On Sunday 27th April the first match of the newly entered Nottinghamshire County Development League was held at a gloriously sunny YMCA Community and Activity Village in Newark. With the match clashing with the first of the Upper YDL matches, the clubs U17 and U20 athletes were unavailable, however, a group of seven of the clubs more ‘experienced’ athletes made the journey to compete. Alongside last season’s advocates of the league, Alice Robinson and Dan Humphrey, were fellow coach Geoff Lowry, Charlie Yates, George Wilkinson (returning to the club following a four-year hiatus), Heather Douglas and new second-claim member, Ross Douglas.
The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the 100m race between Alice and Dan. With Alice leading 2-1 in their mini head-to-head, there was a lot at stake as they duo lined up on their own at the start. The more experienced Alice opted for a blocks start, with Dan, running in his first senior competitive 100m race, preferring a standing start. Following a slight wobble from Dan at the first attempt (let’s put it down to nerves and not mind games), the pair lined up for a second time, awaiting the gun. This time the nerves held, and the pair sprang from the line on the starters command, racing down the straight to the whoops and cheers of the crowd. In a result that would no doubt have shocked bookmakers, Dan crossed the line first in a time of 14.0 seconds, with Alice just 0.6 seconds behind him, levelling the on the day scores at 2-2. However, Dan’s joy was short lived, as Alice won a deciding game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to take the bragging rights with a 3-2 victory.
Track Events
In addition to the 100m, Alice also competed in the 400m hurdles, recording a time of 82.6 seconds. Charlie, George and Heather also competed in the 100m, albeit in separate heats. George recorded a new PB time of 11.8 seconds, with Charlie and Heather recording times of 13.8 seconds and 15.8 seconds respectively. Despite having also played 90 minutes of football for Mickleover Sports the day before, George also competed in the 200m, 400m and the 800m events, recording PB times of 24.5 seconds and 58.0 seconds in the 200m and 400m respectively, and 2:29.7 in the 800m. AVEAC’s middle distance coach Geoff competed in the 3,000m event, recording a time of 11:31.6, his best over this distance since 2022.
Field Events
In the Hammer, Ross threw an impressive 53.44m to record the best throw of the day, with Alice, Dan and Heather recording throws of 22.85m, 20.79m and 16.79m respectively. As their first times throwing in competition, Alice and Dan’s throws go into the books as PBs. At the opposite end of the infield in the Shot Put, Ross again led an AVEAC quartet, putting a new PB of 10.20m. Alice recorded a best put of 9.91m, Dan achieved a best of 9.28m, whilst Charlie threw 7.26m. The third throwing event of the day with multiple AVEAC participants was the Discus and following a short break in proceedings to allow the officials time for refreshments, Alice, Dan and Ross once more headed into the cage. The trio threw well, with Ross recording a best of 31.08m, and despite a short break for their aforementioned 100m competition, Dan and Alice recorded PB throws of 25.43m and 24.60m respectively. Adjacent to the back straight and running concurrently to the Discus was the Long Jump competition, where Heather recorded a best leap of 3.71m, improving on her previous competition, at the Derbyshire Country Championships last year. The final field events of the day were the Javelin and the High Jump. In the High Jump, Charlie came within a whisker of progressing to the next height but bowed out of the competition having matched her SB jumps for the previous two years of 1.50m. With Ross having left for work and Dan to play cricket, Alice was sole AVEAC thrower in the Javelin, where she recorded a best throw of 28.24m.
Summary
The AVEAC septet performed well over the course of the day, no doubt all heading back down the A46 to their respective destinations pleased with their early season performances, and looking forward to their next outings. For most of the group this will be the combined Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire County Championships over the weekend of the 10th & 11th May at Mansfield’s Berry Hill track, with the next NCDL match a couple of weeks later, also at Mansfield on Sunday 25th May. Although this again clashes with an Upper YDL match, it is encouraging that more of the clubs’ senior athletes have indicated their availability for this date, and we’re looking forward to fielding a larger team at what is a fantastic competition. Who knows, with enough ‘encouragement’ we might even get Rich Woodward to lace up his spikes.
Report – Dan Humphrey