Nene Valley Harriers almost pulled off a stunning win in their British League Division Three match at Chelmsford.
The Harriers finished a lowly seventh out of the eight teams in the first round at Cornwall last month, failing to record a single A string win.
But in round two it was a totally different story as they were able to field a much stronger line-up.
After a string of superb performances they closed the day in second position – just 32 points adrift of Havering.
The result moves Nene Valley up to fourth in the table ahead of the final fixtures in Bournemouth (July 7) and Yeovil (August 6).
Martin Tinkler, who missed the first match in Cornwall, returned to spearhead a healthy points haul from the throwing events.
The Geoff Capes-trained athlete won the A string shot with a personal best (PB) of 14.87m and finished second in the A string discus with 42.48m, which was just a couple of centimetres off his best.
Simon Achurch, the team’s senior citizen, added valuable support with two B string seconds.
In the javelin, Tomas Saunorious was back in action after an 18-month injury lay-off and did well to claim second place in the A string.
Young gun Alex Ingram threw a season’s best 53.35m to take the B string honours, while there was also a B string win for long jumper Matthew Hudson.
On the track, the Harriers’ highlights were provided by James McCrae and Max Everest.
McCrae clocked a PB of 1.53.95mins for his fourth place in the 800m A race and backed that up with a tactical victory in the 1,500m B race.
Loughborough University student Max Everest made an impressive return to action by winning the 110m hurdles in a new PB and club record 14.72secs.
Nene Valley team manager Tim Needham said: “To finish second was a great result seeing as it was in reality a home match for the three Essex clubs – Chelmsford, Havering and Southend.”
Match result: 1st Havering 341pts; 2nd Nene Valley 309pts; 3rd Southend 302pts; 4th Bournemouth 283pts; 5th Newquay 276pts; 6th Chelmsford 268pts; 7th Yeovil 224pts; 8th Trafford 180pts.
