Report on the 4rd British Athletics League meeting of 2007
at Derby Stadium 4th August

Basingstoke & Mid Hants complete the British Athletic League National Division 3 to finish as Champions

The Senior Men’s Team of Basingstoke & Mid Hants Athletic Club became British Athletic League National Division 3 Champions on Saturday when they finished second of the eight Teams competing in the final match of this year’s League. Despite fielding a below full strength Team due to clashes of events, International call ups and injuries, Basingstoke were never out of the top three during the match held at Moorways Stadium, Derby and secured promotion by a clear margin.

Basingstoke welcomed back Decathlon Champion Ben Hazell for this fixture and he had a busy afternoon. His best result came in the Discus where he recorded a personal best throw of 46.44m to win the event. This followed a 2nd place in the Long Jump with 6.58m, a 3rd in the Javelin with 52.78m and another 3rd in the High Jump going over 1.85m.. The only blot was a disappointing  Pole Vault  where Ben failed at 4.00m having cleared 2.20m early in the competition. This was a superb all round  performance and was the base of the Teams success.

During the afternoon Basingstoke had several wins but a lot of second and third placings that helped them contest the lead during the match. Without Ben Ellis due to injury, Andy Blow led the sprinters taking second places in the 100m with 10.93s and then the 200m with 21.54s but it was the 400m where Basingstoke had double winners. In this event Mark Berridge cruised to an A string win in 48.10s while Jonathan Elderfield took the B string in a new personal best of 49.17s. Jonathan also went on to place 4th in the B 200m with 22.34s.

Tony Higbee was another athlete to have a busy day despite nursing a hamstring injury. Tony place 3rd in the B 100m in a time of 11.39s, 2nd in the A 110m Hurdles in 14.83s, 1st in the B High Jump with 1.75m, 2nd in the B Shot Putt recording 11.38m and 6th in the B Javelin with 36.39m., a very consistent day for the RAF serviceman.

In the middle distance events, David Ragan placed 2nd in the A 800m recording 1m52.96s and then later did the same in the B 1500m with 4m05.30s. In the B 800m, Robert Whittle was another to finish 2nd, recording 1m54.71s. Steve Turville also placed in the top 3 this time in the A 1500m being timed at 3m58.49s. John Hutchins did the same in the 5000m with 15m02.48s, while Max Roberts was 6th in the B string being timed at 17m24.01s.

There was a further improvement on his best for Nick Bates in the 400m Hurdles, on a breezy afternoon Nick an under 20 athlete got his best time down to 56.21s in finishing 3rd in the A string while Steve Turvill was also 3rd in the B string recording 58.98s. There was a pair of second places in the 3000m Steeplechase with Darrel May home in 9m44.94s in the A string and David Fry timed at 10m06.36s in the B string. David a 20 year old has steadily improved throughout the season bringing home good points for the Team.

Back to the Field and another consistent competitor has been Simon Williams who again had two good performances. A 1st in the B Discus with 45.73m was followed by a 3rd in the A Shot Putt, Simon going out to 12.88m. Another under 20 athlete to really help the Team was Tom Fright, near to his best in the Pole Vault, Tom placed 4th in the A string with 2.80m and also placed 3rd in the B 110m Hurdles recovering after hitting hurdle 7 heavily to record 16.89s, 2nd in the B Long Jump with 5.91m also meant good points while 7th in the A Triple
Jump recording 11.73m completed his afternoon.

With promotion assured Basingstoke completed the match with a 4th placing in the 4x100m    in a time of 43.51s and then took 3rd in the 4x400m recording 3m23.12s. The Final match totals saw Notts AC win with 382points, Basingstoke & Mid Hants finish 2nd with 362, Kingston & Polytechnic 3rd with 318, Medway & Maidstone 4th with 294, Team Southampton 5th with 254, Crawley 6th with 249, Rugby & Northampton 7th with 168, and City of Stoke 8th with 131.

So an excellent season ended with Basingstoke receiving the Champions Trophy and they have continued to make progress, now into the top 24  Teams in Briton.

Click to see full results here

Match report by Ian Byett