Sir Sefton Brancker & Seax Trophies – Watford – 2nd July 2003

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Middlesex County, the perennial favourites for these triangular fixtures, failed to make up the deficits carried forward from the cross country fixture in January and saw the airmen of the RAF and the female Civil Servants lift the respective trophies, Gavin Collett reports. On a still, but cool night seemingly perfect for racing, the quality of the track events was somewhat subdued, hurdlers apart.

Tracy Hilton had opened proceedings in style in the long hurdle for the Civil Service, before Middlesex’s Joel Hopkins took the men’s equivalent, later adding the flat one lap event to complete a personal double. Civil Servant Kay Reynolds, having already won the 100m flat event, glided to a 15.5 sprint hurdle win, a time matched in the men’s sprint hurdle by RAF decathlete Anthony Higbee.

The men of Middlesex displayed their quality winning all four jump events. Julian Golley’s only legal effort in the first round of the triple jump proved sufficient to hold off Keith Newton of the Civil Service, whilst Adrian Phillips provided the only 7m leap in the long jump. In the pole vault, Stephen McLennan withdrew after a third time clearance of 4m50 when leading the competition and then had to watch Middlesex team-mate Chris Mills go on to achieve 4m75 in fading light.

The men’s throws were closely contested, with Adam Davis of the RAF and Middlesex’s Luke Rosenberg recording two wins apiece, the best competition being the shot where Davis’ opening putt of 15m06 held off Rosenberg’s reply by just one centimetre.

Denise Gayle cleared 1m70 in her speciality high jump before displaying her versatility sprinting to a 200m victory.

Jean Clark had shown the Civil Servants the lead by taking the opening hammer event with 45m63 and Natasha Brunning responded well to her example, winning the pole vault and triple jump and adding second place to Ann-Marie Thorpe in the long jump.
Men
MATCH: 1 Royal Air Force 146; 2 Middlesex CAA 137; 3 Civil Service 100.

SIR SEFTON BRANCKER TROPHY: 1 Royal Air Force 227; 2 Middlesex CAA 172; 3 Civil Service 137.

100 (0.1): 1 R Moseley (Mx) 11.0; 2 R Alleyne (Mx) 11.1; 3 W McGee (CS) 11.2. 100 NS (1.2): J Commissiong (Mx) 11.2. 200 (0.0): 1 Moseley 22.3; 2 Alleyne 22.7; 3 McGee 22.8. 400: J Hopkins (Mx) 50.4. 800: 1 D Clark (CS) 1:55.0; 2 S Redshaw (RAF) 1:55.8; 3 D Ryan (Mx) 1:57.8; 4 S Price (CS) 1:58.2; 5 D Lewis (RAF) 1:58.9. 3000: 1 M Hilton (CS) 8:57.1; 2 S Neill (RAF) 8:58.4. 2000SC: 1 A Wray (CS) 6:06.3; 2 R McWilliams (RAF, gst) 6:08.1. 110H (0.0): A Higbee (RAF) 15.5. 400H: 1 Hopkins 54.3; 2 V Keogh (CS) 57.7. PV: 1 C Mills (Mx) 4.75; 2 S McLennan (Mx) 4.50; 3 R Gammage (RAF) 3.70. LJ: A Phillips (Mx) 7.05. TJ: 1 J Golley (Mx) 14.72; 2 K Newton (CS) 13.88; 3 S Benson (RAF) 13.42. SP: 1 A Davis (RAF) 15.06; 2 L Rosenberg (Mx) 15.05. DT: 1 Rosenberg 47.72; 2 Davis 43.29; 3 P Lowe (RAF) 40.45. 3000W: S Uttley (CS) 14:47.1.

Women
MATCH: 1 Civil Service 156; 2 Middlesex CAA 135; 3 Royal Air Force 72.

SEAX TROPHY: 1 Civil Service 190; 2 Middlesex CAA 164; 3 Royal Air Force 87.

100 (0.8)/100H (0.9): K Reynolds (CS) 13.0/15.5. 200 (-0.3)/HJ: D Gayle (Mx) 26.8/1.70. 800: 1 L Pringle (Mx) 2:16.1; 2 C Aitken (Mx) 2:16.4; 3 N Wastenby (CS) 2:19.8; 4 S Andreou (CS) 2:24.4. 1500: 1 L Kehoe (Mx) 4:49.6; 2 S Robson (CS) 4:50.3. 3000: 1 K Waugh (CS) 10:10.5; 2 Robson 10:23.1; 3 S Bigham (Mx) 10:30.2; 4 B Anderson (Mx) 10:50.0. 400H: 1 T Hilton (CS) 65.2; 2 P Murrell (CS) 69.5; 3 C Heaney (Mx) 69.8. PV: 1 N Brunning (CS) 2.80; 2 L Howcroft (Mx) 2.70. LJ: 1 A-M Thorpe (Mx) 5.20; 2 Brunning 5.12. TJ: Brunning 10.86; 2 N Williams (Mx) 10.80. HT: J Clark (CS) 45.63. JT: 1 S Martinez-Roura (Mx) 33.92; 2 K Addis (CS) 31.00. 4×100: Middlesex 51.3.