Click here to view the full results (hyperlink to Kingston & Poly AC website).
The Southern Men’s League team from Herne Hill will travel to Parliament Hill on 1 August with its destiny in its own hands after another narrow victory at a damp and overcast Kingsmeadow. For the third successive match we faced club, like ourselves, with a sufficient strength and depth of resources to be able to contest British League competition in the form of host club Kingston & Polytechnic but, unlike our rivals for promotion, Blackheath & Bromley Harriers and Crawley AC, before the start of this match Kingston & Poly hovered nervously above the relegation zone and required a significant improvement in their results to banish the grim sceptre of relegation.
Yet it is often the case that teams at the foot of the league table with home advantage pose the biggest threat of all for there is often no better motivating factor, no harsher rallying call than the threat of relegation to a basement division.
Any aspirations that we had carried of an easy afternoon had in any case been abandoned long before after a week which had started with incessant run of bad news, withdrawals and misfortune. Early on Thursday evening, it wouldn’t have been stretching the truth to describe our would-be line-up as flimsy as, despite apparent strength in some areas, we appeared fated to struggle to fill certain events with the necessary quality to compete, regardless of the strength of our opponents. Suddenly, though, Kofi Agyei passed himself fit for 800m, Chris Busaileh promised to run 1500m, Des Austin became re-available for selection and the men’s track & field captain Garry Power had agreed to lend his time and determination to the cause. By the Saturday morning, too, Sam Knight’s quad had responded to treatment and he was suddenly filled with infinite energy and Shola Olajo, having arrived too late for the minibus, appeared in the nick of time to hitch a lift with the team manager.
“Remember, track & field IS a team event. You are part of that team. Your individual performance is your contribution to this great club.”
Valdis Pauzers, HHH Club President (From the President, Red & Black, Summer 2009)
If ever there was a match to prove this, it was this one.
Whilst it became clear in the early part of the proceedings that our other opponents, Medway & Maidstone and East Grinstead would not pose a threat to our promotion aspirations, it was equally clear that anticipated competitive menace from Kingston & Poly had materialised. But Herne Hill Harriers don’t compete in Dennis the Menace vests for nothing.
Early success for Kingston & Poly in the hammer, in which Des Austin finished 3rd in the A string with 31.35m and Andy Lea-Gerrard 2nd in the B string after a throw of 16.95m was countered by our own strong showing in the pole vault, in which Didier Sorel tied for 2nd in A string, clearing 3.00m and Steven Paston vaulted 3.00m to win the B string in his first competitive outing of the season to take full advantage of the absence of any B string representative from Kingston & Poly. Crucially, we would continue to do so throughout the afternoon. Just for good measure, Sarwar Khan cleared 1.10m as non-scorer, though his main contributions were yet to come.
Kingston & Poly’s dominance of the throws continued in the shot where Gavin Johnson-Assoon and Des Austin both finished 2nd in the A and B string’s with efforts of 11.50m and 9.74m respectively and they would steal a further march on us in the high jump in which Sarwar Khan cleared 1.55m for 3rd place in the A string and Adam Gaabi achieved a commendable 1.50m to tie for 2nd, with Kingston & Poly’s competitor in the B string. Achieving parity or better was evidently going to be important and this we achieved in the long jump courtesy if AJ Boyce placing 2nd in the A string with a mark of 5.58m and Shola Olojo, with his only effort of the competition, scored 5.31m for 3rd place in the B string.
The track events opened with our first double win of the afternoon as Didier Sorel eased to victory in the 400m hurdles in 62.1 and, to demonstrate that he is not only an extremely valuable team member but a very useful mentor, explained the essential technique of hurdling to Sarwar Khan in a pre-race crash course on the back of which Sarwar recorded 73.4 to win by a comfortable margin in an event which the host club did again not contest. Jeffrey Ocrah then returned to the scene of his county championship triumph in May to win the 100m A string race by the tightest of margins in 11.3 backed up by Oladunni Soetan who placed 2nd in the B string in 11.6.
In an intriguing 800m race, Simon Coombes clocked 2:04.7 to finish 2nd in the A string race while Kofi Agyei ran a measured and determined race to place 2nd in the B string in 2:06.6, just half a second behind the B string race winner. With most of the higher placings being shared between ourselves and Kingston & Poly, any ground we were able to gain was being cancelled out just as quickly as no more than a couple of points separated us at any one time. So it was with considerable relief that Keith Newton’s and Sam Knight’s judicious victories in the 5000m in 16:23.5 and 16.54.6 were, for once, matched only by 3rd placings from the hosts. It was particularly heartening to see both men competing, Sam because of his injury woes prior to the match and Keith because, aware of the importance of this match, he willingly and unquestioningly made himself available despite recent injury concerns, fully aware that he would significantly strengthen the team’s options at 5000m.
At triple jump, too, as it turned out! With the competition already underway and with no B string competitor owing to AJ Boyce’s late withdrawal, Keith clambered over the fence and onto the runway to record 7.64m with a further display of his all-round athletic adeptness and team spirit. It may only have been 1cm further than the senior men’s long jump club record, but it was a valid jump and gained a crucial point on an afternoon when every point counted. Shola Olajo’s crucial A string victory in 13.05m harvested more priceless points.
I’ll hazard a guess that Kingston & Poly’s A string competitor in the 400m seriously fancied his chances, but if this was the case, he had so reckoned without Peter Phillips. With another highly impressive run and show of that all-important quality, consistency, Peter eased to victory in 50.5 for what turned-out to be a comfortable victory. Sub 50 seconds will surely come someday soon. Kendrick Sinclair then chipped with 55.6 for 2nd place in the B string race.
The high hurdles is perhaps the most difficult event for any team manager to fill, so it is always a huge bonus to be able to call on an accomplished hurdler such as Didier Sorel, whose worth was again evident as he won the A string 110m hurdles in 19.5. B string events are often not contested at all so maximum points is always a possibility, if a willing volunteer can be found. Adam Gaabi no doubt had no aspiration to become a high hurdler when he entered the sport of athletics over the last winter but, thanks to another crash course from Didier, may have unearthed an event at which he can excel. The controlled manner in which he executed his debut in this event certainly suggests so, hurdling cleanly and competently to record 23.1, a result which would have almost been sufficient for 3rd place in the A string, had he been our sole competitor.
The battle for points, nonetheless, remained as fierce as ever. Jeffrey Ocrah was forced to settle for 2nd place in the A string 200m with 22.9 as did Burton Dredge in the B string race with 24.0. Crucially, though, Burty held off his challenger from Medway & Maidstone to gain a point which could easily have been lost. Then, in the 1500m, a race won by the non-scoring Jeff Cunninhgam, Simon Coombes was pipped to the line having led for much of the way to score 4:15.2 for 2nd place in the A string, though Chris Busaileh tracked his opponents superbly and put in a late surge to win the B string race in 4:16.2.
Despite having a string line in the throws, Kingston & Poly were clearly intent on claiming maximum points in all for disciplines and this remained a possibility after Gavin Johnson-Assoon and Didier Sorel had placed 2nd in the javelin competitions despite throws of 44.56m and 38.06. Gavin, however, banished this prospect with an effort 42.28m to win the A string discus. With Garry Power throwing 40.99m, maximum B string points were claimed and with it a 2-point swing in our favour. Not to be outdone, Thomas Ashby recorded 43.61m as a non-scorer and Des Austin threw 29.53m as the inter-HHH rivalry in this event alone proved as intriguing as the overall match.
By the time the 4 x 100m relay team had placed 2nd in 45.0, just 0.1 second behind the hosts, we had finally managed to carve out the smallest of advantages, albeit one which allowed little or no margin for error. Not that we knew it at the time, but the absence of a Kingston & Poly representative in the B string 3000m steeplechase would ultimately convert this into an unassailable lead as Sarwar Khan braved the wet conditions to finish 2nd in the A string in 11:13.8 as the team manager affirmed that he has not yet retired from this event to record 12:39.9 for 2nd place in the B string.
There is of course no such thing as having the luxury of knowing that disqualification in the 4 x 400m will not prove pivotal, so the careless manner in which the 4 points from an otherwise easy victory – and which could yet affect the final league standings – were discarded prompted some late concern as teams’ final tallies were calculated.
Once again, we had delivered another resolute team performance in which every performance and point earned counted. Discounting the events which they did not contest, Kingston & Poly did in fact outscore, so our own collective determination to contest every event was – not for the first time – the difference. And so to Parli Hill we go……………
Match result: Herne Hill Harriers – 112; Kingston & Polytechnic AC – 106; Medway & Maidstone – 71; East Grinstead – 50
James Ward
