Monday evening 22nd June at Battersea brought a magnificent match result for Herne Hill Men, a resounding victory by a 27 point margin. Despite a strong blustery wind the warm dry weather was conducive to good racing for runners but somewhat of a disturbance to the throwers and jumpers.
The usual nervous start presented two out of three High Jump slots requiring cover and fortunately managed solidly by Brian Ray, and Waldy Pauzers with Paul Marriott closing out the trio. Paul’s victory and the emergency back-up still gleaned 14 from 18 points in the event. Next to the HJ the Javelin was finally launched in the match series where the ever eager Garth Francis and Nic Nicola gave us two solid second places, with Des Austin and Andy Lea-Gerrard as back up throwers, too.
The track sprung into action with 100m sprints, four races producing three first’s from Giuseppe Minetti, flying in 11.6s, Kwei Sankofa, Paul Marriott and a rare surprise second for evergreen Bob Fraser, overall yielding 23 from 24 points. The HHH team was stoked up well and out of the blocks; with its weakest event for the evening over and after three events we were already six points in the lead.
New man Brian Ray now got his rhythm in the triple jump whilst Allan Long superbly won the M50 event (after his 100m sprint warm up) and giving 20 years to his competitors! Eleven out of 12 points. The walk gave us two first places from Andy Millbank and Waldy Pauzers as Marcello Fortes debuted in the event admitting to finding the event interesting… and worth another go. A determined Mickey Harran ably competed and completed despite injury woes.
Now, our four 400m scorers required a little latitude, as all four were also to be lined up in the 1500m event twenty minutes later. Simon Thompson was commendably willing to do cover for the M35B slot on the day whilst M35A Lloyd Collier and Gary Ironmonger had agreed previously to use the night as a multiple workout as they were also to run 400m relay legs, too. Not to be outdone, M60 Waldy Pauzers went from HJ to 2000m Walk, 400m and 1500m.
Notwithstanding the required workload for the four of them Gary got a first and a fine 400m season’s best running alone way ahead of the field; two well taken 2nd places were drawn from Lloyd and Waldy and a gutsy 4th still equaled Serpentine, our closest opposition’s scores for the event.
The four long sprint runners were now joined by five additional Herne Hill men intent to make the 1500m a HHH spectacle, which is now our standard for the longest footrace of the evening. Steve Knight readily stepped into the M60 scoring slot, posting a second place alongside Lloyd and Simon’s similar score, whilst Gary got his second 1st place of the night. The red and black hoops trooped in with regularity with Graeme Moyse, Jon Key, Robin Sanderson, Dan Hallam and Waldy within the 31 man field!
Meanwhile, our hardy throwers were doing their shift at the Discus. Garry Power, who travelled back from abroad that day where he had been coaching Irish junior internationals, had a superb throw out of the sector and eventually settled for a safe standing throw which still got us the full points. Brian Ray, under the tutelage of Garry, once again got a personal best for M35 first place in throwing 33-32m. In addition, the late arriving brewmaster Derek Prentice, perfumed by the hops of his late afternoon’s mash, made it three wins from three. I trust his beer will also be as successful, (I’m a happy volunteer taster!) Just for proper discus cover, Des Austin backed up and would also have won his age group.
Pretty confident of a match win, despite never being able to fully gauge scores on the night, the 4 x 400m men were keen to show their mettle. Lloyd Collier gave them a lead to begin with, equalling his previous solo 58.5s time when handing over to Graeme Moyse who held that lead with a super sub 60s lap. The game track running newcomer (and used to marathon training) Jon Key was now the rabbit who set off for his first 400m since schooldays. Jon, ably held the lead and managed a great debut of 63.9s. M50 Gary Ironmonger became the hunted and was tracked down by Serpie’s Graeme Harrison, the British M40 Masters 400m champion, but M50 Gary fought him to the last to limit the gap drawing another season’s best of 59.2s in his third workout of the evening.
A fine evening’s work from all. We are galvanising ourselves into a large, able and flexible workforce. Now, that’s just what we need for that final in September. But let us not get ahead of ourselves. We need reinforcement of that team spirit and competition at Perivale’s match 4 on Monday 13th July. Let’s be out in force.
And many thanks to all who turned out to help in this our ‘home fixture’ for this division. Up the Hill.
Valdis Pauzers HHH Men’s Vets Team Manager.
Match Result: Herne Hill Harriers 138, Serpentine 111, Hillingdon 96, Metros 57, TVH 53, British Airways 33
Individual Results:
100m
M35A 1 Giuseppe Minetti M45 Herne Hill Harriers 11.6
2 J T Wong Serpentine 12.2
3 Greg Bennett M40 Thames Valley H 13.0
4 Vaughan Ramsay Hillingdon 13.3
5 Mike Morris M45 Metros 15.5
M35B 1 Kwei Sankofa M55 Herne Hill Harriers 12.5
2 Jeremy Freer Serpentine 13.0
3 Jason Steel M40 Hillingdon 13.1
4 Gordon Valentine M60 Metros 18.3
M50 1 Paul Marriott Herne Hill Harriers 13.4
2 Tony Silverman M55 Serpentine 14.0
3 Mark Mulvenna Metros 15.5
4 Dave Martin Hillingdon 18.1
M60 1 David Hinds Serpentine 13.6
2 Bob Fraser M65 Herne Hill Harriers 13.8
3 Mike Ransome M65 Metros 14.8
4 Roy White Hillingdon 15.4
5 Nick Michael Thames Valley H 15.5
6 Eddie Giles M65 British Airways 18.1
400m
M35A 1 Graeme Harrison M40 Serpentine 51.1
2 Lloyd Collier M40 Herne Hill Harriers 58.5
3 Andrew Mitchell M40 Thames Valley H 58.7
4 Vaughan Ramsay Hillingdon 61.8
5 Matt Rogan M40 Metros 73.4
6 Scott Davison M40 British Airways 80.4
M35B 1 Roger Coyle M40 Serpentine 59.0
2 Jason Steel M40 Hillingdon 59.5
3 Simon Thompson M40 Herne Hill Harriers 62.4
4 Christian Nielson M40 Thames Valley H 64.5
5 Mike Morris M45 Metros 74.6
M50 1 Gary Ironmonger Herne Hill Harriers 59.5
2 Guy Bowles Thames Valley H 68.4
3 Dave Martin Hillingdon 68.8
4 Gary Rushmer British Airways 70.7
5 Mark Mulvenna Metros 74.2
6 Andrew Maynard Serpentine 88.2
M60 1 David Hinds Serpentine 65.4
2 Valdis Pauzers Herne Hill Harriers 74.0
3 Mike Ransome M65 Metros 75.1
4 Nick Michael Thames Valley H 78.2
5 Eddie Giles M65 British Airways 79.2
6 Roy White Hillingdon 80.2
1500m
M35A 1 Martin Bateman Hillingdon 04:26.5
2 Lloyd Collier M40 Herne Hill Harriers 04:31.2
3 Andrew Mitchell M40 Thames Valley H 4:41.0
4 Daniel de Palol M40 Serpentine 04:43.4
5 Matt Rogan M40 Metros 05:12.3
6 Scott Davison M40 British Airways 06:01.1
M35B 1 Richard Taylor Serpentine 04:45.4
2 Simon Thompson Herne Hill Harriers 04:47.8
3 Christian Nielson Thames Valley H 04:56.6
4 P Hull M40 Hillingdon 05:09.7
5 Mike Morris M45 Metros 05:59.5
M50 1 Gary Ironmonger Herne Hill Harriers 04:36.2
2 Gary Rushmer British Airways 05:21.9
3 Richard Hooley Thames Valley H 05:28.7
4 Richard Jenkin Hillingdon 05:30.2
5 Andrew Maynard Serpentine 05:41.2
6 Mike Ransome M65 Metros 06:39.3
M60 1 Andrew Roberts Serpentine 05:19.3
2 Steve Knight M65 Herne Hill Harriers 05:42.9
3 Gordon Valentine Metros 06:37.2
4 Eddie Giles M65 British Airways 06:47.3
2000m Walk
M35 1 Paul Woodgate M40 Thames Valley H 13:29.5
2 Daniel de Palol M40 Serpentine 14:54.5
3 Marcello Fortes M40Herne Hill Harriers15:46.5
M50 1 Andy Millbank Herne Hill Harriers 11:20.6
2 Andrew Maynard Serpentine 14:50.4
3 D Smith Hillingdon 15:22.4
M60 1 Valdis Pauzers Herne Hill Harriers 10:38.3
2 Steve Hillier British Airways 15:22.8
3 Ashok Jamdagni M70 Serpentine 16:09.8
4 x 400m Relay
1 x Serpentine 03:57.2
2 x Herne Hill Harriers 04:01.3
3 x Hillingdon 04:12.5
4 x Thames Valley H 04:12.7
5 x Metros 05:09.4
High Jump
M35 1 Vaughan Ramsay Hillingdon 1.55
2 Dave Robinson Serpentine 1.50
3 Brian Ray M45 Herne Hill Harriers 1.50
4 Michael Morris M45 Metros 1.05
M50 1 Paul Marriott Herne Hill Harriers 1.45
2 Dave Martin Hillingdon 1.10
3 Andrew Maynard Serpentine 0.95
M60 1 Roy White Hillingdon 1.20
2 Mike Ransome M65 Metros 1.15
3 Valdis Pauzers Herne Hill Harriers 1.10
4 Ashok Jamdagni M70 Serpentine 1.00
Triple Jump
M35 1 Vaughan Ramsay Hillingdon 11.06
2 Brian Ray M45 Herne Hill Harriers 10.05
3 Greg Bennett M40 Thames Valley H 9.92
4 Richard Taylor Serpentine 9.31
5 Matt Rogan M40 Metros 6.96
M50 1 Allan Long M70 Herne Hill Harriers 7.29
2 Gary Rushmer British Airways 6.96
3 Dave Martin Hillingdon 6.75
4 Mike Ransome M65 Metros 6.17
5 Andrew Maynard Serpentine 5.29
Discus
M35 1 Brian Ray M45 Herne Hill Harriers 33.32
2 Keith Seddon M50 Hillingdon 24.23
3 Alex Malzer M45 Serpentine 18.46
M50 1 Garry Power Herne Hill Harriers 33.67
2 Mark Mulvenna Metros 21.23
3 Steve Thompson Hillingdon 19.65
4 Andrew Maynard Serpentine 13.12
M60 1 Derek Prentice Herne Hill Harriers 26.25
2 Bob Densley Hillingdon 24.05
3 Steve Hillier British Airways 22.93
4 Gordon Valentine Metros 20.36
5 Ashok Jamdagni M70 Serpentine 12.41
Javelin
M35 1 Frank Womelsdorf Serpentine 32.26
2 Garth Francis M50 Herne Hill Harriers 30.04
3 Greg Bennett M40 Thames Valley H 26.60
4 Bob Densley M60 Hillingdon 18.72
M50 1 Keith Seddon Hillingdon 36.30
2 Nic Nicola Herne Hill Harriers 28.94
3 Steve Hillier M60 British Airways 17.70
4 Mark Mulvenna Metros 14.38
5 Andrew Maynard Serpentine 13.92
Non-scorers
100m
Roger Coyle M40 Serpentine 12.9
Richard Taylor M35 Serpentine 13.8
Allan Long M70 Herne Hill Harriers 14.5
Simon McKnight M35 Serpentine 15.9
400m
J T Wong M35 Serpentine 59.6
Alex Malzer M45 Serpentine 65.1
Simon Rubens M50 Thames Valley H 73.2
1500m
Graham Moyse M50 Herne Hill Harriers 04:37.0
Jon Key M40 Herne Hill Harriers 04:54.9
Robin Sanderson M35 Herne Hill H 04:57.1
Greg Bennett M40 Thames Valley H 04:59.0
Dan Hallam M35 Herne Hill Harriers 05:00.7
Paul Woodgate M40 Thames Valley H 05:16.3
Robert Wintemute M55 London Frontrunners 05:25.1
Guy Bowles M50 Thames Valley H 05:34.0
Simon Rubens M50 Thames Valley H 05:41.9
Valdis Pauzers M60 Herne Hill Harriers 05:44.5
2000m Walk
Micky Harran M75 Herne Hill Harriers 13:10.4
High Jump
Jason Steel M40 Hillingdon 1.35
Richard Taylor M35 Serpentine 1.25
Triple Jump
Simon McKnight M35 Serpentine 8.82
Discus
Frank Womelsdorf M35 Serpentine 17.81
Des Austin M50 Herne Hill Harriers 29.05
Keith Seddon M50 Hillingdon 26.83
Javelin
Dave Robinson M35 Serpentine 18.93
Des Austin M50 Herne Hill Harriers 21.52