We all met at Ladywell, Joe Appiah supplied the mini bus and our driver Andrew Dunwoody turned up with a back spasm – a relapse of a bike injury last year. Yours truly had a go at emergency treatment and after a brief infliction of severe pain and a drive to Picketts Lock. Andrew couldn’t walk yet alone run – oopps!!

The new Picketts Lock stadium was the venue for our second match of the season and with Jeffrey Lawal Balogun not available, Jermaine Mays only competing in the 1500m and Conrad Williams only doing the 200m, the team looked a bit stretched.

The usual weak start in the pole vault, long jump and hammer was almost inevitable. The first track event, the 400m hurdles saw Shaun Mulligan and Antoni Davis Phillip giving a good account of themselves but finding the opposition quite hot.

The sprinters of John Browne and Matthew Wepke failed to gain massive points and it did look rather forlorn at this early stage of the match. The high jump and 800m added to our woes with Andy Moreton having a real problem and a 2m15.8sec 800m! Could it get any worse?

James Connor ran a great 3000m steeplechase and was ably supported by Richard Munn in the ‘B’ string. So at last some good event points. The discus was better than expected and at last we were climbing up the table. The sprint hurdles next and despite a great 15.58sec by Joe Appiah and a terrific support in the ‘B’ string by Shaun Mulligan, points were hard to come by in a high standard event. HC, Trevor Okoroafor again beat Matthew Burton in the triple jump and thus quite good points were gained, despite Trevor complaining of a back injury. Without Conrad the 400m yielded only a paltry five points! (two lasts) The 1500m saw the first ‘A’ string win of the day with Jermaine taking the race by the scruff of the neck and going for it. Only Frank Tickner of TVH could hold on and Jermaine won from gun to tape. Gary Thornton, running brilliantly took 2nd in the ‘B’ race. And like busses, Kent AC took the next ‘A’ string race with John Browne scorching to a 21.3 clocking. The electric timing failing at a crucial moment. Conrad’s appearance in the ‘B’ race was a little disappointing. Jay Thomas and Albert Johnson claimed great points in the shot putt and we were now well vlear of the bottom two. A high standard 5000m swathe Kent AC athletes struggling for points and in the javelin an unfit, injury ravaged Albert Johnson struggled to get over 37m!

Both relays, satisfactorily completed and Kent AC finished a respectable fifth in the match. It was a strange day, only a couple of high points and quite a few low points yet we still finished fifth, over 30 points in front of local rivals Blackheath & Bromley.