Spenborough barebones hang on

The second Senior League match of the season saw Spenborough travel to the Wirral, with numbers depleted the Spenborough team had a tough task on their hands. With injuries and holidays, we fielded a team of 16 athletes.

In the female team Spenborough dominated the throws, making her debut, Megan Ascough started with a comfortable victory in the hammer backed up with a second comfortable win in the shot putt. Joining her was Beth Thomas, who also got a first in both the shot and hammer with another victory in the discus with season's best throws in all three. Also in the throws adding to the victories, Charlotte Bell came out victorious in the discus as well as scoring team points for the Spen in the javelin along with Mia Butler.
Mia also helped the team by running the 3,000 metres and adding to the team’s points total in the 200 metres with a solid jog around. The other under 17 athlete competing in the female team was Olivia Reah, who jumped her way to a victory in the long jump as well as a strong second place in the triple jump. An injured Jackie Carter joined the team and after being strapped up ran the 800 metres, unfortunately the determination and team spirit were to be crushed after them pesky rules and bad track marking lead to a DQ.

The men’s team managed to fill almost every slot possible, which gave Spen a fighting chance overall. Starting with the sprints, Tyler Cossins -another youngster joined the team, who ran a personal best in the 100 metres and 200 metres.
The second youngster of the men’s team was Daniel Smith, who ran a seasons best in the 200 metres and 800 metres along with a strong run in the 400 metres. Returning to the team after a couple of years, Lewis Bellwood ran his heart out in the 800 metres before having to run the 3,000 metre steeplechase just after, and the determination in the 800 metres ran him dry so unfortunately he couldn’t complete the steeplechase (at least he stayed dry!).
Simon Bolland joined the team for an impressive run in the 1500 metres for a strong fourth place finish, Simon was joined in the race by Kevin Ogden who ran a seasons best. Kevin then went on to run the 5,000 metres with Henry Carter who both ran strong races to rack up the points on team Spen’s total.
In the throws Darren Thomas continued his strong form from the first match with an early victory in the hammer, followed up with a second place in the shot as well as a third place in the discus all with an injured heel.
Three athletes competed in the maximum amount of events, competing in 7 events were Jason Newell, Glenn Aspindle and Jake Darby.
Jason was team Spens filler team player, filling in the 100 metres, 400 hurdles, 110 hurdles, triple jump, 400 metres and the steeplechase all on top of the pole vault. Racking up some big points and two third place finishes in the vaulting of the pole kind and the 110 hurdles.
Glenn had a successful day with a victory in the 110 hurdles which he then went on to back up with two second place finishes in the pole vault and the long jump as well as two third place finished in the javelin and the high jump.
Jake joined Darren's lead in the throws with a win in the shot putt, a season's best hammer throw for second place, a one jump wonder in the high jump in-between the discus for a third place finish as well as throws in the javelin and discus.
The pairing of Aspindle and Darby went on to run back to back relays in the 4x100 and 4x400 to complete their 7 events.

The 4x100 relay team of Cossins, Aspindle, Smith and Darby successfully navigated the baton around and held of Bingley. While the 4x400 team of Bellwood, Bolland, Aspindle and Darby held the Wirral off after a strong team effort with an impressive run from Bolland.

As always a huge thank you to our officials for helping again and aiding team Spen, we couldn’t do it without you!

Well done to all athletes who competed and helped Spen to claim every point we did, hopefully we can regroup and have some athletes return from injuries and have a strong day over in Trafford!

Final standings:
1. Holmfirth Harriers AC- 422.0
2. Sale Harriers Manchester- 414.0
3. Liverpool Pembroke AC & Sefton H- 372.0
4. Bingley H & AC- 296.0
5. Spenborough & District AC- 259.0
6. Wirral AC- 249.0