Midland Veterans League - Cup Final - Nuneaton - 1st September 2007
This was cup final number twelve as team manager and it was preceded by the
usual ups and downs, date clashes and last minute injuries. The day arrived,
dull and breezy, more or less ideal for athletics at a venue that provided
adequate seating.
The first track event brought immediate success with Debbie leading all the
way to win the 800m, quickly followed by a surprise win in the M60 high jump
and Marina’s hoped for success in the W35 high jump. Ann, in her first race
of the season, got welcome points in the W45 800. The men’s 800m race gave
Windel an opportunity to display his good form when he ran his best time in
veteran competition, only being passed in the home straight. Robin managed
to stay close enough to the leader in the M60 race to keep ahead of the fast
finishers to also finish second. Julie was second in her long jump, and Dave
followed her example to maintain the good start, but thereafter first and
second places were less frequent. Judy was third in the 100m as was Carol in
the W50 hammer. The round of 3000m races gave us more successes, with Debbie
and Gordon winning from the front, sandwiching the hard fought second place
finishes of Ronnie and Derek. We moved on to the 400m races in which Windel
and Val both got third and Derek was fourth all in SB times, while in the
field Carol and Chris continued to accumulate points and Marina won the shot
put with an SB.
Debbie provided the highlight of the meeting, carbo loading on jaffa cakes
before leading from the gun in the 1500m and finally breaking away from
international Kate Ramsey in the last three hundred metres. There was
further success: Mike won his 1500, then Don was third in the M50 event,
both with SBs. The 200m events followed in which Judy, at the top end of her
age group, ran a season’s best to finish third, and Ann and Windel, also
with SBs, were both fourth. The series of 2k walks gave us a third place
courtesy of Julian and a fourth place for Val. Having warmed up with
numerous events Carol, Chris and Marina signed off with third place finishes
in the javelin, shot and discus respectively. We were unable to contest the
women’s relay because we did not have three over 45’s, but produced a men’s
4 X 100 team of middle and distance runners which finished fifth.
These efforts included a remarkable twenty-five season’s best performances
in the forty-five individual events and were good enough to gain fourth
place in both team contests, and second in the overall Central TV Trophy. We
have been second on several occasions but have never managed to win it.
There is a close correlation between the size and the competitive success of
the team. The first two men’s teams used fourteen athletes, Rugby in third
had one more than our eleven although we did manage to beat Charnwood’s
thirteen. There was a similar story in the women’s competition, where the
first team had two more members than our team of seven, and the second team
one more. Cannock managed to beat us by a few points with the same size team
because the age profile enabled them to compete in every event. Had the
competition been limited to the W35 age group we would have retained the
cup. If the event had been split into the three age groups our W45s would
have been sixth and our W50’s seventh. Of course we had only two athletes
able to do W45 events, one of whom competes in the W60 category in
championships. Our men’s team is a little better balanced and dividing the
results into three, we were fourth M35/M40 team, third of the M60 teams and
fifth of the M50 teams. Indeed Chris did one M40 and one M50 event and Robin
did three M50 events. It is obvious where we particularly need to recruit,
although male sprinters of any age are needed and, please note, during the
season we had only two members under forty, one male and one female. The
final team positions and scores were:
Men Women
Team Points Team Points
1st Worcester 189 Rugby & N-A 164.5
2nd Stoke 162 Rugby & N-B 137
3rd Rugby & N. 160 Cannock 120
4th Birchfield 139.5 Birchfield 110.5
5th Charnwood 129.5 Bromsgrove 103
6th R.S.C. 101 Leamington 70
Sparkhill 66
R.S.C. 32
Combined
1st Rugby & N. 324.5
2nd Birchfield 250
3rd R.S.C. 133
I would especially like to thank Hazel and Roger Gregory and family, who
have helped us enormously by officiating for us and supporting our
endeavours. Thank you to all the athletes who have competed during the
season. I hope that you have enjoyed it as much as I have and hope that you
will be training and recruiting during the winter.
Event Group Athlete Result Place Points
Long Jump W35 Julie Rogers 4.24 SB 2nd 7
Hammer W50 Carol Rafferty 15.99 3rd 6
High Jump W45 Carol Rafferty 1.00 7th 2
Discus W45 Carol Rafferty 14.40 5th 4
Long Jump W50 Carol Rafferty 1.81 5th 4
High Jump W35 Marina Semenova 1.35 1= 7.5
Triple Jump W35 Marina Semenova 8.26 3rd 6
Shot W35 Marina Semenova 8.97 SB 1st 8
Shot W45 Carol Rafferty 5.44 5th 4
Javelin W45 Carol Rafferty 17.49 SB 3rd 6
800m W35 Debbie Walters 2:28.7 1st 8
800m W45 Ann Haywood 3:02.0 SB 5th 4
100m W35 Judy Thomas 14.0 SB 3rd 6
100m W50 No competitor
3000m W35 Debbie Walters 10:33.2 1st 8
3000m W45 No competitor
400m W35 Val Carter 71.2 SB 3rd 6
400m W50 No competitor
1500m W35 Debbie Walters 4:41.8 1st 8
1500m W50 No competitor
200m W35 Judy Thomas 28.4 SB 3rd 6
200m W45 Ann Haywood 31.2 SB 4th 5
2k Walk W35 Val Carter 12:17.6 SB 4th 5
2k Walk W50 No competitor
4 x 100 No team
Hammer M50 Chris Street 12.50 6th 3
Pole Vault M40 No competitor
High Jump M35 Windel Simpson 1.40 4= 4.5
High Jump M60 Robin Davies 1.20 SB 1st 8
Long Jump M40 Dave Emmanuel 5.58 SB 2nd 7
Shot M50 Robin Davies 6.12 5th 4
Discus M40 Rob Quinn 20.12 SB 6th 3
Triple Jump M50 No competitor
Discus M60 Chris Street 24.28 5th 4
Triple Jump M60 Robin Davies 7.15 SB 6th 3
Javelin M40 Chris Street 14.94 6th 3
Shot M60 Chris Street 8.53 3rd 6
800m M35 Windel Simpson 2:08.1 PB 2nd 7
800m M60 Robin Davies 2:46.3 SB 2nd 7
100m M35 Windel Simpson 13.0 SB 5th 4
100m M50 Robin Davies 16.4 SB 6th 3
3000m M35 Ronnie McWilliam 9:23.2 SB 2nd 7
3000m M50 Derek Donaghy 10:11.7 SB 2nd 7
3000m M60 Gordon Orme 11:06.0 1st 8
400m M35 Windel Simpson 56.7 SB 3rd 6
400m M50 Derek Donaghy 65.0 SB 4th 5
400m M60 Robin Davies 71.6 SB 5th 4
1500m M40 Mike Morley 4:30.1 SB 1st 8
1500m M50 Don Field 5:03.5 SB 3rd 6
200m M40 Windel Simpson 26.1 SB 4th 5
200m M60 Robin Davies 33.1 6th 3
2k Walk M40 Julian Barnett 15:00.8 3rd 6
2k Walk M50 Robin Davies 18:42.9 5th 4
4 X 100 Field,Donaghy,Morley,Simpson 56.1 5th 4
Robin Davies
5th September 2007