The R&N team headed to the first Midland League fixture at Alexander Stadium looking for a solid start to the season in order to build upon their 2nd place finish last summer. The match also clashed with the Universities Champs at Bedford so every club was missing their student athletes and R&N were also depleted by absence through injury and exams meaning that around a dozen first choice performers were unavailable.
On the day it proved to be a very closely contested match and despite scoring more points than in the equivalent fixture last year, the team narrowly finished 5th with 294 points but were only 36 poits behind second placed Notts AC. The success story of the day was the Men’s team who reversed trend of recent years to win the match claiming an unprecedented 5 A-string victories plus 5 more B-string victories. The A-String wins came from Ross Allen (400m), Jacob Allen (1500m), James Wright (110H), Kevin Murch (Javelin) & the 4 x100m relay squad who claimed victory thanks to storming legs from Caleb Downes & Clinton Osaba-George. There were also 2nd places for Ian Gidley (Pole-Vault), Charlie Barker (High Jump) & Brett Mason (400H) whilst John Moreland travelled down from York to take a brace of 3rd places & a 4th place in the throws. The B-string winners were debutant Connor Aldridge (400H), Charlie Barker (110H), Ian Gidley (HJ) & James Wright in both the Discus & Javelin.
The Ladies team were badly hit by injuries and found the going tough with the outstanding performance coming from Emily Waugh who took a brace of 2nd places in the 3000m followed by the 1500m, whilst World Masters champion Ellana Ruddock took 2nd place in the 100m and anchored the 4×100 team to 2nd place. Megan Exley had a busy day taking 2nd place in the javelin as well as tackling the High & Triple Jumps. Jess Hull also made a welcome return to completion in a strong Long Jump competition and will surely only improve as the season progresses. Kerry Murch is still recovering from shoulder surgery and is not yet back to full training but still bravely covered the Long & High Jumps plus a strong leg in the relay. Flatmate & debutant Sophie Riley was little rusty and was made to work hard in the 200 & 400m whilst Charlotte Inwood also had a busy day, taking Third place in the 800m before also running the 400m. The team was completed by Debbie Murch, Grace Adeyinka, Gemma Scales, Tricia Garner & Karen Gomes all of whom picked up valuable points.
The next match is on Sat 7th June @ Wolverhampton where the team expect to be a lot stronger but can also expect the other clubs to have returning athletes so a very competitive fixture can be predicted.
