Report by Sue Francis

Reading AC veteran Bob Lewis celebrated his birthday in fine style with three victories in his team’s opening fixture of the Veteran’s League at Oxford on Monday evening. The team got off to an excellent start as Mike Barough raced to victory in the M35 ‘A’-string 100m (12.3s), Justin Plank took a good second in the ‘B’-string (13.3s), and Lewis won the M50 race (13.0s). Lewis secured his second victory in the M50 400m (56.4s), while Barough broke the M35 Club record when finishing second in his race (56.0s). Non-scorers Ron Davies (M70, 82.7s) and Nick Taylor (M50, 66.2s) also posted good 400m times, Taylor having already run the 100m (13.8s). Not to be outdone, the field-eventers also delivered some great performances. Nigel Spratley-Kemp scored maximum points with comfortable victories in both the M35 shot (11.92m) and hammer (30.58m), while new member Jan Drzewiecki scored valuable points in the M50 throws (4th, 8.82m and 3rd, 30.32m). Martin High (non-scorer) also recorded a good distance in the shot (7.07m). Plank did well in both the M35 long jump (2nd, 5.12m), and high jump (3rd, 1.35m), and Davies in the M60 long jump (4th, 3.23m). Andy McDonald and Jon Evans paired up for the M35 1500m, both racing well to finish 5th ‘A’-string (4:54.3), and 6th ‘B’-string (5:55.9) respectively. The men rounded off the evening with a fine win in the 4 × 100m relay. McDonald, Plank and Lewis ran strongly to keep the team in contention, and anchor man Barough charged to victory, giving a team time of 49.8s.
The ladies had a small team of six, but all put in good individual performances. Stella Bacon was a clear winner in the W60 javelin (19.69m), and was 5th in the hammer with a throw of 16.47m. Despite a recent operation, Daphne Marler (W60) scored valuable points with 4th in the W50 long jump (2.16m), 6th in the javelin (7.53m) and 6th in the W60 100m (25.0s). Sue Lowry (W60) made a welcome return to the team and surprised herself with an excellent 18.6s in the W50 100m (6th). Sue Francis achieved the same position in the W35 event (16.6s), then finished 4th in the W35 400m (70.6s), before joining Debbie Taylor and Caroline Stevens in the 1500m. In a fast race, Taylor secured a good W35 ‘A’ string 3rd place (5:20.3), while Francis was 1st ‘B’ string runner (5:23.5), and Stevens was only just behind the winner of the W50 race (6:02.8).
Reading AC’s men’s team finished 5th in the match, while the ladies team finished 6th. The team now look forward to their next match at Abingdon in two weeks.