Spenborough fight to the dying end!

The final Senior League match of the season took place at our home, with our biggest turn out of the season, we set out on our goal to beat Bingley and avoid relegation from the division. Many athletes making their debuts with a few competing on the track for the first time taking the teams total up to 30 strong. So strap yourselves in because we are going for an exciting ride.

Starting with ladies first, the pairing of Holly Martin and Molly Waring were back and running strong in the sprints with Holly picking up a first place in the 200 metres and a second in the 100 metres. Molly continued her form with a victory in the 400 metre hurdles and another second place in the 100 metre hurdles. Another pairing returning from the previous match was Natasha Geere and Mia Butler ran a tough race in the typical Yorkshire weather conditions, both aiding the team. Olivia Reah returned to the team once again with strong performances in the Long Jump and Triple Jump earning a second and third place respectively.
The female throws team were back in force with Beth Thomas picking up wins in the Shot Putt, Discus and a second place in the Hammer A string with a season’s best in the Shot. The form continued with Fiona Thomas bagging a victory in the shot A string as well as a second in the Hammer throwing a season’s best, along with a big season’s best throw in the Javelin. Charlotte Bell increased Spen’ s points total with a third place in the Discus and a forth in the Javelin.
In the longer distances Jackie Carter was at hand to aid the team once again, battling with injury she successfully completed the 1,500 metres helping to extend the club points tally. Another returning was Be Curley who faced the bad conditions to add to Team Spen’s point tally, getting us closer to our goal. In the ladies track team we feature many athletes who had never competed on the track before, all stepping out of their comfort zone to allow Team Spen to complete what we set out to do. Kirsty Sykes and Victoria Lister both competing in the 400 metres almost equalling each other’s times. Joining Be in the 800 metres was Angie Buckle, Nikki Jarvis-Jones joined Jackie in the 1,500 and Olivia in the Long Jump was Linda Webster, whom without we would have failed to reach our overall goal.

Onto the Men’s side where we had a few more athletes made their debut for Team Spen, Jaden Mills joining the team for his debut, running strong in both the 100 and 200 metres. Ben Maddocks made his senior league debut, where he found the speed to win the 400 hurdles knocking 2 and a half seconds of his Pb as well as knocking over 1 and a half second off his 200 metre Pb. Neil Barker returned to the team after a good few years away to brave the conditions to run the 3000 metre steeplechase and finish in third place. Ian Wilson was another to join the team after a few years away from the track to take on both the Long Jump and Triple Jump, adding even more points onto the team’s total. Youngster Daniel Smith made his presence know with his bright hoodie and excellent performances running a Pb time in the 800 metres to claim victory, along with a strong 400 metres run. Keith McGhie joined the team for another year, determination driving him to complete the 400 metre hurdles as well as beating his time from last year in the 400 metres.
Tom Dart joined Neil in the Steeplechase to run a fantastic race to win comfortably in the poor conditions. Simon Bolland ran two strong races in both the 800 metres and 1,500 metres increasing the points tally. Also adding to the points total in the 1,500 metres was Henry Carter who also helped out in the Long Jump for a fourth place finish further extending the tally. As the afternoon went on, the weather worsened, with Joe Sagar and Kevin Ogden finding out the hard way running the 5K in heavy rain. Joe's impressive run earned him a first place finish nearly 40 seconds in front of second place, while Kevin ran a strong race to stay in front of the Bingley runner. Darren Thomas returned to the field to throw an impressive set of results Spen’s way, earning two second places in the Shot Putt and the Hammer along with a third place in the Discus. Connor Bell filled in at short notice for the Hammer and the Javelin, throwing a winning throw and a Pb in the Hammer and passing his own weights Pb distance!
The Duo of Glenn Aspindle and Jake Darby boosted the points total to close the gap on Bingley’s point total. With Glenn winning the 110 hurdles and the Javelin, a second place in the Pole Vault and a third place in the high jump while tackling the rainy conditions. While Jake tackled the Pole Vault for the first time ascending to a second place finish, along with a second place in the Discus, High Jump and 110 hurdles in a Pb time, followed by a third place in the Shot Putt.

Spenborough fielded four relay team, yes that was FOUR!
The women’s of Butler, Waring, Reah and Martin ran an impressive race to complete the take the second spot.
The relays double points help us close the gap with the men’s 4x100 relay aiding the points tally by faultlessly navigating the baton, team consisting of Maddocks, Dart, Aspindle and Mills.
Going into the 4x400 metres we lead Bingley by 8 match points across the season, fortunately for us Bingley didn’t field a women’s team so our ladies just had to get the baton round without fault to gain us a lead for the men’s. The team of Carter, Buckle, Jarvis-Jones and Hall (Alison Hall) did exactly that and gave the men’s team that little bumper.
So with the last event of the day, we lead Bingley by only 8 points. The team of Darby, Bolland, Sagar and Aspindle set up to maintain the lead over Bingley. A strong first leg from Darby pushed Spen in front of Bingley before the changeover, before both Bolland and Sagar ran even quicker legs both strengthening the lead over Bingley, with Aspindle closing the race down with the fastest leg to finish in second place behind Holmfirth.

A fantastic team effort on the day closed the gap and pushed us that little bit in front of Bingley in the leagues finishing position.

Well done to all athletes involved in the final fixture and the previous three fixtures throughout the season. Every athlete contributed towards helping Spenborough out and giving us that chance in the final meeting. Well done to those taking the steps to compete on the track for the first time as well.

As always a massive thank you to everyone involved on the day, many people working behind the scenes to run the event on the days, so thanks goes to the catering and shop staff, the results team, the track officials and helpers along with all the field officials and supporters. Thanks to Dom for running the event and managing the team on the day, making sure everything was in check, making sure all the athletes were there and prepped and making any changes we needed.

So after 39 events on the day what were the results for the day?
1. Sale Harriers- 453
2. Holmfirth Harriers- 405
3. Spenborough- 372
4. Bingley- 333
5. Liverpool Pembroke- 288
6. Wirral AC- 103

So the final scores in the league after four matches:
1. Sale Harriers- 1783
2. Holmfirth Harriers- 1628
3. Liverpool Pembroke- 1324
4. Spenborough- 1217
5. Bingley- 1202
6. Wirral AC- 686

Well done to Sale on winning the division and thanks to Bingley for such a close battle throughout the season to keep us pushing.

Onto next season! Until then I’m signing out.