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Picture the scene. You are travelling to Horsham for a Southern League match via the scenic (that is, not the most direct) route and the bus driver opts to follow signs to Heathrow rather than Gatwick. Already that day your team has been weakened by a handful of late withdrawals and you fear arriving late and being robbed of the opportunity to compete in the early field events. Your opposition of will be include the host Horsham Blue Star, current league leaders Crawley and another team from Sussex, Hastings. In principle it will be strong. Thoughts of victory are, in short, the last thing on your mind. Yet by the end of the afternoon, you will consider anything other than victory to be a huge disappointment. Why the great turnaround? Read on.
The Southern Men’s League team’s latest win was arguably extraordinary for it was achieved against a backdrop of so much early uncertainty. Boom and bust may belong to a bygone age, but this is the age of austerity and the challenge is to make the most of what you do have and not complain about what you don't. So that is exactly what we did. And, put simply, what we had was a track team so dominant and so powerful that our major shortcoming, namely possessing only one recognised thrower, and relative weakness in particular field events went largely unnoticed.
Any apprehension that we would endure an uncomfortable afternoon was quickly dispelled as we fared better in early in the early field events than we might have dared to believe. This was in no small way down that priceless combination of youth and experience. Des Austin provided the experience and his victory in the hammer with a throw of 32.89m and second place in the shot offset contributions from the team manager in the hammer and Simon Coombes in the shot which were sufficient to claim solitary points, but no more. The youthful Jonathan Grant then scored an excellent win in the long jump with a mark of 6.49m which was complemented by second place in the B string from Hansley Jones with 5.29m. Hansley handled the challenge of competing in both the long jump and high jump simultaneously with ease, clearing 1.60m for third place in the A string while Sam Knight enhanced his reputation as a field eventer to win the B string in 1.50m.
Having weathered the storm in the early events, our dominance was about to come to the fore on the track. Jordan Musompa started proceedings with an accomplished display in the A string 400m hurdles which he won with ease in 62.5 while Mark White added to the points haul by finishing second in the B string race in 74.5 before quickly dashing off to throw a javelin 16.76m to guarantee a point in the B string of that event. The javelin would prove our weakest event of the afternoon; Des Austin was reluctant to throw, but nonetheless did, and his effort of 27.54m ensured a further point in the A string.
Our first double success of the afternoon followed soon after, as Simeon Ramsey-Graham powered his way to the finish line in the 100m in11.5, a performance matched by Oladunni Soetan in the B string. The absence of a non-scoring 100m race was a sure sign of the focus and purpose of a closely-knit sprint squad, determined to save their energy for where it was needed the most and much credit must go to sprint coach Mike Bond for his efforts in fashioning a such a focussed and determined group.
In the 800m which followed, Ben Paviour and Simon Coombes were beaten into second place in the A and B string races respectively by men clearly a few years younger and with the youthful zest to outkick them in the home straight. Ben nonetheless recorded 2:04.3 with Simon a second behind in 2:05.7.
Sam Knight then followed up his effort in the high jump to coast to a new PB of 16:50.9 in the 5000m which, although not quite fast enough to win, saw him drop his Crawley opponent with 3 laps remaining with an impressive display of strength and reduce the winner’s margin of victory to less than 4 seconds despite having trailed by over 75 metres midway through the race. Dave Adam nursed the hamstring problems which plagued him during the recent British Masters relay triumph to claim second in the B string race, recording 19:05.1.
By this point in the afternoon, it was clear that Crawley posed the greatest threat to our prospects of victory, but rather than simply achieve parity, the team took control in style. Peter Phillips won an impressive 400m in 50.8 as a non-scorer as Sylvester Akpalara finished second in the A string scoring berth in 51.8 while Adam Davis was too strong for the opposition in the B string race, cruising to victory in 53.5. Kendrick Sinclair also proved too good for our opponents, underlining our sprinting strength in depth to record a new PB of 54.8.
It should have been obvious to our challengers that our relay teams would take some stopping and it was heartening to our overhear our opponents resigned to defeat in these races even before they had been run. No reminder was needed, but Simeon Ramsey-Graham and Burton Dredge provided one in the 200m, easing to another double victory in 22.9 and 23.8 respectively. Jonathan Grant matched Burty’s time as a non-scorer and, when we needed a triple jumper, willingly volunteered to complete his afternoon’s work with a distance of 11.55m.
Simon Coombes meanwhile was warming up for the 1500m by throwing a discus 12.34m to claim B string points while Des Austin made another telling contribution with an effort of 28.19 which was sufficient to claim second in the A string. But what of the 1500m? Although lacking the numbers which made the race in last match such a fine spectacle, the race between Ben Paviour and Simon Coombes nonetheless provided fine entertainment. Having dropped their rivals to kill the race as a club contest Simon lead for all of the final lap before Ben’s perfectly timed sprint finish determined that he would win the A string race in 4:13.1 and Simon the B string in 4:14.3.
Excitement was growing, not because victory appeared increasing certain, barring any major disasters, but due the growing prospect that our margin of victory might be sufficient to enable us to leapfrog Crawley in the league and propel ourselves into the promotion places. Maximum points were required.
A sprint relay quartet of Peter Phillips, Oladunni Soetan, Burton Dredge and Simeon Ramsey-Graham made no mistake in getting the baton round just before Aogan McDombhnaill ran away from the field from the gun in the 3000m steeplechase to improve from his time from the last match to 10:37.3. Not to be outdone, Simon Phillips paced himself well in the early stages, moving into the lead in the B string race as soon as became clear that his Crawley opponent had exhausted too much energy too soon. He will surely lower his time of 11:37.7. How ironic that an event once filled by the team manager just to grab a point or two should now have been completed by no fewer than 6 different athletes already this season. Long may this enthusiasm continue.
There was never any question that our sprinting strength would overpower our opponents in the 4 x 400m relay and Sylvester Akpalara, Jordan Musompa, Burton Dredge and Peter Phillips duly dished out the beating our rivals fully expected, winning the race by over 100m in 3:38.8. Maximum points delivered. The winning margin? 12 points. Not only had won, but we had indeed leapfrogged the league leaders by a single point. Suddenly the bus ride earlier in the day was a distant memory. Well done indeed to every team member.
How pleasing it was too that one of the club’s greatest ever athletes should be in attendance. My pride in the team’s performance was matched only by the privilege of meeting none other than John Howell, the holder of one of the club’s oldest senior records and in attendance for the afternoon. An Olympian who competed in the 1960 games in Rome, John’s long jump record of 7.63m set that same year still survives today, proof enough of how difficult it is to beat. With the same effort and commitment and level of performance as was evident at Horsham in the remaining fixtures this season, the HHH Southern League team may prove equally difficult to beat.
Match result: Herne Hill Harriers - 102; Crawley - 90; Horsham Blue Star - 86; Hastings - 64
James Ward
