Midland Masters T&F League Fixture 1

Wednesday 9th May 2007

Points controversy takes shine off B & R victory

Defending champions Bromsgrove and Redditch A.C. ladies made a flying start in the first fixture of the Masters Track and Field Athletic League at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham.

Left: B&R’s successful walkers Jeanette Malin, Dave Henley & Sharon Tonks. Right: Louise Laxton & Julie Wakelam high jump winners.

Best performances on the evening came in the 2km walks with wins for both Janette Malin and Sharon Tonks. Malin went on to run in difficult conditions in the 1500 metres along with Jane Anderson and Ann Stuart to score valuable team points.

Julie Wakelam and Louise Laxton leapt to first place finishes in their high jump events. Rita Brownlie also performed well to claim the runner-up spot in both the shot putt and triple jump.

Polly Gerner and Julie Wakelam secured second places in their 100 metre races with Laxton gaining important points in her sprint.

Debutant Betty O’Gorman posted an impressive time in her first race at 400 metres. Also scoring well over one lap were Brownlie and Laxton.

In the finale to the evening the sprint relay team of Laxton, Wakelam, Priestman and Gerner competed in the 4 x 200 metres. With Gerner fighting hard to chase down the Halesowen runner in the final straight they finished third in the event.

The excellent performances from the Bromsgrove and Redditch women’s team was marred upon publication of the results with the scorers adopting controversial changes to the scoring system. Using the rules agreed and circulated to clubs before the event the women finished joint first with Birchfield. With league officials instructing the scorers to use a different scoring system and failing to inform clubs before the event the provisional results show B & R placed second just one point behind Birchfield. Team managers have lodged their objection with the league and expect to hear soon that the team finished in joint first position.

Left: Phil Carbutt won the javelin with a 30+ m throw. Right: Alan Elsmere was competing again soon after setting a club age record in the marathon.

In the men’s match star performer was Phil Carbutt with first place in the javelin. There were third place finishes for both Alan Elsmere and Dave Kesterton in their 1500 metre races and also for Dave Henley in the 2 km walk.

Above: Dave Kesterton (left)  and Clive Brown running the last bend in their 400m races.

With many of the men’s team competing in more than one event valuable points were scored by Elsmere in the 100 metres and shot putt, Russell Rawlins and Kesterton over 400 metres plus Clive Brown in the high jump and the 400 metres.

The relay team of Brown, Carbutt, Elsmere and Kesterton fought hard in a very competitive 4 x 200 metres to finish in fifth place.

With the men’s team unaffected by the points controversy they finished in sixth place on the evening.

Meanwhile the club team of field judges Phil Anderson, John Gerner, Mike Mole, Sue Mole and Len Quartly dodged the showers to run the javelin competition. Len Quartly also managed to find time to appear as a guest runner in the 1500 metres.

(JG)