Who would be a Team Manager? For the first time this season everyone that had been expected was present, correctly attired and raring to go at the start of the latest meeting at the palatial Tonbridge School track and field facility on Friday night (2 June). All except the ever reliable Trevor Crysell, who was bound to arrive soon so a full men’s team sheet was submitted. The women’s team sheet took less time, for obvious reasons. Then a rare event occurred – my mobile phone rang! After a frantic search and several missed calls the phone was located in the darkest of recesses in my kit bag, only to discover that Trevor Crysell was unable to make the match due to a crisis on the catering front – his restaurant in Tonbridge was closed until a specially qualified engineer could attend to repair the air extraction system.
Hasty team changes were made and we were under way, with Daniel Grimwood making a promising debut as a stand-in high jumper before his non-scoring 800m. Then the phone rang again – Trevor Crysell was five minutes away having fitted a new fuse and cancelled the specialist! More team changes and just like Trevor’s air conditioning and restuarant, we were all reset and now cooking with gas!
We welcomed Wayne Balmer back to the more refined sport of athletics, having finished the football season. He won the M35 javelin (36.15) but we shared the points with Tonbridge. I have raised a query with the results team as there should always be a winner unless all throws were identical – an unlikely scenario. We had a full sprints team and no indiscretions with the baton in the relay – best result was Mark Woods’ second M50 100m (13.1). Trevor Simms, an adrenalin-fuelled Trevor Crysell and M60 Les Percival (3rd, 14.9) were our other speedsters in action.
Wayne, Yann le Roux and Alan Newman (M60) got little change from top quality 800m races. Sam Parrett made his team debut in the shot and the best field result was Les Percival’s second M60 shot (8.42). Special mention here for Dave Perman, present as reserve for just about anything but helping out some hard pressed officials with the high jump. We also had Barry and Miriam Dorrity adding their expertise to the track judging and timekeeping and Mike Duffin managing four consecutive javelin competitions without a break – not a bad effort considering we had no allocated officials duties! We seem to have secured an immediate return to Div 2 for next season for the men.
With Jan Duffin taking four points in the W60 javelin, our women’s team finished second with 30 points to Bromley Veterans, six points ahead of Ashford on the night. The match result reflected the league positions as only three teams appear to be competing this season. Liz Duffin won the W35 javelin (22.09) and Julie Woods took maximum points in the W50 javelin (9.63) for the best individual results.
The next match is at Central Park, Dartford (DA1 1JP) on Monday, 19 June 2017, starting at 6:45pm.
