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.

A Huge 30 CAC Athletes at the U15/17 UK Championships.

Following the senior UK Championships, it was back to Birmingham just five days later for the under 17 and 15`s to contest the younger version of these championships and no fewer than thirty of our members were involved. It was the Friday evening which saw Jorjia March take the 800 metres under 17 title with 2m 13.93s - her third title over this distance in the past two months having won the Middlesex Schools and Southern titles. There were no further golds but over the weekend two bronze medals were gained, Harry Lee in the 100 metre hurdles who recorded a pb of 13.25s in his heat then in the final reduced this time with 13.01s ,a fast race for the UK ranking lists show the top three here now head the UK ranking list for the season. From the shot putt, again the under 17`s, Matilda Hewitt was to place third with a putt of 13.58m whilst Monica Malagala was to be fourth just twenty centimetres less. Both then contested the discus, and Monica was again to take that unfortunate place just outside the medals with her 36.19m whilst Matilda placed ninth with 30.16m. Glutton for competition Monica returned on the Sunday and in the hammer throw recorded a pb of 46.39m to finish seventh.  Events so different to her first performance of the summer season - an 800-metre race at Norwich. The hurdles can be a cruel event, one error on approaching a barrier and your chances have gone, Lily Hartman has been in great form of late and here she won her here heat in 45.05s but to the final and hopes of getting close to her best of 43.69s did not materialize and 46.92s left her in ninth place. In the 80metre hurdles Amelie Scott won her heat in 11.54, then 11.60 in the final to place seventh, Amelie was also involved in the long jump and with 5.59m was sixth.  At under 15 level Chloe Allam twice improved on her best in the 75m hurdles - first in the heats with 12.82s and then in the semi-final where her 11.77s left her just short of reaching the final. It was also a semi-final in the 100m although her best time on the day was in the heats with 12.91s. There was a pb in the shot putt for Shindara Ayo-Adeyemo, another under 15 year, with her effort of 11.07m, this after a time of 12.47s in the heats of the hurdles. Two fine performances came from the field events for under 17 men as Charlie Pyner took sixth place in the high jump by clearing 1.94m whilst in the javelin Zak Williams with 54.36m in the javelin placed 8th. From the high jump Amy Pugsley placed 9th whilst in the triple jump Katie Lowe was just shy of her best and with 10.19m placed 8th. Back to the track finals and at under 17 level Ezrah Harrold with 4m40.19s placed 10th whist in the under 15`s Lily Sanford with 4.49.64s finished 11th. Another under 15 Erin Kelly won her heat of the 800m in 2m14.07s and with 2m 17.63s was 7th in the final. Last of our athletes to show in finals Isobella Eida set a pb in the 3000m with 10m 55.56s. Although 12th on the result sheet this was a combined race containing both age groups - izzy as an under 15 year can claim 5th.

Yes there were another dozen youngsters carrying our colours without proceeding to the finals of their chosen events and almost certainly they will benefit from competing at this level of competition.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft.

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