Spenborough live to fight another day

The Senior team travelled across to Trafford for the third instalment of the Senior League, any hopes of avoiding relegation relied on Team Spen beating Bingley overall on the day.

So let’s start with ladies first on the run down of the day’s action. On the track under 20’s athlete Molly Waring ran two impressive races in the sprints finishing second in the 100 metres and winning the 200 metres, this was following on from an early victory in the 400 metre hurdles and a second place in the 100 metre hurdles. She also filled in the high jump to claim valuable points for Team Spen. Filling in events was a common theme of the day with Mia Butler stepping in the 200 metres, set with running a time of 44 seconds or above, we were stunned when she actually had a race on and finished in a much quicker time. As well as running the 200 metres, Mia had a tough task of running the 3k in hot temperatures, where she managed to claim a third place finish, before taking part in the javelin and adding to the team's total.
Also in the 3k was Natasha Geere who was determined to finish after tumbling over a couple of times, recognition goes to Natasha for digging deep and completing the race to help Team Spen out when she could have easily dropped out of the race! Onto the females throw squad where we really raked in the points with Beth Thomas finishing second in the Shot Putt before going on to win the Discus and the Hammer. Accompanying her was Megan Ascough who finished second in the Hammer, just missing out on a Pb, before going on to win the Shot Putt. Another athlete just missing a Pb was Charlotte Bell in the Discus, comfortably finishing third place before extending Spen’s points total with her javelin throw.

In the men’s events, under 20’s Jacob Pollard joined the team and ran an equal Pb time in the 100 metres and ran a big seasons best in the 200 metres. Simon Bolland joined the team again with two hard fought runs in the 800 metres and 1500 metres, gaining crucial points for Team Spen. Tom Dart made his seasons debut for the team with a Pb run in the 3000 metre steeplechase to claim third place, before being asked two minutes before the start of the 1500 metres to run the B string of it. Thank you to Tom for filling in at the last minute for the 1500m. Also making a splash in the steeplechase was Stephen Hunt who ran a strong race to finish in second place on top of the 5k in the hot conditions. Along with Stephen in the 5k, Kevin Ogden ran a seasons best to further Team Spen’s points total, however Kevin’s most noticeable achievement of the day was turning up to the bus on time!
With a thrower down youngster Connor Bell was drafted in for a debut, finishing in third place in the Hammer on the first time competing with the heavier weight. The muscles were back out again on the Shot Putt with the heavy weight of the Shot to claim a fourth place finish, before going on to javelin where we felt he deserved bonus style points for his technique. Also in the throws, Toby Aspindle was called upon again, claiming a fourth place in the Discus (nearly hitting his own mum in warm up, no dinner for you Toby) as well as adding to Spen’s total in the Shot Putt. Filling in 6 events, Jason Newell covered Spen in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres on the track on top of a third place finish in the Pole Vault. Glenn Aspindle was at his busy routine again starting with a second place in the Pole Vault, followed with a second in the Long Jump, third in the High Jump, Second in the 110 metre hurdles along with a second in the Javelin. With a personal best in the 110 hurdles and a season’s best in the Javelin. Jake Darby joined Glenn on maximum amount of events with an early third place in the Hammer with a season’s best throw, before going on to throw a Pb in the Discus for another third place. A fourth place in the 400 metre hurdles followed up with a third place in the 110 metre hurdles on a first attempt and a third place in the High Jump.

The Men’s team fielded both relays with the 4x100 relay of T.Aspindle, Pollard, G.Aspindle and Darby smoothly navigated the baton round. While the 4x400 relay of Bolland, G.Aspindle, Newell and Darby fought hard to hold off a lead on Bingley to finish fourth.

Well done to all athletes who competed, a few missing to various commitments, however the next meeting is at home and we are looking good for a strong finish to the season.

So with the final results in how did the day end?
1. Sale- 510.0
2. Holmfirth- 393.0
3. Liverpool Pembroke- 300.5
4. Spenborough- 257.0
5. Bingley- 248.0
6. Wirral- 193.0

Team Spen managed to finish in front of Binley meaning it all comes down to the final day!

As always a huge thank you to all the officials who gave up their time to help out the team and make the day possible!