After relegation last year the Crawley women’s team showed their determination to return to Division one of the UK Women’s League with a fine victory in the opening match of the season in Division two at Crawley’s K.2 stadium on Saturday.
Scoring 238 points the home team trounced the opposition with Harrow some fifty points adrift in second place with 186, Havering 180.5, Glasgow 173.5, Bedford 171, Milton Keynes 160, Newham 132 and Reading 108.
At the same venue the Crawley men, following promotion to Division two of the British League, made an excellent start by finishing in third spot in a close match with Harrow scoring 321 points, Thames Valley 310, Crawley 294, Kingston/Poly 291, Bristol 281.5, Nottingham 266, Nene Valley 232.5 and Gateshead 157.
At this level of competition it is not unusual to manage only a few individual winners but Crawley notched up two “A” winners in the men’s match and three in the women’s.
As usual the Lasis boys turned up trumps in the Men’s match with James of that ilk winning the Discus throw with 43.29m and also winning the “B” hammer throw with a PB of 54.25m while big brother Matt won the “A” hammer throw with 62.98m which was not only a personal best but also broke Mick Jones’s 33 year old club record of 62.82m and he also took third place in the “B” discus throw with 35.99m and fourth place in the “B” shot putt with 12.30m.
Bradley Hall cleared 1.80m to win the “B” high jump after team mate David Bishop had cleared the same height for fourth place in the “A” event.
Competition is really tough at this level and twenty nine year old Jason Hussain, who has been one of the top Sussex sprinters for nearly a decade came up with a personal best of 10.65s into a headwind in the 100 metres but it only earnt him fourth place.
Hussain also help the Crawley team to victory in the 4 x 100m relay in 42.11s.
In the women’s events Crawley’s Surrey all-rounder, Jo Rowland, did the double winning the shot putt with 12.46m, with Brighton School teacher Leanne Buxton, competing for Bedford, in second place with 11.59m while Beth Crocker winning the “B” shot for Crawley with 9.79m. Rowland also won the long jump with 5.81m and Elise Lovell celebrated her 23rd birthday by winning the “B” long jump with 5.68m and the “B” 100 metre hurdles in 14.26s.
There was a fine victory for Livvy Connor in the triple jump with another eleven metre plus leap of 11.05m and she also picked up a second place in the pole vault, despite the wind, clearing 3.31m.
The Crawley women’s team of Kim Baptiste, Jo Rowland, Amy Barclay and Elise Lovell were also victorious 4 x 100m relay with a fine time of 47.97s, which is faster that the Sussex record.
Unfortunately Rowland hails from Surrey and Lovell is first claim to Hastings so it cannot be considered a Sussex record.
Overall this was a pretty impressive league opening for the Crawley teams.