A report by Steve Shubotham, Men's Team Manager

What a day it was! As can be seen, it’s a very close competition between Mansfield and ourselves... 

With the women / men breakdown as follows,

We therefore need to fill every event as every point will and does count. I therefore need your help to persuade your team mates to compete, and support us by making themselves available and competing even if it’s not their preferred event.

The fantastic Stoke AC commitment of those who did make the trip to Mansfield was typified by Alice Lennox in the hurdles, who despite a bad fall caused by the hurdles being laid out incorrectly, carried on in her remaining events, scoring well for the team!

As far as I can identify there were also personal bests for:

• Chelsea Cooper      400M                60.0     (1B)
• Jade Moore          Hammer          20.34     (3B)
• Jade Moore          Shot               10.29     (2B)
• Katie Holt                 3000M            9.55.7    (1B) 
• Glenn Unsworth         Hammer         35.49    (1B)        
• Martin Bartholomew    Shot              13.47    (1A)
• Martin Bartholomew    Discus           42.75    (1A)
• Martin Bartholomew    Triple Jump    12.51    (4A)

There was also some great support, led on by a enthusiastic and vocal Richard Porter, providing the sound effects for the throwing events, assisted by last years “Megaphone “.  

However as the scores were too close to call, with just the relays to go, the megaphone was lost, and the whole team rose to the challenge of cheering those competing in the final events.