A depleted Nene Valley Harriers senior squad rallied to an impressive victory in the third round of the Southern League at Colchester.
The Harriers, who went into the fixture as table-toppers, were facing the third, fourth and seventh placed teams in this match – and the squad was without athletes who were attending the England Athletics under-20 and under-23 championships on the same day.
Several members also had the Anglian Schools 24 hours later, as well as exam stresses and unfortunate injuries to contend with.
Despite the absentees, those athletes in attendance showed true team spirit in ensuring every event had its due contingent of Harriers, with the likes of Paul Parkin stepping into the 800m and 5,000m (masters 55 age group), Claire Smith competing in the 400m hurdles in order to allow usual hurdler, Dev Spencer, to compete and win the B string pole vault.
Special mention also goes to Gemma Skells who forwent her usual 100m and 200m to pick up a third place in the 800m and second place in the 3,000m.
The club’s spirit and effort was rewarded with a massive 27-point win on the day, meaning that they will go into the fourth round of fixtures at the top of the table.
The team support was there for all to see when the club started off the day leading after the 400m hurdles with wins from Rosie Jacobs, Sean Reidy and Phil Wilson.
They also bagged a double in the ladies’ pole vault thanks to Rosie Fresen winning the A string event.
That feat emulated in the men’s event, with Carl Titman and Reidy recording the wins.
So many victories were recorded on the day, but it should be noted that the Nene Valley throwers, Martin Tinkler, Simon Achurch, Isaac Huskisson and David Bush, dropped just two points in four throws events.
Amazingly, Andrea Jenkins, Becki Hall, Lydia Church, Ellie Mae Stokes and Alex Stubley only dropped three points between them in the ladies’ throws.
Stokes also teamed up with Emily Maltby to dominate the jumping events, with just one point dropped in the horizontal versions.
Maltby also recorded wins in the A string short hurdles and 100m.
Georgie Ivens dropped down to the short sprints due to a house move the day before and the club having suitable replacements in the 400m. She recorded good wins in both the 100m and 200m events.
The men’s 200m saw Sean Garmory record his second win and indeed personal best (PB) of the day following his 400m win earlier on just a few minutes after his late arrival.
Indeed, road works around Peterborough and diversions through more road works caused a number of late arrivals and on-the-day changes.
Maltby was the top points scorer of the day with 16 from an incredible five events, just outscoring Achurch and Stokes on 15 from four events.
All of those stepping into events put club points ahead of personal performance – as did many others on the day.
It was a great day out and sets up important remaining fixtures at Crawley (July 8) and Southampton (August 19), which could decide whether the league trophy returns to Nene Valley after a years’ absence.
Match result: 1st Nene Valley Harriers 241pts; 2nd Bracknell AC 214pts; 3rd Colchester Harriers 201.5pts; 4th Basingstoke & Mid Hants 117.5pts
