Midland Veterans League - Meeting 4

Midland Veterans League - Meeting 4 - The Dell - 8th August 2007

It was good to have another sunny evening at the Dell, and even better to have Carol back in the team. The other very welcome news was that John made his debut as a scoring member with a courageous, first ever, pole vault competition. Our total numbers were up by three from the last meeting, two more men and one more woman, but there was also a significant change in personnel. Only one of the four walkers was unchanged and the distance events had wholesale changes as well.

The men had a single event win which cane from David Manning in the M50 walk on his debut for the team. Windel had two seconds behind his very good opponent from Worcester in the M35 200 and 800 and Gordon was also second in the M60 800, his first defeat in the league. Pride of place goes to John Constandinou, who, after two practice sessions, vaulted to second place. Paul had a hat trick of third places in the 200, shot and long jump. Julian and Don were third in the M40 walk and M50 3000 respectively. Chris in his least favoured throwing event, the javelin, had three good throws, three more than his previous outing and got valuable points, as did Steve in the M40 800 and 3000, two age groups below his own. The 4 by 100m relay team of Paul, Robin, Don and Windel managed a close fourth place taking the final points total to ninety-six, just sufficient for second place in the match.

The women had to win to become the champions and the resolve shown by the team was splendid.

In the end the dearth of distance runners frustrated the attempt and we had a deficit of seven points compared to Bromsgrove and Redditch. Karen competed in all the W45 track events, finishing third in the 200, fifth in the 800 and winning her final event , the 2K walk. Judy won the 200m and shot put and Val the B 800m. It was no surprise that Julie won the long jump but her win in the A 800m surprised me. I did not expect such a good run. The relay team of Wendy, Val, Julie and Judy were well clear of the opposition. Carol was third in both the shot and discus after finishing fourth in the W50 200m. Pam was third in the walk and at short notice ran well in the 3000, finishing strongly to place fourth. Unfortunately the circumstances and conditions forced Wendy to retire from the 3000, so we scored five points out of a possible twenty-four from the three races, compared to the maximum achieved at the distance in the second league meeting.

Both teams have qualified for the A Cup Final at Nuneaton on September 1st. Is it possible that we can challenge for the Central T.V.Trophy?

Results of Fourth Veterans League at The Dell on 8th August,2007

Event	Age Group	Competitor	Position	Performance
200m	M35	Windel Simpson	2nd	26.7
200m	M40	Paul Rogers	3rd	28.9
200m	M50	Robin Davies	5th	33.3
200m	W35	Judy Thomas	1st	30.2
200m	W45	Karen Davies	3rd	39.4
200m	W50	Carol Rafferty	4th	54.2
800m	M35	Windel Simpson	2nd	2:16.2
800m	M40	Steve Couldwell	6th	2:42.6
800m	M60	Gordon Orme	2nd	2:39.2
800m	W35A	Julie Rogers	1st	2:46.5
800m	W35B	Val Carter	1st	2:47.9
800m	W45	Karen Davies	5th	3:36.2
2K Wk.	M40	Julian Barnett	3rd	13:08.7
2K Wk.	M50	David Manning	1st	11:03.5
2K Wk.	-	John Constandinou	Guest	10:19.2
2K Wk.	W35	Pam Rayment	3rd	13:26.7
2K Wk.	W45	Karen Davies	1st	12:48.4
3000m	M40A	Windel Simpson	4th	10:13.0
3000m	M40B	Steve Couldwell	5th	11:04.6
3000m	M50	Don Field	3rd	10:58.4
3000m	M50	Gordon Orme	Guest	11:08.5
3000m	W35A	Pam Rayment	4th	13:52.0
3000m	W35B	Wendy Morant	DNF	-
3000m	W50	No competitor	-	-
4 X 100	M35	Rogers,Davies,Field,Simpson	4th	58.2
4 X 100	W35	Morant,Carter,Rogers,Thomas	1st	58.1
Shot	W35	Judy Thomas	1st	6.25
Shot	W45	Carol Rafferty	3rd	5.60
Javelin	M50	Chris Street	5th	17.50
Discus	W50	Carol Rafferty	3rd	15.72
Long J.	M60	Robin Davies	5th	2.87
Long J.	M35	Paul Rogers	3rd	4.23
Long J.	W35	Julie Rogers	1st	4.20
Shot	M40	Paul Rogers	3rd	7.14
Pole V.	M35	John Constandinou	2nd	2.30

	Men	Pts	Women	Pts
1st	Worcester	112	B & R	101
2nd	Birchfield	96	Birchfield	94
3rd	Halesowen	91	Worcester	81
4th	DASH	81	Sparkhill	77
5th	B & R	74	DASH	59
6th	Sparkhill	63	Halesowen	47
7th	Droitwich	7	-	-

Robin Davies
8th August 2007