
For our second Southern League fixture of the campaign, we were able to enjoy a home meeting and with an improved turn out it brought about a change of fortune compared to match one at Basingstoke. Here we gained a good win with 288 points to head Harrow on 276, Medway 234, Brighton 220, Bracknell 173Â and Reading 153 - a result which shoots CAC up to eighth place in the table.
From the sprints we saw a fine double success for James Becker winning the 100m with a season’s best of 10.9s and later taking the 200m with a personal best of 23.00s.  However, it was to the middle distance that we saw very nearly complete domination. Over the 800m veteran Paul Grange finished in second spot with 1m 56.3s following which Thomas Woodward won the `B` string in 1m 58.4s. For the increase in distance to 1500m and now maximum points were claimed via Joseph Grange, 4m 00.4s and William Nuttall, 4m 01.3s, whilst Finn Rattray as a non-scorer was hard on their heels with 4m 06.2s. In the 3000m there was a rare performance of THREE pb`s with Finn Rattray clocking 8m 37.7s, William Nuttall 8m 37.9s and Sam Plummer 8m 44.2s. Of course, this had brought full points whilst a further three runners were out there as back up`s. Another event bringing pb`s was the 400m hurdles via Marcus Fazackerley and William Nuttall. To the field events and in the pole vault Jack Hughes cleared a pb of 4.20m for second place and Stephen Adesina won the `B` with 3.25m the throws brought many points with a full house from the shot putt via Alastair Brown (14.75m) and Oliver Graham (12.00m). Oliver was also second in the hammer (57.06m) with Yasha Bobash winning the`B` with 48.58. It was good to see several younger members competing at this level for the first time and they can feel very pleased with their performances. Matilda Hewitt placed second in both shot and discus with efforts of 11.55m and 37.86m - both pb`s. Senior Helene Ingravelsen won the `B`string shot with 11.49m whilst winning the hammer with 58.90m and it was full points here with the support of Charlotte Graham on 39.95m Under 17 Amelie Scott took first place in the long jump whilst it was pleasing to see the return of Lily Parris in her first appearance on a UK track since 2023 although many races in the USA show good performance as she competed for her Princeton University and here she came up with a win in the 400 metre hurdles. Although not aware of the make-up of the team the 4 x 400 relay squad found success in 3m 53.9s. There were other solid performances by our young athletes including Lucy Nuttall and Katie Cox who each set pb`s in the 15000 metres but let`s go to other end of the spectrum with veteran Rebecca Quinlan winning the 3000 metres with over 50 Anna Nuttall taking second place in the `B` string. At long last we were seen to be competing in the women's pole vault AND within the 60 year age category. Well done Clare St.John-Coleman. Under 17 year old Alicja Yalaju covered three events and with Erin Minton-Branfoot four events they gleaned many points to bolster our score. Pity was we could this time find no 100m hurdlers and only one triple jumper.
Report written by Roy MeadowcroftÂ