Thursday, May 8th, 2008 (9:15pm)

The Young Athletes League results are now up and can be found here.

Monday, May 5th, 2008 (12:30pm)

A depleted mens team made the long and awkward journey to Parliament Hill Fields for their first match of the 2008 summer season on Saturday. Football and other winter sports deprived us of several athletes and no under 17 athletes were available to reduce the average age of the team. In addition Eddie Vermeer has a back injury which will keep him out of action all year. The teams from St Marys Richmond and London Heathside looked strong with many more athletes than us and the main aim of the afternoon was to pick up enough points to beat Epsom & Ewell who also had a small team. And this meant that too many of our athletes did too many events (but how often do we say that ?)

First places were a bit thin on the ground, although we had early success on the field. Phil Spivey, despite a sore back, through over 50 metres in the hammer for first place. And the long jump brought a B string first place when Tim Medcalf won with the last jump of the competition. He was to repeat this trick later in the afternoon when his last jump brought him an A string triple jump win, with Dan Medcalf winning the B string.

Otherwise it was a question of bringing home points where we could and as usual Graham Taylor led the way here - all four of the throws, pole vault, both hurdles and, most unusually for him, both relays. And against opponents who were 30 years younger than himself. For once however Graham didn't finish with the steeplechase - this was left to Steve Warner who doubled up with the 5000 metres.

We managed to earn enough points to keep ahead of Epsom & Ewell and our full results can be found by clicking on here.

On Sunday the Young Athletes League started with a very busy and hectic double match at Kingston. Again we struggled to get out as many athletes as we would have liked and we ended up fifth out of the 7 teams taking part. Those who took part did well with many taking advantage of the kind weather to produce pbs. Full results are not yet available but we will put them up as soon as we have them later in the week.

Looking ahead to this coming weekend we have the Sussex County Championships at K2 in Crawley on both Saturday and Sunday. We don't have too many members taking part, although we have a number of our members judging.

And before we realise it we will have the next Young Athletes match on May 18th at Crawley.

Monday, April 28th, 2008 (9:30pm)

The summer season has finally started with the first match for the ladies and under 15 girls team. A pleasant warm and sunny day was waiting for us at Kingston, although there was enough of a breeze against the sprinters to make a difference. We had an excellent turn out of 8 junior athletes and 7 seniors (including the welcome appearance of Catherine Shin after a difficult winter with injuries that haven't really responded to any treatment).

With 12 teams in the match there were thoughts that we might not be finished until it was dark - but this didn't turn out to be the case and the field events finished comfortably on time. Track events were held up following a serious injury to an athlete who tripped as she was crossing the track after her race and dislocated her knee. It took the best part of 45 minutes for her to be seen to and no track events could be held while that was happening.

The outstanding East Grinstead performance came in the under 15 girls javelin where Autumn Bowden won with 28.43 metres - just a few centimetres below an English Schools entry standard. She ran in hard and threw the javelin with great purpose.

Otherwise we picked up two first places in the senior triple jump with Laura McGarty 10.48 metres and Tessa Martin a bit disappointed only to jump 9.68 - with Hannah McGarty's 28.72 metres in the hammer a good winning distance. Lots of third and fourth places from lots of athletes - and lots of endeavour and support for each other. And a special word for Amy Hewitt who went well past 4 metres for the first time in the long jump - with a best of 4.29 metres.

Overall we came fourth. St Marys Richmond were clear winners but the next three teams were very close. Full results can be found by clicking on here.

This coming weekend sees the senior mens team in their first match at Parliament Hill on Saturday. Eddie Vermeer is busy contacting athletes.

And on Sunday the Young Athletes go to Kingston for their first match - events for boys and girls in school years 6 up to 11. Team managers Sue Gardner and Jane Clark are giving out details to the athletes.

Sunday, April 20th, 2008 (5:30pm)

Last week's London Marathon saw Colin Day's first attempt at the distance and he got round in a time of just over 3 hours and 43 minutes. Paul Henshaw was our other runner and Paul finished about 23 minutes behind Colin - just under 4 hours and 7 minutes. Well done to both of them - 26 miles and 385 yards is an awfully long way to run.

I've heard a of a couple of personal bests in some open meetings in the last two weeks - Tessa Martin triple-jumped 10.19 metres at Lee Valley and Tom Gardner did a long jump pb at Worthing (5.65 metres I think).

Having told you what has happened in the last couple of weeks we can now look forward - to the start of summer. Summer officially starts next Saturday (April 26th) at 12.15 when the hammer event starts the 2008 Southern Womens League. Our ladies and under 15 girls start their season at Kingston-on-Thames (where the track is next door to Kingstonian Football Club). Jill Ely is busy contacting all athletes. We will have a fairly early start with everybody meeting at Imberhorne School at 10 am. On paper we should have a fairly full team, certainly for the under 15 group. Let's get the season off to a good start with lots of athletes, lots of mums and dads, lots of pbs and lots of warm sunshine. I'm really looking forward to it.

If there are any athletes who were expecting to compete but haven't heard anything by Tuesday evening can they ring Jill on 01342 314323 or Lester Medcalf on 01342 315589.

Looking ahead to the following week - there is a change to the venue for the Young Athletes match on Sunday, May 4th (when all athletes in school years 6 up to 11 are expected to compete). The match was due to be held in Crawley. However it will now be held at Kingston (the same track as this week's ladies match).

The mens match on Saturday, May 3rd is still at Parliament Hill.

Sunday, April 13th, 2008 (7:00pm)

The first ladies and under 15 girls' match is creeping ever closer - Saturday, April 26th at Kingston. Team manager Jill Ely will be talking to you soon with the details of the meeting place etc.

For those who want a warm-up there is an Open Meeting next Sunday (April 20th) at Walton-on-Thames which is normally well-organised and well worth going to. Please talk to Lester Medcalf if you want more details.

Sunday, April 6th, 2008 (7:30pm)

What a difference a couple of days make. Thursday evening saw the warmest training conditions of the year, with lots of athletes able to train in shorts and t-shirts. But come Sunday morning the thick snow put paid to any Imberhorne training at all - though I expect Lance Quirico's road runners bravely made their way through the snow.

A reminder to our younger athletes that, although you are on school holidays over the next couple of weeks, we will still be training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

And thanks to those who have paid their membership fees promptly.

With our summer season not too far away the winter sports are coming to their end. So it was great to see that the town's football club, East Grinstead Town FC, won division 2 of the Sussex County Football League on Saturday afternoon and so gained promotion to division 1 for next winter. And they still have 5 games to play. (Of course the athletic club showed them the way with our senior men's team winning their league last summer !!)