's level, our medal chances were in jeopardy. BEN COLLIER ran very well for fourth place (17m10s) and the welcome return of SAM TAYLOR (14th in 19m25s), with 25 penalty points for no third scorer we somehow managed to retain our second place. We are usually strong at this level, but need everyone there for the final fixture. The reliable RYAN BOWYER, who had a really good run, to finish in 40th place (31m29s) was our sole representative in the Senior Race.

CAMMI MEDALS AT COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Medals were hard to come by at the Count y Cross Country Championships, but we could look back on a day of total involvement by the Club, and lots of creditable performances. Also on a day - and a course – where a lot of fancied runners did not finish, all the Club's starters finished the course. At Under 13 level, the girls fielded nine runners and the A team finished seventh with 62 points. ERIN BATEMAN was an excellent fifth (15m22s), CAROLINE WIRTH 21st (17m01s); REBECCA WILLIAMS 36th (18m52s) with MEGAN ALLERTON, INDIA FROUD, ROMY VAN DER VEEN, INDIA FROUD, TABITHA LEE , JENA ANDERSON and ABIGAIL LEE all finishing with creditable times for this testing course. The three Under 13 Boys who ran (CONNOR DEARDEN – 19th in 14m50s; TOM MACKMAN – 24th in 15m14s and LUKE TRICCUS – 28th in 15m34s) came eighth as a team in a field of 43 runners. NICOLE ALLEN (11th in 19m45s) led home our other two Under 15 Girls (KATIE PERRIN – 28th in 22m16s and REBECCA FARROW – 31st in 23m27s) with 7th place in the team event with 70 points, while our Under 15 Boys team (WILLIAM THOMAS – 11th in 18m56s; DANIEL PIDGEON – 19th in 20m.00s and MARCUS RAMAGE – 21st in 20m43s) were fifth team in their race, supported by JOE WEST and EUAN THOMAS.

Our one medallist was CAMILE COWAN, third in the Under 17 Women's race (21m57s – another fine performance) with MAISIE BOAST 10th. The Uswitch to Sunday deprive Ben Collier of a chance in the under 17 Men's race (he can run on Saturdays, but plays good quality football on Sundays). As it was we had just two runners with FRANCIS SCARR having a good run to finish 12th in 20m07s and BERNI SPANNAGL – 21st in 21m54s, as did the Under 20 Men, JASON WOOLDRIDGE was 14th in 35m43s and RYAN BOWYER 16th in 37n07s. The Senior Men could not quite close a team but there were doughty performances from ANTHONY BOURNE (33rd in 50m36s); CHRIS LEE (96th in 66m54s); RONNIE CHANNON (98th in 67.02s) and STEWART MACKMAN (104th in 70m18s).

The Senior Women had perhaps the best team result of the day with 5th place and 111 points. ROSIE INMAN, just missed an Under 20 medal, being fourth and finishing 17th overall (32m26s). Just behind was ELSPETH TURNER (18th in 32m28s) with REBECCA ADAMS also doing well in 20th place (32m40s). MILLIE WINDUS'S wholehearted 56th place (37m41s) ensured that we had a sound team performance. Many congratulations to all who competed.

BROADBRIDGE HEATH – LATEST UPDATE

Last night (Wednesday) the Horsham Council voted to take the Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre out of the leisure services contract which is due for renewal next November. What does that mean for us? Well it means that a decision as to the actual future of BBHLC will not be taken until the Council meeting in May. This will be taken after consultation with all the users of BBHLC and after a detailed business plan is drawn up.

We cannot guarantee that after this consultation that the council will still not vote to close BBHLC, but you can be sure that we will be working hard to keep the BBHLC open and at least until a new facility is built.

I think that we are in a better position than we were a few weeks back, and on behalf of the Committee I would like to thank all those who have emailed, written, joined protests and signed petitions. These have had a tremendous impact on the views of the councillors and been the reason for this change of recommendation to last night’s council meeting. We have a long way to go, so keep up the good work.

BOYS TEAM WIN MATCH TWO IN SPORTSHALL LEAGUE

The second Sportshall match saw a reverse of the first in that our Boys team beat Crawley , while our Girls team, who won the opening match, had to be content with second place. Overall, this leaves us second behind Crawley in both leagues (Crawley Boys 540½, Horsham 529 and Crawley Girls 513½, Horsham 503). A lot will depend on which club can mobilise the larger team for the remaining matches.

As usual, we shone in the relay races, but there were also some commendable efforts in the individual races with ANDREW PRICE and TOM MACKMAN winning Under 13 A races and JACOB DEAN, AMY FITZPATRICK, MOLLY ADAMS and KAT BAJORINAITE taking first places in various B races. Best of all was an Under 11, JORDAN LEVEY, who set a new league record (23.2s) for the 2 lap race in his age group. Eight athletes finished their races in second place which helped us stack up points in both matches.

In the jumping and throwing events, there were A first places for EMMA GARRY and ANDREW PRICE in their respective Under 13 Triple Jump events and B first places for KAT BAJORINAITE, AMY FITZPATRICK, JADE BREWSTER, JOSH BARNETT, JAMIE HUGHES and JACK MILNTHORPE. Once again, our eleven second placers helped our points scores to reach 250 (Girls) and 261 (Boys). Everyone worked very hard and showed lots of energy, and there was a good deal of enthusiastic encouragement from our benches.

Match Results –

Boys: HORSHAM 261; Crawley 251½; Chichester 221; Haywards Heath 152; Brighton 142; East Grinstead 80

Girls: Crawley 261½; HORSHAM 250; Chichester 210; Haywards Heath 182½; Brighton 182; East Grinstead 74

CAMI LEADS THE WAY AT PLUMPTON

There was good deal of satisfaction to be gained from the second cross country league meeting, held at Plumpton College . Much the most noteworthy effort was CAMI COWAN'S second place in the Senior Women's race. Her running has been a revelation this season and is, I suspect, the result of intelligent application in training. She was easily the best Under 17 finisher in a time of 21m45s, and with ROSIE INMAN'S tenth place (22m26s – 2nd Under 20) and REBECCA ADAMS eleventh (22m37s), the club had one of its best days in this all-ages race. SHEENA BASSETT in 48th place (26m18s) completed our scoring team and enabled us to finish in third place in the team competition with 71 points. Six Under 13 Girls (making up two teams) contested their race. ERIN BATEMAN was an excellent sixth (14m37s); MEGAN ALLERTON ninth (14m58s) and CAROLINE WIRTH 24th (16m22s) made up the A team which finished in fourth team place with 39 points. REBECCA WILLIAMS (25th in 16m25s); JENA ANDERSON (30th in 17m24s) and SARA DEDMAN (33rd in 17m52s) were our B team, who finished in 11th place. At Under 15 level a potentially strong trio (NICOLE ALLEN – 10th in 19m03s; KATIE PERRIN – 20th in 20m22s; and ISOBEL GREEN – 23rd in 20m33s) finished in seventh place, on which I am sure they will improve as the season progresses.

The Boys and Men had a similar afternoon. In the Under 13 race, we were sixth, thanks to the efforts of CONNOR DEARDEN (17th in 13m30s); TOM MACKMAN (18th in 13m31s); LUKE TRICCAS (29th in 14m26s) and CHRIS DUNSTAN (42nd in 15m56s). Shortly afterwards the Under 15 team was fifth with WILL THOMAS, a battling tenth (18m25s); DAN PIDGEON 16th (19m17s); JACK MILNTHORPE 18th (19m26s) and JOE WEST 27th (22m05s). Our Under 17 team, who unlike the Girls, have a separate race, have so far looked our likeliest team medallists. BEN COLLIER (5th in 19m42s); FRANCIS SCARR, a newcomer who has shown great improvement (6th in 19m48s); and ADRIAN FAUTLY (10th in 20m44s) saw us home safely in second place with 21 points, but take the overall lead in the league table. At Senior level, two Under 20s led the way – JASON WOOLDRIDGE (36th in 36m24s) and RYAN BOWYER (69th in 39m24s), with two veterans (STEWART MACKMAN - 134th in 46m19s and BILL CRAWLEY – 140th in 48m53s) completing the team. This gave us sixth place in Division 3.

GIRLS TEAM WIN FIRST SPORTSHALL EVENT BY 1 POINT

Sportshall League, there were good performances from both the Girls and Boys teams. The Girls ending up beating local rivals Crawley by just a single point, and the Boys took second place, also to Crawley .

In the Under 15 Girls events, there was a double first in the 4 lap race with Molly Adams looking very impressive in winning the A event in 48.4s and Kat Bajorinaite equally dominant in the B event, running 49.0s. These two teamed up in the Standing Long Jump with Kat winning the B event with a leap of 2.21m, and Molly taking second place in the A competition with 2.24m.

Jade Brewster won the B string 2 lap event in 23.4s and also took second place in the A string Speed Bounce with a score of 73, where Lucy Milnthorpe alos took second with a score of 71. Emily Cox and Jade Brewster both took second places in the Shot event with Emily throwing 8.14m and Jade 7.04m. The Vertical Jump saw Lucy Milnthorpe second place in the B event with a leap of 47cm. The 8 lap paarlauf team of Molly Adams and Kat Bajorinaite added another first place in 1m38.3s and these two together with Emily Cox and Jade Brewster won the 4x2 lap relay in 1m31.7s.

In the Under 13 Girls events Erin Bateman, in winning the B string Shot with 6.11m was the only winner, but there were several second places, with Emma Garry taking second in the A string 2 lap race in 24.1s and the A string Standing Long Jump with 2.12m, where Erin Bateman was also second in the B event with 2.10m. Erin was also second in the A string 6 lap race in 1m19.7s. Caroline Wirth scored 75 to take second place in the A string Speed bounce and Tabby Lee took second place in the B string 4 lap in 52.4m. There was another second in the B string Vertical Jump where Sara Dedman leapt 44cm. The under 13 2 lap relay team also took a second place in 1m37.3s. The Under 11 1 lap relay was the final event and the team had to finish in front of the Crawley team to snatch victory , and this they did by finishing second to Brighton in 51.4s.

The Under 15 boys events saw several winners, with Kyran Penny and Andrew price winning A & B string 2 lap races in 21.6s and 22.1s respectively. Andrew then teamed up with Ross Carter to take another double win in the Speed Bounce with scores of 67 and 64. Kyran Penny put up an impressive performance in the Standing Long Jump, where he leapt 2.56m. Jack Milnthorpe took second place in the B event with 2.34m. Ross Carter and Jack Milnthorpe both finished second in the 4 lap race with Ross running 47.0s in the A event and Jack 47.6s in the B race. The 8 lap Paarluaf team of Kyran Penny and Jack Milnthorpe won in 1m33.4s and there was also a victory for the 4 x 2lap relay team in 1m26.8s.

In the Under 13 Boys events there were wins for Sam Hughes in the B string 4 lap race in 49.8s and William Johnstone in the B string Vertical Jump wit a leap of 42cm.

Tom Mackman and Chris Dunstan teamed up in the 6 lap race and both took second places with Tom running 1m17.5s in the A race and Chris 1m28.0s in the B event.

In the Under 11 events Jordan Levey was impressive in winning the 2 lap race in 23.6s and team mate Jake Sinclair took second place in the B race in 24.6s. Jake then took another second place in the Speed Bounce with a score of 49. The Standing Long Jump saw another two second places with Josh Barnett leaping 1.90m in the A event and Luke Sprigg 1.75m in the B event.

Final scores: Girls: 1 Horsham 253, 2 Crawley 252, 3 Brighton 199, 4 Haywards Heath 186, 5 Chichester 172, 6 East Grinstead 101

Boys: 1 Crawley 289, 2 Horsham 268, 3 Brighton 204, 4 Chichester 152, 5 Haywards Heath 131, 6 East Grinstead 95

BROADBRIDGE HEATH LEISURE CENTRE - UPDATE

Thank you to all those who attended the protest meeting last Thursday outside the Council offices. I understand that it was the largest protest ever held in Horsham.

Unfortunately the Cabinet meeting of Horsham District Council voted to recommend to the full Council meeting on the 21st December their proposal to decommission BBHLC. The prospect is that if carried at this Council meeting then the BBHLC will have a phased closure from November 2012. The Outdoor track will remain in place for a time, as yet we do not know how long.

We will continue to fight this proposal and the Club urge you to continue to write/email opposition to this proposal to your local councillor if you live in the Horsham District, your councillors name and email are available from www.horsham.gov.uk/council/members/1632.aspx

An e petition has been set up and you can add your name to it by going to the following link: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22974

The Chairman has a meeting with Jonathan Chowen, Cabinet member responsible for Leisure at Horsham District Council, who had the temerity to state at the cabinet meeting that just 26 people a week used the Tube. Obviously he has never been to the Tube on a Club night or probably any other night. This will be the first consultation that the Club has had with the District Council over this issue.

THE “TOM PINK RELAYS” – LEE VALLEY -16-10-11

When Tom Pink’s bereaved parents initiated an athletics’ memorial to him, they wanted, I’m sure, other young people to enjoy the competitiveness, yet friendliness, of athletics. If so, it certainly worked with the youngsters of Blue Star Harriers. Against top-class clubs opposition like Enfield, Woodford Green and Herts phoenix, our under-11’s and under-13’s emerged with a lot of awards and could point to a couple of remarkable track triumphs.

Overall, we had eighteen medals at under-13 level with EMMA GARRY winning two silvers in the weight events and CAROLINE WIRTH a bronze in the “highland steps”. TABBY LEE and AMY FITZPATRICK came close in the other weight-throwing event. MEGAN ALLERTON, KOMY VAN der VEEN and ERIN BATEMAN picked up third in the 3 x 2.5 laps relay, with our “B” team fifth. In the “Chasing Kelly” race we were fourth (the team comprising Emma Garry, Amy Fitzpatrick, JADE UNDO, ELLIE AUSTEN and Erin Bateman) while the B-team just missed out on the final.

The under-13 boys did just as well, or better. There were gold’s for SAM HUGHES in the “highland steps” and two for ANDREW PRICE in the standing triple jump and weight for distance event. TOM MACKMAN secured a bronze in the “highland steps” event, with JAMIE HUGHES and WILLIAM JOHNSTON just missing out. On the track we were magnificent. LUKE TRICCAS, CONNOR DEARDON, and Tom Mackman won the 3 x 2.5 lap relay, with the B ream (Sam and Jamie Hughes, and HENRY ADAMS) a close fourth. Then Sam and Jamie Hughes, William Johnston, ZAC MASSEY and Andrew Price won the keenly contested “Chasing Steve” event.

ELLIE WALKER won two under-11 girls medals – gold in the “Weight for distance” and silver in the “Soft javelin” throw, while ELLIE WORRALL was third in the “Caber-toss”! ABBIE LEE and EVE CLARKE were unlucky fourth-placers while our nine keen track athletes found the going tough against some well-practised teams. The under-11 boys acquitted themselves excellently, with all the relay teams making their respective finals. Our A-team (DANIEL ALLAM, JOSHUA BARNETT, LUKE SPRIGG, JONAH HAREWOOD and DOMINIC EASTON) took silver in the “Keeping up with Paula” event with the B-team sixth, while in the novelty “Under/Over” relay we were fifth and sixth. There were medals also for JOE WIDDOWSON (gold in the “highland steps”) and bronzes for JARED ALLERTON (soft javelin and weight for distance) and for JOEL BARNETT (Standing long jump). Joel just missed coming third in the standing triple jump, as did DANIEL JONES in the “caber-toss”.

Everyone did splendidly and enjoyed the experience of competing in such magnificent facilities. As usual, we very much hope to be invited again next year.

SUSSEX CROSS–COUNTRY LEAGUES – GOODWOOD 22/10/11.

Half term holiday absences hit us hard for this meeting, but there were nevertheless some pleasing performances. The under-13 girls finished in fourth place and should keep up a challenge for medals throughout the season. ERIN BATEMAN finished fifth (13.04 mins.) with MEGAN ALLERTON just behind in sixth (13.05 mins.). The scoring team was completed by TABBY LEE in 26th place (14.59 mins.) but there were enough additional runners to make up a “B” team in 8 th place (JENA ANDERSON 27th (15.09 mins.); INDIA FROUD 29th (15.16 mins.); SARA DEDMAN 30th (15.16 mins.); ROMY VAN der VEEN 35th (15.30 mins.) and the youngest runner, ABBEY LEE 37 th (15.40 mins.). The under-13 boys had fewer runners, but CONNOR DEARDON 16th (12.22 mins.), TOM MACKMAN 21st (12.41 mins.) and LUKE TRICCAS 28th (13.06 mins.) achieved eighth place with CHRISTOPHER DUNSTAN also running 941 st in 14.09 mins.). Tom and Chris had their fathers running in the vets race later.

The under-15 boys (WILL THOMAS 19th (16.22 mins.); DAN PIGEON 24 th (16.39 mins.) and JACK MILNTHORPE 25 th (16.46 mins) were a creditable seventh place in a tough race, with MARCUS RAMAGE 29 th (17.14 mins) and JOE WEST 40th (19.17 mins.) also featuring. Marcus concentrates on Rugby at this time of the year, but Joe had had an excellent run at Haywards Heath previously, finishing third. We only had two under-15 girls – KATIE PERRIN finished 19th (18.08 mins.) and REBECCA FARROW 25th (19.26 mins.). We seem likely to have medallists eventually in the under-17 men's age group. Our second-place team was BEN COLLIER 5th (17.14 mins.); ADRIAN FAUTLY 9th (17.34 mins.) and FRANCIS SCARR 11th (18.04 mins.) with SAM TAYLOR 13 th (18.20 mins.) and EUAN RAMAGE 25th (19.59 mins.), vigorously occupying a rare day-off from Rugby.

In the all-ages senior women's race, CAMILLE COWAN followed up her sparkling run in the Goodwood Relays with another fine performance (19.29 mins.) in overall sixth place. ROSIE INMAN also did well in fourteenth place (20.19 mins.) REBECCA ADAMS was 20th (20.36 mins.) – A very fine run indeed after a long lay-off (i.e. much of her adult life!) SHEENA BASSETT was sixty-fourth (23.54 mins.) and MAISIE BOAST 71st (24.29 mins.). One can think of some absentees who should make this squad into medal prospects, when they return.

The club's seniors represent a diversity of ages. A junior man, JASON WOODBRIDGE was first home in 45th place (29.25 mins.) with another RYAN BOWYER in 79 th spot (32.03 mins.) Then came representatives of various classes – ANDY DUNSTAN 113 TH (33.58 mins.); STEWART MACKMAN 146 TH (38.02 mins.) and BILL CAWLEY, an indomitable “V60”, in 158 th place (40.32 mins.). Our performance as a team was always likely to be modest, but we managed seventh place in division 3 with 383 points.

RELAY TEAMS PERFORM WELL AT GOODWOOD

The opening of the cross-country season, with the County Cross Country Relays held at Goodwood in unseasonally hot conditions, suggested that the Club will be quite strong in its younger ranks. Both Under 13 teams showed promise with the Boys team finishing sixth ( TOM MACKMAN 10m38s; LUKE TRICCUS 11m40s and JAMIE HUGHES 11m48s for an aggregate time of 34m6s), and the Girls a gallant fourth (MEGAN ALLERTON 11m28s; ERIN BATEMAN 11m24s and TABBY LEE 13m36s for an overall time of 36m28s). Erin received the prize for third fastest lap, so it is safe to assume that Megan's time was fourth fastest. The Under 15 Boys A team were also fourth (JACK MILNTHORPE 9m49s; DANIEL PIDGEON 10m34s and WILL THOMAS 9m50s for a total time of 30m13s) with the B team eleventh ( JOE WEST 11m21s; MATT HOLDER 10m54s and EWEN MASKELL 12m46s). The one team to gain medals as a unit was the Under 17 Men's team who finished second (BERNIE SPANNAGL 14m31s; BEN COLLIER 13m36s and ADRIAN FAUTLY 13m51s for a time of 41m58s). Ben also got a prize for third fastest and Adrian was fourth fastest.

Our Senior teams were very youthful and up against some experienced runners of record-breaking ability. The Men's team finished eleventh in 59m4s, with RYAN BOWYER was timed at 15m25s; JASON WOOLDRIDGE 14m10s; BONIZWE MCFADDEN 14m48s and TROY SAUNDERS 14m41s – all creditable times in sweltering conditions. The equally youthful Senior Ladies' team was a splendid fifth, again in good company. ROSIE INMAN ran 16m35s; MILLIE WINDUS 17m29s and CAMILLE COWAN, returning from injury, ran the 3rd fastest Under 17 time of 15m54s. This was eight seconds faster than JOHANNA SPANNAGL'S time of 16m02s, as she made her long awaited return on a course where she has always excelled.

THE UNDER 13'S FINAL - CRAWLEY 4-9-11

The under-13's league championship at Crawley survived torrential rain at the start and finished with the parade and presentations in bright sunshine. Horsham had its share of winners, and overall finished third behind the home team and the runners-up (and East Division Champions) Brighton.
ERIN BATEMAN won the 600 metres (1m.50.25s) and the long jump (4.09m.) by a margin of one centimetre! She is already proving to be a tremendous asset to the club. EMMA GARRY won the Shot (7.88m.) also by a very narrow margin, but just lost out in the Discus (22.07m.). It was good to welcome back CATRIONA JAMIESON from her holiday home in spain to win the Javelin (24.88m.) in much the worst of the weather. MEGAN AUERTON again had a fine win in the 1000 metres (3m 22.4s.) and ALEX WIDDOWSON won the boys B Javelin with 27.55m. LUKE THORPE met some tall, strong throwers and his excellent throw of 29.51m. only gained him fourth place in the A competition. Every slot in each event was filled and among those who did us proud were SAM and JAMIE HUGHES; ANDREW PRICE; TOM MACKMAN; HENRY ADAMS; CONNOR DEARDEN; JACOB ELOQUIN and CALUM NEIL, and also JENA ANDERSON; AMY FITZPATRICK; LUCY HUMPHRIES; CAROLINE WIRTH; ROMY VAN DER VEEN; TABBY LEE and SARAH DEDMAN. We also had enough athletes to provide some non- scorers. Our total of 341 points, ahead of seven other clubs, was only 45 points behind Brighton, with Crawley's big battalions mustering 410.5 points.

SUSSEX COMBINED EVENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS - SUTTON 10/11-9-11

High winds made conditions tricky, but kept the rain away; the number of competitors was disappointing, but those from the clubs who attended did well. MATT BAKER had the senior men and the Surrey entrants for company, but he was the only Sussex under-20 athlete present. He began well, but I think he would agree that he ran out of steam, to finish with 5775 points (110m - 11.43; Long Jump - 6.42; Shot - 10.47; High Jump - 1.74 and 400m - 53.78m on the Saturday and Hurdles - 15.31; Discus - 30 metres; Pole vault 3.60; Javelin - 36.03 and a struggling 1500 metres in 5 mins 26.12 secs. on Sunday.)

Both our under-15 competitors finished third. EMILY COX totalled 1823 point with the highlight, a solid shot-put of 8.45 metres. Other marks were Long Jump 4.28; Hurdles 12.86; High Jump 1.33; and just over 3 minutes for the concluding 800 metres about which she had been very apprehensive. JACK MILNTHORPE looked lively over the hurdles (13.06 secs.) but was below his best in the blustery conditions in the High Jump (1.52). The Long Jump (4.54) and Shot Put (6.83) enabled him to secure the Bronze medal with a 2.26.08 800 metres (1593 points in all).

ERIN BATEMAN couldn't quite make up the points she needed for first place with her courageous 800 metres (2m 44.11S.) Her Long Jump was above expectations (4.24), then she managed 12.94m in the Hurdeles, Shot - 6.57 and High Jump 1.27. At the finish she was 13 points short, but it was an excellent first attempt.
TABBY LEE was a good fifth (Long Jump - 3.74; Hurdles - 13.34; Shot - 5.77; High Jump - 1.30 and 2m.57.53 for the 800 metres). While SARA DEDMAN was eighth (Long Jump - 3.36; Hurdles - 15.71; Shot - 4.74; High Jump - 1.30 and 800m 3.09.60s). Both showed a lot of promise.
Another to suffer from lack of competition was BEN COLLIER, with only one opponent in the 1500 metres Steeplechase. He richly deserved his medal.

CAPTIVATING PERFORMANCE BY WOMEN AT WORMWOOD SCRUBS

Linford Christie Stadium, Wormwood Scrubs was the venue for this final Southern Women's League fixture. With several of our usual team missing, it was surprising, but very pleasing that we won this match by 20 points. Our opponents were South London Harriers, Victoria Park and the host club Thames Valley Harriers, who can all field very capable athletes, but our team spirit prevailed on the day. We welcomed back ZOE PARSONS to win her speciality, the Hammer (33.49m), and to compete extensively in all the throws. CADIE WILLIS had tough opponents in the 100m, and unfortunately injured her leg, which curtailed her participation, but KAT BAJORINAITE and MOLLY ADAMS, who won three events, were very much at home against some talented Under 15 sprinters. EMILY COX (12.8s) and LUCY MILNTHORPE (14.1s), our Under 15 hurdles duo, gained maximum points in the 75m Hurdles, with Lucy's older sister, LAUREN MILNTHORPE, making a winning debut in the 400m Hurdles (69.8s). KATE KAYE and FRANCES PARKES did us proud in all events from 400m to 3000m, with Frances running personal bests in winning both the 400m (59.1s) and 800m (2m22.0s), while youthful newcomer ERIN BATEMAN in her debut for the Club won the Under 15 800m impressively in 2m37.3s.

LUCY STICKLAND found little opposition so to speak of in the Pole Vault, but cleared 3 metres, while HANNAH CLARK continued the previous day's good discus form with a win in 26.50m. The real heroines, however, were those who finished below first place, but filled all the gaps (EMILY EASTLAND – 200m, 100m Hurdles, Long & Triple Jump and Relay; CATRIONA DUNLOP – 200m, 800m, Long and Triple Jumps and Relay; RHIANNON DUNLOP – both Hurdles and Relay; CAITLIN WARD – Pole Vault, Discus and Shot; CAITLIN WELLS – 100m, 300m Hurdles; and POPPY WILLIS – 800m, Long Jump and Javelin). A number of others too have, during the season, been pressed into participation. Because of their willingness to “have a go” at unfamiliar events we earned a winning points total. This leaves us in fourth place in the Premier Division behind three “big name” Clubs, Reading, Windsor and Guildford – a remarkable and very praiseworthy achievement.

MIST DOESN’T DAMPEN SPIRITS AT U15 LEAGUE FINAL

There was a commendable turnout of Horsham athletes for this final Under 15s meeting on the evening of Friday, Sept. 2nd. Mist rolled in from the sea in an eerie fashion, but this did not spoil an enjoyable evening, nor did the temporary failure of the floodlights for the second consecutive year. It was a pity that the boys' relay was shrouded in impenetrable mist, as we won in an admirable time of 49.4s. BRUCE FOSTER, on his birthday, had an excellent night, anchoring the relay and winning the 100m (12.2s) and the 200m (24.4s). Other Horsham winners were JACK MILNTHORPE in the 80m Hurdles (13.4s); MAX PATERSON in the Javelin (35.32m) and KYRAN PENNY in the B 100m (12.9s). Jack also had a personal best High Jump (1.62m, with three narrow failures at 1.64m), but in second place. We were very well served by all who attended – RYAN SLATER, ROSS CARTER, DAN PIDGEON, JOE WEST, JAMES WINSBURY and WILL THOMAS (concluding two years of loyal service to the cause of Friday night athletics!).

I had not expected many Girls to attend as they had a tough match in West London on the following day. However, JADE BREWSTER came and successfully achieved a new Sussex and league record (3.30m) in the Pole Vault, with ELLY CAVE winning the B event (2.40m), while HANNAH CLARK threw a new personal best 28.24m to win the Discus, before winning again on the following day. The Girls twenty seven points added to the Boys total of 137 gave us an overall fifth place behind much fuller teams from Crawley , Brighton , Eastbourne and Chichester , with others behind us. Our 154 points compared well with the winners 195.

WOMEN’S TEAM ACHIEVE FINE WIN AT ABINGDON

The latest Southern Women's league fixture, held at Abingdon on 20th resulted in a fine victory. Inevitably some first choice athletes were missing because of holidays, and JADE BREWSTER was at Bedford, where she won a silver medal in the England Under 15 Championships in the Pole Vault clearing 3.20m, losing the gold on virtually the final jump of the competition, but we had out a team which reflected our strength and scored 166½ points to Basildon's 153½, Wycombe Phoenix's 118 and Dacorum & Tring's 94.

HELEN MORTON'S all round ability was invaluable, and she won the Long Jump (5.20m), the B Hurdles (15.2s) and the B javelin (31.44m) as well as running a storming leg our 4x400m victory. REBECCA JENNINGS won her speciality, the sprint hurdles in 14.8s, as well as the A 100m (12.7s), while participating in the sprint relay and the Shot (6.24m). Another reliable athlete KATE KAYE completed a 3000m (10m06.9s) and 1500m (4m54.1s) winning double together with two 400m runs, one in the successful relay. LUCY STICKLAND made a very welcome return after academic preoccupations, vaulting 3.00m for second place, high jumping 1.40m and (an inspired selection!) achieving 22.90m with her only throw in the hammer. LAUREN MILNTHORPE had a lot to do, winning her 300m hurdles race (48.8s) and gaining second in the 80m hurdles (13.2s) and the high jump (1.30m). HOLLY WEBB won the A javelin with 36.76m and HENRIETTA KODILINYE-SIMS won the A 200m (26.1s), having previously run 12.8s to take the B 100m. These athlete were splendidly backed up by EMILY EASTLAND, FRANCES PARKES, CATRIONA DUNLOP, CAITLIN WARD and CAITLIN WELLS, who nobly picked herself up after falling in the hurdles to complete the race and earn an unexpected four points. I was especially interested in REBECCA ADAMS run in the 3000m, which recalled for me her quality when at her peak some years ago.

The excellence of the Senior contribution should not detract from the Under 15s tirelessness and great success. KAT BAJORINAITE and MOLLY ADAMS led the way home in both sprints, each winning an A and b race. We were hit by absences in the middle distance events, but NICOLE ALLEN ran spiritedly in the 1500m (5m23.7s). EMILY COX , by some margin in 12.7s, and LUCY MILNTHORPE (14.0s) were first in the A and B 75m hurdles and we had double wins in the Shot putt (EMILY COX – 8.62m and NICOLE ALLEN – 6.99m) and the long jump (MOLLY ADAMS – 4.59m and POPPY WILLIS – 4.33m); Poppy also came second in the B javelin (13.60m). Our very promising relay squad had over 3 seconds in hand over the runners-up, Wycombe, their race, which put our victory beyond doubt.

It was an absolutely first race day's sport!

GOOD WEATHER ATTRACTS ATHLETES TO OUR OPEN MEETING

A sunny day attracted a good number of athletes to Broadbridge Heath, especially in the younger age groups. Some keenly contested sprints saw JAMES HEDGES clock 11.9s and 23.9s, and HENRIETTA KODILINYE-SIMS finish second in her 200m in 26.3s. Nothing all afternoon was more impressive than BRUCE FOSTER'S debut as a 400m runner, achieving 56.5s, which he followed up with 12.3s in the 100m. BERNIE SPANNAGL, aiming for an 800m time of 2m14s, got quite close with 2m16.2s, which indicates the quality of DAN PIDGEON'S personal best time of 2m17.4s. Dan's father Steve, ran 2m27.1s in a rare appearance at this distance. TOM MACKMAN won his age group 800m in 2m33.9s, which his father admitted was too fast for him!

EMILY COX looked very impressive, winning the 75m Hurdles in 12.9sagainst some experienced opponents, and it was a pleasure to see new recruit, ERIN BATEMAN, excel at 800m (2m37.2s) while also winning the long jump with the only four metre jump in her age group.

A marathon Pole Vault competition saw MATT BAKER over 3.90m and JADE BREWSTER over 3.20m, with JOE WEST achieving 2.20m and ALLY CAVE 2.40m. MATT SANSOME (37.87m), HOLLY WEBB (35.83m) and MAX PATERSON (35.31m) all approached their best in the Javelin, where TOM KILLNER-BROWN obtained one of three personal bests (29.58m). I suspect he got most satisfaction out of p.b. in the Discus (34.97m) where RICKY DEWDNEY had to take on Enfield 's Matt Brown who was in prime form, but achieved a commendable 37.84m. Other Horsham athletes who attended helped to make this a good turn out for the Club, and I wish I had space to include all their performances. In the face of conflicting activities and road transport disruption the day was a resounding success.

MEN’S TEAM FINISH SEASON IN STYLE

The Blue Stars Men's team travelled the short journey to Crawley for their final fixture in the Southern Men's league where one of their opponents was Herne Hill who were one place ahead of them in the table. The two clubs were engaged all afternoon in a classic battle, with the other two teams in the match, East Grinstead and Bracknell confined to minor roles. In the end the Blue Stars emerged victorious by fourteen points. The Final scores, 1 Horsham 118pts, 2 Herne Hill 106pts, 3 East Grinstead 72pts, 4 Bracknell 23pts.

The performance of the day came from MATT BAKER who cleared an impressive 4.00 metres in the Pole Vault, which not only won the event, but set a new Club record as well. Matt, kept busy as usual, also won the 110m Hurdles in 16.1s, the Long Jump with a leap of 6.19m and the High Jump with a clearance of 1.80m. Matt was well supported in the Pole Vault, where JAMES MACKMAN'S clearance of 3.00m secured the B string and in the Hurdles where GARETH LEWIS won the B string in 19.5s. Gareth also won the A string Triple Jump with 12.24m, with DARREN CLARK'S jump of 10.82m secured a win in the B event.

There was another double win in the Javelin with MATT SANSOME winning the A string with a throw of 40.04m and RICKY DEWDNEY, surprising himself, with a throw of 37.09m to win the B event.

On the track JASON WOOLDRIDGE dominated the 800m to easily win the A event in 2m04.5s and BONIZWE MCFADDEN was an equally easy winner of the B event in 2m08.0s. KARL JOHNSTON with a strong finish won the 400m Hurdles in 64.2s and then went on to win the B string flat 400m in 56.1s, where ALEX BEST was edged into second spot in the A event (52.4s). There were wins in the B 200m for JAMES HEDGES in 24.0s, where James Mackman took second in the A with 23.9s. The 1500m saw two of the younger members of the team both finish second with BEN COLLIER running 4m32.1s and BERNIE SPANNAGL 4m44.9s. Jason Wooldridge and ALASTAIR SMITH both gained valuable points with second places in the Steeplechase with Jason improving his personal best to 10m39.8s and Alastair running 12m50.0s.

The final two relays saw the 4x100m team of James Hedges, Darren Clark, James Mackman and Gareth Lewis just beaten into second place in 46.7s, but the day ended on a high note with the 4x400m team of Alex Best, Bonizwe McFadden, James Hedges and Matt Baker being convincing winners by over seven seconds in 3m38.0s.

This win meant that the team finished in an excellent fifth place in the table and a delighted team manager Sue May said that she was very impressed with the attitude and team spirit shown by the team this year, especially the younger members, and hopefully the Club can be a lot stronger next year and challenge for promotion.

FINAL TABLE 2011

1 Kent AC 19 601

2 Hastings 19 565

3 Herne Hill 17 550.5

4 South London H 17 545.5

5 HORSHAM BLUE STAR 17 533

6 Crawley 16 547

7 Tunbridge Wells 14 460

8 Invicta EK 13 419.5

9 Holland Sports/Dorking MV 11 389

10 East Grinstead 10 365.5

11 Epsom & Ewell 10 357.5

12 Haywards H & Lewes 10 349

13 Sutton & District 8 294.5

14 Swale 8 276.5

15 Bracknell B 5 106.5

BAKER RISES TO THE OCCASION

MATT BAKER, contesting the South of England Under 20 Decathlon Championships at Abingdon, put up a tremendous performance to win the Gold Medal.

Scoring a personal best 6145 points Matt had an excellent two days of competition which included a personal best in the 400m of 51.11s. His full list of performances were: Day 1 -100m – 11.72s; Long Jump – 6.12m; Shot – 10.34m; High Jump – 1.81m and 400m – 51.11s (pb). Day 2 – 110m Hurdles – 15.27s; Discus – 30.67m; Pole Vault – 3.80m; Javelin – 39.68m and 1500m – 4m48.89s .

COMPETITIVE SPIRIT SEES MEN’S TEAM TO NARROW WIN

Holiday absences took their toll on the Men's team for this tricky away fixture, and MATT BAKER'S attendance at the Southern Under 20s Decathlon Championships at Abingdon seemed likely to be crucial. Nevertheless the competitive spirit of this men's team saw us through by the narrowest of margins against a strong South London Harriers team (112 – 109, after several recounts!) with very incomplete teams from Epsom and Holland Sports making up the numbers. Many of our team were youngsters, but they did us proud, notably BEN COLLIER, who won the 1500min a pb of 4m28.2s – a splendid debut. JASON WOOLDRIDGE had a superb day, standing in for Matt in the jumps (high Jump – 1.40m; Long Jump – pb of 5.15m; Triple Jump - pb of 9.20m) as well as winning both his main events (A 800m – 2m08.8s and A 3000m Steeplechase in a pb of 10m46.1s).

BONIZWE MCFADDEN, MATT SANSOME, KARL JOHNSTON (pb in the 400m Hurdles in 63.7s), DAVID PATEY, TROY SAUNDERS and JAMES MACKMAN (pb in the 200m in 23.3s) were also extremely busy, doing their own events and “standing in” for absent specialists. Matt's absence required GARETH LEWIS to compete, with characteristic tirelessness, in seven events (High Jump – 1.50m; Long Jump – 5.80m; 110m Hurdles – 18.6s; Javelin – a pb of 33m); Triple Jump – 12.05m; Discus 28.29m and the relay) and RICK DEWDNEY displayed all his old infectious enthusiasm in the throws (Shot - 9.61m; Hammer – 30.34m to secure first place and Discus – 36.67m), although he met some opposition of reasonable quality.

GORM YOUNG, combining sprints and throws (Shot – pb of 8.28m; Hammer – 24.18m; 100m – 12.9s; 200m – 26.9s and the relay), ALISTAIR SMITH, STEWART MACKMAN, STEVE PIDGEON and DANIEL WALTON all played an essential part, so that we were able to fill all but one slot (the B 110m Hurdles) in the programme. The relays too earned us good points and, as a result of all this exertion, the team moved up to fifth place in their division of the league.

WEATHER DOES NOT DETER UNDER 13s IN FINAL LEAGUE MATCH

This was not an evening likely to tempt the older generation from their indoor comforts to experience outdoor exposure to the elements, but I was struck by the cheerful enthusiasm of our athletes at Crawley . As has become the pattern, we were too good for all the competing clubs, bar host club, Crawley , and the team finished second.

There were excellent results early on, with TOM MACKMAN winning the 600m in 1m49.9s and JAMIE HUGHES winning the B race (1m57.5s). We also proved superior in the Javelin where LUKE THORPE threw 28.89m with ALEX WIDDOWSON taking the B competition with a throw of 27.42m, better than everyone else. Elsewhere we had a lot of third and fourth places, and an epic encounter in the relay where we just missed second place in 59.2s; we did have two more good non-scoring relay teams.

We were missing our two County champions in the Girls throwing events, although CAROLINE WIRTH (19.38m) and LUCY HUMPHRIES (14.59m) came up trumps in the Discus. Again it was a case of many creditable third and fourth places and an excellent second place in the relay, but the really bright moment in a dark evening (weather wise) was MEGAN ALLERTON'S unanswerable finishing sprint in the 1000m, winning in 3m29.5s with BRONWEN THOMAS (3m33.7s) taking the B race. I liked AMY FITZPATRICK'S 70m hurdling (12.5s) and SARA DEDMAN'S high jumping (1.30m), both personal bests, which would have done well in the boys' event.

We emerged with credit because the Under 13s have developed into a team. Full results can be found on the Sussex AA website.

POLE VAULTERS SCALE THE HEIGHTS AT THE UNDER 15 MATCH

The final West Division match of the Under 15s league began in shirt sleeve weather but finished in drizzle. I've had a lot of absentees (it was disappointing that so few of those invited by post informed me that they weren't available) but, as always with the Blue Stars, those who did turn up gave a splendid account of themselves.

KOTRYNA BAJORINAITE, now known to everyone as Kat and ISABEL GREEN both ensured that Sophie Spinner ( Worthing 's star) had to work hard for her victories. Kat was second in the A 100m (13.0s), won the A 200m (27.3s) and ran a storming last leg in the relay, while Isabel followed up an excellent second place in the A 300m (43.4s) with an equally good runners-up spot in the A 1500m (5m28.7s). REBECCA FARROW was a commendable third in A 800m (2m56.6s) and KATIE PERRIN was second in the B 1500m (6m08.2s). FLORENCE WEBB (High Jump – 1.05m; Shot Putt – 5.55m and Discus – 11.31m) and POPPY WILLIS (long jump – 3.91m and Javelin – 14.65m) were active points scorers in the field events. HANNAH CLARK was around her usual twenty seven metre mark , winning the A Discus (26.80m); she was also a real asset in the relay.

JADE BREWSTER and the other pole vaulters deserve a paragraph to themselves. Jade, an excellent all-rounder, once again raised her personal best to 3.25m, while also taking on the A Shot (6.82m), the A long jump (4.44m) and a leg in the relay. There were five competitors all told in the pole vault, all from the Blue Stars, (RICHARD MASON -2.60m; REMI SHAIEB – 2.20m; ELLIE CAVE -2.50m and JOE WEST – 2.10m); a testimony to some very good coaching.

BRUCE FOSTER (A 100m in 12.3s and A 200m in 25.2s) and ROSS CARTER (B 100m in 13.0s and B 200m in 26.3s) won their respective races and together with MATT HOLDER (first in the A 800m in 2m16.3s) put in their usual strong performances. JACK MILNTHORPE dominated the High Jump with 1.50m and was runner-up in the hurdles (13.4s), while CANICE CONZAGUE won the B High Jump in 1.35m. WILL THOMAS was third in the A 1500m (4m57.5s), with DANIEL PIDGEON gaining good points taking second in the B race (4m59.9s). RYAN SLATER showed good form in the A long jump (4.76m), and managed 6.44m in the shot putt. JACK HARROLD took on the A 400m (68.8s) before contesting the javelin (13.04m), and a regular attendee at these matches, JAMES TAIT , earned us points in the B Shot and B Javelin.

Despite the rain, the spectators went home satisfied, having seen another fine Boy's relay performance (1st in 50.0s) and second place for the girls against a strong Worthing team in 54.5s.

Final Overall scores: 1 Crawley 196; 2 Chichester 157; 3 HORSHAM 138 (Girls 4th with 60pts and Boys 3rd with 78pts); 4 East Grinstead 82; 5 Worthing 77.

There will be a “grand final” for the Boys team at Withdean Stadium, Brighton on Friday September 2nd, but, as there is a clash with our final Southern Women's League match on the Saturday, we are not going to field a Girls team.

BLUE STAR LADIES PUSH LEAGUE LEADERS IN TIGHT MATCH

The Southern Women's League match run in conjunction with a Southern Men's League match was an absorbing contest. Being a home match, we fielded a very reasonable team, although there were a number of unavoidable absences of personnel who are normally first choices.

Our experienced athletes served well throughout the day, but it was the performances of some of our younger team members which were very exciting. Satisfying victories came from REBECCA JENNINGS (A 100m Hurdles in 15.0s and B 100m in 12.9s); KATE KAYE (A 1500m in 4m56.6s and A 3000m in 10m08.4s); EMILIE BLACKWELL (A Pole Vault in 3.20m) and the Senior 4x100m Relay team of REBECCA JENNINGS, EMILY EASTLAND, HENRIETTA KONDILINYE-SIMS and CADIE WILLIS in 51.1s.

In the Under 15 events MOLLY ADAMS was in superb form (A 100m in a personal best 12.9s and A 200m in 26.7s); JADE BREWSTER (A High Jump in a excellent personal best of 1.50m); EMILY COX (A 75m Hurdles in 12.6s); NICOLE ALLEN (A 1500m in 5m14.3s) and the 4x100m relay team of EMILY COX , MOLLY ADAMS, POPPY WILLIS and KAT BAJORINAITE (who had earlier won both B 100m (13.1s and B 200m (27.2s) winning in 52.5s. MEGAN ALLERTON had a good run in the 1500m where her tine of 5m44.4s showed great promise.

We pressed a strong and committed Reading team all the way, finishing with 156 points to their 177, with Oxford City and Colchester harriers both just topping the 100 point mark. We certainly couldn't have done this without the contributions of CADIE WILLIS, HENRIETTA KONDILINYE-SIMS, CAMILLE COWAN, SHEENA BASSETT, EMILY EASTLAND, CAITLIN WELLS, RHIANNAON and CATRIONA DUNLOP, HOLLY WEBB , LAUREN MILNTHORPE, CAITLIN WARD and HELEN MORTON, together wit two mothers, KIM MILNTHORPE (second in the A Hammer competition) and LINDSAY COX in the Javelin.

This was however a day for the Blue Stars' younger members, and it was easy to see the talent of ISABEL GREEN, SOPHIE DAWSON, POPPY WILLIS and LUCY MILNTHORPE. With the others already mentioned, they all competed tirelessly and just about every event was covered; we'll win many matches with performances like this.

MEN SQUEEZED INTO SECOND PLACE

The Southern Men's team had an excellent match against Crawley 's mixture of vast experience and youthful talent, crucially reinforced by two British League “regulars”. We just lost by 9 points (115 to 124) with Invicta East Kent and Swale trailing somewhat. DAVID PATEY won the A 400m (52.5s); RICKY DEWDNEY the A Discus with 34.46m; GARETH LEWIS the A Triple Jump with 12.47m; JASON WOOLDRIDGE the A 800m (2m3.5s) and of course the tireless MATT BAKER, who had victories in the A 110m Hurdles in15.6s, A High Jump in1.82m, A Pole Vault in 3.85m and A Long Jump in 6.41m, which was a personal best. We also won the 4x400m Relay, where the team of ALEX BEST, JAMES MACKMAN, MATT BAKER and DAVID PATEY broke the Club Under 20 record.

B Events were won by ALEX BEST (200m in 23.3s), BONIZWE MCFADDEN (400m in 56.4s), GARETH LEWIS (110m Hurdles in 18.4s and Discus with 31.30m), KARL JOHNSTON (400m Hurdles in 64.2s) and newcomer DARREN CLARK (Triple Jump 11.08m). Other contributors to our good showing were JAMES HEDGES, GORM YOUNG, LUKE JOHNSON, MATT WARD, ADRIAN FAUTLY, RYAN BOWYER, ALASTAIR SMITH and STEWART MACKMAN.

Pride of place for me must go to BERNIE SPANNAGL, who suddenly burst back into prominence with a win in the A 1500m in 4m36.9s. He is young within the Under 17 age group, but ran this senior race to perfection.

MEDAL SUCCESS IN UNDER 13 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Club's youngsters were out in force for the Sussex Under 13 Championships and the accompanying “Quadkids” multi-events competition for Under 11s. We enjoyed a pleasing amount of success, although we seemed to lack the size of many of our opponents. Nevertheless two girls dominated the throwing events; CATRIONA JAMIESON, much the smallest in the competition, won the Javelin, throwing 25.21m, to demonstrate that good technique is paramount in this event. EMMA GARRY took first places in the Shot (8.42m) and the Discus (19.10m), wit CAROLINE WIRTH taking the bronze medal in the Discus (14.90m). Caroline also ran well in her 800m race (2m48.64s) and finished sixth overall, though second in her race. MEGAN ALLERTON came third in the 1200m in 4m15.29s. TABITHA LEE jumped 13.0m for fifth place in the High Jump and AMY FITZPATRICK was also fifth in the 70m Hurdles in 12.77s. The relay team finished a gallant sixth in 61.64s.

The Boys met some precociously large opponents, but ZAC MASSEY achieved two bronze medals (Long Jump – 4.27m and 75m Hurdles – 15.51s) and was a close fourth in the 75m sprint. SAM HUGHES was fifth in the 150m (21.83s – 21.65s in his heat) and sixth in the 75m (10.87s) while JAMIE HUGHES was seventh in the 150m final (21.87s). TOM MACKMAN ran well to take third place in the 800m (2m34.11s) and CONNOR DEARDEN completed our bronze medallists running the 1200m in 4m17.20s. In the Javelin LUKE THORPE and ALEX WIDDOWSON finished fourth and fifth, throwing 28.09m and 27.97m respectively. The relay team was fourth in a creditable 58.58m.

A good number of Blue Stars had their first taste of competitive action in the Quadkids competition, where the competitors have to compete in four events (75m, Standing Long Jump, Howler Throw & 600m), and the result is decided on a points system. LENAYA PAGE was particularly unlucky to lose the bronze medal by just two points, and looks a really talented middle-distance runner. ABBY LEE worked hard and achieved tenth place only seventeen points behind. Six Boys took part and DANIEL ALLAN (6th) and JARED ALLERTON (7th) led home OWEN WIRTH (9th), DANIEL JONES (10th), JAMIE SLATER (14th) and JACOB CANN (15th). Much credit goes to everyone.

In some County Championship 3000m races held within this meeting, ANTHONY BOURNE was third in the Senior Men's race (9m13.2s); JASON WOOLDRIDGE won a sparsely supported Under 20 Men's race (9m19.9s) and ADRIAN FAUTLY was third in the Under 17 Men's race (10m01.23s) with EUAN RAMAGE fIfth in 10m25.10s.

JAVELIN THROWERS TO THE FORE AT UNDER 13 MATCH

The rearranged second Under 13 fixture at Crawley attracted a large attendance from five clubs, most aware that the County Championships for this age group were being held a few days later at Brighton .

Victories were hard to come by, although TOM MACKMAN'S determined victory (by nearly six seconds) in the 600m (1m49.5s) started the match off well. As is becoming a regular thing, we won both A and B strings of the Boys and Girls Javelin competitions. LUKE THORPE threw 30.24m and ALEX WIDDOWSON 25.36m, while CATRIONA JAMIESON'S 26.12m throw outclassed all her opponents, and she added the discus for good measure (15.56m). NATALIE TAYLOR (12.80m) and CAROLINE WIRTH (13.75m) were respectively the B winners, while EMMA GARRY had another good win in the Shot (7.72m).

There was no more exciting contest than the Boy's relay when ZAC MASSEY came up against Haywards Heath's prodigious (and very tall) Zach Dolton, taking over with a slight lead. No one could have tried harder to keep ahead, but with all the spectators shouting for one Zac or the other, he just lost out in a thrilling finish. To his rivals and peer-group, Dolton must have a touch of Usain Bolt, but Zac's energetic response was characteristic of all our efforts throughout the evening. Final team scores: Crawley 225; HORSHAM 173; East Grinstead 161; Haywards Heath 140; Chichester 90 and Worthing 11. These are also the league positions after two matches.

GOOD PERFORMANCES AT UNDER 15 LEAGUE MATCH

At the second round of the Sussex Under 15 league matches held at Horsham we fielded a good sized team on this evening, and entertained hopes of winning. As it was, we came unstuck through not having a full complement of B string competitors, who score the same as the A strings, but we did win the Boys section of the match, and were a creditable third in the Girls. Overall, we lost to Chichester by nine points and to Crawley by only three; we can claim to be no long “also-rans” but are firmly “contenders”.

Outstanding performances were not confined to winners, though we had plenty of those. BRUCE FOSTER (100m – 12.5s); 200m -25.2s), MATT HOLDER (400m – 60.5s), JACK MILNTHORPE (80m hurdles – 13.4s) and the relay team, winning by at least thirty yards in 50.3s, dominated the Boys rack events, while THOMAS TWEEDY (High Jump – 1.45m), ROSS CARTER (Long Jump – 4.76m) and RICHARD MASON (Pole Vault – 2.50m) scored maximum points in the Field Events.

On the Girls side, MOLLY ADAMS (100m – 13.2s; 200m – 27.4s), JADE BREWSTER (Pole Vault – 2.90m) and EMILY COX (B Shot Putt – 7.75m) were particularly hardworking while RACHAEL HARRISON (Shot Putt – 8.66m) and HANNAH CLARK (Discus – 27.06m) showed class in the throws. Another splendid relay team were just edged into second place by 0.1s, running 54.0s.

It was a disappointingly cold night after a relatively summery day. Despite the eventual result, I am sure all who took part, including spectators and officials, will be keen to return on 15th July for the third match. Overall result: Chichester 178 pts; Crawley 172; HORSHAM 169; East Grinstead 53; Worthing 15.

GOOD PERFORMANCES FROM CLUB ATHLETES IN SCHOOLS MATCH

No less than twelve of the Club's Under 17s and Under 15s experienced a higher level of athletics, when a Sussex schools team took on Surrey , Kent and Hampshire in an Inter Counties match at Erith, in preparation for the Nationals next weekend.

In far from ideal conditions all did very well and rose to the occasion, notably HANNAH CLARK, whose second place and pb of 27.19m in the Discus was also an entry standard for the National Championships being held at Gateshead. MOLLY ADAMS belied her youth with a time of 27.1s and third place in the Junior Girls 200m. CADIE WILLIS'S 12.4s time accounted for all her opponents in the Intermediate Girls 100m and CAMILLE COWAN, third overall in the Intermediate 1500m, won the second string's race with 4m57.0s. LAUREN MILNTHORPE, also in this age group, finished runner-up in the 300m Hurdles, equalling her pb of 46.5s.

JACK MILNTHORPE cleared 1.60m in the Junior Boys High Jump, and BRUCE FOSTER was third in the 200m in 24.6s. His progress this season has been quite remarkable.

Our Intermediate Boys are a strong group and each justified his selection. A newcomer, LUKE JOHNSON, threw the Javelin a commendable 41.43m for third; TOM KILLNER-BROWN found some prodigious opposition in the Discus, though his best throw (31.36m) secured fourth place. BEN COLLIER, confident now that he has found his track event, ran the 1500m Steeplechase and finished third in 4m50.8s. ALEX BEST was runner up in the 400m in 52.4s, while JAMES MACKMAN continued his good sprinting form in the second string's 200m running 23.7s .

CLOSE FINISH IN FINAL YOUNG ATHLETES LEAGUE MATCH

The final Young Athlete's League match pitted us against local rivals Crawley at K2 (with Epsom & Ewell also in the match, but playing a minor supporting role). Both Clubs were looking for a leading league position, although, having lost to Ashford, we knew that we could not hope to take top spot! It turned out to be an absorbing contest throughout the day with every event taking on a real significance. Every Horsham athlete deserves praise for their commitment, and it might be considered invidious to highlight any particular achievements, as minor placings were as significant as victories. However, winning performances came from TABITHA LEE (U13 Girls High Jump), EMMA GARRY (U13 Girls Shot ), ADAM JACKSON (U13 Boys 75m Hurdles), SAM HUGHES (U13 Boys 100m), JADE BREWSTER (U15 Girls Pole Vault and High Jump), KAT BAJORINAITE (U15 Girls 200m), EMILY COX (U15 Girls 75m Hurdles), POPPY WILLIS (U15 Girls 100m), HANNAH CLARK (U15 Girls Discus), BRUCE FOSTER (U15 Boys 100m and 200m), WILLIAM THOMAS (U15 Boys 1500m), JACK MILNTHORPE (U15 Boys High Jump), MAX PATERSON (U15 Boys Javelin), REMI SHAIEB ((U15 Boys Pole Vault), CADIE WILLIS (U17 Women 100m and 200m), LAUREN MILNTHORPE (U17 Women 300m Hurdles and High Jump), CAMILLE COWAN (U17 Women 1500m), CAITLIN WELLS (Under 17 Women 80m Hurdles), CAITLIN WARD (U17 Women Pole Vault), ALEX BEST (U17 Men 200m), BEN COLLIER (U17 Men 1500m), BERNIE SPANNAGL (U17 Men 3000m), JAMES MACKMAN (U17 Men 100m and Pole Vault), ALEX WELLS (U17 Men Long Jump), ADRIAN FAUTLEY (U17 Men Steeplechase) and LUKE JOHNSON (U17 Men Javelin).

The result was still in doubt as the Relays concluded the meeting. Our athletes were beginning to look tired, but we successfully got the baton round in every race, winning the U17 Women 4x100m, the Under 15 Girls and Under 15 Boys 4x100m (with the Boys team breaking the existing Club record in running 49.0s) and the Under 13 Boys 4x100m. Crawley , however, beat us in five races and Epsom won a couple. When the announcer gave the final scores, we had lost by a mere twenty points in over 1400, ( Crawley 612; HORSHAM 592 and Epsom 203). It had all been a really praiseworthy effort.

(Full results, times and distances can be found on the Power of 10 results section).

REBECCA GRABS BRONZE AT ASHFORD

REBECCA JENNINGS hurdled to a bronze medal in the South of England Senior Championships at Ashford. In far from ideal conditions, Rebecca started strongly and despite being affected by the strong headwind over the final two flights held on to gain a well deserved bronze medal in 15.61s

MATT BAKER, also competing at Ashford, but in the Under 20 events, cleared 3.80m in the Pole Vault, just failing at what would have been a new club record height of 3.95m to finish in eighth place. On the Sunday Matt competed in the 110m Hurdles and ran a storming 15.24.s in his heat to gain a place in the Final, where he was in contention for a medal until he unfortunately hit the last hurdle and ended up in fifth place in 15.74s, still a good performance.

CLUB MEMBERS SHINE IN COUNTY SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Competitors for the annual School's Championships are selected from schools not clubs and the teams represent educational areas. Nevertheless it is possible to check on the performances of club members within this system, and this season they were clearly excellent.

MOLLY ADAMS was our only Junior Girl to win, running the 200m in 26.8s (a splendid effort as she is a year young in this age group). HANNAH CLARK was desperately unlucky, losing the Discus (26.30m) only on count back, while KAT BAJORINAITE (100m in 13.3s) and EMILY COX (75m Hurdles in 12.5s) each ran very competitively to gain third places. In the Intermediate Girls competition we hoped for a win from CADIE WILLIS and she duly obliged (100m in 12.8s), and also from LAUREN MILNTHORPE who looked high class in running a personal best in the 300m Hurdles (46.5s). CAMILLE COWAN had a good run in the 1500m to come third (5m0.7s) behind Aldershot 's prodigy, Grace Baker. HOLLY WEBB , with a personal best javelin throw (37.16m), took first place in a very tight Senior Girls competition, with three girls over 35.50m. ROSIE INMAN ran the 3000m in 11m19.2s to take gold; RHIANNON DUNLOP had two second places (400m hurdles in 76.6s and High Jump with 1.40m) and MELISSA KILLNER-BROWN, making a rare appearance, as she works on Saturday mornings, threw the discus 23.27m to secure second place.

Among the Boys BRUCE FOSTER had an excellent day, winning the the 200m (24.7s) and joining with GEORGE PALMER among others to win the sprint relay for Forest School . Our pole vaulters were in good form, RICHARD MASON winning the Junior Boys event with2.70m, while JACK MILNTHORPE continued his excellent high jumping form with second place (1.58m). The day's sprinting success continued in the Intermediate Boys events with JAMES MACKMAN getting second place in the 200m in 23.9s. ALEX BEST was even more successful, establishing himself as the best 400m runner around in this age group with a clear win in 52.4s. TOM KILLNER-BROWN, en route for football trials, called in to win the discus with 31.66m, and BEN COLLIER, in only his third steeplechase, took the runner up medal in 4m54.8s for the 1500m event. MAX WOODWARD, clearly incapacitated by injury, could only manage 3.00m for fourth place in the pole vault. In the Senior Boys' events, JASON WOOLDRIDGE was third in the 1500m (4m20.8s) and MATT SANSOME was again beyond forty metres in the Javelin (2nd with 40.41m).

Mid Sussex certainly benefited from the talents of our athletes in defending the Edlin Shield for the best area, and a number of club members can expect to be in the Sussex Schools team for the “Nationals” at the beginning of July.

SWIMWEAR MORE APPROPRIATE FOR YOUNG ATHLETES TEAM

This match took place in truly awful wet weather on a track with no spectator cover. Fortunately Horsham had shelter in a couple of tents which was better than nothing. Nevertheless we won against Sussex opposition (Horsham 471pts, Worthing 456pts and Hastings 419pts) and we now lie third in the league. We are unlikely to overhaul Ashford but our final match at Crawley takes on an added significance. We will really need our best possible team all available on June 19th. We had a lot of victories, where points gained give a significant boost to the club's total. There were sprint double from BRUCE FOSTER (100m -12.2s and 200m – 24.7s), JAMES MACKMAN (100m – 11.4s and 200m – 23.7s) and CADIE WILLIS (100m – 12.4s and 200m – 26.1s). ZAC MASSEY (100m – 13.8s and 200m -29.7s) was only beaten in the 200m by club mate SAM HUGHES (29.3s).

LAUREN MILNTHORPE, who with Cadie Willis makes a most effective Under 17 girls team, won the 300m (43.8s), the 300m Hurdles (48.1s) and the long jump (4.36m). JACK MILNTHORPE had three wins as well, in the javelin (22.82m – an indication of the conditions), the high jump (1.45m) and the 80m hurdles (13.4s), while BEN COLLIER having won the 3000m (9m54.7s), then spread eagled the field in the 1500m Steeplechase (5m18s), where ADRIIAN FAUTLY's headgear (a shower cap) seemed very appropriate for the conditions.

TOM KILLNER-BROWN won the U17 Shot (9.47m) and the Discus (30.32m) and, among a host of excellent performance, the relay teams defied the rain, winning at U13 Boys, Under 15 Girls, and Under 15 Boys level. Finally the boys 4x400m team won by a distance in 4m13.7s.

Everyone kept cheerful throughout, and we looked like a team – and moreover a winning team.

MEN’S LEAGUE TEAM DOMINATE THE TRACK AS THEY WIN AT K2

Horsham's current men's team, lacking MATT BAKER duly completed a victory over Tunbridge Wells and Haywards Heath/Lewes with Medway & Maidstone failing to turn up. We had notable success on the track, but the Tunbridge Wells all-rounder Grant Stirling and Lewes's Sam Brown and Chris Pilling stacked up Field Events points for their clubs. Our all rounder, GARETH LEWIS competed tirelessly all afternoon and minimised the advantage the others, I imagine, expected to get. Eventually Gareth won the Discus (30.34m) after a number of creditable near-misses. Other notable field event efforts came from MATT SANSOME, who achieved 40.72m in the Javelin, a personal best, and GORM YOUNG whose 25.50m Hammer throw was only 1½ metres behind the winner and also a personal best.

On the track it was success all the way. JAMES HEDGES (23.5s) and JAMES MACKMAN (23.4s) dominated the 200m: ALEX BEST (51.4s) and DAVID PATEY (52.2s) the 400m; JASON WOOLDRIDGE (2m10.6s and 4m31.9s) and ADRIAN FAUTLY (2m14.5s and 4m49.0s) ruled the 800m and 1500m; ANTHONY BOURNE (16m16.4s) and RYAN BOWYER (20m09.4s) the 5000m; Anthony again (10m49.4s) with ALISTAIR SMITH (13m25.9s) the Steeplechase; DAVID PATEY (68.3s) and KARL JOHNSTON (70.6s) the 400m Hurdles and a splendid 4x400m relay team which achieved 3m44.5s. We were cruising to victory in the sprint relay before disaster struck at the final changeover. However, Gareth's discus throw backed up by new member DANIEL WALTON saw us home with 113 points, ahead of Tunbridge Wells who scored 106 and Haywards Heath/Lewes 96.

JADE SOARS TO NEW COUNTY RECORD IN UNDER 15 LEAGUE

The opening match of the Friday night athletics league for Under 15s was very different for the Club from previous seasons. We had a very good turn out of athletes and I am sure that, a team manager, I did not deploy our strength as well as I might have done. I was obliged to register the non scoring participants at the same time, and they represented an overwhelming section of those attending.

Nevertheless, in contrast to the previous two seasons, our Boys ran Crawley close (Crawley 94, Horsham 84, Chichester 72, Worthing 41 and East Grinstead 5), while the Girls contributed 58 points to an total of 142 points, which gave us overall third place,

Among the boys to do well was our exciting relay team, again close to the Club record in victory; BRUCE FOSTER (first in the A 200m -24.6s); WILL THOMAS (2nd in the A 800m – 2m20.8s); JACK MILNTHORPE (2nd in the A 400m – 60.7s) and RYAN SLATER (2nd in the long jump – 4.61m). However, we gained points right across the board.

On the Girls side, supreme pride of place must go to JADE BREWSTER, whose magnificent P.B. of 3.17m in the Pole Vault was a new County record. HANNAH CLARK'S 24.91m in the A Discus was also a first class effort: ISOBEL GREEN ran a good second place in the 800m (2m29.3s) and EMILY COX and LUCY MILNTHORPE among others worked hard all evening to gain a respectable points total.

I am sure that if we have the same turn-out in the later matches and I discontinue my responsibility for non scorers and concentrate on the Horsham team, we shall come close to winning this league. Thanks to everyone, whether on the track, in the field or among the spectators.

OH SO CLOSE!

The Blue ladies team travelled to Guildford for the latest fixture knowing that they were in for a tough fixture. They were meeting host Club Guildford, who won the league last year, Windsor , who finished in second and Radley. The team put up a tremendous performance and in a match where the lead swung between three Clubs ended up just edged into third place by a mere 2½ points. Guildford scored 151½ points, with Windsor in second on 150 points and the Blue Star team scoring 149 points with Radley back in fourth place with 101½ points.

The team boosted by the return of several of their more experienced athletes performed beyond expectations. The track events started with the U17 300m Hurdles where Lauren Milnthorpe showed a clean pair of heels to her rivals recording a personal best time of 46.9s, Lauren then went on to win the 80m Hurdles in another personal best of 12.5s. There was a double first in the 1500m where Kate Kaye strode away from the rest of the field to win the A string in 4m55.0s and Cami Cowan again ran well to take the B race in 4m59.9s. Kate had earlier taken second place in the 3000m in 10m33.6s and Cami had run a personal best 2m24.6s for third in the 800m. Rebecca Jennings was an impressive winner of the 100m Hurdles in 15.1s and took second place in the B string 100m in 12.7s and Cadie Willis ran a personal best 26.0s to take the B string 200m.

On the Field there was a double first in the Javelin where Holly Webb threw 36.13m to clinch the A event and Helen Morton, back from an international heptathlon event in Spain, won the B string with 34.31m. Another double first came in the Pole Vault where debutants for the Club, Emilie Balckwell and Naomi Lee cleared 3.20m and 3.00m respectively to dominate the event. Elsewhere points were hard to come by, but Rhiannon Dunlop won the B string High Jump with a clearance of 1.40m, and Naomi Lee took second places in the B string Hammer (29.80m) and Shot Putt (7.98m).

The Under 15 events saw a double first in the High Jump with Jade Brewster and Emily Cox both clearing 1.45m to win the A & B strings respectively. Emily had a good afternoon achieving a personal best in winning the Shot Putt with a throw of 8.47m, and another personal best in the 75m hurdles where her time of 12.3s took her to second place. In this event Lucy Milnthorpe ran 13.1s to win the B string. there were second places for Poppy Willis (13.2s) and Kat Bajorinaite (13.8s) in the 100m, with Kat teaming up with Nicole Allen to take another two second places in the 200m, running 27.7s and 29.7s respectively. Nicole had earlier won the B string 800m in 2m29.2s with Isobel Green taking second place in the A event (2m28.5s). Hannah Clark threw 24.44m to take second place in the A string Discus. The Under 15 4x100m relay team finished the day with an impressive win in 52.3s.

This was an outstanding result for the team against such strong opposition and they retain their fourth place position in the table.

YOUNG ATHLETES LEAGUE TEAM IN FINE FORM AT ASHFORD

The National Young Athletes league matches so far this season have been fraught with problems of scoring and recording. We certainly won our first match versus Lewes AC (given as a tie in Athletics Weekly!) and South London Harriers, and on the rescore this was confirmed. The second one we lost to the home team Ashford AC, although we had the better of Bexley, who had some excellent athletes, but not enough of them, with the final result being Ashford 596 pts, Horsham 488 pts and Bexley 424 pts.

Highlights for me in the second match, which were held in very blustery conditions, were a fine 400m run by ALEX BEST (53.8s), following a 200m run in which he was timed at 24.5s. BEN COLLIER looked to have great promise as a 1500m Steeplechaser (5m19.5s) especially when it is realised that he'd already won the 3000m (10m14.3s) and “filled in” most adequately in the 400m. TOM KILLNER-BROWN shone in the Boys Shot (9.41m) and Discus (31.55m), and JACK MILNTHORPE'S 1.55m clearance in the High Jump was a good quality effort.

We have come to expect fine performances from JADE BREWSTER, and her 3.10m vault in the Pole Vault once again got near to her Club and County record at which she is regularly aiming. HANNAH CLARK was a clear winner in the Discus (23.30m) and there was some fine 75m Hurdling from EMILY COX (13.4s) and LUCY MILNTHORPE (14.1s).

I am conscious that I have omitted some very other worthy performances in giving my impressions of the day. We are back at Lewes for the next match with, we hope, a similar result to our first visit.

UNDER 13s TURN OUT IN FORCE FOR FIRST LEAGUE MATCH

This match was held in rainy conditions, an unusual experience this season. Although Crawley were characteristically strong, Horsham held the other Clubs at bay in this home fixture (Crawley 194½ pts, Horsham 186 pts, East Grinstead 153 pts, Haywards Heath 101 pts, Chichester 68½ pts and Worthing 62 pts).

On the track we only had one winner in the Boy's events, TAYLOR LONGHURST in the 75m Hurdles (16.9s), but as so often, we dominated the Javelin. LUKE THORPE won the A competition with 26.83m, and ALEX WIDDOWSON the B with 21.04m; a non scorer, ADAM JACKSON also achieved twenty metres. Second placers were TOM MACKMAN (A string 600m – 1m50.8s and B 150m – 22.6s); HARRY ADAMS (B 1000m – 3m37.2s); JAMES SKIPPER (B High Jump – 1.10m and B Shot – 5.19m) and JOSH COLLISHE (B Discus – 12.15m).

The Girls team had winners in a variety of events. MEGAN ALLERTON won the A 1000m (3m30.9s) with BRONWEN THOMAS first in the B string (3m35.0s), CATRIONA JAMIESON (who is almost always the smallest participant in the throwing events she enters!) won the Javelin (18.80m) and the Discus (15.57m), inspiring NATALIE TAYLOR to win the B Javelin (10.44m) and EMMA GARRY the B Discus (15.46m). For good measure Emma won the A Shot (7.53m) completing almost a clean sweep. JADE LINDO was runner up in the 75m (11,.4s) and the A 150m (22.6s). Encouragingly there were lots of “spare” athletes, who competed in non-scoring events; so the evening was considered a very promising start, despite the weather.

EXCELLENT MEDAL HAUL AT COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS

The weekend of the 14th/15th was both enjoyable and successful, with quite a lot of our younger members leaving K2 with medals of various colours. The greatest excitement was produced by our Under 15 Girls relay teams, who's A team quartet won the 4x100m relay (52.2s), a new club record, followed in third place by the B quartet (54.5s). Mr Ray Hopkins, the announcer, often comments unfavourably on the lack of enthusiasm shown by spectators during the relays, but not on this occasion!

MOLLY ADAMS with a silver medal in the 100m (13.0s) and a bronze in the 200m (27.2s) was our leading sprinter, but there are others with nearly the same potential. This achievement was not allowed to detract from the superb pole-vaulting of JADE BREWSTER, whose winning clearance of 3.15m, not only set a new championships best performance, but also put her top the rankings for her age group in the country. HANNAH CLARK had the galling experience of having her gold medal changed to silver with an opponent's final discus throw.

RICHARD MASON won the Under 15 Boys pole vault with 2.65m, while REMI SHAIEB'S 2.15m clearance was good enough for third. JACK MILNTHORPE had a splendid championships, winning the High Jump (1.62m) and coming second in both the 80m Hurdles (13.3s) and the Javelin (32.05m), where he was only beaten by our own MAX PATERSON (32.24m). BRUCE FOSTER took third place in the 200m (25.0s) and , almost inevitably we were runners up in the Under 15 Boys 4x100m relay (50.1s)!

There were pleasing performances by our Under 17 athletes. CADIE WILLIS ran a personal best 12.5s to win the 100m. CAMILLE COWAN, also ran a personal best of 4m56s to gain silver in the 1500m and LAUREN MILNTHORPE added to the family's medal haul with a win in the 300m Hurdles (47.7s) and a second in the 80m Hurdles (12.6s). Meanwhile ALEX BEST was second in the 200m (23.4s) before putting on a classy winning performance in the 400m with a personal best 51.2s. KARL JOHNSTON lost his only opponent during the race with a hamstring injury, but completed a 400m Hurdles win in 72.5s. MAX WOODWARD won the Pole Vault with 3.00m, and LUKE JOHNSTON came second with 39.71m in the Javelin. JAMES MACKMAN'S busy weekend resulted in one medal (3rd in the Pole Vault, also with 3.00m) but was unluckily fourth in both sprint races.

At Under 20 level HOLLY WEBB continued our dominance of the Javelin with a winning throw of 35.79m, and ROSIE INMAN'S 11.27.5S was good enough for gold in the 3000m with GENEVIEVE POUNDS taking silver in 13m04.7s. JAMES HEDGES was third in a good quality 100m race (11.6s); MATT SANSOME threw 37.15m for second in the Javelin; MATT GUE, briefly home from university, threw the discus just beyond forty metres (40.18m) for second with JONATHAN GELLETT fifth with 34.69m. RYAN BOWYER'S 19m58.3s secured him the gold medal in the 5000m, as he was the only entrant. RHIANNON DUNLOP continued her comeback with a bronze medal in the 400m Hurdles (77.0s)

ANTHONY BOURNE achieved fifth with 16m06s in his 5000m – a solitary Senior performance on the men's side, but ANNA HOPCROFT took time off from team-managing Hurstpierpoint College to gain a Hammer silver with a Club record throw of 43.39m. It was impossible not to feel sympathy for REBECCA JENNINGS, who looked in prime form, but had (literally) no opposition over the 100m hurdles, so ran with the Under 20s and took the gold medal in 14.8s; nevertheless to beat Elise Lovell, who trains with Jessica Ennis, is no mean achievement. Rebecca also took gold in the 100m, running 12.5s.

Finally there were plenty of participants but no medals this year in the Boys and Girls Minithons, and there were lots of other club members, who missed out on medals despite gritty performances. Everyone deserves the warmest congratulations, not least the team managers.

All Photos are courtesy of the West Sussex County Times

MATT BAKER SETS NEW CLUB POLE VAULT RECORD AT ERITH

Kent AC and Hastings proved very demanding opponents in this match, and the Kent sprinters, together with the Hastings middle-distance men, had too much experience for our youthful team. DAVID PATEY was good enough to win the A 400m Hurdles in 61.0s, although the B winner was faster; then we had to wait until the Steeplechase for two second places from ANTHONY BOURNE (10m56.5s) and JASON WOOLDRIDGE (11m35s). JAMES MACKMAN can look back on an excellent afternoon – runner up in the B 200m (24.6s) to with a win in the B Pole Vault (3.20m). Bad luck seemed to follow JAMES HEDGES around- a disqualification and a dropped relay baton – but he redeemed himself with second place in the B Long Jump (5.26m).

Generally we fared better in the Field Events with MATT BAKER to the fore. Hastings fielded Peter Henworth, a classy multi eventer, who relegated Matt to second place in the A High Jump (a personal best 1.90m) and the A Pole Vault, where Matt's clearance of 3.90m set a new Senior Club Record, though he won the A Long Jump (6.15m) and A Triple Jump (12.51m). MATT WARD, still a junior, took second place in the B Shot Putt (8.13m) and two other youngsters gave us our best result of all – a double victory in the Javelin with MATT SANSOME (38.06m) and BONIZWE MCFADDEN (31.67m) proving their superiority. Only one other thrower in the A competition threw further than Bonizwe.

We missed such stalwarts as Gareth Lewis, Joe Waller and David Stephens, but a hard earned 75 points put us third in the match behind Kent AC (116pts) and Hastings (107pts) with Sutton in fourth place with 46 points.

SOUTHERN WOMEN’S LEAGUE TEAM ON HIGH AT WYCOMBE

A much depleted girls' and womens' team had a remarkable victory Havant (145pts), North Devon (109) and Ipswich (104½) at High Wycombe in their first league fixture of the season. Although Havant obtained more points with their Seniors, our lively under 15 team competed for every point and saw us home relatively comfortably with 152½ points.

CADIE WILLIS was in excellent sprinting form (12.6s for 100m; 26.2s for 200m), as was LAUREN MILNTHORPE over the hurdles (48.9s for 300mH; 13.1s for 80mH). HOLLY WEBB (33.13m for javelin), CATRIONA DUNLOP (4.69m for long jump) and the youthful CAMILLE COWAN (5.06.7s for 1500m) were others to finish first in A string Senior events. We also won the 4x400m relay by an emphatic six seconds (4m32.2s).

Among the girls (under 15s) to shine were MOLLY ADAMS (13.0s for 100m), KOTRYNA BAJORINAITE (28.2s for 200m), EMILY COX (8.08m for Shot) and the relay team (52.9s for 4x100m). We dominated the B string competition with BETHANY HICKMAN (28.4s for 200m), KOTRYNA BAJORINAITE (13.3s for 100m), EMILY COX (12.9s for 75m Hurdles), JADE BREWSTER (7.17m for Shot), MOLLY ADAMS (15.97m for Discus), LUCY MILNTHORPE (15.03m for javelin) and POPPY WILLIS (2m40.8 for 800m) all winning.

Emily's mother, LINDSAY COX , won the B javelin (15.33m) and it was generally a delight to see mother's competing alongside their daughters, as well as several pairs of sisters. SHEENA BASSETT was a winner of the B 800m (2m53.2s) and LAUREN MILNTHORPE, busy as ever, won the B string 400m flat in 63.0s seconds.

It was an excellent afternoon, considering the number of absentees; if ever a team won because it was a team , and not just a collection of individual athletes, it was Horsham on April 30th 2011 !

ROAD RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS At CHRIST’S HOSPITAL SCHOOL

The young trio that ran as senior ladies in the Sussex Road Relay Championships held at Christ's Hospital School were undoubtedly Horsham's stars Two of the Club's most loyal members were respectively fastest Under 17 (CAMILLE COWAN) and third fastest (ROSIE INMAN) and they combined with KATE KAYE , home from university, to bring the team home in third place, against the likes of Arena 80, who are a strong unit even at national level. The equally youthful Senior Men's team ran gamely, but with coach STEVE PIDGEON obliged at the last minute to anchor the team's effort in the absence of an expected runner, they could only finish tenth. JONATHAN RANDLE looked to be on the brink of a good season.

The Under 15 Boys ‘A' Team were unlucky to miss out on the medals in fourth place, with BEN COLLIER also close to a fastest lap prize. WILL THOMAS and BERNI SPANNAGL gave him sound support and there was a ‘B' team of EUAN RAMAGE, DANIEL PIDGEON and LAWRENCE GREEN who were far from disgraced in sixth place. The Under 15 Girls finished sixth with ISOBEL GREEN, MAISIE BOAST and NICOLE ALLEN all achieving sound times, with the luxury of two reserves, SOPHIE BURROUGHS and EMMA EATWELL

The club had A & B teams, and even spare runners, in both Under 13 relays. The Boys ‘A' team (MARCUS RAMAGE, CONOR DEARDEN and JACK MILNTHORPE) was fifth, and the ‘B' team (GREGOR RAMAGE, JOE WEST and TOM MACKMAN) came in eleventh. The Girls ‘A' team (MEGAN ALLERTON, KATIE PERRIN and TABITHA LEE ) finished 9th, with nearly a minute behind them in eleventh, the ‘B' team of SARA DEDMAN, BRONWEN THOMAS, who made up a lot of ground, and CAROLINE WIRTH. Additionally INDIA FROUD, daughter of a medal winning father in a Brighton team, made a promising debut.

MEDALS GALORE AT THE SUSSEX INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

The annual Sussex Indoor Championships (held in conjunction with those of Surrey ), attracted a good number of Sussex athletes, of whom a reasonable proportion were from the Club. They finished the weekend with a wide array of medals. MATT BAKER, home briefly from university, won the Under 20 Long Jump (6.31m) and the 60m Hurdles (8.58s), while securing silver in the Pole Vault (3.60m). He missed the triple jump as he was already on his return journey. JAMES HEDGES was third in the 60m (7.45s) in the Under 20 event. MAX WOODWARD and JAMES MACKMAN were in good pole vaulting form, taking gold and silver medals with 3.30m and 3.20m respectively. JACK MILNTHORPE came third in the 60m Hurdles (10.57s).

Five Girls' performances were particularly praiseworthy. KOTRYNA BAJORINAITE came second in the Under 15 60m sprint (8.25s), only losing to the redoubtable Sophie Spinner from Worthing, a newcomer to the Club, she is an exciting talent. RACHAEL HARRISON won the Under 15 Girls Shot (9.30m) and became, I think, a County Champion for the first time. She'll be capable of much longer distances, but this was a promising beginning. LAUREN MILNTHORPE win in the 60m Hurdles (9.98s) established her as clearly one of the leading Under 17 hurdlers, and CADIE WILLIS was an equally emphatic gold medallist in the Under 17 60m sprint (8.00s). NATALIE BURGESS was around the five metre mark in all her jumps, finishing second in the Long Jump with 5.03m.

Others who did not get medals but can look back with satisfaction on the weekend as a good “launching pad” for the sprints and jumps season to come were RYAN SLATER, EMILY COX , MOLLIE ADAMS and BETHANY HICKMAN.

JADE TAKES GOLD AT THE NATIONAL INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

JADE BREWSTER made a definite breakthrough as an Under 15 pole vaulter, when she shared the gold medal with a Wakefield girl at the England National Indoor Championships in Birmingham. Only joining the competition when half of the girls had been eliminated, she then had a series of flawless clearances up to 2.90m, when seven girls remained. JADE and the Yorkshire girl cleared first time, two others with either their second or third attempt and three were eliminated. No one cleared the next height (3.00m), although Jade’s failures were narrow ones, and on countback, she was joint winner, a tribute to her calm concentration, sustained throughout the event. With her silver medal at the South of England Championships as well, she can look back on a winter of distinct progress, and forward to greater heights outdoors in the summer.

KEITH FARNDON WINS SOUTH EAST REGIONAL AWARD

In the recent South East Regional Awards, the Club’s Javelin coach Keith Farndon was presented with an award for his Services to Coaching. Keith began his coaching with Hayward’s Heath Harriers in 1986. For the last few years a stream of athletes at the Club have achieved considerable success under his coaching. In 2008 Jo Waller reached 4th rank in the Under 23 Age Group and one of his athletes, Holly Webb is the 2010 Sussex County and Sussex Schools medallist. This year Keith has made many trips away to be part of the National Coach Development Programme. It is a great honour for the Club for one of our coaches to receive this award, and many congratulations go to Keith for his achievement.

SECOND PLACES FOR BOYS & GIRLS SPORTSHALL TEAMS

Crawley AC brought very strong teams to the final Sportshall match and left nothing to chance in their quest for the two winner's trophies. I lost count of the number of events in which Horsham finished a gallant second to Crawley's winning performance, although the Horsham Under 11s seemed to have the edge, winning the two 4 x 11 lap relays and the A string 2 lap race through ZAC MASSEY. In this age group there were B string wins for JAMIE HUGHES (2 laps); SAM HUGHES (Standing long jump) and ADAM JACKSON (Speed bounce).

MOLLY ADAMS was the Horsham star with an easy A string winner in the Under 13 4 lap race and the Standing Triple Jump and JACK MILNTHORPE took the A string Boys 4 lap event. Under 13 B string winners were EMMA GARRY (Standing Triple Jump); JACK MILNTHORPE (Shot Putt) and JOE WEST (Standing Triple Jump).

In the Under 15 age group POPPY WILLIS won the A string Speed Bounce, as did TOM KILLNER-BROWN in the equivalent Boys event. Tom, whose last Sportshall event this was, has competed in every sportshall league event over the last four years, a tremendous achievement. Other Under 15 athletes who did Horsham proud were JACK TRUMAN, who won the A string Vertical Jump, ANNA HOLCOMBE (B string Vertical Jump) and JADE BREWSTER (B string 4 Lap race). There were runners-up in abundance in both track and field events, and, as usual with Horsham, the relays; everyone deserved credit for a good all round effort.

The whole Sportshall season has proved to be a neck and neck duel with Crawley , and they also deserve credit for their determination and consistency. For the Club, there are always the summer outdoor fixtures and a chance of turning the tables!

Sportshall League (top 3)

Boys		Girls
1	Crawley 23 pts	1	Crawley 24 pts
2	Horsham 21 pts	2	Horsham 20 pts
3	Chichester 14 pts	3	Haywards Heath 15 pts

 

SILVER LINING FOR U15 BOYS & U17 MEN IN FINAL LEAGUE RACE

On an unexpectedly sunny, spring day, our cross country runners were out in force and generally acquitted themselves well. We had eight Under 13 Girl runners and we finished in seventh team place for the season, with MEGAN ALLERTON 20th on Saturday (14m27s); KATIE PERRIN 21st (14m32s); REBECCA FARROW 22nd (14m34s): TABITHA LEE 23rd (14m40s): SARA DEDMAN 27th (15m16s); CAROLINE WIRTH 29th (16m31s); BECKY SADLER 31st (17m07s) and TESSA WRIGHT 33rd (17m54s). This has been a success story this season , although we are too cautious at the beginning of each race, and find it too much of a challenge to catch up, however, with many of the team having another year in this age group the future looks bright. The Under 13 Boys had an excellent day, finishing fourth on the day and fifth overall for the season. JACK MILNTHORPE was an excellent fourth (11m33s); MARCUS RAMAGE 11th (12m12s): CONNOR DEARDEN 19th (12m47s); ALISTAIR POWLING 22nd (12m57s); JOE WEST 28th (13m19s); TOM MACKMAN 29th (13m29s); GREGOR RAMAGE 30th (13m31s) and LUKE TRICCAS 36th (14m40s). Everyone deserves credit for some spirited running, and regular attendance.

Our Under 15 Girls were also fifth overall. NICOLE ALLEN was 11th (19m15s); IZZY GREEN 19th (20m41s); MAISIE BOAST 22nd (22m08s) and EMMA EATWELL 24th (22m31s). They too have travelled regularly to some far-distant venues. The Under 15 Boys race was a triumph for WILL THOMAS, who, sporting a huge grin, was our first runner home in seventh place (17m31s). BEN COLLIER took eighth place (17m34s), which secured him the overall 3rd place medal; BERNI SPANNAGL, looking as stylish, but not currently as strong, as ever, was 15th (18m50s); EUAN RAMAGE was 18th (19m03s) and DAN PIDGEON 26th (20m31s). This gave us second place for the season behind Eastbourne , and richly deserved medals all round.

Unfortunately there is no team competition for the Under 17 Girls, where we have become super-strong, and our Under 17s run as part of the Senior team. In the Under17/Under 20/Senior and Veteran Women's race JOHANNA SPANNAGL finished fifth, beaten only by four notable cross-country athletes, in a time of 20m29s; CAMILE COWAN was twelfth (21m04s), ahead of a lot of experienced Seniors; ROSIE INMAN, uncharacteristically only twenty first (21m43s). Rosie has had some excellent races during a busy league and championship season. SHEENA BASSETT flew the flag for the veterans (66th in 26m50s). This final team performance kept the Club in Division 1 of the league, finishing in overall sixth place.

Our reliable Under 17 Men's team gained silver medals for their season's achievements. In the final race, JASON WOOLDRIDGE was fourth (18m33s), which gave him fourth place overall for the season; ADRIAN FAUTLY – 7th (18m57s); SAM TAYLOR – 14th (20m43s) and RYAN BOWYER – 15th (20m58s). Their medals are a well merited reward for some cheerful and enthusiastic racing .

BLUE STARS SHINE AT SCHOOLS BIATHLON

Blue Stars continue to shine through the January gloom. Congratulations go to Rosie Inman and Jason Wooldridge for reaching the National final of the British Schools Biathlon. Travelling to Bath on the 23 rd Jan. for the semi finals, Rosie won her 1000m run in 3.19 and finished 3 rd overall after the 100m swim in a time of 1.11. Jason finished 4 th overall, coming 3 rd in the run in 2.51 and swimming a 1.01 -100m. Credit also goes to Will Thomas for finishing 4 th in the run but just missing out on selection for the final which will be held at Crystal Palace on 27 th March. Good luck to Rosie and Jason.

SPORTSHALL TEAMS BATTLE INTO SECOND PLACE

Crawley 's big battalions prevailed again, and look as though they may be deserved winners, but we battled all the way and are still close to them in the Boy's section. We have 16 league points to Crawley's 17 in the Boys league, but actually have a larger aggregate of match points (831 to their 820), so a win by our Boys in the final match will se us prevail. Crawley have won all the matches in the Girls league and have 18 league points to our 15, for three second places. Their 830 points is well ahead of our 752 and, of course, of all the other clubs.

We had our share of first string or ‘A' winners (MOLLY ADAMS, SAM HUGHES< TOM KILLNER-BROWN, ADAM JACKSON, GEORGE PALMER and JAMIE HUGHES), with a reasonable number of ‘B' winners ( LUCY MILNTHORPE, KAT BAJORINAIDE, ZAC MASSEY, JACK TRUMAN, RYAN SLATER, JOSH CADETTE, THOMAS TWEEDY, SAM HUGHES) and it was good to see MEGAN TRANTER back in Blue Star colours, coming second in the Shot Putt. As usual we did particularly well in the Relays and Paarlaufs, which are real “team” events. It is this aspect of the sport that, I suspect, KIM MILNTHORPE and her fellow coaches and team managers are eager to encourage; they do a marvellous job, and I am sure that they are laying the foundations for an excellent young athletes team in years to come.

SUSSEX SCHOOLS AND MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS AT LANCING

Individual Schools raise teams for the Schools Championships, so those who ran did not represent the Club's full strength. There were, however, some good performances. BEN COLLIER, on a course he always seems to enjoy, finished fourth (20.28m) behind older boys in the Intermediate Boys race. EUAN RAMAGE, running for Brighton College 's winning team, finished 25th. WILL THOMAS is still a Junior in the Schools events and finished 12th (15.56m), an excellent effort, with brother EUAN THOMAS 70th, and MARCUS RAMAGE in 35th.

Highlight for the Club in the girls races was CAMILLE COWAN in the Intermediate Girls; she was sixth in a creditable 15.08m. GENEVIEVE POUNDS, running as a Senior for Hurstpierpoint finished 10th just two minutes behind the fourth placed girl, while two Steyning girls NICOLE ALLEN (13.39m) and ISABEL GREEN, finished in 29th and 34th places respectively in the Junior Girls race.

Two Club members contested the County Masters Championship races. SHEENA BASSETT, recovering from a late start, came home in 21st position (36.58m) and STEWART MACKMAN was 31st in the Over 50 race in 44.20m.

RETURN TO LEAGUE ACTION SEES SOME GOOD PERFORMANCES

There was a slight feeling of anti-climax at Bexhill, after the good showing at Stanmer Park the previous week, but those who made the lengthy journey to East Sussex acquitted themselves well. Our three Under 13 participants (JACK MILNTHORPE – 10th in 11.44m; EUAN THOMAS – 28th in 13.21m and ALISTAIR POWLING – 35th in 15.30m) finished seventh as a team and after three matches are fifth. At Under 15 level, our boys usually shine, but could not take first place as Eastbourne had an inspired day. However, one couldn't fault BERNI SPANNAGL'S 4th place (15.10m) nor BEN COLLIER'S 5th place (15.18m). WILL THOMAS had a plucky run in 13th place (15.55m), with DAN PIDGEON battling through to 29th (18.34m). This leaves us second after three matches with one more chance to overtake Eastbourne , as we overtook Phoenix . Our Under 17s are also second, and seem likely to be medallists. JASON WOOLDRIDGE was third (18.04m): ADRIAN FAUTLY seventh (18.42m); SAM TAYLOR 12th (20.41m) and RYAN BOWYER 13th (21.12m). Their success this year has been unexpected but very gratifying! Only BILL CRAWLEY took part in the Senior race. Possibly the oldest runner in the race, he finished 112th in 43.07m.

The Under 13 Girls turned up in creditable numbers and achieved sixth place, which leaves them eighth with one match to go. KATIE PERRIN was 17th (13.32m); CAROLINE WIRTH 21st (13.38m); MEGAN ALLERTON 22nd (13.39m) with TABITHA LEE (25th in 13.49m) and REBECCA FARROW (34th in 15.29m) also taking part. NICOLE ALLEN finished 17th in 18.23m in the Under 15 race and with support from ISABEL GREEN, with an improved run from last week, 21st (18.56m) and SOPHIE BURROUGHS (29th in 22.24m) the team finished in sixth and move up to sixth position overall. ROSIE INMAN (11th in 20.31m) and CAMILLE COWAN (18th in 21.18m) both had good runs in a big field in the Senior Ladies race. Sadly injury and illness deprived these two of any team mates.

CLUB MEMBERS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS

It is always satisfying when one sees "H.B.S." among the lists of best performers on a national level. This year we had four, of whom three were Pole Vaulters, and they did not include MATT BAKER, who set new club figures at senior and under-20 level in the Pole vault at the Bath indoor open (3.82 metres).

LUCY STICKLAND'S best of 3.40 metres was 8th best in the under-20's Pole Vault; MAX WOODWARD crowned an excellent season with a 3.25 metres clearance for sixth in the under-15 boys list, and JADE BREWSTER also came sixth on the national under-15 list with an excellent 2.91 metres clearance.

The only non-vaulter to achieve these levels (in both senses) was JOE KENT - 8th in ther under-20 boys High Jump with an indoor clearance of 2.04 metres and one of two metres outdoors. Everyone hope's he'll have a full year-long season in 2011, which was denied him this year.

(This of course applies equally to ALL our competitive athletes!)

 

BOYS VICTORIOUS IN THE SECOND SPORTSHALL MATCH

Another determined performance in the second Sportshall match at Tanbridge House brought even greater success than our splendid showing in the first match.  Admittedly all sportshall matches are “home” fixtures, but many of our members live as far away as Steyning and Cranleigh, so they have to travel comparable distances to some of our rivals.

Among the fine efforts in the field events , POPPY WILLIS was first in the Under 15 Speed Bounce; MOLLY ADAMS first in the Under 13 Standing Triple Jump (with EMMA GARRY first in the B competition); ADAM JACKSON first in the Under 11 Speed Bounce; JAMIE HUGHES firstin the Under 11 Standing Long Jump (with ZAC MASSEY winning the B competition) and GEORGE PALMER first in the Under 15 Standing Triple Jump (with THOMAS TWEEDY first in the B event).

MOLLY ADAMS also won the Under 13  4-lap race (with FLORENCE WEBB taking the B race).  We won one race and were second in three in the Girls paarlaufs and relays, which meant that we finished second again in the Girls match, but this time by a margin of only 7½ points, compared with 33 points last time.

SAM HUGHES was our Boy track winner, taking the Under 11 2-lap race (with ZAC MASSEY first in the B race), and we had three wins and two second places in the relay and paarlauf races.  This gave us an emphatic margin of victory (288 points to Crawley’s 260 points and Chichester’s 204 points).

Overall we lead the Boys league table (551 points to Crawley’s 528 points) and are close behind Crawley in the Girls league table (510 points to their 550½ points), with two matches to go.

SPORTSHALL TEAMS BOTH FINISH SECOND IN FIRST LEAGUE MATCH

The Club’s junior members turned out in force for the first Sportshall athletics match, and, as usual, battled throughout the afternoon, eventually finishing second in both competitions.  EMILY COX and MOLLY ADAMS were girls track winners in B events and we scored well in the Girls relay and paarlauf races.  KEIRON PENNY, JACK MILNTHORPE and ZAC MASSEY in Boys A running events and SAM HUGHES and ROSS CARTER in the equivalent B events were winners and once again we had good relay results.

We fared equally well in the Field Events.  MOLLY ADAMS (Standing Long Jump) was our A winner in the girls events, with SARA DEDMAN and FLORENCE WEBB coming out top in B events.  TOM KILLNER-BROWN, his talent complimenting his size these days! – outclassed everyone in the Speed Bounce, and took second place in a good quality Shot competition.  There were A event wins for KEIRON PENNY and JAMES HUGHES with JOSHUA CADETTE, TOM MACKMAN and ZAC MASSEY gaining first places in B events.

The Girls scored 239½ points against Crawley’s 272½ with Haywards Heath and Chichester also topping the 200 mark.  In an exciting contest the Boys finished a mere five points behind Crawley’s winning total (268 points) with Haywards Heath 164½  pts, in third,  Brighton 157½ pts in  fourth and Chichester and Eastbourne 5th & 6th respectively.

I much admired the vigour and growing self-confidence with which our young athletes approached their events, and it was pleasing to hear a lot of vocal encouragement from the Horsham benches. A good afternoon!

SUCCESS FOR BLUE STARS IN SCHOOLS BIATHLON

Four Blue Stars went to the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth on Sunday 21st November to compete in the qualifying round of the English Schools Biathlon Competition.  Jason Wooldridge and Rosie Inman, both representing Colliers College, Will Thomas (Tanbridge) and Nicole Allan (Steyning) all put in tremendous performances in both their Run (1000m) and Swim (100m), resulting in three of them reaching the Semi Finals which will be held in Bath on January 23rd and the fourth narrowly missing out in a very strong age group.
William won the Yr.9 boys run quite convincingly in a time of 3:11, Rosie (Yr.12) came a second  by some distance in her race finishing in 3:23, Jason (Yr.12) came third in 2:51 and Nicole (Yr.9) came forth in her event in 3:31.
Less than an hour after their run all four equalled their success in the pool, with three of them recording personal best time for 100m freestyle. Nicole 1:20 PB, Rosie 1:10 PB, Will 1:14 PB and Jason 1:01. Of particular note was Nicole’s swim. Having not swum competitively for four years, to swim a personal best of 1:20 is quite an achievement.
With the first six in each age group qualifying for the next round, the total points for the combined event resulted in Jason finishing overall 2nd, Rosie 3rd , William 6th and Nicole 10th. Very well done to all four competitors and thank you for what turned out to be a very enjoyable day…………..despite Rosie’s navigational skills !!
STP.

FIRST CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUE FIXTURE SEES GOOD TURNOUT

The Sussex Cross-Country league fixture on 24th October saw our second  visit to Goodwood  and hinted at success later when some of our other talented runners will be back from holiday or educational trips far afield.

We had two teams of Under 13 Boys, with our better team (MARCUS RAMAGE – 7th in 11m50s; ALISTAIR POWLING – 19th in12m33s; JACK MILNTHORPE – 21st in 12m39s) finishing in an excellent fifth place, while the B team (TOM MACKMAN – 28th in 13m04s; GREGOR RAMAGE – 29th in 13m08s; EUAN THOMAS – 38th in 13m40s) secured twelfth place, with JOE WEST (39th in 13m51s) made up a ‘C’ team in seventeenth position. Our Under 13 Girls, wearing appropriate blue and white warpaint, achieved 8th team place (MEGAN ALLERTON – 18th in 14m06s; TABITHA LEE – 24th in 14m41s and REBECCA FARROW – 29th in 15m08s) with KATIE PERRIN (15m15s) and BECCI SADLER (16m13s) not far behind.

BEN COLLIER’S excellent second place in the Under 15 Boys race (15m14s) spearheaded a team performance which took third place.  WILL THOMAS (12th in 16m29s) and JAMES WINSBURY (17th in 16m59s) backed him up. We have some strong reserves  (ETHAN PALMER – 21st in 17m14s; EWAN RAMAGE – 25th in 17m47s and CONNOR DOBSON – 33rd in 18m39s) who finished as ninth team.  EMMA EATWELL  (24th in 19m53s); MAISIE BOAST (26th in 20m02s); SOPHIE BURROUGHS (28th in 22m15s) and LAURA WEST (30th in 24m13s) came home in tenth placed team in the Under 15 Girls age group.

Our Under 17 Men’s team (JASON WOOLDRIDGE – 7th in 17m24s; ADRIAN FAUTLY – 14th in 18m02s and SAM TAYLOR – 18th in 18m54s) finished fourth.  ROSIE INMAN (20th in 20m32s) and GENEVIEVE POUNDS (35th in 22m20s) kept the Under 17 Girls’ flag flying among 75 finishers in the Senior Women’s race. SHEENA BASSETT (41st in 22m45s) completed the team in eighth place.  I foresee a heartening all round improvement at Plumpton on November 27th.

GOOD HAUL OF AWARDS AT THE TOM PINK EVENT

The Blue Star youngsters travelled to Lee Valley Indoor Arena for the Tom Pink Competition, a series of Sportshall type of events for the Under 11 and Under 13 age groups.

Competing against Clubs from all over the South East the Club athletes put up some excellent performances and many of the team came away with awards. The Under 11 Boys continuous Relay held over a 1000m, saw the team of Sam Hughes, Jamie Hughes, Jacob Eloquin, Adam Jackson and Zac Massey convincingly qualify for the Final with a Heat win in 2m40.9s. The final held later in the day saw the Blue Star team in a close battle with the team from Herts Phoenix, but a determined effort of the later stages saw the team run out winners in an excellent time of 2m38.2s to prevail but just over half a second. The Under 11 Girls team of Catriona Jamieson, Jade Lindo, Abigail Reeves, Romy van der Veen and Amy Fiztpatrick also reached the final of the same event with an easy win their heat, but they were edged into fourth place in a time of 2m52.8s.

In the Over and Under Relay the Under 11 Boys team of Zac Massey, Callum West, Adam Jackson and Sam Hughes also reached the Final and again had a tussle with the team from Herts Phoenix, but this time were runners up in 1m12.8s; the B team of Harry Adams, Jack Miller, Connor Dearden and Harry Osborne also reached the final where they performed well to finish fourth in 1m19.1s. The Girls Over and Under Relay team of Romy van der Veen, Abigail Reeves, Jade Lindo and Amy Fitzpatrick also took fourth place in the final in 1m18.5s.

In the Under 13 continuous Relay over 1500m the Girls team of Emma Garry, Florence Webb, Tabby Lee, Lucy Milnthorpe and Molly Adams finished fifth in the Final in 4m00.4s. The Under 13 Boys 3 x 2½ laps relay the team of Tom Mackman, Joe West and Jack Milnthorpe just missed out on a medal when placing fourth in 4m47.9s and the Girls team of Lucy Milnthorpe, Tabby Lee and Florence Webb placed fifth in 5m04.8s.

The Field events produced a number of medals. In the Under 11 events there was a win for Jacob Eloquim in the Boys Soft Javelin throw and Adam Jackson took second place in the same event, with throws of 18m and 17m respectively. In the same event for the Girls Jade Lindo took third place with a throw of 11m. In the Boys Standing Long Jump an excellent leap of 1.95m by Jamie Hughes saw him clinch second place and Zac Massey leapt 5.63m to take third in the Standing Triple Jump. Sam Hughes took third place in the Highland Steps event with a score of 60. Abigail Reeves scored 27 points in the Caber event to take second place and Amy Fitzpatrick threw 13m in the Weight for Distance event to win the bronze award.
The Under 13 also achieved several awards with Jack Milnthorpe winning the weight for Distance event with a throw of 15m, winning by two metres. Sara Dedman took second place in the Highland steps event with a score of 69, Tabitha Lee threw 12m in the Weight for Distance event to secure third place, the same place as achieved by Molly Adams in the Standing Triple Jump, where she leapt 6.33m, and by Caroline Worth in the Weight for Height competition with a throw of 5m.

It was good to see so many Club members and parents supporting this event. This was the second year that the Club have been invited and all the team enjoyed the competition and look forward to next year’s event.

UNDER 17 WOMEN LEAD THE WAY IN THE GOODWOOD RELAYS

The Goodwood Cross Country Relays, which included the Sussex County  Cross Country Relays was a good day for the Club – good turnout, good performances, everything in fact except good weather.  Pride of place must go to the Under 17 Women’s team (CAMMI COWAN – her lap completed in 16m19s; JOHANNA SPANNAGL – 15m06s; ROSIE INMAN – 16m27s) who won their race, finishing second only to the Arena 80 Senior team in the combined women’s race.  It was good to see the Spannagl family back competing, especially WENDY (16m15s), who combined with two more Under 17s (MILLIE WINDUS – 17m17s and GENEVIEVE POUNDS – 17m38s), to bring our second team home sixth in the Senior race.

The Under 17 Men also went home with medals (ADRIAN FAUTY – 14m28s, BONIZWE MCFADDEN – 14m29s and JASON WOOLDRIDGE – 14m26s) gaining third place, and their second strings (SAM TAYLOR – 14m57s; RYAN BOWYER – 16m09s and JAMES HICKMAN – 16m07s) finishing in fifth.  The better Under 15 Boys team (ETHAN PLALMER – 10m12s; WILLIAM THOMAS – 10m17s and BEN COLLIER – 9m42s) unexpectedly secured third place, when the runner ahead of Ben cut a huge slice off the final corner, so the teams positions were reversed.  Another team (DANIEL PIGEON – 11m21s; BERNIE SPANNAGL – 9m56s and MATTHEW HOLDER – 11m20s) were a creditable eighth.

If the Under 15 Boys had some good luck, the Under 15 Girls were very unfortunate.  EMMA EATWELL (13m44s) started the race late through no fault of her own, and left MAISIE BOAST (13m44s) and NICOLE ALLEN (12m01s) with no chance.  Nevertheless, with HELENA BURKE (12m44s) and SOPHIE BURROUGHS (12m48s), we have bright prospects for the league in this age group.

At this stage the Under 13s are combating inexperience.  Five boys competed and the first three (ALI POWLING – 10m31s; JACK MILNTHORPE – 11m04s and JOE WEST – 11m05s) achieved sixth place, with LUKE TRICCAS – 12m24s and EWAN THOMAS – 11m42s also performing quite well.  The Under 13 Girls (MEGAN ALLERTON – 13m07s; BECKY SADLER – 14m58s and TABITHA LEE – 13m02s) were eleventh, supported by CAROLINE WIRTH -13m23s and SARA DEDMAN – 15m17s, and could well when the league programme begins.

This was altogether a day to make us forget the persistent drizzle to which we were exposed.

THE FEW ARE TOO FEW AT STEVENAGE FOR OUR WOMEN’S TEAM

A very depleted team travelled to Stevenage for our final Southern Women’s league match, and predictably we finished last.  Yet such was the tireless effort put in by all our athletes, that we secured 101 points, despite our fourth place.  No praise is too high for the unselfish willingness with which everyone there took turns in “going for at least a point” and, hearteningly, most people looked accomplished athletes when able to perform in their main events – KATE KAYE in the middle distances, where she ran a personal best in the 3000m (10m) and LAUREN MILNTHORPE in the 300m hurdles, which she won in, also CADIE WILLIS in the sprints, EMILY COX in the girls hurdles and HANNAH CLARK in the girls Discus.  (this is by no means an exhaustive list). 
Two our most reliable attendees, match after match, are ROSIE INMAN and CAMILLE COWAN, who, placed well in the Senior 1500m, and as usual EMILY EASTLAND competed in several events.

I have no doubt that it is our efforts as a team in the various leagues of which we are members, which establishes our status as a high quality Club, and, as such, are our most important activity.  Regrettably, I suppose, this does necessitate travelling significant distances and meeting strong clubs.  When we have a good turn out we demonstrate our ability to meet such challenges; it cannot be done with a sparse attendance like we had at Stevenage.
The match result was Stevenage 163; Reading 143, Colchester 136; HORSHAM 101, leaving us tenth out of sixteen in the Premier Division with 628 points.

TOM LINTERN MEMORIAL MEETING – CRAWLEY 30/8/2010

There was an excellent turn out of Club athletes at Crawley on the Bank Holiday Monday.  Long throws were overwhelmingly full, fittingly so as the late Tom Lintern was an inspirational throws coach, his widow Jean a javelin thrower of the highest class and his daughter Candie a high-quality discus thrower and coach.

Once again DAVID PATEY nearly got below 50 seconds for 400m, being timed at 50.78s.  ALEX BEST outclassed his Under 17 rivals  to win his 400m in 53.34s.  HOLLY WEBB found that 33.92m was sufficient to win her age group in the Javelin, while LUCY MILNTHORPE took the Under 13 Girls High Jump with 1.25m.  But assuming that there were also medals for second and third, a lot of Blue Stars must have gone home rewarded for their efforts, particularly at the younger end of the Club.

GOOD PERFORMANCES BY THE FEW AT UNDER 15 LEAGUE FINAL

All previous matches in the Sussex Under 15 League have effectively been home fixtures for Horsham which ensured at least a partial representation of our Under 15s, even if we were under represented, compared with Crawley, Worthing and Haywards Heath.  The final match, which also involved Brighton and the other East Sussex Clubs was held at Lewes and resulted in a very sparse Club attendance, partly explained and excused by the Southern Women’s League match, involving Under 15s, the following day.

Nevertheless there were some satisfying performances. MAX WOODWARD and TOM KILLNER-BROWN, already among the record holders in this new league, both won their specialities.  Max cleared 3.00m in the Pole Vault (compared to his record of 3.16m, done at Horsham in June) and Tom threw 33.19m in the Discus to set a new league record.  RACHEL HARRISON, an emerging talent, won the Shot with 8.09m and JADE BREWSTER only just lost the Pole Vault with a clearance of 2.60m, behind her rival’s 2.80m.  Tom Killner-Brown also had a handy 10.58m in the Shot for third place; he has benefited markedly from this regular competition.

That was the extent of our involvement, earning us forty one points, which was not last place.  By contrast Crawley, Worthing and Brighton battled out the lead in neck and neck fashion, all three accumulating in excess of 330 points.

RAIN DOES NOT DAMPEN THE SUCCESS OF OUR OPEN MEETING

Rain always threatened this fixture, and eventually fell – relatively briefly – around lunchtime, though the weather was much better than expected.  There were as usual a large number of entrants, although I felt there were fewer Blue Star athletes than I would have expected.  Discus and Pole Vault always attract good quality fields at this meeting and on this occasion discus thrower Chris Scott (destined for the Commonwealth Games) with a winning throw of 55.69m and his training partner Simon Cooke (51.76m) did not disappoint.  The Pole Vault, administered with meticulous care by Mick Cole, aided by Rick Pilling from Lewes, produced a number of personal bests, including  an Over 55 women’s European best for Sue Yeomans from Watford (2.86m).  James Mackman’s cleared 3.20m for a new personal best, a height also cleared by Lucy Stickland, while visitors Naomi Lee from Lewes cleared 3.10m and Holly Turner (Brighton) 2.85m.

David Patey had another fine run over 400m (50.1s), while at Under 13 level George Palmer ran 150m in 21.1s and Euan Thomas (22.8s) had a good run in second race. In the Under 11 age group there were good performances from Sam Hughes in the 150m (22.0s) and Zac Massey in the 75m, which he won in 10.9s.

We were lucky to have the help of a number of visiting officials, some of whom arrived totally unexpectedly.  Our reputation for staging efficiently run and athlete friendly meetings was maintained, with the participants in the final field events, which overran, lining up to thank, and shake hands with the officials who had stayed.

WOMEN’S TEAM FIND IT TOUGH GOING AT ETON

Although there were lots of Blue Star vests at Eton on the 7th, most were being worn by our younger and less experienced athletes.  We were hit by many absences, and many of those missing were the more reliable and better athletes we have.

Nevertheless having realised that Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow AC would be superior all along the line, we made determined effort to keep Ipswich and South London Harriers, our other opponents, at bay.  Sadly we had no competitors in two of our customarily strong events - the Pole Vault and the 4x400 metres relay - which proved crucial. 

We started excellently when a talented newcomer ANNA HOPCROFT, from the Hurstpierpoint College teaching staff, was second in the Hammer, with a new Club record throw of  40.05m; we took maximum points in the Under 15 High Jump, with JADE BREWSTER and MEGAN TRANTER both clearing 1.35m to win the ‘A’ and ‘B’ events respectively, and LAUREN MILNTHORPE ran admirably in the 300m Hurdles event (48.8s).  We continued to do well in all the hurdles events with LAURA BROWN  winning the 80m Hurdles (13.1s), REBECCA JENNINGS taking second place in the 100m Hurdles (15.6s) and JADE BREWSTER third in the 75m Hurdles.

We worked hard to ensure that we had two athletes in all the throws and jumps events and picked up valuable points. The Final result showed that we nearly achieved our objective, and we remain firmly in mid table, but two places down. Final match score:
1 Windsor SE&H 195 points, 2 Ipswich 121, 3  South London  118, 4  Horsham  110.

UNDER 17s REPRESENT SUSSEX

On Sunday, August 8th, three Under 17 Club members competed for Sussex at Stevenage.  Holly Webb’s Javelin throw of 35.25m was good enough for second in the ‘A’ competition, while Matt Sansome took third in the Boys ‘B’ Javelin with 37.91m and Jason Wooldridge was fifth (10m24.3s) in the Boys ‘B’ 3000m.

UNDER 13 TEAM FINISH SEASON AS RUNNERS-UP IN WEST DIVISION

Crawley are strong in numbers and talent have been invincible this season.  However, we have established ourselves as regular runners-up to them, thanks to a large regular turnout and the obvious keenness and ability of the likes of Molly Adams, Thomas Tweedy, George Palmer and the Milnthorpe twins.  Everyone who took part has improved markedly as the season progressed, and I feel sure that we will make a good showing on Finals Day at Crawley (September 5th).

Last Thursday, in the final divisional league match,  we had winners in the Girls 150m (Molly Adams 207.s in the ‘A’ race and Florence Webb 22.0s in the ‘B’), the Boys ‘A’ High Jump (Thomas Tweedy – 1.40m): the Girls ‘B’ Shot (Ciara Bonner – 6.59m) and the Girls ‘B’ High Jump (Sara Dedman – 1.15m).

Overall, we finished second with 154 points, behind Crawley (202 pts), but ahead of East Grinstead (120 pts), Haywards Heath (108 pts), Worthing (103 pts) and Chichester (92 pts).

HELEN TAKES SILVER IN HEPTATHLON

HELEN MORTON achieved a second placing in good company in the SEAA Combined Events Championships, an event she won a year or two ago.
Scoring 4627 points (100m Hurdles – 15.15s; High Jump – 1.63m; Shot – 9.35m; 200m – 30.14s; Long Jump – 5.00m;  Javelin – 33.98m; 800m – 2m30.14s).  As usual, with Helen, a highly creditable performance.

UNDER 15 LEAGUE – INCREASE IN NUMBERS BOOSTS TEAM

The third match in the Under 15s League was a distinct advance on the others. The usual male contingent was strengthened by EUAN RAMAGE who won the 800m most impressively in 2m19.3s, and then tried the 400m rather too soon after thisto finish fourth (64.2s).  ETHAN PALMER took the B 800m with a final straight surge (2m25.4s), while BEN COLLIER raced away in the 1500m from his usual opponents (4m54.4s) only to find that Chichester had found a very classy front runner.  WILL THOMAS, combating respiratory problems, finished a gallant fourth in te B race (4m59.4s).  TOM KILLNER-BROWN again won his throwing specialities with personal bests (Shot – 10.36m; Discus – 33.03m: and Javelin (29.63m).  EUAN having departed the other foru combined as a relay team to finish third (57.4s).

The Girls did us proud with CAITLIN WARD excelling in the B 200m (29.8s).  HANNAH CLARK had another Discus victory (22.25m) while a talented newcomer, RACHEL HARRISON, took first place in the Shot (8.37m).  We had so many sprinters that we fielded non scorers.  BETHANY HICKMAN was timed at 14.3s, and EMILY COX 14.1s in the 100m match events, while CAITLIN WARD had a time of 14.5s and NATASHA BARNES 14.8s.  JADE BREWSTER has had a remarkable season as a Pole Vaulter, and combined with NATASHA BARNES to give us maximum points in this event.  EMILY COX participated in the 75m Hurdles (13.4s) and JADE BREWSTER (4.21m) and CAITLIN WARD (3.95m) in the Long Jump , while MAISIE BOAST represented us in the 1500m (5m59.8s).  Finally in the gathering darkness our Relay team (Jade, Hannah, Emily and Bethany) looked like an ever-improving outfit, finishing third in 55.5s.  We can soon start to make a real impact among strong opponents.
MATCH RESULT: Worthing 170 points; Crawley 165; Haywards Heath 141, HORSHAM 89: Chichester 61.

MEN’S TEAM SECURE SIXTH PLACE LEAGUE FINISH WITH SECOND PLACING AT SUTCLIFFE PARK

In their final fixture of the season the Blue Star men’s team finished a close second to Bracknell to maintain their sixth position in the table. Scoring 104 points to Bracknell’s 110 points, with host Club, London AC back in third with 84 points.

David Patey produced an outstanding run in the 400m where he was just edged into second place, but ran a new personal best time of 50.0s, just a tenth of a second outside the longest standing Club record.  David had earlier taken another second place in the 400m hurdles in 63.6s.

James Mackman put in a good performance to win the A string Pole Vault with 2.80m, with Mick Cole winning the B event (1.40m). Joe Waller covered six events winning the Javelin with 54.19m, and taking second places in the A string Long Jump (5.58m), where James Hedges won the B with 5.27m, and the B string Shot (9.24m) and B string Discus (21.15m).

Matt Gue won his main event, the Discus, with an excellent throw of 35.75m having earlier taken second place in the A string Shot with 10.98m, and the A string Hammer with 20.10m,  just beating club mate Gorm Young who threw 19.69m to take second in the B event.

Anthony Bourne and Andy Dunstan teamed up in the 5000m and 3000m Steeplechase and ran well in the humid conditions to come away with double wins. Anthony won the A string 5000m in 16.30.0s, with Andy running 18m30.6s. Anthony easily won the steeplechase, running 10m57.2s with Andy running 13m21.0s to take the B event.

Alex Best won the B string 400m in 53.9s and Karl Johnston took the B string 400m Hurdles in 69.1s. Graham Nelson was a winner in the B string 800m (2m10.1s), where club mate Jason Wooldridge ran a personal best in the A race to finish 3rd in 2m06.3s. Jason took another 3rd placing in the 1500m (4m46.3s) where Ryan Bowyer, in his debut for the team, took second place in the B event in 4m58.3s.

Both relay teams had to settle for second places, with the sprint relay team of Gorm Young, James Hedges, James Mackman and Alex Best running 46.6s and the 4x400m team of Graham Nelson, Alex Best, Jason Wooldridge and David Patey running 3m41.1s.
This has been a good season for what is a young team and the spirit shown by the team promises well for the future.

(Photo's supplied by www.photoremix.co.uk)

SPIRITED FINALE BY YOUNG ATHLETES LEAGUE TEAM

Although several members were unavailable for this final fixture at K2 the team performance was excellent and despite being edged in second place by the host Club Crawley, 550 points to 510 points, we will still maintain our second overall position in the league, a fantastic performance considering we only gained promotion last year. Congratulations and thanks must go, to not only all the athletes who have competed for the team this year, but also to the Team Managers, Kim Milnthorpe and Drew Slater, who have done an outstanding job in getting the teams together.

There were several winning performances, but none showed the team spirit as much as Ryan Bowyer’s winning the U17 1500m Steeplechase in 5m45.6s, his first attempt at the event. Ryan had earlier taken 3rd place in the 400m Hurdles (72.8s) again at his first attempt.  Cadie Willis showed her rivals a clean pair of heels in both the  U17 100m (12.8s) and the 200m (27.3s), before going on to win the High Jump (1.46m), where Lauren Milnthorpe placed second (1.35m), and then anchoring the 4x100m relay team with Melissa Killner-Brown, Lauren Milnthorpe and Laura Brown to a convincing win in 54.0s.

The middle distance events were very productive for points, with Marcus Ramage winning the U13 Boys 1500m (5m13.0s), Euan Ramage and Ethan Palmer having a fine tussle to finish first and second in the U15 Boys 1500m (5m00.8 and 5m01.5s), and Johanna Spannagl, making a welcome return to competition, and Cami Cowan also taking the first two places in the U17 Women 1500m in 5m16.0s and 5m20.3s respectively. Earlier Johanna had teamed up with Rosie Inman in the 3000m, where they finished first and second (11m03.3s and 11m39.3s), and Sam Taylor won the U17 Men’s 3000m in 11m05.0s.

Our Pole Vaulters claimed maximum points, with James Mackman clearing a new personal best of 3.05m to win the U17 Men’s event, Richard Mason took the U15 Boys (2.30m) and Jade Brewster the U15 Girls (2.60m). The U15 Girls High Jump was won by Jade Brewster with a clearance of 1..43m and Thomas Tweedy took the U13 Boys event with 1.35m, with Jack Milnthorpe jumping 1.25m to finish second. In the Long Jump competitions Molly Adams continued her good form by winning the U13 Girls event with 4.33m, and Lauren Milnthorpe and Laura Brown took first two places in the U17 Women’s event jumping 4.22m and 4.01m respectively.

Hannah Clark won the U15 Girls Discus (20.73m) and Melissa Killner-Brown took the U17 Women’s event with 21.78m, and also won the Javelin with 21.28m and the Shot with 7.57m.  Ryan Gue was another winner in the Discus where he threw 36.68m in the U17 Men’s event. Emma Garry took the U13 Girls Shot with 7.33m.

SWELTERING CONDITIONS NOT A HINDRANCE TO THE MEN’S TEAM

The Blue Stars Men’s team travelled to Dartford for their latest Southern Men’s league match.  Meeting the host Club, who topped the league, the team performed excellently finishing just 14 points behind Dartford, scoring 112 points, to the hosts 126, but easily beating the other two Clubs Lewes/Haywards Heath and Cambridge Harriers who scored 48 points and 35 points respectively.

In sweltering conditions there were some excellent performances.  James Hedges, scored a double victory in the sprints, winning first the 100m in 11.9s and then taking the 200m in 24.3s. He was supported in the 100m by James Mackman, who won the B string in 12.2s and in the 200m by Alex Best, who also won the B event in 24.3s.  David Patey cruised to victory in the 400m, running 51.3s, having earlier been edged out in the 400m Hurdles.
Matt Baker competed in his usual numerous events, firstly winning the Pole Vault with a clearance of 3.20m, where James Mackman took the B event with 2.80m.  Matt then took second places in both the High Jump (1.80m) and Javelin (33.29m) and then won the Triple Jump with a personal best jump of 13.12m.

There were many other good performances on the track, although times in the distance events were severely affected by the very hot conditions, with Alistair Smith winning the B string 800m in 2m16.3s, where Graham Nelson took second in the A event in 2m12.4s, Alistair then, with Team Captain Gorm Young, volunteered to take on the arduous 3000m Steeplechase event, where the once a lap water jump provided some cooling relief.  Alistair to his surprise won the event in 12m28.0s  with Gorm taking second place in the B event.  Jason Wooldridge led for much of the 1500m, but just got caught near the finish to gain further valuable points, with Christian Squire winning the B string. In the 5000m Andy Dunstan coped better than some in the heat to take a fine second place in 19m21.5s.

George O’Shea in only his second attempt at the event won the 110m Hurdles (18.8s), after earlier having won the B string Long Jump (5.36m) and taken second in the B string High Jump (1.55m).
In the throws Gareth Lewis made a welcome return to take second place in both the Shot (9.03m) and Discus (25.12m), with Gorm Young taking third in the A string Hammer with a personal best 20.39m.  The B string Javelin saw another second place with Bonizwe McFadden throwing 32.15m.

The two relays saw mixed fortunes for the Club. The 4 x 100m team of Gorm Young, James Hedges, James Mackman and Christian Squire were just edged into second place (47.7s) due to a poor second changeover, but the 4 x400m team of Alex Best, Graham Nelson, Bonizwe McFadden and David Patey more than made up for it with a crushing victory in 3m46.0s, over six seconds ahead of the second team.

This result moves the Club up one place in the table to sixth with just one fixture to come on 31st July, a top four placing is achievable.

SILVER LINING FOR LUCY AT ENGLISH SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Four Blue Stars were selected for the Sussex team that went to the English Schools Athletics Championships at Birmingham and all performed well. Lucy Stickland took a silver medal in the Senior Girls Pole vault with a clearance of 3.35m. Max Woodward just missed out on a medal, finishing in an excellent fourth place in the Junior Boys Pole Vault, but was rewarded with a lifetime best clearance of 3.35m.
In the Intermediate Girls Javelin Holly Webb was another who rose to the occasion throwing a personal best 35.81m which placed her 13th, and Matt Gue finished 11th in the Senior Boys Discus event with a throw, just below his best, of 40.59m.

SUSSEX UNDER 13 COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS AND UNDER 11
“QUADKIDS” COMPETITION 4th JULY at K2, CRAWLEY

This season’s Under 13 Sussex Championships provided a good deal of keen competition and were further enlivened by a “Quadkids” (4 events) multi event for Under11 athletes.

There were some strong athletes taking part from other Clubs, but we took away a reasonable share of medals. Our leading light was JACK MILNTHORPE who was third in the 75m Hurdles (14.4s), 2nd in the Javelin (27.68m), and 2nd in the High Jump (1.40m) – an excellent all round performance – topped off by combining in the relay with MARCUS RAMAGE, THOMAS TWEEDY and GEORGE PALMER achieving second place in 57.6s. GEORGE PALMER took a close second place in 150m (19.9s) and MARCUS RAMAGE came close to a medal in the 1200m (4th in 4m.06s). THOMAS TWEEDY worked hard all afternoon and took 3rd place in the High Jump (1.35m) as well as his relay medal.

In fact the only other Under 13 athlete from the Club to gain medals was our only winner, MOLLY ADAMS, who with a strong finish won the Girls 150m (20.8s) as well as coming second in the Long Jump (4.35m). MEGAN INGRAM tied 4th in the High Jump (1.15m); FLORENCE WEBB was sixth in the Long Jump (3.64m) and HARRIET DAVIS and LUCY MILNTHORPE made the final of the hurdles. The Girls relay team (LUCY MILNTHORPE, FLORENCE WEBB, EMMA GARRY and MOLLY ADAMS) just missed out on a medal.

In the “Quadkids competition, SAM HUGHES was second out of twenty five with 231 points, only 10 points behind the winner, while JAMIE HUGHES’S 214 points earned him sixth place. In the Girls competition, CATRIONA JAMIESON (particularly relishing the “howler” throw) was second with 213 points, with twenty two other girls behind her. AMY FIZTPATRICK was fourth (209 points) and BRONWEN THOMAS fifth (206 points). Lots of others took part with credit.

Also held within these championships was the Under 17 Men’s 3000m, where JASON WOOLDRIDGE came an excellent second (10m15.6s) and RYAN BOWYER a commendable fourth (10m54.6s). EUAN RAMAGE, running in Brighton College colours, was fourth in the equivalent Under 15 Race.

SUSSEX UNDER 15 LEAGUE – MATCH 25th JUNE

This match at Broadbridge Heath completely justified our participation, even though a Southern Women’s League match on the following day, quite properly deprived us of most of our Girls team. Those who attended did well with Hannah Clarke again winning the Discus (23.36m), backed up by Victoria Skinner (17.81m), who also placed 4th in the Shot (6.34m). Bethany Hickman ran two assured races in the 100m & 200m against the best from Worthing and Crawley (two 3rd places in 13.6s and 29.2s).

While Max Woodward was setting a new Club Pole Vault record for his age group with a clearance of 3.16m, Caitlin Ward and Natasha Barnes were earning us maximum points with vaults of 1.90m. I suspect the Boys who do turn up are disappointed that there are so few of them – I certainly am! – but they acquit themselves splendidly. Ben Collier switched to 800m and had a runaway victory in 2m16.2s, and added a 400m in 60.4s shortly afterwards. Ethan Palmer did the same events in 2m25.7s and 63.8s. Will Thomas had a go at 1500m (4th in 5m6.8s) and Javelin (2nd in the B string with 12.77m). One who is benefiting from these Friday night matches is Tom Killner-Brown whose throwing is progressing on all fronts ( shot - 2nd with 10.00m; Discus – 2nd with 29.24m; and Javelin - 3rd with 26.75m). Well done to all loyal participants; there is another “home” match on 23rd July.

TEAM RALLY ROUND TO ACHIEVE A FINE SECOND PLACE

The Blue Star women’s team travelled to Portsmouth for their latest fixture with some trepidation, as several key athletes were unavailable, but an excellent all round team performance saw the team finish easily in second place, scoring 146 points to the winners Radley with 179 points.

The spirit of the team was shown by Lucy Stickland and Jackie Eastland, who both volunteered to compete in the Hammer event. Lucy threw an excellent 21.21m to take second place in the A event, with Jackie taking third place in the B string. Lucy then went on to easily win her main event, the Pole Vault with a clearance of 3.40m, and then took 3rd place in the High Jump with 1.50m.

Lauren Milnthorpe was in outstanding form achieving two personal best performances, firstly taking the Under17 300m Hurdles in 47.9s and then winning the Senior 400m in 61.7s. Also on the track Rebecca Jennings stormed to victory in the 100m Hurdles in 15.6s. Elsewhere in the Field Events there were good wins for Hannah James in the Discus where she threw 33.28m and by Helen Morton in the Shot where she threw 9.26m. Hannah took second place in the B Shot with 7.12m.

The 1500m saw good points for the team with Cami Cowan taking second place in the A string in 5m09.2s and Rosie Inman winning the B event in 5m21.6s. Emily Eastland competed in her usual numerous events taking second places in the 400m Hurdles (74.0s), where Amicia Lee won the B event, and B string 100m Hurdles (20.2s) and Triple Jump (7.97m). In the A string Triple Jump Natalie Burgess leapt 10.64m for second place and took another second place in the 80m Hurdles in 13.1s, where Laura Brown won the B event in 13.2s. Cadie Willis ran well in the 100m and 200m where she took excellent second places in 12.8s and 26.3s respectively.

In the Junior events there were good performances from Nicole Allen, who took second place in the 800m in 2m31.9s, with Isobel Green winning the B event in 2m34.5s. In the 1500m Sophie Dawson achieved another second placing in 5m59.2s with Olivia Marles winning the B event. Emily Cox and Anna Holcombe teamed up in the 75m Hurdles with Emily placing third in the A event in 13.3s and Anna taking second place in the B in 14.3s.

Team Manager Zoe Mckinnon was full of praise for the efforts all members of the team put in to cover the events and produce some excellent performances. This result moves the team up one place in the table to sixth, with the next match at Eton on the 7th August.

RELAY TEAMS BOOST THE YOUNG ATHLETES LEAGUE TEAM

The abiding impression of our away match at Hastings on the 20th June was the success of our relay teams; if we entered a team in the relay race of any age group we tended to win it. This contributed a sizeable proportion of our 477 points, which gave us a creditable second place behind Brighton & Hove’s 544 points, but well ahead of the host Club’s 345. However, these points totals are likely to be revised as several errors were detected, but this will only further improve our standing and secure our second place position in the league table, behind Brighton & Hove.

The Field events provided several good results with the Killner-Brown siblings, Melissa and Tom in good throwing form. Laura Brown (U17W Long jump in 4.59m); Molly Adams (U13G Long Jump in 4.01m); Connor Jeffrey (U17M Long Jump 5.35m); Natalie Burgess (U17W Triple Jump in 10.26m); Jack Barnett (U15B Long Jump in 4.27m) and Florence Webb (U13G Shot with 5.36m) were also all emphatic field event winners.

On the Track James Hedges sprinted well to record a double first (100m in 12.1s and 200m in 24.2s), Ben Collier also had a notable double (U15B 1500m in 4m46.4s and 400m in 60.6s). Others who won on the track were Lucy Milnthorpe (U13G 70m Hurdles in 13.2s); Jack Milnthorpe (U13B 75m Hurdles in 14.6s); Emily Cox (U15G Hurdles in 13.3s); Natalie Burgess (U17W 80m Hurdles in 12.7s); Florence Webb (U13G 800m in 2.46.7s) and Camille Cowan (U17W 1500m in 5m08.5s). Genevieve Pounds and Karl Johnston both contrive to earn big points from otherwise sparsely attended events, which is invaluable.

Pole Vault is another big points earner, although other Clubs are learning to do the same as we do. James Mackman achieved a new personal best of 3.01m in the U17M event. Lower down the placings everyone strove to secure valuable points and maximise our total. Congratulations to the whole team.

ANOTHER FINE PERFORMANCE BY THE UNDER 13 LEAGUE TEAM

The Blue Star Under 13 league team consolidated their second place in the West Division of the league with another fine second placing at Worthing. Although again beaten by the team from Crawley, they secured second place by fifty points from host Club Worthing.
There were many excellent performances, with many athletes achieving personal bests. Lucy Milnthorpe won the Girls High Jump with a personal best clearance of 1.34m and Molly Adams leapt an impressive 4.54m to win the Long Jump, another personal best, where Florence Webb won the B event, jumping 3.53m. Molly also ran well to win the A string 150m in 21.6s and Harriet Davis won the A string Javelin with a throw of 16.96m.
In the Boys events, George Palmer and Oliver Broadley teamed up in the sprint events, with both running well. George took second places in the A string in both the 75m and 150m running 10.7s and 20.9s respectively, with Oliver a convincing winner of both B string races, running 10.9s and 22.0s. there was a good run from Gregor Ramage in the 600m where his time of 1m59.7s was good enough for second place, the same position as Tom Mackman achieved in the B race.
The High Jump saw Thomas Tweedy produce an excellent leap of 1.44m to win the A event with Canice Gonzague taking the B event with a clearance of 1.30m. The Javelin event was another that produced good point for the team with both athletes achieving personal best throws.. Aaron Critchard took second place in the A event with a throw of 29.75m and Jack Milnthorpe easily won the B event with a slightly shorter throw of 28.85m. In the Boys Long Jump Canice Gonzague’s leap of 4.23m was good enough for second place in the A event whilst Alex Basson took the B event with 3.85m.
This was another good all round performance by the team and they look forward to the next league match, which is being held at Broadbridge Heath on 5th August.

BLUE STAR SUCCESS IN SUSSEX SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Athletes are entered for these Championships by their schools and compete for their local educational area, in Horsham’s case, Mid-Sussex. Nevertheless it is possible to see hoe the local Club members have done.

Only Senior athletes (under 19) are allowed to compete in two events, all younger age groups Juniors (under 15) and Intermediates (under 17) are confined to just one. It is unusual for anyone to win two events, but Blue Star member and Brighton College rugby “star” MATT GUE, won both the Senior Boys Shot (12.09m) and Discus (42.20m). His brother RYAN was third in the Inter Boys Discus with 31.44m. MATT BAKER took the Senior Boys Triple Jump with a personal best 13.11m and CAMERON BYGRAVES the Javelin (46.18m) in the same age group. GRAHAM NELSON was runner up in the 800m (2m5.7s) and Horsham’s best Senior Girl result came in the 400m where INDIA PARKER-SMITH finished second in 62.6s.

NATALIE BURGESS was a convincing winner in the Inter Girls 300m Hurdles (47.6s) with LAUREN MILNTHORPE just behind in second place (48.2s). MELISSA KILLNER-BROWN won the Inter Girls Discus (23.65m) and HOLLY WEBB threw well to take the Javelin competition (35.33m). Other good Inter Girls results were second places for CADIE WILLIS in the 300m (43.0s) and ROSIE INMAN in the 3000m (11m46.8s).

ALEX BEST showed fine determination with victory in the Inter Boys 400m (53.5s) and there was gold also for KARL JOHNSTON in the 400m Hurdles (64.7s). The Forest School quartet were second in the 4x100m Relay (47.9s) and JAMES MACKMAN (Pole Vault with 2.85m) and MATT SANSOME (Javelin with 40.95m) gained third place medals.

Our Junior Girls representatives were someone starved of medals, although a personal best throw of 24.25m saw HANNAH CLARK take third place in the Discus and BETHANY HICKAM played a conspicuous part in the “photo-finish” second place for Warden Park School in the relay (54.6s).

As expected MAX WOODWARD triumphed in the Junior Boys Pole Vault with a clearance of 3.05m. He has had a marvellous season so far and is Sussex AA and Southern Counties Champion. TOM KILLNER-BROWN achieved a bronze medal in the Discus (28.60m) to complete another notable family double.

There were many other highly creditable performances outside those which won medals, and the atmosphere of infectious enthusiasm and sustained competitiveness was there throughout a long day in the sun. Those who were successful will, if selected, represent Sussex in the National Schools Championships. We wish them well.

CONVINCING VICTORY FOR SOUTHERN MEN’S LEAGUE TEAM

The Blue Stars Men’s team took full advantage of a home fixture with a convincing win in their latest fixture. Two of the teams in opposition were higher placed in the league before this fixture, but an excellent team performance saw the Blue Stars win the match by a massive 25 points. This result elevates the team four places in the league to seventh. Many of the team produced personal best performances, with Matt Baker leading the way with victory in the Pole Vault with a leap of 3.30m, the High Jump with 1.75m, and the B string Javelin, with a personal best throw of 34.13m, Matt then had another personal best in the Long Jump of 6.30m, but had to settle for second place.

David Patey won the 400m Hurdles in a personal best 60.5s, and then looked majestic in cruising to victory in the flat 400m in 50.9s. Alex Best making a welcome return after injury was equally impressive in taking the B event in 53.8s

There was another double first in the 200m, where the vast improving James Hedges ran a personal best 23.5s to win the A string and James Mackman, having earlier won the B Pole Vault in 2.80m, fought hard to just edge out his nearest opponent to take the B event in a 24.4s, another personal best. Matt Gue making his first appearance for the Senior team, looked impressive in the Shot and Discus events, firstly taking second place in the Shot with 10.74m, and then in his main event launched the Discus to 38.74m to secure victory, with Neil Toms throwing 29.33m to win the B string.

The 5000m saw the welcome return of Anthony Bourne, who has been living in the north, and his time of 16m28.3s secured second place, with Tim Atkin finishing in the same position in the B race. Anthony then went on to easily win the Steeplechase in a personal best 10m56.7s, with Andy Dunstan winning the B event.

The 800m produced good points, with Graham Nelson taking second place in the A event in 2m05.9s and then Jason Wooldridge, another athlete who has improved all season, winning the B race in a personal best 2m09.7s. Another athlete making their debut for the team this season was George O’Shea, who having won the B string High Jump in 1.55m, then went on to take second place in the 110m Hurdles.

The day finished with the two relay events. The sprint relay team of Gorm Young, James Hedges, James Mackman and Christian Squires produced some good changeovers to win in 46.4s. In the 4 x 400m relay the first three runners, Alex Best, Jason Wooldridge and Graham Nelson had held the team in second place, before handing over to David Patey, who stormed past the leader to bring the team home for a decisive victory in 3m41.8s.

The final match result was -1 Horsham 116points, 2 South London 91, 3 Tunbridge Wells & Langton 71, 4 Epsom & Ewell 56. .

Miscellaneous Athletics Activities.

Currently Sussex has a number of very good young Pole Vaulters, thanks to the quality of it's coaches. In the forefront of these are MAX WOODWARD and JADE BREWSTER from our club. Max took Gold in the Southern Counties under-15 championships on May 22 - 23 (3 metres), while jade secured second place with a vault which equalled her P.B. of 2.60 metres, achieved on the previous Friday. Both were excellent performances, and HOLLY WEBB'S fourth place in the under-17 javelin (34.12 metres) was another commendable effort by this most dependable of athletes. At the other end of the spectrum, HELEN MORTON was eleventh in the national combined events Heptathlon, despite (as one report said) "getting on the wrong side of a finicky Shot-putt official". Nevertheless she accumulated 4498 points (15.09; 1.62; 8.16; 27.08; 5.14; 31.02 and 2 mins 29.45 secs).
In our home match in the Southern Men's league, a victory took us into the top half of the table. A team of seventeen athletes, of whom fifteen were from the younger section of the club, undertook everything asked of them with multi-jumper MATT BAKER the main hero. Our 116 points total kept us well ahead in the match of South London Harriers (91); Tunbridge Wells and Langton (71) and Epsom and Ewell (56) our team is looking stronger all the time!

GOOD PERFORMANCE BY UNDER 13 TEAM

The first of this season’s Under 13 matches was held at K2, Crawley and the Blue Star team performed well to take second place behind the host team from Crawley.
There were several good performances with Molly Adams storming to victory in the A string 150m in 21.4s, and Harriet Davis and Tabitha Lee achieving a double win in the Javelin with throws of 17.74m and 13.45m respectively, Harriet had earlier finished second in the B 70m Hurdles event in 15.4s. The Boys Javelin also resulted in good points with Aaron Critchard throwing 27.05m to take second place in the A string and Jack Milnthorpe winning the B event with 27.04m.
Jack Milnthorpe and Max Macrae teamed up in the 75m Hurdles and both finished second, running 14.8s and 18.2s.
Elsewhere in the field, Emma Garry leapt 3.52m to win the B Long Jump, with Molly Adams taking third in the A event with 3.93m, and Lucy Milnthorpe cleared a personal best 1.30m in the High Jump, to be just edged into second place on countback. In the boys High Jump Canice Gonzague and Luke Thorpe both took second places, clearing 1.25m and 1.10m respectively. Canice took another second place in the Long jump with 3.98m where team mate Alex Basson jumped an impressive 4.23m to also finish second. Emma Garry and Caroline Wirth both took second places in the Discus.
The Final events of the evening the two 4x100m relays saw both the Boys and Girls teams finish third.
This was an encouraging start for what is a young team and they look forward to the next match on 16th June at Worthing.
Final team scores: 1 Crawley 223 points, 2 HORSHAM 179, 3 Worthing 142, 4 East Grinstead 107, 5 Haywards Heath 94, 6 Chichester 71.

U15 Athletics League - 28th May 2010 - at Broadbridge Heath

The club took part in the opening match of this league with a small team, but even a tidal-wave of involvement would probably not have overcome Crawley or Worthing. Those who turned up did very creditably and we earned 78 points, but finished in fifth and last place. BETHANY HICKMAN, KATIE FISCHBACHER abd EMILY COX gained good points in the girls sprints and hurdles, while JADE BREWSTER set a personal best for the Pole Vault (2.60 metres) and competed in the hurdles and high jump. She lost stride in the hurdles, to her dismay, but returned to run splendidly in the relay with our two sprinters and HANNAH CLARK, who had earlier won the discus (20.73 metres). Collectively, they did really well to finish second behind Haywards Heath. Others whom we were glad to have in the team, and hope they'll come again, were ANNA HOLCOMBE (sprints & hurdles) and VICTORIA SKINNER (shot and discus).
On the boy's side there were also reasons to be cheerful. RICHARD MASON gained points in the Pole Vault (2.20 metres) but unfortunately wrecked his back; then WILL THOMAS delighted us with an astonishing P.B. (2.26M) when winning the 800 metres. Meanwhile TOM KILNER-BROWN, as expected, was third in the hammer (a personal best of 24.05 metres) but won the shot (9.13 metres) and the discus (26.64 metres). BEN COLLIER ran superbly, winning the 1500 metres (4- 48.1 m) by practically ten seconds, while ETHAN PALMER was second in the B-race (5 - 17.2 m), with a determined "kick" down the finishing straight. Then these four combined as a 4 x 100 metres relay team and recorded a time of 56.8 secs. It was all very praiseworthy.

Southern Women's League - Match 2 - 22nd May 2010

A home match in glorious weather ensured a good turn-out, and the return of ZOE MCKINNAN from America as Mrs. Bowen provided a further boost. One or two absences, however did turn out to have a considerable significance, and we were denied second-place by only three points.
CATRIONA DUNLOP had a good afternoon with two wins (B 100m in 13.9 secs and A triple jump with 10.24 metres) and second place in the B long jump (4.77 metres). Other winners were CADIE WILLIS (B 200m in 26.9 secs and B high jump with 1.45 metres); REBECCA JENNINGS (B 100m hurdles in 15.8 secs); EMILY EASTLAND (B 400m hurdles in 73.6 secs) and HOLLY WEBB (A javelin with 33.59 metres), but our tireless heroine was HELEN MORTON who defied the sun's heat with second in the A 200m (27 secs.); second in the A Shot Putt (9.36 metres); first in the A 100m Hurdles (15.6 secs); first in the A High jump with 1.58 metres and at least one relay leg. This is by no means the full extent of our good performances, and, as league position depends on match points rather than on finishing positions, we will probably be rewarded for all our exertions. On the day, Basildon won with 157 points; Chelmsford had 133 points, Horsham 130 points, sixteen points ahead of a classy but small Wycombe Phoenix team (114 points.)

League Activity

Two age groups from the club had league matches last weekend; the senior men were at Woking in the Southern mens leage while the young athletes league side had a home fixture at Broadbridge Heath.
The men were unlucky to finish last as they were only a point behind Paddock Wood and only five and a half points away from Crawley in second place. East Grinstead, fortified by some all-rounders of renown were clear winners but we were far from disgraced.
The hordes of youngsters who turned up to take part in the Y.A.L. match ensured an emphatic victory, nearly a hundred points ahead of Ashford A.C. and with well over twice as many points as Eastbourne. HOLLY WEBB again showed good form with 34.51 metres in the Javelin, as did RYAN GUE (38.20 metres in the inter boys Discus), JADE BREWSTER (2.40 metres in the U15 girls Pole Vault) and MOLLY ADAMS (21.4 seconds in the U13 girls 150m.)
Mainly though, it was our numbers which caused us to score some points in almost every event. two wins have established us high in the league, but there is tough opposition ahead in our remaining (away!) fixtures.

The County Athletics Championships 8th & 9th May 2010

K2 at Crawley was a happy hunting-ground for the Blue Stars during the County Championships. Ther was a very fulll muster of members attending and an atmosphere of enthusiam and mutual encouragement prevailed, whic the following statistical summary perhaps does not fully indicate.
First place medals were won by REBECCA JENNINGS (SW 400mH in 68.5 secs); HELEN MORTON (SW Long Jump with 5.34 metres); INDIA PARKER-SMITH (JW 400m in 61.6 secs); LUCY STICKLAND (JW Pole Vault with 3.35 metres); LUARA BROWN (U17W 80m Hurdles in 12.7 secs); NATALIE BURGESS (U17 300m hurdles in 48 secs); JADE BREWSTER (U15G 75m hurdles in 12.4 secs); JESSICA VEITCH (U15G Javelin with 28.77 metres); JOE KENT (JM High Jump with 1.95 metres) KARL JOHNSTON (JM 400m hurdels in 66.3 secs) and MAX WOODWARD (U15 Pole Vault with 2.55 metres).
Second place medals went to REBECCA JENNINGS (SW 100m hurdles in 15.6 sec); HELEN MORTON (SW High jump with 1.55 metres); CATRIONA DUNLOP (JW triple jump with 10.09 metres); CADIE WILLIS (U17 100m in 13 seconds; U17W 200m in 26.7 seconds and U17 300m in 43.5 seconds), LAUREN MILNTHORPE (U17W 300m hurdles in 48.5 secs); NATALIE BURGESS (U17W Long jump with 5.17 metres); HOLLY WEBB (U17W Javelin with 33.25 metres); HANNAH CLARK (U15G Discus with 18.94 metres); MATT BAKER (JM Pole Vault with 3.25 metres and JM Triple Jump with 12.70 metres); KARL JOHNSTON (JM 100m H in 16.5 secs); MAX PATTERSON (U15M Javelin with 26.48 metres); MATTHEW GUE - competing for Brighton College - (JM Discus with 39.04 metres) and CAMERON BYGRAVES - competing for HURSTPIERPOINT College - (JM Javelin with 46.54 metres).
Those with third place medals were REBECCA JENNINGS (SW 400m in 64 secs); HANNAH JAMES (SW Discus with 31.68 metres); ROSIE INMAN (U17W 3000m in 11 - 34.5 minutes) NATALIE BURGESS (U17W 80mH in 13 seconds); NICOLE ALLAN (U15 800 metres (race one) in 2 mins 37.1 secs); JADE BREWSTER (U15G pole Vault with 2.45 metres); DAVID PATEY (JM 200m in 23.4 secs, JM 400m Pole Vault 50.7 secs and JM 400m hurdles in 62.6 secs); MATT BAKER (JM Shot with 10.21 metres and JM Discus with 34.52 metres); JAMES HEDGES (U17M 200 metres in 23.7 secs); RYAN GUE (U17 Discus with 33.35 metres) and BYRON CLARK (U15B Discus with 24.17 metres and U15B Javelin with 25.66 metres).
In addition GEORGE PALMER was second and JACK MILNTHORPE third in the Boys Minithon, with MOLLIE ADAMS second in the girls. Two relay teams obtained medals - the under 17 girls team were second in 53 seconds and the under-15 girls third in 56.2 seconds.
This all adds up to 27 medals on the girls side and 21 on the boys - a highly staisfactory achievement with distance running, sprinting, hurdling, throwing, jumping and vaulting all rewarded.

County Road Relays - Christ's Hospital 10th April 2010

There was a very reasonable turn-out of runners from the club at this locally-staged event, and we had modest, but genuine, success. Our under-13 boys (WILLIAM THOMAS - 7th fastest in 6.30 mins: EUAN THOMAS - 7.09 mins and DAN PIGEON -7.16 mins) finished fourth, while our trio of under-15 runners (ALEX BEST - 6.21 mins; BONIZWE MCFADDEN - 5th fastest in 5.56 mins and BEN COLLIER - 6.03 mins) finished an admirable second. Our senior men's team was a mixture of gilded youth and golden oldies, but a finishing position of eleventh was perfectly respectable. Three under-17's ran the first three legs (JASON WOOLRIDGE - 11.35 mins; RYAN BOWYER - 12.37 mins and JAMES HICKMAN - 13.16 mins) ANDY DUNSTAN was our fastest runner (12.03 mins) with CHRIS LEE (14.22 mins) and BILL CRAWLEY (15.40 mins) completing our scoring six.
The girls were there in greater numbers. The under-13 girls had two teams finishing fifth (JADE BREWSTER - 7.26 mins; EMMA EATWELL - 7.57 mins and NICOLE ALLEN - 6.59 mins), while a "B" team (SARAH DEDMAN - 8.23 mins; FLORENCE WEBB - 7.45 mins and TABBY LEE - 8.09 mins) took 10th place. Our under-15 girls gained bronze medals (CAMILE COWAN - 6th fastest in 6.46 mins; TEGAN PAGE - 7.08 mins and MAISIE BOAST - 8.32 mins) as did our senior "A" team - all returning "stars" whom we were delighted to wlecome back. They were beaten by two exceptional teams (the record-breaking Arena-80 trio and a Worthing team which included RACHEL OGDEN!) but SARAH WIGMORE - 12.04 mins and KATE KAYE - 12.20 mins set up JOHANNA SPANNAGL for a final leg which was the fastest under-17's effort (12.05 mins). We had a "B" team in the seniors and two other under-17's (GENEVIEVE POUNDS - 14.48 and ROSIE INMAN - fifth fastest with 13.32 mins) combined with SHEENA BASSETT who completed the course in 15.09 mins for sixteenth place.

CLUBMARK - Improving Your Club

On Friday Evening, the Club was duly presented with its Club-Mark Accreditation at the Sussex Sports awards. This had been obtained because of the painstaking work of IAN CRIBB and the Secretary MICHAEL CARRINGTON.

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Awards presentation evening 2009
Pictures

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