37th Club Newsletter September 2007
It does not seem that long ago that we were talking about the start of the defence of our Under 11 Cheshire League Title and I am proud to confirm that following another comprehensive win in the 4th and final league meeting our Under 11's once again lifted the trophy. This year we were once again pushed right to the end by Crewe who have mounted a serious challenge for the last two years. This year the thing that made the difference was our win over Crewe in the first league meeting of the year. Going into the last meetinhg we had a 15 point lead over Crewe and only a complete disaster or the dropping of the relay battens would have prevented us from retaining the title.
Not that everything went smoothly. Before the meeting our most consistent boy team member Sam Tattum advised he may miss the 75m due to footballing committments. As it was he arrived at the track just in time to put on his spikes and then proceeded to win the "A" 75m race followed by the Long Jump and then the 600m before anchoring home the boys relay team.
On the day there was also a bit of a panic as to whether we would have a full boys team. With only 3 weeks separating the 3rd and 4th meetings not all the team had been advised of the team selection and there were also holiday committments I was not aware of. In the end we did get 7 boys arrive including Ethan Wilson who was attending his first athletics meeting. Ethan was drafted in as a counter in the 75m and 600m and took maximum points for the team. Matthew Jamieson has also been a willing team member all year and was again drafted in at the last minute as a counter in the 600m and Javelin and agin scored maximum points.
All this emphasises what a team effort it has been this year with a total of 37 Under 11's competing with 19 of them being a counter at some stage or another. Without this strength in depth and the willingness of the non counters to turn out we probably would not have won this year. Congratulations to the whole team.
Despite being in contention right up until the last match our womens team failed to repeat the success of 2006 but still finished in overall 5th place, however our Mens team went one better in finishing 4th. There are a lot of very strong teams in this league and both performances were very creditable.
The Under 11's have continued to set performances towards their Achievement Awards. This year we have seen our first winner of the Platinum Award, with Sam Tattum not only attaining the required standards but surpassing them by some distance in all four events. We have also had a number of Gold Award winners. I am also pleased to announce that our younger athletes have had a chance to record their performances thanks to the efforts of Mike, Emily and Sarah as a result of which both Abby Lucas and Courtney kilfoyle have been awarded their Bronze Awards. A full list of award winners can be found at the following pages - Boys http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.hallam3/broll.htm and Girls http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.hallam3/groll.htm
To see how close you are to achieving an award why not visit the web page specifically set up to keep athletes informed. The address is http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.hallam3/perf4.htm If any new members want any more information on these awards please ask Peter. They are worth having as recipients receive an engraved Silver Trophy and a specially designed baseball cap which will keep you dry during our Winter training sessions and shade you from the Summer sun. (if we get any)
Results have continued to arrive for our members performances at Open Meetings. Full results can be found at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.hallam3/2007open.htm
Our club is currently on a high with many members competing in both league and open fixtures and because of this it is becoming very difficult to keep the web site totally up to date. Can we therefore ask that athletes and parents report any perceived omissions and or errors they see on the site by sending an E Mail to Salfordmets@ntlworld.com and we will update the web site as appropriate.
Hot on the heel of the track season is the cross country season which believe it or not starts on Saturday 29 September when we hold the first of our schools cross country races. Whilst these races are for the primary & high schools there is no reason why our own members cannot run if their school is not competing. Just hand your results in at the end of the race with your school name on the envelope. The 2nd race then takes place on Saturday 13th October and the final race on Saturday November 3rd. The first race starts at 10am.
Whilst on about Cross Country the club enters teams in the SE Lancs Cross country races which cater for all age groups including Under 11's. This years dates are 27 October, 10 November and 19 January. Anyone interested in competing should see Debbie Hulme who has volunteered to be the Team Manager this year. Think Debbie deserves another medal for that.
Congatulations are due to Jane Hayes who has taken her GCSE's this year and attained 2 x A* and 8 x A's. Well done Jane.
Has any under 11 lost a watch. Peter has found one and is blue and yellow in colour. Please see Peter if you think its yours.
And now a very important message for our U11s and U13s.
We very much hope that everyone will continue to train at Salford Mets throughout the Autumn and Winter.
As everyone knows at this time of the year we see a lot of cold and wet weather and whilst athletes will be kept warm
whilst training it is very important that you retain this heat once the session finishes.
We would therefore ask that all athletes come to training with the following which will hopefully help prevent
some of the more obvious illnesses that can be picked up at this time of year.
Jumper, rainproof coat suitable to wear during training, a hat, gloves for when it gets frosty, a spare T shirt and
finally a waterproof bag to put everything in. Any athletes arriving with just a T Shirt may not be allowed to train. Remember
its easy to take clothes off but its impossible to put them on if you have not brought them.
And finally if you want to receive an E Mail notification whenever a new newsletter is published on the web sites please send your E Mail address to Salfordmets@ntlworld.com and we will send notifications to you.
Peter