Surrey play waiting game (From Kingston Guardian)

Surrey play waiting game

3:03pm Thursday 4th June 2009

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Surrey’s men’s team are still waiting to find out if they finished top of the table at the UK Inter-Counties Championships – nearly a fortnight after the event took place.

At the end of the two-day event at Bedford, Essex were announced the winners, with Surrey in fourth spot.

However, since then, team manager Geoff Platt has spent hours scrutinising the results and is convinced Surrey were robbed and that his team actually won the trophy.

“The secretary of the event at Bedford has called me to say he now agrees Surrey won the men’s Achilles Trophy,” said Platt.

“Unfortunately, he was leaving the country when he called and it will be next week before he is able to make the formal announcement.”

If Surrey’s victory is finally confirmed, it will be their first success in the event since 2001.

It adds to the senior eight-counties trophy they won last summer.

One of the reasons they were relegated in the initial result was due to the eight points pole vaulter Joe Ive gained in taking second place, which were left off the original scorecard.

Stoneleigh-based Ive, of Belgrave Harriers, was the runner-up after clearing 5m with his only clearance, before three failures at 5.20m.

Those points mean Surrey’s tally, given as 65, should actually be 73, with Essex dropping a point to 72.

Platt experienced chaos from the start of the two-day meeting, as his nominated triple jumper Gary Wilson, from Belgrave, was initially omitted from the results – despite finishing second in the inter-county contest.

It was only when Platt pointed out the error to officials that the score was corrected.

A plethora of guests and non-scoring competitors, combined with a new computerised entry system, caused enormous complications with the results – so much so that no team placings were announced until the end of the first day of action.

Surrey’s only winner in the men’s competition was Ryan Moseley in the 100m (10.59).

Herne Hill’s Robert Graham (10.92) and Idris Ojuriye (10.98) were fourth and fifth in the elite final, with Sammy Mensah seventh (11.10).

Belgrave’s Alex Wright was second in the 3,000m walk (13:08.80), with Belgrave’s 60-year-old president John Hall fifth for Middlesex (15:03.12).

Surrey’s Ezekiel Ewulo was also runner-up in the long jump (7.43m).

Sutton & District’s Dan Davis took fourth in the 100m hurdles (14.63), with Belgrave’s James Kelly fourth in the 5,000m (14:56.13).

Belgrave’s Richard Ward was fifth in the mile (4:18.30), with Chris Scott fifth in the discus (48.86m).

Ben Wallis was also fifth in the 800m (1:54.19).

Nick Webb was sixth in the shot (14.94m).

However, the county failed to score any points in the other three throws, with no competitors in the discus or hammer.

Injured Kingston & Polytechnic athlete Felix Hatton threw the javelin with his left arm following the recurrence of a long term injury problem in his right.

Achilles Trophy: 1 Surrey 73, 2 Essex 72, 3= Yorkshire and Kent 68, 5 Middlesex 48, 6 Hertfordshire 41.

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