After a season of what ifs , near misses and a lot of frustration, Bedford & County’s senior squad finally had reason to celebrate ( and they certainly did!)  with victory in the National Athletics League Championship plate.  

After narrowly missing out on qualification for the cup competition, featuring the top 8 teams after the first three round of regular league matches, Bedford went into the match with high hopes of victory. Hopes were further heightened when Bournemouth, on equal league points going into the match, declared a much weaker team than expected.  However, a one off match can spring many a surprise, league form went out of the window and Bedford were met with an unlikely challenge from Herne Hill Harriers.

On Saturday the 13^th of August the club’s senior athletes visited Thurrock for round 4 of the Southern athletics league.  Despite battling against a temperature in the mid-30s, a less than favourable wind and traffic chaos, there were some strong results and a number of wins for Bedford athletes:

In round 3 of the SAL at Woodford Green on Saturday 16th July, Bedford and County finished 4th.

Team Score

1: Woodford Green with Essex Ladies - 180

2: Ealing Southall & Middlesex AC - 193

3: Ashford AC - 140

4: Bedford & County - 125

 Despite a disappointing result, there were several wins on the day:

Congratulations to Gracie Wall, who won the silver medal at the Schools International in Belfast on Saturday 16th July.

Well done to all those who took part in the English Schools Championships at Manchester on 8th and 9th July.  There were some excellent performances:

• Alex Alston: U20M 2000m Steeplechase - Gold Medal - 5:51.26 (PB)
• DJ Agbenu: U20M 100m -  made the semi-final - 11.36
• Euan Supple: U17M 1500m Steeplechase - Bronze Medal - 4:31.68 (PB)
• Gracie Wall: U17W High Jump - Silver Medal - 1.74m
• Lyla Danobrega: U17W - 7th in her heat - 4:43.75 (PB)
• Milly Dunger: U17W 3000m - 8th - 10:07.28
• Sadie Werrett: U17W Javelin - 5th - 38.52m

Team Manager, Dennis Johnson, provides some detail about the medal-winning performances:

The third fixture of the 2022 Eastern Masters League took place on Wednesday 22^nd June at the University Track in Cambridge.  On what turned out to be a fantastic night for athletics (‘Oldies’ like a calm and sunny evening), the Bedford & County Masters Men’s Team managed a match winning performance, securing victory over Milton Keynes by 114.5 points to 114.0 points.

Report by Jim Keech, Men's Masters Team Manager.

Due to facility non-availability at Sandy the first fixture on 4th May was moved to Milton Keynes at very short notice and all teams were pleased, and a big thank you to all involved in ensuring the event was successful.  It was great to see many friendly faces again, I won’t say old as the rules of the league insist on this as a condition of entry !!  We had some new faces doing track for the first time: Charlie Palmer and Steve Horton both finished with smiles and promises of doing it again.  Sadly we were hit by some late withdrawals. but with some sterling performances across the evening the team managed to finish in second place only 13 points behind Milton Keynes.

Saturday 4th June saw Bedford and County’s senior Men and Women host round 2 of the National Athletics League Championship (Fixture A). Following a reasonable result in a tough round 1 match at Chelmsford that left the club 13th out of the 16 teams in the league, there was a sense among many that Bedford had a point to prove in a match that would see them face all the teams that finished below them in the 2021 season, local rivals Peterborough and Nene valley, and last season’s Champions, Crawley.

Two Bedford & County members competed at the England U20 Decathlon Championships held at Bedford last weekend (28/29 May).

Returning from his medical studies in Canterbury and with limited training behind him, reigning English Schools Decathlon Champion Stephen Simmons performed remarkably well, finishing in 5^thplace having set two personal best performances and  being very close to his lifetime best in five of remaining eight events.

Report by Craig Emmerson:
Sunday the 22^nd of May saw Bedford & County’s senior Men and Women open their Southern athletics league campaign at Hemel Hempstead.  After a reasonable start to the season in the First NAL match, Team managers Craig Emmerson an Emma Coombes had hoped that a solid team performance would really kick start the season for the seniors. However it wasn’t to be quite to be.

Report by Jodi Henderson:

Firstly, I would like to thank all of the parents and athletes for such a warm welcome as Boys Team Manager – you have all made my job much easier!

YDL

On Sunday 8 May, the U13 and U15 boys represented ‘Team Bedfordshire’ in the first round of the YDL. It was a tough field and the team scored 261 points overall and finished in 5^th place. Standout performances came from Dane R in shot who came 1^st and a 3^rd place for Bejay M in the 80m hurdles.