Report by Tom Gayle

To conclude my report on the last league meeting at Abingdon I ear marked the final fixture as the ‘great escape’ for the City of Stoke Senior Men’s team to preserve their National British League status. Heading into the match the mission statement for assured survival was first and foremost for the club to beat Team Southampton, but with the added small print of Team Southampton having to finish last and for City of Stoke to finish at least third.

During the final week leading up to the fixture team manager Steve Shubotham began to look at the bigger picture and realise that this was unfortunately quiet literally ‘mission impossible’ due to ever growing list of injuries (Rodger Skedd, Tom Gayle, Robin Smith, Sam Bishop, Rob Eggelton, Alistair Candlish, David Mountford, Steve Butterfield, Andrew Marsh) and unavailable athletes (Rob Black, Andrew Corey, Morris Fox, Damian Gallagher, Martin Chomanicz, Richard Porter, Danny Barker). Subsequently the clubs priorities for this fixture began to switch focus. Instead attention was drawn to the clubs lifeline, the British League play off match at Abingdon on the 15^th September. In order to qualify for the match the bottom two from National league Division 3, thus ourselves and Rugby & Northampton, along with teams from the U.K regional leagues who believe they deserve a place in the top domestic league of athletics British League all submit a paper team. This paper team consists of the clubs best two performances in each event throughout the 2007 league and Cup season. Each performance will be allocated points and on paper the top 8 teams that score the highest earn the right to contest for a place in the 2008 British league at Abingdon. Given this the main priority for the match was to focus upon events that we could possibly improve upon our previous best marks in order to improve the paper team.

The small team that did travel to Derby performed admirably as those on show provided lifetime, and season’s best performances to aid the clubs cause.

In a great display of commitment to fighting the clubs plight for British League survival Gregg Nixon and Martin Bartholomew arrived at Derby after touching down in the U.K at 5am that morning following a ‘quiet and relaxing’ two-week break in Ibiza. Unfazed by this they performed exceptionally, as Greg threw a seasons best in the hammer, and Martin astonishingly a personal best in the discus, performances which both bettered the clubs paper team.

In the sprints the club struck a great balance between youth and experience through the shape of Liam Tracey and Tony Leigh. Tracey, just 16 years of age, who made his British League debut at the last fixture, continued his current purple patch of form. A fortnight previous to the fixture, the Chris Brackstone athlete lifetime best stood at 51.8. At the Young Athlete league he etched that down to 51.6, the Junior Men’s league last weekend saw him chop it down to 51.2, and at Derby he nicked another couple of tenths off with 51.00. It was another much needed performance to again better our paper team. Even more impressively he retuned to the track minutes later to record his second personal best of the day with 23.54 in the 200m.

Likewise, Leigh is currently enjoying a rich vain of form. A week after collecting two silver medals at the British Masters Championships the 41 year old produced a fine sprinting display of 11.54 and 22.85 in the short sprints. While this did not improve the paper team, given the injury to Steve Butterfield Leigh is proving to be a more that worthy and timely replacement.

James Dohnal is another athlete who embodies great team spirit, as he like all of our decathletes enjoyed a typically busy afternoon. This time on the agenda though was the notorious 400m hurdles. Prior to Derby steeplechasers Steve Bazell and Gavin Walters had used the event as a warm up for the barrier race, thus the paper team was not that strong. Decathlete Dohnal though combined his hurdling ability and 400m strength to clock just over 60 seconds, improving the paper team by a much needed nine seconds. Furthermore he even later added a new personal best in the javelin to his day’s achievements.

Chris Harvey was also an invaluable asset in the field, producing his best form of the season in both the long and triple jump. From the paper match perspective his triple jump was extremely significant as he provided the club with a 12 metre jump for the first time the 2007 campaign.

In the distance events there were further improvements to the paper team. Unfortunately due to long-term club devotee Andy Prophett now a higher claim member his performances this season do not count in the paper match. Subsequently the ever prepared Adrian Thiemicke stepped into action to join in the B string 800m to ensure the club had two marks to put forward, clocking a season’s best 2.33.10.

Carl Shubotham, who is currently enjoying the best season of his life enjoyed a rare treat in this fixture as for the first time this campaign he was able to focus on one event, the 1500m, instead of the gruelling 800 and 1500m double. Despite being sidelined through illness for the majority of the week prior to the competition he rose to the occasion and clocked a new lifetime best of 4.04.60 to yet again improve the clubs paper match team, with Gavin Walters also setting a seasons best in the B string.

Finally Steve Bazell also enjoyed a break from the norm as he competed in the 5000m rather than the steeplechase. The days longest event was greeted by the days best weather, and despite the challenging hot conditions Bazell knocked just over 30 seconds off his previous seasons best with 16.24.77 to  further enhance the paper team. The event also saw the return of Pete Benyon to action following his marathon debut at London in the spring. Despite being well short of fitness and form he Pete ran himself into the ground for the clubs cause. Yes he did not better the paper score but the sight of the grit and effort on his face throughout the race, and as he came down the home straight kissing his club vest represented an endearing image to me that makes me proud to be a fellow team mate and club member.

The team concluded the day’s events with the 4x400m. I found this a particular poignant moment as the last leg was completed by Andrew Prophett. Andy, competing in a staggering 54^th consecutive B.AL fixture, had remarked to me prior to the event that this may be his last appearance for the club (if the club were relegated he would have to compete only for his first claim club, Cheltenham). As I watched him down the home straight, Benyon esq also kissing his vest it represented how both he, I, and I’m sure many others feel about the club and their desire to stay in the top domestic league of athletics.

We hopefully though, providing our paper match team is strong enough (which we generally do believe is), have another opportunity to preserve our British League status at the play off match. It is of great importance that all males athletes in the club U17 and above who are currently fit (i.e not injured) to contact Steve Shubotham (stephen.shubotham@ntlworld.com) to let him know their availability for this match as the club will have to field an extremely strong team to ensure that clubs run in the top flight of British athletics continues.

Stoke AC Results

p.b = personal best
s.b = seasons best 

Match Result 

1. Notts A.C 382
2. Basingstoke & Mid-Hants 362
3. Kingston & Polytechnic 318
4. Medway & Maidstone 294
5. Team Southampton 254
6. Crawley A.C 249
7. Rugby & Northampton 168
8. City of Stoke A.C 131

Final League Standings

 Full results