Monday, June 29th, 2009 (8:30pm)

Southern Womens League (June 27th)

A hot sunny day for our home match at Horsham. A big vote of thanks to our many mums and dads who helped out to make sure that the event ran smoothly - especially those responsible for making sure the hurdles were in the right place at the right time.

We knew before the match that we were missing a few athletes - both seniors and some of our under 13 athletes - but it was disappointing that some under 15s simply didn't arrive - with no phone call to the team manager Jill Ely beforehand to explain.

But as always those athletes that were there worked hard, made a lot of noise and produced a number of good performances - which all went to our gaining another first place in the league. A special mention of Abby Beswick. Abby is 11 years old, only came training for the first time on Tuesday and 30 minutes after arriving for her first match found herself stepping into the under 15 shot putt - where she threw a very respectable 5.61 metres. Later she won the B string 100 metres and looked very impressive in the non-scoring long jump.

We had Jo Lister available for the first time for the seniors and that helped to fill in some of the senior gaps - and a couple of mums helped out in the throws. In the absence of our normal triple jumpers Janice Watts rolled back the years to win the B string with 8.68 metres - I don't think Janice minds if you know that she is past 50 years old. I think that this distance will rank very high in the UK rankings.

Among the under 15s Amy Hewitt again produced a series of wins, but all the juniors did well and came away with a series of good results.

Our results can be found here.

The ladies next match is on Saturday, July 25th when we go to Uxbridge.

Looking ahead

This coming Sunday sees the Sussex Under 13 (and veterans) championships at Withdean Stadium in Brighton. We are past the date to enter but I understand we will have 2 or 3 athletes competing.

Alf Smart is busy distributing notes about our own club championships to be held on Thursday, July 9th and Tuesday, July 14th at Imberhorne School. There will be events for under 13 girls and boys and also for under 15 girls.

Saturday, June 27th, 2009 (2:30pm)

We've had a bit of a problem updating the website over the last couple of weeks, but we are back to normal now

County Schools Championships (June 13th)

We had a smaller number of athletes than normal competing in this year's County Schools' Championships and can therefore be pleased with the result obtained by our members.

The Sussex Championships at Crawley saw two first places. Tom Gardner came first in the senior boys (i.e. school years 12 and 13) high jump. The qualifying height for the English Schools Championships (to be held in July in Sheffield) is 1.96 metres. Tom cleared this height two or three times in the indoor season but had not done it so far during this summer season. However he safely cleared 1.96 metres and was close to 2 metres - and this was enough for first place.

The other first place came in the senior girls triple jump from Catherine Shin. Her best jump came in the very last round with 10.69 metres, although she had also jumped 10.65 and 10.66 in earlier rounds. She also came fourth in the shot.

A second place went to Amy Hewitt in the under 15 girls 200 metres. She won her heat very comfortably in 28.1 seconds. In the final which was run into a breeze she was just a yard or two down on the eventual winner with a time of 27.3 seconds.

And we had three third places. Tessa Martin went over 10 metres for the first time this year in the under 17 triple jump and her best of 10.09 metres gave her the third place. Tom Gardner added to his high jump gold medal with a third place in long jump with a best of 5.81 metres. The other third place came in the Surrey Championships held at Kingston where Drew King threw 39.03 metres in the under 17 boys discus.

Sussex Under 13 League (July 17th)

We had more girls for this second match of the Under 13 league but we only had three boys available. But we still found it hard to secure any good results down on the coast in Worthing. Indeed we only had one first place on the night - and that was a bit of a surprise when Chloe Hollamby won the B string javelin. Emily Deville had two good A string second places - in the javelin and over 6 metres in the shot. It was also good to see Alex Hewett, Emma Cook and James Telfer competing for the first time.

Our results can be found by clicking on here.

Young Athletes League (July 21st)

For some of us it was a quick return trip to Worthing for last Sunday's Young Athletes League match. We had the added excitement of navigating the London to Brighton bike race, and this made a few of our athletes a bit late.

The Young Athletes league is always too busy to easily summarise what happened without the full results (which we don't yet have). This match was Tessa Martin's last match as she becomes an under 20 next year and she is not available for the last match of the season. She marked it in the best way with 2 personal bests - in the sprint hurdles and in the triple jump. We'll put the full results up as soon as we can.

Looking ahead

The ladies and under 15 girls team are in league action today for our home match at Horsham. We won the first two matches quite comfortably (in what is, admittedly, a not very demanding league) but are already missing a number of athletes for this third match.

Monday, June 8th, 2009 (8:45pm)

Southern Men's League (June 6th)

Off to Broadbridge Heath for our home match against Tunbridge Wells, Serpentine and Queens Park Harriers. It was raining off and on when we were getting things ready, but the match itself was held in dry conditions.

We were one or two athletes short, but we did have three under 17s and Simon Moore was able to compete on the track for the first time for a while - and there was a better balance to the team. However our throwers were a bit special. Phil Spivey and Eddie Vermeer gained three double firsts - firstly in the shot, then the hammer and at the end of the day in the discus. All of Phil's performances beat his previous best while competing for us with 56.08 metres in the hammer being a bit special. The fourth throw - the javelin - bought us two second places.

On the track Dan Medcalf won both the sprints (to go with two seconds in the long and triple jumps) and Ben Ivorson, without having to save something for the 5000 metres, got two good seconds in the 800 and 1500 metres. Andrew Clark earned two B string second places.

Anyway you can go to our results by clicking here to find that we finished second.

The team now have a break of 5 weeks before their next match - Saturday, July 11th at Kingston.

Young Athletes League (May 31st)

Results are available here.

Looking ahead

This coming Saturday, June 13th the Sussex County Schools Championships will be held at Crawley. For reasons which are not entirely clear pupils from Sackville and Imberhorne Schools did not go to the trials for the West Sussex North area. And at the time of writing we aren't entirely sure if any of our athletes from those schools will be competing next Saturday. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they can be fitted in somewhere. (A number of our officials will be involved.)

The week following the Under 13 team have their second match on Wednesday, June 17th at Worthing. Janet Hollamby is busy contacting you.

Special Hurdles Training - Sunday, June 14th

During May we had a very successful visit from Charles Fogg, a javelin coach. This coming Sunday we are having a visit from another flying coach - this time Paul McKeown will be running two hurdling sessions next Sunday, June 14th at Imberhorne School. For ladies from 10.30 to 11.30 and then for men from 11.30 to 12.30.

Alf Smart has written to you all about this event. If you are at all interested in knowing a bit more about hurdling then turn up next Sunday morning.

Monday, June 1st, 2009 (8:00pm)

Southern Women's League (May 30th)

Down to Canterbury for the second match of the season. While we had lots of bright sunshine there was quite a breeze in that part of that world - a breeze which seemed to be strong for most of the long jumpers. Unfortunately the long-jumpers were jumping into the wind (although the triple jumpers had the breeze at their back). A bit disappointing that we only had 6 juniors but they all performed well. Emily de Ville and Gemma Francis - who are both under 13s - made their first appearance in the league.

Amy Hewitt again performed well in the under 15 section with 3 A string wins in the long jump, hurdles and 200 metres. Sarah Rusling put her long jump PB up to 4.30 metres and found herself the only runner in the 1500 metres. Izzy Turnbull ran a strong positive race to win the 800 metres in a new PB and Chloe Hollamby went under 30 seconds for the first time in the 200 metres.

Among the seniors the highlight was Catherine Shin's 10.73 metres to win the A string triple jump - 41 centimetres better than her previous best. Laura McGarty "only" jumped 10.65 for the B string - unfortunately she hurt her ankle during the event. Earlier Laura and Tessa Martin had picked up two first places in the long jump. Jo Wykes jumped a good 1.48 metres with Tessa on 1.40 for a double first in the high jump.

Janice Watts earned wins in the pole vault and the B string 200 metres and the other senior athletes - Paris de Cambre, Biba Chuta and Hannah McGarty - kept the points coming. You can find all of our results by clicking here - you will see that we were again comfortable winners of the match, as we were in the first match. The team's next match is on Saturday, June 27th at Broadbridge Heath (it will be our home match). We already know that we will be without three senior athletes for that match - so if we can find one or two other senior athletes for that match, that would be great.

Young Athletes League (May 31st)

There were a number of excellent performances in today's match at Broadbridge Heath from our rather small team. But as I haven't got all the results yet I will wait until I write in more detail about the match.

Looking ahead

This coming Saturday, June 6th the Senior Mens team have their third match of the season. It will be our home match at Broadbridge Heath. We will be competing against Tunbridge Wells (who will probably be the strongest team in our match), Queens Park Harriers and Serpentine.

Monday, May 25th, 2009 (8:30pm)

We now have the full results from last Saturday's Mens match at Croydon and you can find how our own athletes did by clicking here. We did finish last in the match and will be looking to do much better in our next match on June 6th at Horsham. This will be our home match.

Last Thursday (May 21st) saw the first Sussex Under 13 league fixture of the season and unfortunately most of the East Grinstead schools seem to have arranged events for that day and evening. So we were very very short of athletes but the four boys and four girls never gave up and were able to end the day with runs in the relay. Our results can be found here. The team will have their second match on Wednesday, June 16th and we will hope that the local schools have run out of things for their pupils to do on that evening.

Looking ahead

Our ladies and under 15 girls team go to Canterbury this coming Saturday (May 30th) for their second match of the season. After a clear win in the first match we will hope for another good performance. The team will meet at Imberhorne School by 9.45.

The following day (Sunday, May 31st) the Young Athletes team - for boys and girls in school years 6 up to 11 - also have their second match of the season. The match will be held at the Broadbridge Heath track in Horsham.

Sunday, May 17th, 2009 (8:30pm)

Southern Mens League (May 16th)

A blustery, but thankfully dry, afternoon at the Croydon track saw the mens team competing in their second league match of the season. It was going to be a tough match with South London Harriers and Crawley likely to be much stronger than ourselves. It was really a question of whether we would be able to beat the combined Holland Sports/Redhill team for third place. And, at the time of writing these notes, we don't know the final results - indeed results of the events were slow to come out all afternoon and at the moment I can't give you too many details. STOP PRESS We now know we were last in the match. Crawley won with 107 points, South London 91, Holland/Redhill 73, and ourselves 71.

Again we were very short of athletes and I found it all a rather depressing afternoon as our athletes had to do too many events. It was good to see Wilem Fields-Jewell making his first appearance in the mens team and he will have been rewarded with a couple of personal bests in his races. But our other under 17 athletes seem to be very reluctant to compete. And, apart from Ben Ivorson, we had no road-runners at all to help out with the longer events.

The hammer throw bought us early success with a double first for Phil Spivey and Eddie Vermeer and Tom Gardner also won the high jump. The high jump started at 2pm and Tom's first jump came 90 minutes later - but the wait and the uncomfortable wind didn't really help Tom who would have liked to jump closer to 2 metres.

Otherwise it seemed to be a question of third places at best as our athletes did their best. And as I have already said I don't actually know how the match ended, and I will update things later in the week.

But some good news …..

But I did have some much more cheerful news when I got home from the mens match. A phone call from Laura McGarty about her performances in the Cambridge v Oxford match. Competing in the second team match she won both the long and triple jumps with 4.93 metres and 10.71 metres - both of these were within 2 centimetres of her best. Let's hope the club's next female 5 metres long jump is not far away.

Young Athletes League (May 3rd)

After a bit of a delay we now have the results from the first Young Athletes league match. Click here to find them.

Looking ahead

This coming Thursday (May 21st) the Sussex Under 13 league starts - with the first match at Broadbridge Heath. Janet Hollamby has been busy contacting our athletes and we are hopeful that reasonable numbers will be there. We will be missing some of our girls because of a school trip to France. If any under 13 athletes haven't been contacted then please get in touch with Janet on janethollamby@aol.com.

There are no league matches next weekend. For those looking for some competition there is an Open Meeting this Wednesday (May 20th) at Crawley.

As we have half-term coming up the week after next a reminder that at the end of the half-term week we have a ladies and under 15 girls match on May 30th at Canterbury with Young Athletes the next day on May 31st at Horsham. If you are going away for a holiday break during half-term it would be great if you could arrange to be back in time for those matches.

Sunday, May 10th, 2009 (9:45pm)

County Championship News (May 9th and 10th)

Well done to all our athletes who competed in this weekend's County Championships. At Crawley in the Sussex Championships we picked up 4 medals on the first day and one on the second day. On Saturday Phil Spivey got things off to a good start with a series of hammer throws over 51 metres and his best of 53.65 metres won him the gold medal in the senior mens event. He was soon followed by a silver medal for Colin King in the over 40 pole vault. Colin picked up a back injury at least week's mens match and this hadn't properly healed. Nevertheless he cleared 3.00 metres for his second place.

Two of our triple jumpers picked up medals as well. Catherine Shin advanced her personal best by a few more centimetres with a jump of 10.32 metres to come second in the under 20 event. Tessa Martin finished up just short of 10 metres again with a best of 9.95 metres - this gave her third place in the under 17 triple jump.

Because of a gymnastic competition Amy Hewitt was limited to the under 15 girls 100 metres. She ran 13.7 seconds in her heat which took her into the final where she came fifth in 13.8 seconds. Chloe Hollamby completed the Saturday Sussex performances by taking part in the minithon - 3.12 metres in the long jump was followed by an 11.98 metres discus throw with 22.6 seconds in the 150 metres to complete her afternoon.

The Sunday medal was earned by Tom Gardner in the under 20 mens high jump, when he jumped 1.90 metres. Also on Sunday Tessa Martin's 4.78 metres didn't earn her a long jump medal, although her 5th and 6th round jumps (both no jumps) looked better.

As well as our athletes competing we were also well represented by our officials. John Rogers was field referee for the jumps on Saturday. In addition Lester Medcalf and Malcolm Green were on field event duty and Jenny Medcalf and Stella Gamble were there with their stop watches as timekeepers.

In Cambridge Laura McGarty guested in the Cambridgeshire championships. In the 100 metres for senior ladies her time of 14.0 seconds gave her a surprise third place. Her triple jump of 10.58 metres went one better as it gave her a second place.

Sarah and Daniel Rusling both competed at the Surrey Championships at Kingston - but I don't have their results as yet.

Looking ahead

The senior mens team are quickly back in action when they go to Croydon this coming Saturday (May 16th) for their second match of the season. This match looks to be rather more difficult than the first match against teams from South London Harriers (the home club), Crawley and Holland Sports.

The week after sees the first Sussex Under 13 league match on Thursday, May 21st at the Broadbridge Heath track. Team manager Janet Hollamby will be giving you details over the next few days. All under 13 athletes are expected to go to the match.

Monday, May 4th, 2009 (8:45pm)

Southern Men's League at Bromley (Saturday, May 2nd)

A warm and sunny day at Bromley for the men's first match and the usual anxiety about the number of athletes that couldn't make it. A disappointment that none of our younger athletes were available and that Lance Quirico was the only distance runner. But we didn't seem to be alone in being short of numbers as the Horsham and Eastbourne teams looked to be worse off then us. The host club of Blackheath & Bromley team seemed to be relatively light, but their quality was much above everybody else.

We started the match with our usual excellent hammer performances - Phil Spivey and Eddie Vermeer (back throwing after 2008's back injury prevented him from competing at all) earning two first places. The same pairing also earned good points in the shot and discus. The jumps weren't quite as productive as they normally are, and for the first time that I can remember we only had one triple-jumper (where Dan Medcalf was beaten by one centimetre by the last jump of the competition).

On the track the shorter events brought us lots of seconds, together with a few thirds (with Tim Ivorson first in the B string 400 metres), but the two longest races bought us very unexpected A string second places through Lance Quirico in the 5,000 metres and Graham Taylor in the steeplechase.

Our man of the match award went to James Crittell who had his usual hard session on the track as well as re-discovering the high jump. When James joined us many years ago it was as a high jumper.

If you click here you can find our own results, which show that we finished in second place out of the four teams - a good result for us. We were clear enough of the teams below us not to have to push 4 tired bodies round the track in the 4 x 400 relay at the end of the day.

Looking ahead

We have our special javelin session this coming Tuesday (May 5th) for both juniors and seniors. Then next weekend (May 9th and 10th) we have athletes competing in the Sussex County Championships at Crawley and the Surrey Championships at Kingston. We wish them well. A number of officials will also be in action at the Sussex Championships.

The following week (May 16th) the men's team are back in action, this time in Croydon.

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 (10:30am)

JAVELIN COACHING - SPECIAL TRAINING SESSION ON TUESDAY, MAY 5th

Although we have a few more regular coaches available to us now the committee have decided that we should augment our own coaching resources with "Flying Coaches".

Flying coaches are fully qualified coaches who visit clubs to supplement the existing club coaches, and provide expertise where it is perhaps a bit thin on the ground.

The first visit is next Tuesday, May 5th by Charles Fogg, who specialises in throws. We have asked him to come and provide sessions in javelin. He will provide two sessions, one for the juniors from about 7.15 and one for the seniors from 8 o'clock. The junior athletes are spending time on each event over these early weeks of the season and this will be one of their javelin sessions.

We are looking for a number of our senior athletes (and coaches) to take part in the 8pm session, whether they are javelin throwers or not. We therefore hope that a good number of our senior athletes will look to take part with the aim of learning something new, improving their existing performance or just being a good club member who supports what the club attempts to achieve.

Any queries about these sessions should be addressed to our active Coaching Co-ordinator Alf Smart.

New contact details for Eddie Vermeer

The manager of our senior men's team, Eddie Vermeer, has a new mobile phone number. If you need to get in touch with him about the Southern Men's League matches, he can now be ofund on 07711 225009.

Sunday, April 26th, 2009 (6:45pm)

Southern Women's League at Wimbledon

The morning rain had disappeared by the time we set out for the trip to Wimbledon for the first ladies match of the season. One or two people found the track difficult to find, but eventually we all arrived. It was a pleasant surprise to find an extra couple of under 15 athletes who turned up unexpectedly.

We seemed to have more athletes than the other teams and this was how it turned out. We also seemed the have the noisiest athletes, judging by the shouting and cheering that went on when our athletes were performing !!

Full results can be found by clicking on here and if you do that now you will see that we had lots of first places and that we won the match quite comfortably. Among the seniors Catherine Shin's hat-trick of wins included a one centimetre improvement in her Triple Jump pb. Jo Wykes also set a new pb in the sprint hurdles and she will be looking to go under 20 seconds soon and Hannah McGarty's hammer throwing looked good as well.

Sarah Killick-Bird, now an under 17, looked very comfortable in the under 17 300 metres hurdles and, at the end of the day, ran her first 400 metres in the long relay.

Among the under 15s Amy Hewitt's excellent 4.64 metres long jump stood out, as well as a very strong run in the 200 metres. Sarah Rusling has now passed twin brother Daniel's long jump best. And it was good to see Laura Goldin competing for the first time. The under 13s were well represented by Chloe Hollamby (including a first try at the discus) and Eleanor Killick-Bird.

But well done to everyone who came along and ran, jumped and threw - and cheered on all our athletes. We do it all again on Saturday, May 30th in a very different part of the world - Canterbury.

Looking ahead

The senior men's team start their league season this coming Saturday (May 2nd). We go to Bromley for a match against Bromley & Blackheath, Horsham and Eastbourne. Team manager Eddie Vermeer will be giving team members details during the week. It will be good to see Eddie back throwing all sorts of different implements after his back problems last year.

And on Sunday (May 3rd) the Young Athletes go to Crawley for their first match. Jane Clark will be talking to you all. Just a reminder that this league is for school years 6 up to 11. If Jane hasn't been able to talk to you then give her a ring on 01342 325038.

Sunday, April 19th, 2009 (12:15pm)

It's official - summer starts this Saturday

We're almost ready to start another summer of athletics competition with the ladies and under 15 girls team in action at the Wimbledon Park track this coming Saturday. We've asked if we can have some warm sunshine laid on for this match. Team manager Jill Ely has been busy contacting you all and we will meet at Imberhorne School at 10 am.

As always a good turn-out of athletes is important and we do expect all our members to compete regularly. If you do not compete regularly then we may well not allow you to renew your membership next year. We know that school and university exams will get in the way for some of you, and there may be other family commitments from time to time. But we want you to compete regularly.

Our other teams start over the first weekend in May. The senior men start on Saturday, May 2nd in Bromley. The following day, Sunday, May 3rd, the Young Athletes have their first match at Crawley.

Monday, April 13th, 2009 (6:00pm)

Easter Open Meetings

A couple of local Open meetings saw a number of personal bests from our athletes. Chloe Hollamby (under 13) had an extremely busy weekend. After playing football on Sunday morning she went to the Crawley Open on Sunday afternoon to set new bests in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 800 metres - a night's rest and she was off to Tonbridge to set new bests in the 150 metres and 600 metres. Gemma Francis, another under 13, also did well at Tonbridge in the long jump and discus.

Among our older athletes at Tonbridge Jo Wykes set a personal best in the 100 metres hurdles (20.34 seconds) and Catherine Shin improved her previous best triple jump by 3 centimetres with 10.25 metres. Tessa Martin and Hannah McGarty also started the season with some solid performances at Tonbridge.

Looking ahead - Summer's nearly here

We are now very close to the first league matches of the season. The ladies and under 15 girls team have their first match on Saturday, April 25th in Wimbledon. Team manager Jill Ely will be contacting you over the next few days. We plan to meet at Imberhorne School by 10am for the journey up to Wimbledon. The track is not far from the world-famous tennis courts.

The senior men start the following Saturday, May 2nd with a match in Bromley. The following day, Sunday, May 3rd, the Young Athletes have their first match with the short trip to Crawley. Just a reminder that all athletes in years 6 up to year 11 are eligible to compete in the Young Athletes League and we expect you all to do so. Team Manager Jane Clark will give you more details nearer the match.

Sunday, April 5th, 2009 (12:15pm)

Although the schools will soon be on their Easter holidays we will continue training on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings throughout the school holidays.

Open Meetings

There are a couple of local Open Meetings over this coming Easter weekend. On Sunday there will be a meeting at Crawley with the first event at 11.45.

On Easter Monday the Tonbridge Open starts a little earlier with their first event at 10.30.

A reminder about your Membership Fees

A reminder that it is now time to renew your membership. Bring your money along on one of the training nights. If you aren't exactly sure how much your fees are then ask Jenny Medcalf when you arrive for training.