Midland League Round 2, Rugby - Sun 7 June
Fighting Fourth place leaves all teams level after 2 matches
Rugby & Northampton AC hosted the second round of the Midland League on Sunday when they welcomed teams from Bristol, Birchfield, Coventry, Mansfield & Stoke. In spite of the atrocius weather at the start of the meeting, a highly competitive meeting ensued and following the match all six teams are level on 7 points and there is absolutely everything to play for in the final 2 fixtures at Bath & Mansfield.
After their fighting 3rd place in the first fixture at Coventry the R&N team were faced with a very strong Bristol squad who put their last place at Coventry behind them to storm to a clear victory whilst the R&N team fought hard for every position adn covering nearly every event to finish 4th overall in spite of spate of injuries and other hiccups on the day. This is certainly a league where an exceptional performance or a couple of pieces of bad luck could swing the result of the whole season.
The standard was very high in most event and the R&N team found victories hard to come by on the day and their only winners wer John Illingworth in the B string long jump and Ian Gidley in the B string High Jump. A string points are more valuable and Martin Vincent (PV), John Moreland (Discus), Sophie Meakin (110H), Emma Dowsell (PV) and Emma Merry (Shot & Discus) all picked up excellent second places. This was supported by a string of 3rd & 4th places to keep the team in the frame. The B string is always vital and good place to collect points by filling every event. Here ths best performances came from Chris Shelton (PV), Jamie Downes (400), Ian Gidley (TJ), Juliet Crossin (200), Emma Cluely ( 100H), Debbie Murch (Shot) and Zoe Ash (Javelin & Discus) all of whom claimed second places.
On a day when the PB's were hard to come by due to the cold & windy conditions the R&N exception was young Briony Banks who sliced several seconds off her pb to dip under 5 minutes in the 1500m. On the other hand Zoe Dereham of Birchfield was totally unfazed as she threw the hammer 68.00 to break both the stadium and the league record.
The next match is hosted by Bristol AC at Bath University on July 4th
