The adventure begins! Despite two trains and a coach, the main party arrived in good spirits on a warm and pleasant day at the Leckwith Stadium in Cardiff. Everyone was a little unsure of the standard to expect but the sight of Howard Frost clearing height after height in the pole vault right in front of us all, eventually getting a PB of 3.80m, gave us all a lift. Paul Kyberd drove all the way from London just to do the one event, the ‘B’ string pole vault, and got a great 4th place which in the end proved vital! Spirits were lifted even more when Joe Appiah, again right in front of us, got a great second place in the ‘A’ string long jump with Matt Burton gaining a third in the ‘B’ string – Yes – we could live at this level.
Jermaine Mays in the 800m and John Browne in the 100m produced excellent points with second places in the ‘A’ strings (with solid backing from Paul Egboh in the ‘B’ 100m). Shaun Mulligan, nowhere near any sort of fitness, got a 56.7 clocking in the 400m hurdles and 17 year old debutant Antoni Davis Philip came a superb second in the ‘B’ string only just losing out on the dip!
Then near maximum points in the steeplechase with James Connor (2nd in the ‘A’) and Andrew Dunwoody (1st in the ‘B’) both producing their best ever opening times to a season. We then dipped away in the middle of the meeting but nevertheless added steady points in the high jump, discus, 110m hurdles and 400m. Next great jumping by another new boy, 16 year old Trevor Okoroafor produced a massive PB of 15.40m in the triple jump backed by another massive talent Matthew Burton winning the ‘B’ string and gaining near maximum points. Next up 18 year old Jay Thomas showed what a great competitor he is as he went head to head with Enfield’s international shot putter and with the lead changing on virtually every throw Jay managed to win by just 1cm as he launched the putt out to 15.60m for a life time best! His coach, veteran Albert Johnson secured a third place in the ‘B’ string competing no less than seven divisions higher than his first competition for us all those years ago!
John Browne, free from injury at last, showed how much he had improved with another second place in the ‘A’ string 200m – a massive jump up in standard from being the ‘B’ string runner in 2006 in the division below! Our man from Cornwall, Luke Payne produced a 52m throw in the javelin but his shoulder injury posed real problems here (and put him out for the rest of the season) but with Alan Porter they gained valuable points. Alan then filled in on three throws gaining 2nd and 3rd places to show just how valuable he is to the team.
The race of the day in terms of sheer quality was the 1500m with no less than six internationals but Jermaine Mays superbly controlled the race and won with a perfectly judged finish. Paul Pollock also ran really positively in such a high standard race and brought home a further ten points.
A dropped baton in the 4 x 100m, well retrieved by Howard cost us points but Simon Taylor brought us back with a near PB run in the 5000m. When the results were announced we were a good fourth place overall but that was before the forceful Ken Pike insisted that the organisers had got it wrong. After initial resistance they checked the scores and as the new results were read out in reverse order excitement mounted in the stands and the cheer must have been heard in London as an unbelievable second place was announced!
At one stroke we had nearly secured our aim for the season of staying up. Confidence and that feel good factor was sky high after a result that made our presence felt by virtually every other club in the British League.