Team WADAC win first SAL match

The club recorded a magnificent victory in the first round of SAL matches in their new league of Division 2 South & West in Eton on Saturday. After winning promotion from Division 3 West last season, the club knew that the standard would be tougher this year and so it proved but we were up to the challenge completing a magnificent victory on the day over Portsmouth, Guildford, Ashford, Hastings and Bournemouth.This was a particularly important win as Portsmouth & Guildford are two of the tougher teams in the league and with teams only competing against each other once (except for our SAL partner club Bournemouth who we compete against in every match) then this was the only opportunity to get the better of them during the season.The day started with the womens hammer which took place right in front of the teams base for the day. Evie Scott (coach Martin McBriar) threw the 4kg weight for the first time with a fab distance of 35.96m for a string 2nd place and to go 2nd on the clubs all time lists with training partner Erin McBriar (coach Martin McBriar) winning the b string. Next up was the mens high jump where Jeremy Clifton (self coached) and Gareth Lewis (coach Elias Mtshweni) both stepped in at the last minute to get valuable points for the club both jumping 1.45m. Then came the womens long jump which followed a famlier field event pattern of both a & b string victories with Amy Wall (coach Andy Fisher) winning the a with a jump of 5.44m and Carys Jeffries (coach Andy Fisher) jumping a huge pb of 5.41m to win the b. Frankie Moulds (coach Andy Fisher) jumped 4.89m as a non-scorer.With no 1 lap hurdle competitors, the track events started for the club with the 800m. Ben Chesterfield (coach Nick Anderson) and Tim Smales (coach David Vosser) were 3rd and 2nd respectively in the a & b string for the men with Eve Bailey (coach James Mann) and Vicky Gill (coach David Vosser) 4th & 2nd respectively in the a & b string. Vicky & Tim were to prove magnificent throughout the match standing in for the endurance races where we had gaps to fill. Back to the field where Charlie Elford-Pond (coach Eric Davison) and Jeremy Clifton won the a & b string in the hammer with Charlie going 3rd on the clubs all time list with a throw of 49.70m. Head of throws Martin has hammer throwing is in particular rude health at the club with the 3 furthest throws of all time being recorded in the last week. Next up was the womens shot with yet another a & b string win with Abi Belward (coach Andy Fisher) winning the a with a putt of 10.39m good enough for 3rd place on the clubs all time lists. Erin McBriar won the b string.Back to the track for the 100m races which were run into a stiff headwind. Rohan Gray (coch Mark Upton) was 3rd in the a string with training partner Alex Beck (coach Mark Upton) winning he b string. Oliver Wye (coach Mark Upton) & Henry Shadbolt (coach Mark Upton) both ran as non-scorers. For the women, Elsie Brindle (coach Mark Upton) was 2nd in the a string with Carys Jeffries winning the b string. Alice Eyssens (coach Gary Bettridge) ran as a non scorer. Then came the 400m races with Ollie Withers (coach Andy Fisher) finishing 2nd in a great a race and Superman Tim Smales was 4th in the b version. Oliver Wye ran as a non-scorer. For the women Laura Clark (coach Mark Upton) comfortably won the a race with Superwoman Vicky Gill coming 4th in the b race.Back in the field Sam Adams (coach Tony Bateman) was 2nd in the mens a string LJ despite jumping off of 6 strides or so and Chris Meadows-Smith (coach Andy Fisher) kindly filled the b string berth coming 3rd. Then came the womens javelin and yes you have guessed it we recorded a & b string victories with Jess Howells (coach Andy Fisher) throwing a magnificent 38.73m in her debut with the 600g implement which is good enough for 3rd place on the clubs all time lists. Frankie Moulds picked up the b string victory. Then came the pole vault where although we had no female competitors the men made up for it with Gareth Lewis jumping an impressive 3.10m for a string 3rd place and Jago Evison (coach Elias Mtshweni) jumping 2.70m for b string 2nd place. Gareth was competing in this whilst running between shot & javelin. In the shot, Jeremy Clifton was 3rd in the a string & Gareth 2nd in the b string and in the javelin Jeremy was 4th in a string in a crazy 2 hours of competition for himself and Gareth was 3rd in the b string after something similar.Back on the track Poppy Shroff (coach Andy Fisher) won the a string 100m hurdles with Alice Eyssens ensuring maximum points by winning the b string. We had no male competitors in the 110m hurdles which is the hardest event to fill for all clubs. Then came the 3000m for which Marcus Green (coach Nick Anderson) ran under 10 mins to take a string 2nd place and Tim Smales just kept running for 2nd place in the b string. Vicky Gill was our only female competitor but came 3rd in the one race she was expecting to compete in when she left the house (how wrong she was!). Meanwhile in the back straight Carys Jeffries & Frankie Moulds were picking up good points by coming 3rd and 1st respectively in the a & b string triple jump.The club picked up great points in the 200m races with Alex Beck winning a string and Rohan Gray coming 2nd in b string. Chris Meadows-Smith & Henry Shadbolt both ran as non-scorers. For the women, Laura Clark & Elsie Brindle won the a & b string respectively. The match scores were then read out for the first time and we found ourselves just 1 point ahead which caused Marcus Green & Tim Smales both to run in the mens 1500m something they were not expecting when they arrived. First though to the womens 1500m which saw the performance of the day. Helen Hall (coach Nick Anderson) is in the form of her life just now and proved this by winning the a string race in just a touch over 4 mins 30 secs which smashed the clubs V35 masters record for the distance and also went to 3rd on the clubs all time lists for any age group. Training partner Lily Neate (coach Nick Anderson) wasn't far behind to win the b string race. For the men, Tim Smales was 3rd in a string and Marcus Green was 2nd in b string with new baby along to watch Dad pick up points for the club.Back to the field where Erin McBriar recorded her 2nd furthest throw ever with a mighty 36.25m in the womens discus to take the a string win with Heather Sheffield (self coached) taking a rest from officiating to come 2nd in the b string. In the mens triple jump again the club picked up maximum points with Sam Adams winning the a string and Sam Jarrett (coach Ernie Chambers) winning the b string. The scores were then read out again and the club had moved further into the lead and this position was only going to get better as Abi Belward and Jess Howells won the womens a & b string high jump respectively with Jess jumping a pb of 1.50m. Just 1 field event left now which was the mens discus which saw Charlie Elford-Pond come 3rd in the a string and Greth Lewis completed an exhausting day with a b string victory.Tim Smales then took on the 3K steeplechase (of course he did) and to great support from the team came home in a smidge under 12 mins for 3rd place. Up next were the 4 x 100m relays which saw the male quartet of Wye, Meadows-Smith, Adams & Gray come home 2nd but the female team of Howells, Belward, Shroff & Brindle ran the 2nd quickest time in the clubs history to win their race. Not a dry eye in the stadium for the next event which saw Kaela Dixon (coach James Mann) win the womens 2K steeplechase after attempting it for the first time and Kaela increased with confidence with every lap to huge cheers from her WADAC teammates.The traditional last races of the day were the 4 x 400m relays. The womens team of Belward, Gill, Jeffries & Clark came home 2nd but the mens team of Withers, Adams, Meadows-Smith and Evison won the very last race of the day and with it sealed victory for the team.Huge thanks to Ernie, Heather, Simon, Kathryn & Moira who officiated for the team gaining our maximum points for officials along with the parent helpers Pete & Darran. This was quite simply the best team performance I have been involved in since joining the club with amazing team spirit and a great desire from everybody to help the team and their teammates out. The sun shone which also helped in the leafy Berkshire surroundings and the final match scores were as follows (subject to offical confirmation).1st Winchester 314 points, 2nd Portsmouth 286 points, 3rd Guildford 221 points, 4th Ashford 181 points, 5th Hastings 175 points, 6th Bournemouth 67 points. the next match is in Aldershot on Sunday the 18th June, please make yourself available for this.