Sunday, November 29th, 2009 (4:45pm)

The Sussex Cross-Country League match at Plumpton saw a wet course, although one that was not quite as muddy as had been feared. The senior men were able to field two teams of 4 athletes each. Tony Crossley was our first runner home in 60th place (36 minutes and 55 seconds) with Ben Ivorson 69th (37:45) just ahead of Simon Moore in 72nd place (38:01). Lance Quirico was the fourth runner in the A team in 99th place (40:27). The B team's runners were Steve Warner (123rd), Tim Best (124th), Graham Taylor (132nd) and Tim Ivorson (135th).

In earlier races Gemma Francis was 22nd and Chloe Hollamby 31st in the under 13 girls race, while Izzy Turnbull was 13th in the under 15 girls race.

Earlier in the week I was able to attend a Sportshall indoor athletics match at Sackville School between 5 of the local primary schools. This was organised by Jake Endersby from Sackville School and some of our own members who go to Sackville School were there to help the primary school children. It was a fantastic 90 minutes as the primary school children took part in a number of relay races, and then in a range of field events designed for an indoor sports hall. The noise coming from the children as they cheered on their team-mates bounced round the hall. The enthusiasm that was shown was hugely encouraging - how as a club could we harness that enthusiasm ??

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 (9:00pm)

This coming Saturday, November 28th sees the second round of matches in this year's Sussex Cross-Country League. This fixture takes place at Plumpton and is normally a rather muddy course - after all the recent rain another muddy afternoon looks likely. Further information about this match is available from Lance Quirico for the senior mens team and Alf Smart for the other age-groups.

We are having to put a temporary hold on new athletes joining our junior group for Thursday training as the numbers currently attending are as many as we are able to handle. We will put any new prospective new athletes from school years 6, 7 or 8 onto a waiting list - and will contact them when space becomes available.

Monday, November 16th, 2009 (8:30pm)

Last Thursday saw the first bad weather of this year's winter training when we had a wild wet and windy night at Imberhorne School. Nevertheless we had 20 junior athletes and15 older athletes turn up for the sessions in which everybody got soaking wet. Let's hope we all got a nice hot bath when we got home.

In contrast to the above (and the continued bad weather on both Friday and Saturday) the Sunday morning groups at East Court had some warm sunshine to train in - and there were 11 athletes in Alf Smart and Malcolm Green's group.

Looking ahead

This coming Friday, November 20th sees the under 13 athletes from the summer of 2009 (and some of the under 15 athletes) getting together for an end-of-season celebration. Details available from Janet Hollamby.

Monday, November 9th, 2009 (8:00pm)

Six of the club's road runners took part in the Reigate Priory Cross Country Relay yesterday on a glorious sunny autumn day and finishing in 27th place. This is the first time in many years that we have been able to field a team. The runners were Simon Moore (16 minutes and 40 seconds), Dan Thomas (21:08), Tim Best (19:23), Lance Quirico (18:07), Steve Warner (20:15) and Tony Crossley (17:02) - making a total time of 1 hour, 52 minutes and 35 seconds.

So well done to them and let's hope for similar numbers at the next Sussex Cross-Country league match at the end of November.

Sunday, November 1st, 2009 (7:00pm)

I'm writing this just after coming back from this morning's training session at East Court - pouring with rain and horribly windy. While I sat in the car 6 of our younger athletes - Hannah and Ellie Peadon, Izzy and Michael Turnbull, Amy Hewitt and Sarah Killick-Bird - together with Izzy and Michael's mum and dad went for a 30 minute run through the East Court woods. They all arrived back with a healthy glow and very wet feet. Well done to all of them - and when you produce some personal bests next summer you will be able to look back on today as one of the main reasons.

While we expected last week's half-term school holidays to have an effect on the numbers at Imberhorne School for Thursday's training we were surprised at how many of you couldn't be there. Maybe you assumed we wouldn't be training…… well we were.

Sunday, October 25th, 2009 (8:00pm)

The first of this season's Brooks Sussex Cross-Country league matches took place on Saturday at Goodwood on the South Downs. The races for the young athletes took place in a very heavy mist - so thick was that a Land Rover with all its lights on had to drive round in front of the runners to show them where to go. By the time the adult athletes were running the mist had disappeared and so the older athletes were able to run in reasonable conditions.

We don't have the full results yet. We had Gemma Francis in the under 13 girls race, Michael Turnbull in the under 13 boys race while Izzy Turnbull and Charlotte Bidgway ran in the under 15 girls race. In the very difficult conditions all four athletes finished their races and are to be congratulated on doing so - especially for Charlotte who ran for us for the first time. The other three junior athletes competed for us regularly through the summer.

The senior men found themselves well down on numbers. In the last match last winter we had 8 athletes. But for a variety of reasons we were only able to field three athletes - Tim Best, Tim Ivorson and Graham Taylor.

Looking ahead

Many of you will be on half-term holidays this week (and some of you may be on holiday). However training continues as normal with weight training on Tuesday, Imberhorne School on Thursday and East Court on Sunday morning.

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 (7:00pm)

Our road-runners have been busy over the last few weeks as they prepare for the winter season ahead. So far conditions have been good, but we know that rougher conditions lie ahead in the coming months.

The Lewes Downland 10 mile race saw 5 of our athletes taking part. Tony Crossley was our first runner to finish in 68 minutes and 58 seconds - first vet 55 and 30th overall. Lance Quirico next in 74 minutes and 17 seconds for 70th place with Tim Best in just over 86 minutes. Steve Warner, back racing after breaking his shoulder, was round in 89 minutes and Graham Taylor completed the squad with a time of 97 minutes.

Dan Thomas made his first appearance in club colours in the London Royal Parks Half Marathon - a race taking the runners through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, St James Park and Green Park. Dan set a new personal best of 1 hour and 53 minutes.

More locally the Forest Row 10 kilometres race saw Lance Quirico in fourth place with Colin Day close behind in sixth place (with a new pb of 41 minutes and 52 seconds). Tim Best was 16th in just under 47 minutes.

Looking ahead

This coming Saturday the Brooks Sussex Cross-Country League starts with the first match at Goodwood. The senior men will be well represented, we hope, and Alf Smart will be encouraging younger athletes to take part.

Sunday, October 11th, 2009 (7:20pm)

2009 Primary Schools Cross Country Races

Another hugely successful and enjoyable afternoon at East Court for this year's East Grinstead Primary Schools Cross-Country Championships with students from Sackville and Imberhorne Schools helping the club to make the afternoon run smoothly. Cloud and occasional very light rain meant that it wasn't as warm as we have had in many of the recent years - and probably made for better running conditions for the athletes.

The full results can be found here and you will see that it was again Notre Dame who came out on top in both the boys and girls races. So very well done to them. Two of our own athletes earned fourth places - Dannique Duggan in the girls race running for Lingfield School, and Peter Jenkins in the boys race running for St Marys.

And a big vote of thanks to our own members who made everything happen as well as it did.

Sunday, October 4th, 2009 (6:15pm)

This coming Sunday, October 11th sees us again organising the East Grinstead Primary Schools Cross-Country championships at East Court. The girls race is at 2pm with the boys starting half an hour later at 2.30.

We need help throughout the day, starting at 10 am when we begin to mark out the course. Then the athletes will start to arrive shortly after 1 o'clock and we need helpers to make sure the athletes have got their numbers and are ready for their races. And a number of marshals need to be in place round the course to make sure the runners know where they have to go.

This is always a great afternoon and let's hope the weather is on our side again. We will aim to get the full results on the website by 8pm next Sunday. We have over 130 entrants in both races.

Before the 2009 summer season disappears some late action from Exeter where Ryan Spivey included two big personal bests in a late season pentathlon - 4.83 metres in the long jump and 1.57 in the high jump.

Looking ahead

Training is now following its winter pattern. This Tuesday, October 4th the weight training group start their winter work at Sackville School, starting at 7.30pm.

Normal Thursday training at Imberhorne School follows and the Sunday groups at East Court will still train even though some of the coaches will be busy with the preparations for the Primary School Cross-Country.

Looking further ahead the club's Presentation Evening to celebrate the successes of the 2009 summer season will be held on Wednesday, November 18th at Imberhorne School. More information in the next couple of weeks.

Monday, September 28th, 2009 (8:45pm)

The 2009 summer track and field season is just about at its end with the Sussex (and Surrey) Combined Events Championships bringing the competitive season to its end.
In the championships held at Horsham we had three under 13 girls competing - Eleanor Killick-Bird, Chloe Hollamby and Gemma Francis - and they found the going hard in their 5 event pentathlon. Ryan Spivey, a first year under 15, has had a difficult year with injury but did well to earn third place in his pentathlon. Sarah Rusling has a Surrey qualification, rather than Sussex, and took part in the Surrey under 15 girls pentathlon being held alongside the Sussex event.

Phil Spivey was competing in the veteran men's pentathlon and after a reasonable javelin throw an injury forced him out of the competition as he was preparing for the long jump. And finally Tom Gardner took on 10 events spread over the two days in his under 20 decathlon. Tom spent some time two days before the event learning the basics of pole vaulting and he did well to come fourth in the event. His pole vault pb is now better than his high jump pb.

Away from these championships Tessa Martin took part in an Open Meeting at Twickenham and set a new club record in the under 17 ladies' triple jump. Her 10.52 metres beating Heather Driscoll's record from 2001 by one centimetre !

Looking ahead

Training is now moving to its winter pattern. This coming Thursday, October 1st we will see a number of new school year 6 members coming along for the first time, joining in with our existing under 13 athletes from 7 pm to 8 pm. At the same time year 9 and 10 athletes will move to the later 7.30 to 8.45 session.

Next Sunday, October 4th sees the start of winter training at East Court. We meet at the mansion in East Court for a 10.30 start. While all athletes are welcome the training is intended for those wishing to take their athletics seriously, and wishing to train all of the winter, regardless of the weather !!

A reminder of the primary schools cross-country races to be held on Sunday, October 11th at East Court. Your help is needed - in the morning getting the course ready and then in the early afternoon in helping the various school teams get ready for the races. Plus we will be running a tea bar for athletes and parents. So please do your best to help us on the day.

Sunday, September 13th, 2009 (6:15pm)

The ladies and under 15 girls team started the season at Wimbledon at the end of April and finished it last week at Wimbledon. With wins in the previous 4 matches we wanted to be greedy and make it a clean sweep. And with 7 senior athletes and 9 juniors we had our biggest team for some time. The juniors in particular were able to field A and B strings in all 10 of their individual events - I cannot ever remember that happening before although I suspect one or two older members will remember previous occasions.

The seniors again couldn't fill the longer races but we filled all the throws and jumps. Our full results can be found here. The highlights for me came from another strong run by Izzy Turnbull in the junior 800 metres and Hannah Peadon's junior discus throw win. Plus Sarah Killick-Bird's high jump pb, Chloe Hollamby in the 100 metres and a new pb from Sarah Rusling in the high jump - if only we can get Sarah to do the flop rather than scissors !!!

All in all a good afternoon and we came out on top by a substantial margin to complete an excellent season for the ladies and girls. Hannah McGarty started the season by doing the first throw in the first event in April and finished it by running the last leg of the 4 x 400 metres relay in this last meeting in September.

The Under 13 team had their Sussex league final on Sunday at K2 in Crawley. We had 9 girls, but only 4 boys, and it was good to see the encouragement our athletes gave each other. Full results are available here.

Looking ahead

With the track and field season more or less at its end we are now training only on Thursday evenings.

Many of the senior athletes are taking a rest at the moment and will start their winter work in October. The Tuesday evening weights sessions starts at Sackville School on Tuesday, October 6th and the East Court Sunday morning sessions re-start on October 4th.

And while we are talking about October the primary schools cross-country races will be held on Sunday, October 11th and - as ever - we will need help with this event. In the morning getting the course ready and then in the early afternoon in helping the various school teams get ready for the races. Plus we will be running a tea bar for athletes and parents. So please do your best to help us on the day.

Monday, August 31st, 2009 (4:00pm)

After two months without competing Catherine Shin triple-jumped 10.46 metres for Sussex in the South of England Under 20 Inter-County match at Watford on Sunday. This is a match for counties from as far away as Cornwall in one direction and Norfolk in the other direction. This gained her sixth place in the event.

Looking ahead

After a few quiet weeks we have a busy weekend coming up. Saturday, September 5th sees the Ladies and under 15 girls team competing in their last league match of the season at Wimbledon. We have won all four of the previous matches and will look to make it a clean sweep.

The following day - Sunday, September 6th - the Under 13 team compete in their final Sussex Under 13 league match of the season. There have been three midweek matches during the summer against the other 5 teams in the western section of the league. On Sunday the east and west sections of the league come together for this final match.

The following weekend will see the Sussex (and Surrey) Combined Events Championships at Horsham. Entries need to be in by the end of this week.

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 (7:00pm)

A quiet couple of weeks for us all, although Tom Gardner went to Brighton for the Brighton Open meeting and came home with a new outdoors personal best in the high jump of 1.98 metres - he has jumped 2 metres indoors. Tom and Tessa Martin then competed in the Horsham Open Meeting, but didn't do quite as well as they would have liked.

Of course the World Championships have kept most of us busy enough. For those of us who like triple jumping it was great to see Phillips Idowu at last winning a gold medal in a major championships. It so happens that 15 years ago, on the August Bank Holiday Monday in an Open Meeting at Colchester in 1994, Phillips Idowu took part in the under 17 triple jump alongside our own Tim Medcalf. And on that day Tim finished ahead of Phillips - I guess not too many of us can say that we have beaten a World Champion.

We now have the full results for our athletes in the very very wet Sussex Under 13 league match last week - you can find them here.

Looking ahead

On Thursday this week some of our coaches will be helping at the Ashurstwood Sports Day at John Pears Playing Field.

On Sunday Cat Shin will be triple jumping for Sussex in an Under 20 Inter-Counties match at Watford while there is an Open Meeting at Crawley on the Bank Holiday Monday.

And the last ladies match of the season is now only a couple of weeks away.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009 (1:45pm)

Sussex Under 13 League (August 6th)

The under 13 team had their third match of the season at Crawley on Thursday evening in the wettest conditions of the summer. The rain started as we drove to the match and got steadily heavier and heavier. Thanks to our three brave chaps who stood out in the rain for an hour judging the discus throw for both boys and girls.

Holidays inevitably took their toll on our team, although there were still other athletes who simply didn't turn up. So 5 girls and one boy - Declan de Santis - made up our team. The performance of the evening came in the girls javelin where Chloe Hollamby and Emily Deville earned two first places. Chloe has been throwing the javelin a few times at training and tried it for the first time in competition, - and threw over 18 metres with Emily over 14 metres.

Full results are not yet available - I suspect they are still waiting for the field cards to dry out - but our other girls, Gemma Francis, Rachel Didon and Alba Halliday all did well in their events.

Looking ahead

A quiet week lies ahead, although the Horsham Open Meeting on Sunday, August 16th may attract a few of our athletes

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 (7:00pm)

Southern Mens league (August 1st)

The senior mens team ended their rather difficult year with a match at Bracknell. Again the team was missing several athletes and Dan Medcalf arrived with a neck injury that restricted him to a single jump in the long jump. The possibility of relegation was removed before the match even started as Hastings were not able to send any athletes at all - which meant we could not finish in the bottom two in the league.

As always athletes did their best and some did far too many events - Graham Taylor 7 events plus the sprint relay and Eddie Vermeer added the high and triple jumps to his usual 4 throws (though an wrist injury didn't help him in the throws). Andrew Clark found his 3 individual events taking place more or less at the same time and Lincoln Campbell was free of the injury that caused him problems in the previous match.

Wilem Field-Jewell, although finishing third in his 800 metres race, took some 3 seconds off his previous best. Ben Ivorson ran a good 1500 metres race and, at one time, looked as if he might bring us our only first place - but he had to make do with second place. Lance Quirico and Colin Day helped out in the 5,000 metres.

Most of the results are available here and without Hastings appearing we came third, some way behind Bracknell and the combined Haywards Heath and Lewes team.

Under 17 Inter-Counties match (August 2nd)

Tessa Martin was our only member to be selected for Sussex in this under 17 match at Crawley in the ladies triple jump. Tessa improved her personal best to 10.29 metres with her fifth jump and then went to 10.31 metres with her last jump.

Looking ahead

This coming Thursday, August 6th the under 13 team have their third evening match of the season when we have the short trip to Crawley's K2. Again holidays will have an effect on our team (and probably all the other teams).

And for only the second time since the season started we have no club competition this coming weekend.

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 (2:45pm)

Southern Womens league (July 25th)

Despite issuing fixture lists in the winter and early spring we still find lots of athletes unable to arrange holidays which avoid our matches. And so it was again this weekend, the first weekend of the school holidays. The under 15 section was especially hard hit with only 5 athletes available, one of whom cried off on the morning of the match. Among the seniors we had a combination of injuries, work and Cat Shin coming home from holiday with swine flu as well as holidays.

So we had 4 junior athletes and 3 senior athletes travelling round the M25 past Heathrow to the track at Hillingdon on a sunny summer Saturday. When we got there two of our mums - Janet Hollamby and Kim Deville - agreed to help us out in the throws and Kim also ran a leg of the 4 x 100 relay. Thanks to these two ladies. Jo Lister had a horrible journey and missed her first event.

However we were not alone in having athletes missing - and athletes held up on the M25 - and three of the 7 teams in the match didn't come at all. And as it happens we have a number of athletes who, as the previous matches have shown, are good enough to win their events.

And so it proved. We were short of athletes but so was everybody else. We won most of the events we entered and, while we don't have the final results, we were comfortable winners of the fourth match in the league - just like the first three matches. We need to have harder competition next year.

You can see the results as far as we know them by clicking here. Highlights for me included Amy Hewitt's new pb in the long jump - her last three jumps were 4.75, 4.75 again and then 4.77. The club under 15 record is 5.03. Emily Deville continues to improve in the throws, and the two mums were especially impressive in the discus. Izzy Turnbull came under a strong challenge in her 800 metres but responded well to win. We had the only two triple jumpers and Janice Watts improved on her jump from the previous match. The 8.68 in the previous match meant she was fourth in the whole of the country for her age-group - will her 8.83 move her up the list ? Chloe Hollamby went under 15 seconds for the first time in the 100 metres.

The last match of the season for our ladies and under 15 girls team is on Saturday, September 5th at Wimbledon.

Club Championships (July 9th and 14th)

The under 13 boys and girls - as well as the under 15 girls - have had their own club championships over the past couple of weeks. It was disappointing that only about half of our athletes took part in these championships. While we understand, especially for new under 13s, that competing against athletes from other clubs can be a bit forbidding we are disappointed when athletes aren't willing to compete against people they have come to know on training nights.

The full results are available here, although we are still working out the points to determine the placings in the minithon competition. Among the under 13 girls it was no surprise to see Chloe Hollamby winning the 75 metres, but it was a bit of surprise to see her winning both the javelin and long jump. Eleanor Killick-Bird picked up wins in the 800 metres and high jump and Emily Deville won the discus - Emily's throwing has come on a lot over the year. Among the first year under 13s Abby Beswick took part in all 6 events open to her and showed promise in most of them.

The under 13 boys were very low in numbers - where were the rest of you ? Michael Turnbull and James Telfer shared the first places between themselves.

Sarah Rusling won three events in the under 15 girls events - both the jumps and the javelin - and she made Izzy Turnbull work hard in the 800 metres before Izzy sprinted home in the last 100 metres. Amy Hewitt jogged home in the 100 metres and Sophie McKay edged first place in a good discus competition.

Thanks to all the club's officials and to a number of parents for helping with the judging.

Young Athletes League (July 19th)

The results are now available here.

Looking ahead

The mens team have their last match of the season this coming Saturday, August 1st with a trip to Bracknell. Relegation is still a possibility but it would take a very unusual set of results from all the league matches for that to happen. Nevertheless more athletes taking part would help to remove any doubts.

Next Sunday, August 2nd sees an under 17 inter-county match at Crawley. Well worth going if you have some spare time. Tessa Martin will be doing the triple jump for Sussex.

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 (9:00pm)

Young Athletes match (July 19th)

I have been to Sutton about five times for athletics meetings and I have yet to encounter any proper summer weather. And today was no exception - a stiff wind and one or two sharp showers. Our team was disappointingly small in numbers and though everyone tried hard we were a long way behind most of the other teams. Because results from the Young Athletes League take a lot of time to put together we don't have the full details as yet. We'll put them on the website when we have them.

Looking ahead

Our ladies and under 15 girls team have their fourth match of the 2009 season at the Hillingdon track just the other side of Heathrow - a new track and the first time any of our teams have taken part in a match there.

With wins in our first three matches we are well clear in the league but we still want a good turn-out for this meeting. School holidays will probably mean one or two athletes will be away.

Sunday, July 12th, 2009 (9:00pm)

Southern Mens League (July 11th)

Let's not beat about the bush - the latest Mens league match at Kingston was a dreadful afternoon for us. Holidays, injuries and illness meant we were short of athletes - and again suggested that we simply do not enough male athletes in the club to support a mens team.

We managed only one first place all afternoon - Colin King in the A string pole vault - and only three second places - Graham Taylor in the B string pole vault and B string 400 metres hurdles and Eddie Vermeer in the A string hammer. When you look at the results by clicking on here you will see that on the track, apart from the hurdles, we came fourth (i.e. last) in every event we contested. And while under 17 Wilem Field-Jewell was one of those fourth place he made a two second improvement to his 800 metres personal best - perhaps the one bright spot of a bad afternoon.

We weren't helped by Lincoln Campbell's injury while helping out in the B string long jump and then Dan Medcalf's injury later in the triple jump. Both factors in our inability to field relay teams (though by then we were already too far behind for the relay results to have any effect on our final position). We also weren't helped by the fact that the three other teams all have British League teams and that the venue at Kingston probably made it easier for the two London teams to get their athletes to the match.

Sorry if I sound grumpy, but that's how I feel. The men have one more match to come - at Bracknell on August 1st. Let's hope I won't be as grumpy after that.

English Schools Championships

Tom Gardner was our only athlete who made it to the English Schools Championships being held at Sheffield. Tom was jumping for Sussex in the senior boys high jump and will probably be a little disappointed with a jump of 1.93 metres for ninth place.

Young Athletes match on June 21st

It's taken us some while to bring you the results from this match, but here they are.

Looking ahead

Tuesday sees the second day of our own under 13 and under 15 cub championships at Imberhorne School. Athletes should aim to arrive by 6.30 for the 7 o'clock start.

Then next Sunday (July 19th) the Young Athletes team have their last match of the season when we go to Sutton. (Please note that in the original fixture listing this match was going to be at Worthing - however it will be at Sutton.)

And a reminder to the ladies and under 15 girls team that their fourth match will be on Saturday, July 25th.

Sunday, July 5th, 2009 (9:30pm)

Looking ahead

This coming Saturday (July 11th) the Senior Mens team are back in action for their fourth match of the season when they go to Kingston to compete against the host team Kingston, Herne Hill Harriers and Medway & Maidstone. As always much will depend on how many athletes will be available.

In addition we will be holding our own club championships for under 13 boys and girls and also for under 15 girls on Thursday, July 9th and Tuesday, July 14th at Imberhorne School. Both days will probably carry on until about 8.30.

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.

Sunday, March 29th, 2009 (2:45pm)

With an extra hour of daylight in the evening we are now training at Imberhorne School on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings - juniors from 7 to 8 and older athletes from 7.30 to 8.45.

We are also less than a month away from the first league match of the season - the ladies go to the track in Wimbledon Park on April 25th for their first league match of the season. Before then there will be a number of Open Meetings for athletes to test themselves before the competitive season starts. I thoroughly recommend the meeting at Tonbridge on Easter Monday - the timetable for that meeting can be found on the Tonbridge Athletic Club website.

Please remember that if you do compete in an Open Meeting please let Lester Medcalf know how you got on - lester@egac.co.uk.

Fixtures for 2009

By clicking here you can call up a list of our summer fixtures with the various venues that we will be going to over the summer. Perhaps the most attractive venue is the ladies' match in Canterbury - from the track there are excellent views of Canterbury Cathedral. The ladies also go to one of the newest tracks in the country for their match at Uxbridge.

Membership Fees

A reminder that it is now time to renew your membership. The best way to do so is to pay one night at training over the next week or two. Our fees depend on whether you are in full-time education, and there are reduced family rates. So if you aren't sure how much you should pay Jenny Medcalf will tell you when you come training at Imberhorne.

Sunday, March 15th, 2009 (11:00am)

2008 Presentation Night

We had an enjoyable presentation night last Wednesday at Imberhorne School. As well as awarding medals and trophies we had a collection of action photos from last year and from the cross-country season, statistics from the summer track and field season, a book of newspaper cuttings as well as a selection of coaching books.

We were also able to show a copy of the new brochure which will soon be ready for potential new members. All existing members will get a copy. We will also be producing posters and flyers - aimed mainly at the local primary and secondary schools. All this in preparation for the new summer season.

Looking ahead

While it is a couple of weeks away please note that Tuesday evenings at Imberhorne School will start on TUESDAY, MARCH 31st. This means that from then on - and until September - training will be available to all members on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Usual times.

Sunday morning training is also taking place at Imberhorne School over the next few weeks from 10.30 to about 11.45. The more serious athletes who have been training at East Court through the winter will be using these Imberhorne sessions to put the final touches to their preparation for the season ahead.

Sunday, March 8th, 2009 (6:00pm)

Sussex Cross-Country League (February 28th)

Apologies for bringing you news a week after the last Cross-Country league match of the season. The men's A team were in a precarious 7th position (out of 8) going into this last division 2 match at Lancing Manor - with the 2 bottom teams to be relegated to division 3.

Ben Ivorson wasn't well enough to run but it looked like some of the other teams were also a bit low on numbers. With divisions 1, 2 and 3 all in the same race we do well to get any of our athletes in the top 50 and Simon Moore (54th in 33 minutes and 23 seconds) was our first runner home. Tony Crossley (60th in 33:40) was close behind with Lance Quirico 91st in 35:58. Tim Best (41:07) completed the A team with Colin Day (41:47), Tim Ivorson (41:49) and Graham Taylor (45:46) making up the B team.

When the points were added up we found the A team had indeed avoided relegation - and in fact climbed two places up the league table to finish fifth overall. Our best ever performance. And Tony Crossley was the second best over 50 athlete across the four league matches, taking into account athletes from all three divisions.

In the under 13 girls race Izzy Turnbull was our only runner and she came an excellent fourth in her race.

Looking ahead

The 2008 Presentation night takes place this Wednesday in the Main Hall at Imberhorne School from 7.30. This will give us the opportunity to remember the high points from 2008, and with the new season not far away, we can look forward to more high points over the coming summer.

Sunday, March 1st, 2009 (8:30pm)

Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships

Our athletes won six medals from the indoor championships held over the weekend at Sutton - so congratulations to the successful athletes.

On Saturday it was good to see two of our younger athletes winning their first medals at county level. Under 13 Chloe Hollamby won a bronze medal in the under 13 60 metres. With 9.15 seconds in her heat she improved in the final to 9.03 seconds to gain third place in the Sussex final. In the Surrey under 15 boys high jump Daniel Rusling also took a bronze medal with his personal best of 1.30 metres winning him the bronze medal in third place.

Also on the Saturday Tom Gardner wasn't quite at his 2 metres best - and his jump of 1.95 metres got him second place in the Sussex under 20 event. And the last medal from the first day came late on with Tessa Martin's 4.64 metres in the long jump giving her third place.

On the Sunday the triple jump events provided a double helping of gold medals. In the Sussex under 20 ladies event it was Catherine Shin who produced first place with her best jump of 10.20 metres (a couple of centimetres off her outdoor best). And Tessa Martin retained her Sussex under 17 ladies triple jump title with 9.98 metres.

Other athletes taking part and gaining some practice for the summer were the two Sarahs, Sarah Killick-Bird and Sarah Rusling while Colin King was part of a pole vault competition that seemed likely to go into Monday morning.

Looking ahead

A reminder to the Sunday morning training groups that from next Sunday we will be using Imberhorne School for training, as we edge closer to the 2009 summer season.

And the 2008 Presentation Evening, postponed because of the February snow, will be held on Wednesday, March 11th at Imberhorne School from 7.30.

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 (7:00pm)

This coming weekend sees the club's Cross- Country runners taking part in the last Sussex league match of the winter, while the Sussex and Surrey Indoors Championships will be a reminder that the summer season is getting closer.

The Cross-Country match is at Lancing Manor. Despite having finished 6th in all three matches so far the Senior Mens team find themselves in 7th place in division 2 of the league. They will be hoping for a good turn-out to try and avoid any threat of relegation.

The under 13 girls will also be looking for a good performance in their last match of what has been an encouraging season.

Meanwhile at Sutton the Indoor Championships will take place on both Saturday and Sunday with a number of our athletes looking to compete.

Monday, February 16th, 2009 (8:45pm)

Congratulations to Tom Gardner for clearing exactly 2 metres in the National Under 20 Indoor Championships on Sunday afternoon in Birmingham. He came seventh in the event.

Now onto 2.05 metres.

Sunday, February 15th, 2009 (6:15pm)

Although it is half-term this week training will continue as normal - weights on Tuesday, Imberhorne School on Thursday evening and East Court on Sunday morning.

Entries for Sussex Indoor Championships have to be in by the end of the week - so get them in the post now.

Sunday, February 8th, 2009 (6:15pm)

2008 Presentation Night

We're sorry about having to postpone last week's Presentation evening. With the heavy snow and ice at the beginning of the week we felt it best to call it off. The most likely new date is WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11th but we'll confirm that over the next week or two.

Tuesday's weights session also had to be called off. However by Thursday evening the snow and ice had gone from Imberhorne School and we were able to run a normal training session. And the Sunday groups found the remaining snow and ice at East Court melting fast, and turning itself into mud.

Sussex Indoor Championships

A reminder that the Sussex Indoor Championships are to be held on Saturday, February 28th and Sunday, March 1st at the Sutton Indoor track. Entries have to be in by February 21st.

Sunday, February 1st, 2009 (6:15pm)

2008 Presentation Night - February 4th at Imberhorne School

We have our Presentation evening this Wednesday in the Bullen Hall at Imberhorne School. We will start at 7.30 or so and we will expect to finish by about 8.30 - although by the time we've finished chatting and tidying up it's normally closer to 9.

We have collected together a number of photos taken over last summer - as well as during the winter months - and these will be available for you to look at. We will also have some statistics available for you to read. These will remind you how fast you ran, how far you threw and how far you jumped in 2008.

Sunday, January 26th, 2009 (4:00pm)

Box Hill Fell Race

Road-running, cross-country and running up and down hills in the pouring rain - it's all the same to our long distance group. While we don't have too many serious hills for fell races in this part of the world, running up Box Hill four or five times is still pretty hard work, especially when recent rain has left it muddy and slippery.

Four of our members took part in the 7.5 miles race with total climb of 1,800 feet and in a field of nearly 250 they all finished in the top half. Simon Moore's first attempt at this sort of madness saw him 35th in 61 minutes and 31 seconds with Tony Crossley 47th in 64 minutes and 2 seconds. Lance Quirico came home in 100th place in 72 minutes and 1 second with Steve Warner, who fell coming down one of the hills, 116th in 74 minutes and 12 seconds.

2008 Presentation Night - February 4th at Imberhorne School

Don't forget the presentation evening on Wednesday week. We start at 7.30.

Sunday, January 18th, 2009 (6:15pm)

South of England Indoor Championships (January 17th)

Tom Gardner had made an excellent start to his indoor season. Last weekend he
high-jumped 1.90 metres in a meeting at Brunel University and now, in the South of England Championships, he went 5 centimetres better with 1.95 metres. This equals his outdoor best from last summer. One of his attempts at 2 metres was agonisingly close when the bar took ages before deciding to fall off. This gave Tom fourth place and we look forward to that 2 metres clearance soon. (Can I suggest you actually get a tape measure out and see how high 2 metres is.)

Tessa Martin also took part in the Championships - in the under 17 girls triple jump. Unfortunately her run-up was all over the place and so she didn't jump as far as she would have liked.

Looking ahead

We have sent out an e-mail to all those members where we have an e-mail address with details of the presentation evening on February 4th at Imberhorne School from 7.30. The note also includes provisional details for our summer league matches - although they are subject to some change.

There are about 15 members where we don't have e-mail addresses and so the information will be going out by post. If you haven't heard anything by the end of the week please let Lester Medcalf know (01342 315589).

Sussex Indoor Championships are being held on February 28th and March 1st - entry forms are now available. Speak to one of the coaches if you need to know more.

Monday, January 12th, 2009 (9:30pm)

Sussex Cross-Country League (January 10th)

We had the third cross-country league match of the season on Saturday, following on the County Championships from last week. This match took place in Bexhill and for the second weekend the races took place on frozen rutted ground.

The under 13 girls were again out in force with 5 athletes taking part in their race over 3,000 metres - and they finished in exactly the same order as in last week's race. Izzy Turnbull was 18th (12 minutes and 58 seconds) with Eleanor Killick-Bird in 22nd in 13 minutes and 21 seconds. Hannah Peadon came home in 31st place in 14 minutes and 7 seconds, just one place and two seconds ahead of Gemma Francis. Chloe Hollamby was 39th in just over 16 minutes. In the team event the team came sixth on the day and are seventh after the first three meetings.

Sarah Killick-Bird had her first race of the season in the under 15 girls event over a distance of 4,000 metres. After a bad first lap she finished the race strongly to finish 18th in just over 20 minutes.

As always the senior men's race was the last race of the day, as the sun began to disappear and the cold became even more intense. We were again well represented with 8 athletes, equalling the number we had for the second match of the season. Ben Ivorson's first run of the winter saw him finish in 60th place in 32 minutes and 42 seconds, with Tony Crossley 15 seconds and 5 places later. Lance Quirico in just under 37 minutes was 103rd with Paul Henshaw's first run of the winter ending in 106th place in 37 minutes and 52 seconds. Tim Ivorson's strong finish saw him overtake a number of athletes as he finished in 114th place in 39 minutes and 11 seconds. Colin Day (120th in 39 minutes and 53 seconds), Tim Best (124th in 40 minutes and 18 seconds) and Graham Taylor ( just over 42 minutes for130th) completed the squad.

With 8 athletes we were able to field both an A and a B team, but final positions are not clear as the officials were not sure of one of the athletes. Nevertheless the A team probably finished 6th (out of 8) in their division 2 match.

There is one more Cross-Country league match to come - on Saturday, February 28th (which happens to be the first day for the Sussex Indoor Championships).

Looking ahead

With the very cold spell coming to an end, we hope, we can look forward to slightly more comfortable training conditions. The Tuesday weight-training group at Sackville School had a light session last week and will be looking to push on this week and the Thursday evening groups at Imberhorne School will have their second session of the new year.

And the Sunday morning group at East Court will be hoping for some slightly softer ground to run on.

This coming weekend also sees the South of England Indoor Championships at Lee Valley in North London. Tom Gardner in the under 20 high jump and Tessa Martin in the under 17 triple jump will be looking for a good start to 2009.

A reminder that Wednesday, February 4th is the date for the 2008 Presentation Evening at Imberhorne School at 7.30pm. E-mails and letters will be sent out later this week.

Sunday, January 4th, 2009 (2:00pm)

Sussex Cross-Country Championships (January 3rd)

2009 started early for the cross-country runners with the Sussex Championships taking place yesterday at a frozen but sunny Stanmer Park in Brighton.

Our under 13 girls again turned up in good numbers with 5 of them taking part in their 3,000 metres race. Izzy Turnbull was the first home for us in 22nd place (15 minutes and 58 seconds), closely followed by Eleanor Killick-Bird in 24th place (16 minutes exactly). Hannah Peadon followed in 31st place with 16 minutes and 22 seconds and Gemma Francis' 17 minutes and 39 seconds saw her 37th. Chloe Hollamby was 40th in 18 minutes and 17 seconds.

The senior mens team had only 3 runners available for their race over 12,000 metres (about 7.5 miles). In a field of about 120 Lance Quirico was our first runner home in 85th place and 58 minutes and 22 seconds - despite falling flat on the first lap when he failed to avoid a tree root. Tim Best (110th in 65 minutes and 17 seconds) and Colin Day (114th in 67 minutes and 53 seconds) were both taking part in their first Sussex Championships, unlike Lance who must be in at least his 30th.

Looking ahead

Looking forward the cross-country runners will be back in action very quickly as this coming Saturday (January 10th) sees the third Sussex League match of the winter - the races will be in Bexhill.

For the rest of our members training gets back to normal with the Tuesday weight-training group at Sackville School and the Thursday evening groups at Imberhorne School re-starting.

Now we are into 2009 we will find the summer season creeping nearer and nearer and we will expect to get more detail of our summer fixtures over the next few weeks. There are a number of indoor meetings available in January and February and the Sussex Indoor Championships are being held on Saturday, February 28th and Sunday, March 1st. These indoor championships will be held alongside the Surrey championships at the indoor facilities at Sutton. Entry forms are already available.