A short-handed ladies team battled well to avoid the wooden spoon in their first UK Women’s League fixture at a damp Wakefield on Sunday.

International Faye Fullerton made the trip despite nursing an Achilles injury and provided the only A string victory in the 800m backed up by 400m B string runners up spot but the contributions of her ten teammates were every bit as valuable on the day.

The hurdles events provided a good source of points.  In the 400m hurdles Nicola Hill was overhauled in the straight and had to settle for second while in the B race Felicity (“Flic”) Clarke had a winning league debut with an easy victory.  Nicola also added 200m & shot points and Flic filled gaps in discus and javelin.  In the 100m hurdles Chloe van Wulven held on for third place and B string partner Claire Brennan came through to take first place points.  Chloe added high jump and triple jump points, contesting the latter for the first time, while Claire scored in the 200m and javelin.  These four formed the core of both relay teams. In the 4x100m relay Flic, Chloe and Claire were joined by Hannah Connor placing sixth, while in the 4x400m event Nina Brennan joined Flic, Nicola and Claire to complete the fifth placed quartet.

More track points came by virtue of Robyn Matson, who was third in the 3000m in her first track race for two years and Laura Bealey who earned vital points by tackling the 2000m steeplechase, a big step up from her usual 400m and 400m hurdles performances. Laura had earlier raced the 400m A event.

Esther Tele gained two fifth places in the long jump and 100m B on her debut, but had to pull out due to a hamstring strain while Hannah Connor was fourth in the B long jump and added 100m and hammer points. Ellie Watson was another competing at this level for the first time scoring important points in the high jump and triple jump.

Points were hard to come by in the throws as with no specialist throwers able to make the trip it was left to volunteers to scrape extra points wit h Nina Brenan tackling hammer, shot and discus in addition to her 400m relay leg.

The team will be hoping to welcome back a host of absentees for the next meeting at Stevenage on 4^th July.