Midland Men's League

Midland Men's League Newport Harriers

Promising Start for Harriers

Newport Harriers made the trip to Banbury in Oxfordshire on Saturday 6th May for their opening Midland League match of the season. Although short of some of last season’s regulars for their debut in division four, the team battled well throughout the day. A mixture of wind and heavy showers undoubtedly affected personal performances, but the competition itself was exciting, with some very close finishes.

The club were delighted to welcome Dave Goodger back to competition after many years out of the sport, particularly as he showed so much of his old self, taking second in both the 400h and the 400B. Carl McEwan took an excellent double with victories in the 100m and 200m, while Great Britain junior middle distance international Steve Davies, in rare outing over 400m, was just edged in to second place. Gareth Fereday was second in the 2000 steeplechase, fifth in the 1500, and rounded off a particularly hard day by finishing second in the 5000B, again proving what a great asset he is to the team. Despite missing much of his winter training, Alex Leach showed that he will soon be back to his best in the throws, where there was also a promising debut from young Mark Boswell.

At the midway point of the match, Newport were in fifth place, but a run of good results saw the team move up to fourth, a position they still held going into the last events, the relays. An excellent second place from the 4 x 100 squad, moved the club right in behind third placed Burton, then an emphatic victory from McEwan, Morgan, Lewis and Davies in the 4 x 400 saw the club snatch an excellent third place overall.

After the match, team manager Tony Lewis commented, “”We have won promotion to a much higher level of competition for this season, so we are obviously very pleased to get off to such a good start. A couple of last seasons regulars were missing today, but the team has done well anyway. On that basis we are quite hopeful that we could challenge for one of the two promotion spots at the end of the season, especially as we will be at home for the second match next month.”

Results

Match scores

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