Grand final at Bedford for leading British clubs sees TVH emerge as Premiership champions again ahead of Blackheath & Bromley

Thames Valley Harriers held off the challenge of Blackheath & Bromley to retain their National Athletics league Premiership Cup at Bedford on Saturday (Aug 20).

With a late flourish, Blackheath & Bromley won both long relays but the holders clung on by 7.5 points.

Blackheath & Bromley were two match points down going into this final match, but double points were on offer. Determined to give Thames Valley Harriers a run for their money, Blackheath were led off by Bailey Stickings, who notched up his fourth 400m hurdles win of the campaign. He was just outside his best, too, when winning narrowly from Woodford Green’s Jack Laurie in 50.64.

Sam Reardon, who was fifth in the World Under-20 Championships earlier this month, added to Blackheath’s score, by taking the men’s 800m in 1:52.03.

Niamh Bridson Hubbard then ensured that Blackheath further extended their early lead by winning the women’s 800m in 2:11.33.

Success on the track continued for Blackheath as Kieran Daly had a legal wind on his back as he squeezed home in the 100m in a blanket finish with 10.42. At the half-way stage of the competition after 20 events, Blackheath still led, but by just two points.

However, Thames Valley were not to be denied and replied thanks to another women’s 400m hurdles win from Jess Tappin, this time in 57:46, albeit narrowly from Birchfield’s Ese Okoro. Southern champion Pippa Wingate then took advantage of other clubs’ absentees to win the hammer with a modest 56.60m.

Then Blackheath threw in James Whiteaker, who opened his javelin competition with a couple of 60m throws before unleashing 73.87m in the third round to see off the competition. He added a 65.86m fourth before calling it a day. It was the first league outing this year for the UK champion.

Thames Valley responded again, as Jude Bright-Davies’ first round triple jump of 15.89m held up as the best of the afternoon. Veteran Tosin Oke had a wind-assisted second round 15.80m for Woodford Green with Essex Ladies, but that was another win for the holders.

The Blackheath advantage however remained, albeit at just two points after 25 of the 38 events. After 28 event, though, Thames Valley took the lead for the first time by 12 points but, despite slipping further, Blackheath bounced back with 16-year-old Fleur Todd-Warmoth winning the women’s 1500m in 4:28.21, just a tenth of a second outside her PB and they kept up the pressure as Luke Dorrell took the 200m in 20.93 as Dan Putnam made it a double by taking the B-string and the TVH lead was down to nine points.

Some weak events followed for Blackheath as Thames Valley Harriers increased their match lead. Fourth ranked under-20 Morgan Squibb took the women’s 2000m steeplechase for Blackheath but all their wins were in vain.

Shaftesbury had two early men’s field event successes as Greg Thompson came out on top in a low-key discus competition and Paul Ogun led the long jump from the first round with 7.34m. Georgia Bell has kept a low profile since returning from studying in the United States but here turned out for Shaftesbury and narrowly took the women’s 3000m in a personal best 9:40.51 from Bridson Hubbard.

Shaftesbury’s Chris Bennett was in a close hammer competition with Birchfield’s Craig Murch before a 71.26m fifth round effort that comfortably won the competition and marked a quick return to form after a low-key Commonwealth Games 12th spot for Scotland.

Their club were leading in the men’s section of the competition and Jamal-Marcus Rhoden-Stevens put them further ahead with a 400m win, in 46.63 despite the swirling wind. However, they trailed by mid-afternoon down in sixth spot overall thanks to a less than competitive women’s contribution. There was a bright spot there late in the afternoon, however, as Shadine Duquemin won the discus with 57.19m.

Also late in the day, Shaftesbury had Akin Coward win the men’s high jump with 2.13m, his best outdoors for three years and his club’s fifth win.

Harrow, who had high hopes here, saw 17-year-old Amelia Gray, the English Schools silver medallist, out to 12.24m in the final round of the women’s triple jump, despite leaping into a 3.4m/sec headwind.

That wind was behind the high hurdlers as Miguel Perera, who ran a 13.58 personal best in the European Championships semi-final in Munich a few days earlier, won here with 13.76.

Harrow had pushed Thames Valley in earlier meetings of the league but were trailing in this Cup final but still had Dan Howells win the 1500m in 3:51.07, in a race where Blackheath fell further behind the new championship leaders.

Megan Bailey added the women’s pole vault for Harrow and had less failures than runner-up, Blackheath’s Sophie Dowson, after both cleared 3.93m. Despite having just four A-string wins they took third place in the Cup.

Birchfield also got in on the act as Commonwealth Games 8th placer Adele Nicoll comfortably took the women’s shot put. The Winter Olympian in bobsleigh had four throws over 16m and a best of 16.67m in the third round.

Team-mate and second-ranked Emma Hamplett found a modest 46.79m enough for her third league win of the season in the women’s javelin. Birchfield had seven A-string wins but could only finish sixth, as they had some weak events.

Windsor had been trailing in the Cup match but had a good women’s long jump win from Alice Hopkins’ two 6.13m jumps, the first of which had a legal wind reading and they wound up seventh on the day.

Trafford too had been having a quiet afternoon, but UK second-ranked Alicia Barrett used a 1.7m/sec following wind to win the women’s 100m hurdles in a 13.20. This was from Thames Valley’s 36-year-old Angela Broadbelt-Blake’s 13.50. Seren Bundy-Davies then added the flat 400m for Trafford but they were eighth and last in their match.

Woodford had just three A-string wins but second-ranked Youcef Zatat was out to a narrow personal best 18.73m in the fifth round to take the men’s shot where all of his five legal throws were over 18m.

With good minor placings they finished fifth, but the Cup went to Thames Valley who, although scoring many less A-string wins than Blackheath, retained their title, albeit in yet another different format.

There were some doubts that the European Championships would take athletes away from this Cup competition and no doubt it did. There were still significant gaps in certain events, with the women’s triple jump six short of a full complement and the men’s three short. The women’s 800m and 3000m also had three vacant spots.

MATCH: 1 TVH 642.5; 2 Blackheath & B 535; 3 Harrow 505; 4 Shaftesbury 454; 5 WG&EL 4475; 6 Birchfield 426; 7 WSEH 376; 8 Trafford 346

Premiership Cup (after 4 matches): 1 Thames Valley 40, 2 Blackheath & Bromley 36, 3 Harrow 33, 4 Shaftesbury Barnet 30, 5 WG&EL 27, 6 Birchfield 20 (1183), 7 WSEH 20 (1146.5); 8 Trafford 14

NATIONAL ATHLETICS LEAGUE PREMIERSHIP, Plate Finals, Bedford, August 20

Whilst the Cup was for the top eight Premiership clubs after three matches, this Plate competition gave the bottom eight something still to fight for, yet alone the battle to stave off relegation.

The City of Sheffield & Dearne were winners after leading for most of the afternoon and notched up nine A string wins. Although just one more than Newham & Essex Beagles, their rivals, who had less support from minor good placings.

Newham had got off to a good start as Thomas Head won the men’s hammer; the England bronze medallist throwing 62.72m in the final round after four earlier efforts over 60m. Then Finette Agyapong added a women’s 100m win in 11.65 before making it a double with a 200m in 23.72.

Katie Head is a regular league hammer winner and she added to the Newham & Essex Beagles’ tally with a 61.16m fourth round effort but her club was languishing despite eight A string wins. As the afternoon neared its close. Joe Harris added the javelin for them with 62.13m.

However, the day belonged to Sheffield and the Bedford wind blew their 20-year-old Louie Hinchliffe, the England champion earlier this summer at the same venue, to a 10.29 100m victory. He could not quite pull off a sprint double as he was just headed by Newham’s Ben Snaith’s 21.04, in the 200m.

At the half-way point of the competition, City of Sheffield had led by 12 points from Glasgow and they then had Jonathan Heath, the 2010 English Schools champion, leap over his best height since 2015 with a 2.08m high jump clearance. This ensured that their lead had increased to 50 points with just seven events to go.

Eve Pound then added a win in a 3000m with a PB 10:11.86 but results elsewhere meant that their lead was down to 24 points. They rounded off with a double victory in the two men’s relay events. Sheffield’s efforts moved them up from third going into this final match to take the Cup.

Glasgow had travelled furthest to Bedford and they had a few wins including by Reuben Nairne 7.35m, in the men’s long jump.

Philippa Millage, the British W40 record-holder, gave the Glasgow combo a good win in the women’s 800m with 2:10:23 to celebrate her 42nd birthday five days earlier, but was unable to make it a middle-distance double as she was narrowly headed by Swansea’s Megan Carter-Davies’ 4:30.56 PB, in the 1500m. The Scots actually came out on top in the women’s events but wound up second overall, after pulling back a lot of ground on the winners Sheffield.

Swansea had been trailing but then had fourth ranked shot putter Pat Swan take his event with 17.05m and good minor placings ensured a fourth-place finish.

Bristol & West also had a good women’s winner as fifth ranked Jenna Blundell took the 100m hurdles in 13.78.

Notts posted a couple of A string wins before World U20 Champs representative Poppy Malik, the third ranked UK under-20, took the women’s 400m in 55.82.

Southampton had been trailing for most of the day but had a late win in the women’s triple jump through Mary Elcock’s 12.54 windy fourth round effort

The bottom three clubs in the Plate, Newham, Cardiff and Bristol are automatically relegated to the Championship for next summer whilst Newham will have to sweat on the outcome of a paper match between themselves and the fourth placed club in the Championship Cup.

MATCH: 1 Sheffield & D 527.5; 2 Glasgow 513; 3 Notts 457; 4 Swansea 453.5; 5 Newham & EB 446; 6 Bristol & W 406; 7 Cardiff 394; 8 Soton 339

Premiership Plate (after 4 matches): 1 Sheffield & Dearne 26; 2 Notts 23; 3 Swansea 22, 4 Glasgow Jaguars 20; 5 Newham & Essex Beagles 17, 6 Cardiff 11, 7 Bristol & West 10; 8 Southampton 9

NATIONAL ATHLETICS LEAGUE National 1, Round 4, Yate, August 20

Belgrave Harriers narrowly came out on top leaving Yeovil, who had won the previous round on their home turf, in second, but join them on by gaining promotion to the Championship next summer.

The two clubs were tied going into this double-points scoring final match so, who ever won the shoot-out would be champions.

Belgrave have relied a lot on sprinter Sam Ige and he again scored a sprint double for Belgrave, with 10.68 and 21.55, to complete a clean seep in the league this year but, elsewhere they just turned up to score good points.

Yeovil had 17-year-old Ben Jones, the English Schools sixth placer, who normally throws for Taunton, take the javelin with 56.25m.

Yeovil had 10 A-string wins compared to nine for Belgrave, while Portsmouth also had 10.

Hosts Yate and City of Portsmouth were closely matched and wound up with the same number of match points but it was Portsmouth who clinched third, mainly thanks to their big home win in match two. This gave the south coast club a place in the paper match with the 14th best championship club to see who goes in that league next season.

Sam Charig had taken the 1500m in that home match and here the 20-year-old was only just outside his best when adding the 800m in 1:51.29 for Portsmouth.

They also had 16-year-old Chloe Ramsay set a personal best 12.43 when winning the women’s 100m while UK fourth placer Andrew Knight added the men’s shot with a 16.41m final round throw.

Yate had their moments too and saw Adam Brooks, the England silver medallist, take the men’s high jump with 2.08m. They also scored in the men’s pole vault where their two modest vaulters were the only takers.

With Southend having called it a day mid-season, it was Milton Keynes who brought up the rear here but they did have victory in the opening field event. It was Kayleigh Presswell, the England bronze medallist and UK sixth placer, who threw 62.48m in the second round. She later added the discus and shot. but her club still finished in the basement.

Once again, the steeplechases were the Cinderella events with just three men and four women toeing the line for a swim.

Match: 1 Belgrave 513; 2 Yeovil 486; 3 Yate 479; 4 Portsmouth 469; 5 Milton Keynes 320

Final standings after 4 matches: 1 Belgrave 27; 2 Yeovil 25; 3 Portsmouth 18 (1901); 4 Yate 18 (1726); 5 Mil K 11; 6 Southend 2