Our Juniors Make EYAL & Club History in Claiming Their Third Successive League and Cup Double.

Victory at Melbourne Park for our girls and boys in the EYAL FINAL to go alongside the league title - an achievement that any of the clubs involved would be proud of but to complete the double for the third successive year is an accomplishment for I can find no records of this being achieved in the league previously. Full marks to all the youngsters involved for even those points gained outside the top two in events were vital in the final score. We must also give credit to the coaching team that have aided the performances throughout the campaign.

Final score reads as.. 1st CHELMSFORD 673 points, SSAthletis/Enfield 624, Havering 579, Shaftesbury Harriers 557, Norwich 451 and Stevenage 447. In addition, two age groups topped their groups for further awards and we will start with these.

With 122 points our under 17 girls built up a lead of 24 points, ahead of Havering on 98.  Obviously, there were many individual performances in this success including maximum points in several events. No surprise that the throws should lead the way for this has been the case throughout the season. In the shot putt Matilda Hewitt and Monica Malagala set the trend, come the discus and Matilda was now joined by Maddison Poulter who rose to the occasion with a pb of 30.04m. With only one competitor required in the hammer Monica Malagala won with an impressive 50.34m - going beyond the 50 metres for the first time. On the track Amelie Scott took her first win in the hurdles and Chelsea Clarke made this a double by taking the `B` string. This pairing came close to another double with Amelie winning the long jump with Chelsea this time placing second.  In the sprints Lily Hartman placed second in both 100 and 200 with Michelle Shadipe winning the`B` 100 and Alicija Yalaju second in the 200 having earlier come up with a pb of 1.60m in the high jump for second place whilst Amy Pugsley won the second string. In the 300m it was second place for Stephanie Smith followed by first spot for Lucy Bulman. No surprise that the 4 x 100 relay should feature another first place. Only weak spot in this age group was the middle distance for none of those members who have gained medals in championship races during the season made themselves available. Full marks to Madison Poulter for stepping into the breach in events unfamiliar to her, the 1500m and pole vault just to earn the odd points. Well done for taking these on.

The under 15 age girls gained our second age group award with 111 points, an advantage over closest rivals of 17. Again, the throws brought a glut of these points Olivia Mullineaux winning the hammer and discus whilst placing second in the shot - an event which saw Shindra Ayo-Adeyemo winning the `B` string. The discus had also provided a win in the`B` via Timmy Osei. The 100 metres brought full points through Abigail McElroy and Morinsola Adenugu with Abigail following up with second over 200m - Katie Lowe took third in this, The 800 metres was another event bringing full points via Ava King and Isla Kehoe and then at 1500m this was repeated with Erin Kelly and Francesca Philips taking the honours. Again there was victory in the relay.

No winners from the under 13`s although Breanna Dosumu took second in the 100m and high jump and completed a busy day with third in the high jump with Macie Hall taking second spot in the `B` result. There was a solid run from Bella Kehoe to finish second in the 800 and a gallant run by Abigail Knight who seemed dwarfed by her opponents and needing three strides to their two. Over the hurdles Laurel Chandler finished in third place. It was to be second place for each of the three age group, the under 13`s only 6 points adrift of the combined team of SS Athletics and Enfield who also topped the under 15`s by 21. The under 17`s went to Havering by a margin of 9.

The day started bright for the under 13`s with maximum points from the hurdles with Jacob Allam and Luca Wright. Over at the long jump Jack Armbruster took second with Toby Stothard winning the `B`. In the 100m Jacob placed third but in the `B` race it was a first for Jack. Moving to the 200m and Issac Coleman was a winner with Toby Stothard taking a second place. Issac also had a second placing - in the shot behind Franklin Johnson. The middle distance came into the picture with Dylan Law second in the `A` 1500m with Freddie Blacketer winning the `B` category. It was the middle-distance scoring best from the under 15`s for in the 800 metres the pairing of Khaya Fakazi and Jake Boarer took the honours whilst on to the 1500m Fred Ferman second and Joshua Dalton first ran them close. For the star performance at this age level, we must take the high jump with Jake Reed winning with a height of 1.85m – Edward Delaney placed second in the`B`. Jake also had a third in the hurdles in which Felix Churchill-Brown claimed a first. In the discus there were two second placings via Hector Johnson and Bevan Dove the later having started the day with a win in the hammer event, Good also to see points being claimed in the pole vault by Toby Tubbs in third place.

No surprise that the under 17`s hurdles see Harry Lee taking the leading role for he is indeed ranked number three in the UK. His win here paved the way for Marcus Fazackerley to win the `B` string. A competitor of many talents for Harry also won the discus event in which there was a second placing for Dan Brown. Dan also had a second placing in the long jump and with Jeremy Andersen in the major role in the shot putt brought about full points. The javelin also claimed two firsts with Zak Williams and Jeremy Andersen our pairing. On the track the 800m saw Thomas Carter finishing second in the `A` race with Daniel Pollard taking the `B` race. With only one competitor per club in the pole vault Ed Hughes moved up from the under 15`s to this under 17 level and gained a third place. Now for the real five-star performance of the day, not just from a Chelmsford athlete but from the meeting as a whole. It came from the high jump and as the height increased brought much attention from spectators around the area in front of the refreshment hut. All others had been eliminated as the bar was raised to 1.98m and Charlie Pyner had the stage to himself. Already number seven in the UK rankings at 1.95m he now cleared the 1.98m and moves to number five in the UK. GREAT PERFORMANCE - WELL DONE

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Report written by Roy Meadowcroft.

CAC Seniors Sign off their Season in a Tight Match at Norwich.

The call for support for the final Southern League fixture at Norwich failed to receive full backing and it was a shadow of the team which featured so well in the National League qualifying meeting two weeks earlier.

There were no fewer than thirteen wins out of a possible 36 from the men's events with a further ten seconds or thirds. James Becker from the under 20 age group has been a most regular in turning out all season as here he came up with wins from both to 100 and 200 metres whilst Nathan Moses came through for a win in the `B` string 100 with Clark Viernes taking second in the 200 `B` race,  Full points had earlier been gained from the 800 via our pairing of Luke Oliver and Joe Perry who achieved a pb of 1m 57.1s. There was also a pb for Ethan Reilly in the 1500 as he placed second but behind him Thomas Woodward was to take the honours in the `B` result. Ethan also contested the steeplechase set a season’s best when breaking the tape, Full marks to veteran Ken Hoye as he covered both the steeplechase and 3000 metres. There was another win for Bradley Reed in the 110m hurdles and here we must mention Joe Wells taking third place as he also filled in places in high jump, triple jump, pole vault and javelin - none his specialist events - good team spirit. The shot putt provided maximum points with Alastair Brown and Oliver Graham our pairing and the hammer event also achieved this distinction with Oliver now taking the major role with Yasha Bobash alongside.

Alas from the women's results we see only five firsts with the shot putt bringing a double - and a pb for under 17 Matilda Hewitt with 11.71m. Helene Ingvaldsen took the `B` string having won the hammer in which it was a second place for Charlotte Graham. On the track there were first places for Lucy Bulman in the 200 and Sophie McCall in the 5000m in which both she and Lucy Nuttall set pb`s - Lucy also achieved this in the steeplechase.

One cannot ignore that with so many missing middle distance athletes missing Lucy also ran the 1500m whilst Molly Drane and Sophie McCall also covered more than a fair share of events to pick up points.

At the end of the day, it was a win for Norwich with 292 points with the combined Ipswich and Colchester team second on 255, just five ahead of Chelmsford, Heathside 225, Havering 215 and Harrow 154 followed. Norwich jumped up to third in the table with Chelmsford's final place 7th ahead of Ipswich and Heathside, Harrow who had been third were obviously still celebrating their National League title and drop to tenth.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft.

An Effort to be Proud of in the NAL Promotion Final.

Well, we missed out on promotion to the topflight of the National League, but we most certainly did ourselves proud as we finished third against such strong competition as the final result showed with Tonbridge on top with 583 points followed by Swansea 555, CHELMSFORD 502, Sale (Manchester) 483, York 435, Crawley 405, Herts. Phoenix 348 and Yeovil 205.

Prior to the day I had listed our top two in each event, obviously everybody would not have been available and indeed no fewer than twenty fell into this category. A large proportion of these are in the under 17 age group and have of cause been involved with school exams whilst competing in major championships throughout the season so understandably this has been their first opportunity to book family holidays. An example of what we missed - in the women's high jump we failed to score, the competition was won with 1.63m and we have three competitors with better heights that this. However, let`s not dwell further on this and look at the highlights from our team. In the women's events there was a great double from Kissiwaa Mensah as she won the 100m in 11.66s and the 200m with 23.83s. Returning for relays at the end of the meeting and joined Nneka Okoh, Erin Minton-Branfoot and Georgia Tombs there was another win in the 4 x 100m with a time of 47.62s  - a best of the season. To the women's throwing events and Jessica Hopkins won the shot putt with 13.36m with sister Maegan`s 11.17m ensuring maximum points by heading the `B` string. Jess was also to place first in the `B` discus and score further points in the javelin. From the hammer event both Helene Ingvaldsen (56.14m) and Charlotte Graham (41.60m) took second place, Charlotte was also involved in the discus and javelin events.  Back to the track and in the 400m it was a third place for Georgia Tombs with 57.35s, just shy of her best time. One of the few under 17`s here Lottie Wilkin placed fourth in the 800m, again not far short of her best with 2m 17.01s. Lucy Nuttall doubled up by contesting 800 and 1500m with Jessica Walker another of our younger members her partner in the later event. There was a personal best for Sophie McCall in the 3000m with 11m 04.92s and veteran Wendy King stepped in again to help the score along by running the second string. Lily Parris covered both hurdles’ events whilst the steeplechase saw Holly Watson setting a pb with Molly Drane close winning the second string. Indeed, the steeplechase proved to be a good event for CAC for in the men`s race full points came our way with Will Nuttall winning in 9m21.32s and Ethan Reilly on 9m 55.83s another to improve on his best - and placing first `B` string athlete. Again, the throws brought many points with the hammer best of these with Oliver Graham (57.86m) and Yasha Bobash (47.34) bringing in full points. There were two second placings in the shot putt via Alastair Brown (14.83m) and Kevin Wilson (12.66). This pairing also contested the discus with Kevin`s 42.92m giving him third place and Alastair on 41.71m second in `B` string. Full points also were gained in the high jump with Seb Clatworthy soaring over 2.08m and under 17-year Charlie Pyner 1.88m. In other field events two under 20`s in Sam Wright third and Jack Hughes sixth scored well in the long jump and pole vault. Over the middle-distance events there was consistency in performances without any first places. Take the 3000 metres which saw Joseph Grange 8m 31.39s and Finn Rafferty 8m 57.74s taking second spots, it was likewise in the 1500m with Gregory Martin 4m 05.45s and Joe Perry 4m 11.78s whilst over 800m veteran Paul Grange finished third on 1m 55.07s another just short of a season’s best Jacob Alexander with 1m 58.68 took fourth spot.  At the 400 metres Onyeka Okoh ran a season’s best of 49.04s having earlier being second over the 400m hurdles with 52.46s. It was to be another season`s best in the 110m hurdles with Bradley Reed fourth in 14.92s, Sam Wright another of our more junior members took third in the `B`race in 16.12s.

This does not complete the seasons fixtures with a Southern League meeting at Norwich on the 30th, Currently we sit in fourth place with eleven league points just one of six clubs on this total. We head Norwich by just ONE match point so it could not possibly be closer thus only a win can keep us ahead. Apart from the other clubs on 11 points a further two are on ten and any could overhaul us and possibly leave us mid table.

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Report written by Roy Meadowcroft.