Vets League Meeting at Worcester
The evening started with a big surprise for me and it was a very pleasant one. As anyone who has ever tried to manage a team will tell you there is always a nail-biting wait for the members of the team to arrive. Not this time. When I arrived, and I must stress I was not late, I was greeted by an almost complete team smugly smiling and looking at their watches. Rats!
There was another noteworthy occurrence concerning travel. Two days before the meeting I asked Gordon Orme to run in the M60 1500m which would be his first ever track race. I arranged for him to be picked up at a convenient rendezvous to be used by someone else, but was not able to contact the driver at the club or by phone. I did not give Gordon any directions apart from Worcester, thinking it unnecessary. How wrong can you be? The car driver changed the rendezvous, not knowing about Gordon, and arrived safely at the track. Gordon waited at the rendezvous in vain, went home, got in his car, drove to Worcester and asked various people for directions to the track. He arrived in good time for his event. All I can say is
thanks Gordon, sorry for the mistake and I owe you a pint.
Now, on to the athletics. It was good to see Darrell and Warren start of proceedings with a win and a second place in the 100m, and even better, when 77 year old Allan was second in the M50 event. The lady sprinters went into action with three wins out of three, for Wendy, Judy and Ann. Karen and Pam were third and second in their walks, and when Karen won the hammer and Julie the long jump, with Ann fourth in the W45 jump, I began to hope we might remain top of the league.
At this point I lost track of the meeting busying myself with a very slow walk and officiating at the shot putt. During that time Darrell won the A 400 , Warren was second in the B race and Wilf third in the M60 event. Julie and Wendy raced away with their 400m races, but we had no competitor for the W50 race. Windel won the high jump, not following my instructions to clear a height and retire. I think he was wearing short trousers the last time he tried the event. He then won the 1500m. Brian was fourth in the B 1500m, and so was Barry in the triple jump and Chris Street in the M50 shot. Darrell was third in the discus and Gordon won his 1500.
In the women's 1500m Emma was third in the A race and Pam occupied the same place in the B race, but again we missed Hilary in the W50 race and, without Carol, had no-one to compete in the W50 shot. We ended the meeting in high points scoring mode with Karen in second place in the discus and a good win in the women's relay. This, once again, was won by a very good margin although the final 800m leg in a medley relay was, as usual, a little nail biting. We were second in the men's relay and Chris was third in the M60 discus. When I saw the results on returning from holiday I was extremely happy to see that we had finished second in both matches, so the women stay top of the league, but only a league point in front of Bromsgrove and Redditch who are eleven ahead in match points. The men have moved into second place by the narrowest possible margin, one match point. There will be everything to play for on August 10th at Tipton. Yes, the venue has been
changed.
The match at Worcester was the first one this year where we contested every men's event. We almost won the match. Bromsgrove and Reddich won the
women's match by having a complete team while our W50 competitors were out of town. We also did not contest the W35 high jump. Do you know anyone willing to emulate Windel, or even me? A clearance of 1.05 m would have got six points.
Robin
Third Midland Veterans League Meeting at Redditch, 7th July, 2004
Event Category
Competitor
Position
Performance Points
100m M40A
Darrell Maynard
1st
12.1
9
100m M40B
Warren Fraser
2nd
12.9
8
100m M50
Allan Meddings
2nd
14.9
8
100m W35A
Wendy Morant
1st
14.1
9
100m W35B
Judy Thomas
1st
14.6
9
100m W45
Ann Haywood
1st
15.0
9
2km Walk M40A John Fenton
6th
12:15.3
4
2km Walk M40B Robin Davies
4th
16:12.0
6
2km Walk W35A Karen Davies
3rd
13.03.6
7
2km Walk W35B Pam Rayment
2nd
14:21.4
8
400m M40A
Darrell Maynard
1st
51.2
9
400m M40B
Warren Fraser
2nd
57.4
8
400m M60
Wilf Morgan
3rd
73.2
7
400m W35 A
Julie Rogers
1st
65.4
9
400m W35B
Wendy Morant
1st
67.8
9
400m W50
No Competitor
1500m M40A
Windel Simpson
1st
4:37.7
9
1500m M40B
Brian Worthington
4th
5:35.5
6
1500m M60
Gordon Orme
1st
5:30.6
9
1500m M40
Guest Tom Holden
No results
1500m M40
Guest Jim Griffiths
No results
1500m W35 A
Emma Wilson
3rd
6:26.0
7
1500m W35B
Pam Rayment
3rd
7:20.4
7
1500m W50
No Competitor
Medley Relay M40
Taylor, Maynard, Fraser, Simpson, 2nd
4:16.1
8
Medley Relay W35 Rogers, Thomas,Morant, Haywood
1st
5:05.0
9
Hammer M50
Chris Street
6th 12.61
4
Hammer W35
Karen Davies
1st 20.08
9
High Jump M40
Windel Simpson
1st 1.55
9
High Jump M50
Robin Davies
3rd 1.05
7
Long Jump W35
Julie Rogers
1st 4.22
9
Long Jump W45
Ann Haywood
4th
3.10
6
Discus M40
Darrell Maynard
3rd 22.48
7
Triple Jump M40
Barrie Taylor
4th
8.71
6
High Jump W35
No Competitor
Shot W50
No Competitor
Shot M50
Chris Street
4th
7.65
6
Discus M60
Chris Street
3rd
19.96
7
Discus W35
Karen Davies
2nd
19.61
8
Men - Match
Women - Match
1st Worcester 142 Brom.& Red. 132
2nd Birchfield 137 Birchfield 115
3rd Sparkhill 128
Sparkhill 102
4th Halesowen 96.5 Dudley & St. 90
5th Dudley & St. 87 Worcester 73
6th Brom.& Red. 78.5 Tipton 57
7th Droitwich 63
Halesowen 39
8th Tipton 40
West Brom. 26
9th West Brom. 18