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Excellent field performances from the men's team, who won their section, were not enough to clinch an overall victory as the National Junior League squad finished runners up to league leaders Basildon at Mayesbrook on Sunday.

Every HMAC male field competitor gained at least second place. Bradley Reece was in fine form with PBs to win both discus & hammer, and Anthony Williams added a pair of wins with hurdles & long jump B full points. Jay Ryan returned to club colours with an impressive high jump victory & good pole vault runners up spot, and the customary javelin double this time came from Georgie Bean and second claimer Johnny Fairclough – also from Sam Harrison’s coaching stable. Craig Moore’s discus PB earned B string victory and he added high jump B runners up points.

Vince Lazaro won the long Jump A & a B string jumps victory came from Paul Adair triple jump while Kieran Nelson added a B sprint hurdles win and improved his best in the one-lap hurdles. Adair had also ducked below the two-minute barrier for 800m earlier but found it good enough only for fifth in a high quality race. Grant Twist was in good form with PBs in both 400m hurdles and steeplechase, finishing third & second. Ross Clarke was second in the 1500m to man-of–the-match James Shane, and Josh Dunne was also runner up in the B 400m

Nicola Hill & Lisa Schofield doubled up for a hurdles maximum and added B sprints victories in the 200m & 100m respectively. A high jump double came from second claim member Jess Tappin (on her debut) and Bethan Siddons, – both added a pair of second places – Jess in both sprints and Bethan in long & triple jumps.

Good points came from the returning Megan Foley (400m – 2^nd), Katie Richardson (800m – 2^nd) and Robyn Matson (1500m – 2^nd). Emma Christmas won the A javelin and Lauren Clark was first home in the B 800m, also adding B string second places in triple jump and discus with Catrina McAuliffe second in the A discus.

The ladies ended on a high as the 4x400m quartet of Lauren Clark, Katie Richardson, Nicola Hill & Megan Foley had a good win. 

The results leaves the team in second place with one fixture remaining, at Colchester on 29 July and the team are in with a good chance of qualifying for the promotion final, with the chance of regaining their premier division status.

 Link to provisional full results   points

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