North of England Cup Team for Saturday 12th September 2009 - Click to view

Great performance sees Scunthorpe take third place

Scunthorpe and district athletes showed once again that the club is starting to make much bigger clubs in the North of England sit up and take notice, after an exceptional third place in the North of England cup final held in Manchester. The competition was won by Blackburn with the holders Hull finishing second. But Scunthorpe athletes can be proud to have taken some big scalps in beating ‘City of Manchester.’, Bury and Wakefield who had beaten them in the previous round.

The Day had got off to a good start with the team been awarded the trophy for winning Division 3 of the Northern league. Team manager Gav Mann then set his team the task of trying to finish in the top 4 of every event, with the hope this would keep Scunthorpe off the bottom spot. But he needn’t have worried.

Despite having to travel the furthest distance of any competing team, Scunthorpe took over 30 athletes with them and along with the eventual winners Blackburn they were the only team to be able to cover nearly all the events. This was to prove decisive for Scunthorpe along with the fantastic support from the spectators the team took along. Throughout the afternoon it was Scunthorpe voices that could be heard cheering their athletes in every race whether it was for first place or last. On what was to be a very warm and sunny late summer afternoon

The team was made up of a mixture of young athletes and the more experienced. As always in team competitions it is the endeavours of athletes who are prepared to step in and cover any event even if not their main event that makes a difference to the overall result. This was shown by Aneleise Spindley who had a great run in the ladies 100m hurdles to finish fourth despite doing an event which is further and has higher hurdles than she is use to in the under 17’s. Also Bethan Hammond who is under 17’s and  her coach Fiona Fisk had gone as travelling reserves found themselves thrown into action to cover the 1500m and 3,000m on a very hot afternoon. Both then after a short recovery ran legs in the 4x400m relay and 4x100m relay respectively.

The team had three individual winners on the day the first been another great win by Matthew SHAW who ran a personal best in the 110m hurdles despite running into a head wind and hitting the final 4 hurdles. On the evidence of this year his aim of ducking under the 15 second barrier next year will be more than achievable. Next winner was Sarah KEMSHALL who delayed attending a concert in Manchester to compete in the 800m, obviously keen to be off Sarah lead from gun to tape and won by over 5 seconds. The final winner was Josh Bones who had returned from a slightly disappointing result at the UK games the previous weekend to win the triple jump.

The other notable performances was an outstanding 3^rd place for 15 year old  Kieron Burr  who in is first ever competition throwing the senior Javelin broke the clubs , under 17 , under 20 and senior record. Kieran was competing in the same event as his new coach who said ‘The aim now is for Kieran is to progress during the winter and qualify for the English schools finals next year’. Next was Jonathon SHAW who has made great progress in the last month with a new throwing squad at the club, he put over half a metre on his personal best and smashed through the 10 metre barrier again he is another athlete who can progress further next year.

The only down side of the day was injury to three athletes the first was to Scunthorpe’s young star Ashley WREN who after finishing second in the long jump was looking on for a personal best in the 200m when he pulled his hamstring coming off the bend when head to head with the eventual winner. Next was to another young athlete Jess GARROD who suffered a similar injury running the first leg of the 4x100m. The final was to a new recruit for the club Billy Crowther. Billy had a mix up with competition dates and when he realised the mix up, he committed himself to driving from Cardiff to Manchester just to help the team out for the 4x400m relay. He made it in time for the relay and was running a superb anchor leg and was ready to break the club record with the other three runners.  However! He was pressured by a Wakefield athlete who had passed him with about 30m to go.  Billy tried so hard to respond that he fell extremely hard just before the line.  But he still managed to get up and take second place. Whilst recovering trackside after the race, Billy was feeling the effects of the race and the fall and all the pain became too overwhelming and he collapsed.  He was then taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary were it was discovered he had a broken collar bone sustained in the fall. 

After the event team manager Gavin Mann said “I would like to congratulate my athletes who performed extremely well today.  We had athletes getting personal and season bests and that’s all I can ask of them.  We managed to come 3rd which is a great achievement on top of a great season for the senior team.  Thanks must go to officials and the supporters that travelled to Manchester.  They were amazing.  Ashley Wren, Jessica Garrod and Billy all picked up injuries today and we all wish them a speedy recovery.”

The team performed extremely well at Manchester to complete an excellent season , they have done head coach Stuart FROW proud after Stuart has had to miss most of the season through illness. The aim for the team is to go from strength-to-strength and a third consecutive promotion is truly achievable. As strong a team as they are now, next year they will be a year older, a year more mature, a year more experienced and a year more determined.  They have also shown a great team spirit, the club hope that Stuart is well enough next year to watch the results of his and the other coaches years of hard work when Scunthorpe compete in Division 2 of the Northern league

Match result

27th July 2009 - Report by Matt Hammond

SCUNTHORPE MAKE CUP FINAL FOR SECOND YEAR

Saturday 25^th July saw Scunthorpe Senior athletes travel to Hull to take part in the Northern counties Knock out cup. The Cup saw the best 28 clubs in the northern Counties take part in 4 separate matches, 2 were held at Hull and the other two at Leeds. Unlike the league format the Cup involves just one athlete from each club take part in each event. Team manager Gav MANN knew qualifying for the final would be tight with only the winner of each match and the two best runners up from the 4 matches going through to the final. With this in mind Gav had set his athletes the target of trying to come at least third in each event, which would be enough to qualify for the Plate final (for the next best 6 teams who didn’t make the cup final). This in it self seemed to be a tough request when Scunthorpe were drawn against teams from, City of York (a Northern division 1 team) City of Sheffield, City, Lincoln Wellington, Wakefield (Division 2 teams) and local rivals Doncaster (who are just pippin them in Northern division 3). But the athletes had other ideas!

Unlike recent league matches it was to be the Scunthorpe ladies who scored 8 points more than the men winning 4 events gaining 6 second places and 5 third places. The men had no individual winners but managed 8 second places and 3 thirds.

Top points scorer on the day was Sophie CROFT who managed a double winning both the 100m and 200m. Although conditions were warm, there was a head wind which affected the times. Because of this her times were slightly slower than her best but her dominance was such that she won the 100m by half a second and the 200m by over a second. She then finished her points total by helping the 4x100m team gain second place. 

The other two winners on the day were the middle distance stars Rachael ROBINSON and Sarah KEMSHALL. Rachael started the ball rolling in the 3,000m leading from gun to tape finishing with a with winning distance of over 14 seconds. Sarah had a tougher race been run close throughout the 1500m, it was only Sarah’s superior strength which saw her pull away on the final lap to win the race.

As always in team competitions it is also about filling every event which Scunthorpe was nearly able to do with only the Women’s Pole vault been uncontested. This as always is only achieved when athletes are prepared to step in and help out. This was the case with Dave VICKERS from the road running section who made a rare appearance on the track coming a creditable third in the 10.000m. Also Club coach Fiona FISK who stepped into cover the 800m due to another athlete not been able to get to the track on time after work. Also Matty SHAW who stepped in to cover for injury in the high jump and cleared the opening height.

As the afternoon went on team manager Gav MANN knew the the series of excellent performances were pushing the club to the top of the leader board. Going into the last few events they were neck and neck on points with Wakefield. It was only Wakefield’s success in winning three of the final four relay events that saw them win by just 6 points.

After a great team effort finishing second Scunthorpe then had to sweat it out to see if they had finished as one of the two best runners up. It was Sunday morning before they received the good news that they had qualified for the Cup final which is to be held in Manchester on Saturday 12th September. Scunthorpe and Blackburn join match winners Wakefield, Kingston upon Hull, Bury AC and City of Manchester in the Cup final. 

Team manager Gav said ‘This is a fantastic achievement and, as Team Manager, I am very proud of your achievements. We were up against it from the start but credit to this very talented Scunthorpe team that battled all day’.

Gav went on to say ‘I would like to thank all athletes, official and supporters, who turned up today.  This is a great achievement to make the finals for the second year in a row.  Now let’s top it off with promotion next weekend in the league’.