28/07/10 Watford Open Graded Meeting, Watford

31/07/10 SML 6, Peterborough

07/08/10 SWL 4, Guildford

08/08/10 EAL 4, Braintree

11/08/10 GPS 5, Werrington, Peterborough

11/08/10 Watford Open Graded Meeting, Watford

15/08/10 A1 Series, Thorney 5 mile (CRRL)

18/08/10 NVH 5K, Ferry Meadows, Peterborough

22/08/10 Kettering Open, Kettering

22/08/10 Stars of the future, Charnwood AC, Loughborough University

25/08/10 Watford Open Graded Meeting, Watford

30/08/10 Peterborough City Games, Peterborough

04/09/10 SWL 5, Peterborough

08/09/10 Watford Open Graded Meeting, Watford

09/09/10 NVH Club Night, Track, Peterborough

11/09/10 Hibbard Trophy, Chelmsford

12/09/10 Somme Poppy Marathon, France

12/09/10 Grunty Fen Half Marathon (CRRL)

19/09/10 EAL Final, Bury St Edmunds

26/09/10 West Pinchbeck 10K Road Race

Southern Men's T & F League 6, Bracknell, 01/08/09

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Report & Results

Athletics: Harriers go so close to victory
Published Date: 06 August 2009 By Bob Frank, Peterborough Evening Telegraph

NENE Valley Harriers missed out on victory by a single point as they ended their most successful ever Southern Men's League campaign with another good display at Bracknell.
They went into the final event, the 4x400m, needing to beat hosts Reading by two places to win the match but even though Sean Reidy anchored them to an easy success it was not enough as Reading finished second to seal the match.

That meant Reading pipped Nene Valley for third place – out of the 25 teams in the division – by one point, but the city side's position was still the best in their history and they will now apply for the 'paper match' to decide who competes for a place in the British League.

Six teams from the various regional leagues will be chosen to battle it out with the British League's bottom two teams at Abingdon next month in the end-of-season promotion match.

Clubs going into the paper match have to supply their best two results in league competition (not necessarily the Southern Men's League) for every event and a paper match will then be used to calculate a predicted match score based on an A and B-string competitors.

Whether or not Nene Valley get to compete in the promotion match, they have enjoyed an excellent season and could well have won the league with a bit more luck. Indeed they performed well in all six matches.

They won their opener at Portsmouth by just half-a-point but had mis-read the rules and used the versatile Ben Jones in one too many individual events so were docked points, leading to them being demoted to third in a close match.

They were second – two-and-a-half points from winning – next time out at Milton Keynes but would have won had Sean Beard not fallen and fractured his elbow when tripping over one of the steeplechase barriers and they then picked up wins at home and at Ipswich.

In their penultimate fixture they finished second, five points behind hosts Thames Valley Harriers, but were without three outstanding young talents as Jones, Darrellon Holding and Harry Wells were at the English Schools Championships.

On Saturday they would surely have won had Joe Eveling-White not opted to compete for Belgrave Harriers in Division One of the British League under UK Athletics' higher competition rule – recording 12.81m in the triple jump – instead.

Jumpers is proving to be the biggest headache for team manager Tim Needham who is desperate to strengthen that area before next season's campaign.

But elsewhere there were very few weaknesses. Reidy completed an unbeaten 400m hurdles campaign in the league to give Nene Valley the perfect start and Jones once again took the B-string. The talented youngster has lost just once in the Southern Men's League 400m hurdles this year.

Holding produced only his second sub-50 seconds 400m to take second place while fellow youngster David Bush ran well for third in the B-string. Chris Wright won the 5000m and the throwers were once again in superb form.

Ken Baker and Simon Achurch recorded four wins between them, the latter setting a season's best with the javelin, while Sam Lawrence took the B-string in that event, and there were further useful displays in the pole vault where Peter Lewis and Adam Fidgett – who equalled his personal best – have dropped very few points this summer.

Club captain Josh Reed has missed most of the track season through injury but got very close to his personal best when taking second in the B-string 800m, giving good support to Adam Binns.

SOUTHERN MEN'S LEAGUE DIVISION ONE 2009 FIXTURES

Click here for all news and results dating back to January 2008

25/07/10 Club Training and Fun Day, Wells, Norfolk

25/07/10 Grimsthorpe Half Marathon, Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincs

21/07/10 GPS 4, Stamford

21/07/10 Cambs AA Open Graded Series, St Ives

18/07/10 YAL 4, Sutton Coldfield

11/07/10 A1 Series, Bushy 10K, Peterborough (CRRL)

10/07/10 SML 5, Ilford

07/07/10 GPS 3, Ferry Meadows

04/07/10 EAL 3, King's Lynn

30/06/10 Watford Open Graded Meeting, Watford

27/06/10 A1 Series, Sutton Feast Beast, Ely

26/06/10 SML 4, Harrow

26/06/10 SWL 3, Epsom

23/06/10 GPS 2, Eye, Peterborough

20/06/10 YAL 3, Peterborough

16/06/10 Watford Open Graded Meeting, Watford

13/06/10 A1 Series, Abbey 10K, Ramsey (CRRL)

13/06/10 EAL 2, Peterborough

09/06/10 GPS 1, Ferry Meadows, Peterborough

09/06/10 Cambs AA Open Graded Series, St Ives

05/06/10 SML 3, Thurrock

02/06/10 Watford Open Graded Meeting, Watford

26/05/10 Cambs AA Open Graded Series, St Ives

22/05/10 SWL 2, Milton Keynes

19/05/10 Watford Open Graded Meeting, Watford

16/05/10 YAL 2, Derby

27/03/10 Hill Training, Chesterton - 11.30am NOW CANCELLED