North of England League Div 1 Match 3 Mens Team Report from Darren Thomas
Wavertree, 2nd July 2006
Again we were let down by the lack of distance runners, which for any kind of progression for
the men’s team we need to address urgently, but nevertheless off from Thornes Park we set at
the early time of 8.30am. We started the journey well by delivering a Leeds city athlete to
Liverpool, as they didn't have a team bus - nothing like helping out the one team we we're
contesting the division against !!
We were hit early in the week with news of injuries to our main 400 and 200 runners Johnny Shearn
and Jim Davies, plus again a few guys who couldn't be bothered turning out for the team due to
them no longer being the fastest in the club. Again we need everyone on the day as injuries and
no shows proves you need a strong team philosophy to get through the day, plus willing stand
in members who will get a run anyway as they provide guest races at the venue. Young Ricardo
Francis performed admirably again, doing the sprint double with Johnny Uridge in the 100 and
Alan in the 200m. Alan stood in for Johhny Uridge as Johnny volunteered to do the 400m for the
club, and was too exhausted to do all 3 sprint distances.
Middle distance was again just one recognisable distance runner in Nathan Elliot who showed great
team spirit to do both the 800 and the 1500m in heat that was mirroring that of the Sahara desert.
Sprinter Gareth Hepworth again covered the B 800 meters but alas we had no B 1500 runner or 5K
OR 3K Steeple chasers (VERY VERY Disappointing).
As per usual we had to cover most of the field events with multi eventers due to our big thrower
Rimatus being back in his native Lithuania for his home championships. I did however manage to
persuade an old friend of mine to come out of retirement and compete for us (he hasn't trained
for 3yrs). Matthew Clay is 22 and very talented and he turned out a top performance for us by
winning the A long jump with 6.46m (although the results did show Alan Ruddock but they got the results
the wrong way around, although Alan was 2nd in the B with 6.10m), and was 2nd in the
A high jump with 1.85m. Myself and Richard Gayle covered the hammer discus and shot, with me
and Mark Smith doing the Javelin.
Mark and Rob Lee teamed up to both do the Pole Vault, 110m Hurdles and the 400m Hurdles. Rob
later went on to win the Triple Jump with the sort of distances we expect off this highly
talented jumper (Full results below). Lewis Tatt was making his seasonal debut for the men’s
team and performed well in the 400m plus both relays. With the omission of distance runners
plus persons not turning out for the women’s team we were always fighting a losing battle
(plus Sale, Trafford and Gateshead used some of there British men’s team to make sure the teams
placed well to try and avoid relegatioin!!!) and placed 5th on the day. Although still in 2nd
place overall we have thrown away our chance of winning the league as Leeds are well clear.
The people who have let the team down need to build a lot of bridges with team mates who they
let down big time. I am gutted as we had a genuine chance of winning this year, and I hope
those persons who have not contributed feel half as bad as I do.
Onwards and upwards for the final match in August, then some serious sitting down to plan the
future for this team !!
Mens Results as follows :-
Event A performance, B performance
100m Ricardo Francis 3rd 11.3, John Uridge 1st 11.4
200m Ricardo Francis 3rd 22.9, Alan Ruddock 4th 23.8
400m Lewis Tatt 4th 52.5, John Uridge 5th 53.3
800m Nathan Elliot 4th 1.59.7, Gareth Hepworth 6th 2.16.5
1500m Nathan Elliot 6th 4.25.00, B no runner
3000sc A no runner, B no runner
5000 A no runner, B no runner
110mH Rob Lee 5th 17.0, Mark Smith 1st 17.5
400mH Mark Smith 2nd 59.9, Rob Lee 2nd 69.8
Hammer Richard Gayle 4th 32.29, Darren Thomas 4th 25.68
Discus Darren Thomas 6th 29.06, Richard Gayle 4th 27.73
Shot Richard Gayle 4th 10.13, Darren Thomas 3rd 10.12
Javelin Mark Smith 5th 39.53, Darren Thomas 3rd 37.06
Long Jump Matthew Clay 1st 6.46, Alan Ruddock 2nd 6.10
High Jump Matthew Clay 2nd 1.85, Mark Smith 2nd 1.80
Triple Jump Rob Lee 1st 13.12, Richard Gayle 4th 10.88
Pole Vault Rob Lee 2.70, Mark Smith 2.40
4 X 100 Relay RF,JU,LT,AR 4th 44.6
4 X 400 Relay LT,GH,MS,JU
Well done lads I am extremely proud of the guys that turned out. Thank you
Team Captain and happy to be back competing at an extremely below par level
Darren Thomas
