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Horses for courses - An Oaks Day report
I always find Oaks Day to be rather amusing. In the morning you see all the women adorned in their fine dresses, expensive hats and inappropriate footwear trooping off to Flemington because... well that's what you do on Oaks Day. By 5:00pm, like homing pigeons, the well feathered flock are heading back into town for more entertainment. Some still retaining their elegance whilst others, no doubt feeling the effects of too much of a good thing, starting to show the first signs of deterioration - hats off centre, dresses with the odd bit of chardy spillage and the first sign of a wobble due to the aforementioned inappropriate shoes.
By 10:00pm when the lights have gone down at OP, the same can be said for many of our fine ladies. Driving back home last night, the expected scenes awaited. Outside a number of inner suburban establishments, the remaining examples of Melbourne's elite horse racing supporters congregated. What remained of the feathery hats were now well and truly angled toward mother earth, the dresses were either hitched up or slipping off shoulders and the inappropriate shoes now vying with handbags, mobiles and half empty glasses in the hands of their owners as the battle for the next available taxi raged.
What's all this got to do with State League... well after thinking long and hard about a Bayside analogy that wouldn’t get me into trouble, the answer is nothing. So let’s get back to the reports - men first.
Across the road in Yarra Park the field was low for the Hammer. Fortunately Brendan Neighbour answered the Bayside call and threw a very respectable 44m with the senior weight to bring home 16 points for the team. Thanks Brendan.
On the track inside OP it seemed like we had to wait hours before seeing a competitor in blue, not representing Geelong, as the walk and 400 hurdles came and went without Bayside troubling the scorers. The 5k soon solved that as Clint Perrott, Dean Lane and Zane Holland all went round and round keeping the lap scorers busy (thanks Kate and Alun) as 5k runners do. Clint was right amongst the action for much of the journey before Dave Ruschena and Mike Chettle kicked away in the final laps. Clint's 14:27 being a good hit out before he heads off to Japan in a fortnight in Australia's squad for the Chiba Ekiden relay. Dean and Zane both worked well amongst a trailing bunch to secure easy qualifiers - 15:10 & 15:13... something Bayside has struggled with in recent years. Debuting in the 5k alongside Zane was Frankston youngster Toby Rayner, who ran a very impressive 15:09, reversing some patchy form in recent weeks.
There wasn't much waiting around in the field as Kevin Beams Long Jumped his way to glory. Kev recorded an event winning 7.10m with a 2.2 tailwind to stamp his authority on the competition. With Carl out for a few months, Kev will be our man looking to get up and over the 7.50m mark. Also getting in on some early action was Tom Farr with the Javelin. With a 54.34m throw to his name, Tom lead the competition to take maximum points for Bayside… something he's kind of used to at the moment.
Back on the track Justin and Grovesy took to the 200m heats to do battle with the gusty wind that had been so handy for Kev and Tom. Mr Lewis showed his traditional poise and raw talent to take out heat 1 in 22.70, whilst Grovesy was heard to mutter "I didn't think I was that unfit" as he crossed the line smiling in 24.65secs. In racing terms he'll be much better for the run.
Over at the High Jump, Tom no heighted proving that even our multi talented leading point scorer sort of guy is human afterall. If not for his wonderful kind nature and sad puppy dog eyes, a team management tongue lashing would certainly headed in his direction.
After a superman like change out of suave civvies, Matt Brown donned his daggy old throwers clobber to rack up some more points. Improving on last weeks discus with a throw of 51.04m, Matt took second place in the match up and third overall. No doubt happy to be over the 50m mark. Not so cheery was the news from the Shot Put where he fell 10cm short of qualifying. Yet again the puppy dog eyes saving him from management abuse. With the 800m runners bemoaning the fact that "it wasn’t as nice as last night", they reluctantly warmed up in what sun they could find in the back straight before getting down to business. Once again scoring a D for style but A for effort Zac took out the prestigious battle of the number one seeds with a clear cut victory in 1:53.04. One wonders what the time might have been if "it was a nice as last night". Heat 2 saw Brenno and Ash Mildehall go head to head in what turned out to be a sloppy tactical affair. Ash quite unusually dropped straight to the back while Brenno did his standard bullocking up near the front. At the bell Ash made the move, Brenno followed and apart from Collis Birmingham they ran away from the field. A slow first lap resulting in relatively slow performances of 1:57.16 for Ash and 1:57.60 for Brenno.
Learning from the previous heat, Tony Wilson gave the no.3's the ride of their lives as they just tucked in and followed along. Amongst those to benefit was Dane Frey running by invite. Coming down the home straight Tony still lead until the fast finishing Mark Cornish swept by with metres to go. Tony held on for second in 1:55.57 with Dane securing an enormous PB of 1:55.68 - that folk's is what State League is all about.
The night ended with a last minute assembly of 400m relay runners running their hearts out. With all the sprinters now safely at home sipping on the Horlicks, Dane, Brenno and Zac teamed with the fresh Dave Stones to give team Bayside a good placing. Zac producing the highlight of the race by allowing Cornish to draw alongside before sprinting away in the last 100m. Nice payback.
Mens Results
Bayside 205pts
Melbourne Uni 131pts
Ringwood 125pts
Glenhuntly 112 pts
Western Suburbs 96pts
Athletics Eastside 95pts
Now for the women...
After a day at the races, Megan Peters fronted up still showing considerable eloquence to record a 14:26 for the 3k walk. Not quite in the sub 14 territory so familiar last season, Megan seems to be headed in the right direction after her recent bout of illness and will no doubt be moving steadily through the field.
Gab Neighbour was apparently eloquent in victory a she yet again took control of the Hammer and gave none of the opposition a look in. Improving slightly on last week with a 56.86m throw, we await the audible scream of delight as Gab cracks 60m at Yarra Park. Over at the High Jump Tessa cleared 1.65m to take victory, and with only three other competitors had plenty of time to concentrate on the next event.
The distance races are becoming a bit of a points bonanza for the Bayside girls lately. Anna blasted out early in the 5k to take a commanding lead. The pack behind included Karen Thorp in her debut 5k performance, with our newcomer Belinda Dennett lurking not far adrift. Anna took out a very impressive victory in 16:04... not often you see solo running of that calibre. Karen also impressed with a first up sub 17min (16:53) to take outright second. Belinda came in 5th with a 17:27 - not bad for a marathon runner. All in all a great result for each individual and the team. Karen, along with our two Kate’s (Smyth and Seibold-Crosbie) is also Japan bound with Clint for the Ekiden Relay - Bayside girls making up half the Australian team!!
Natasha De Neise made a welcome return to the team with a first up win of 39.69m in the Javelin. With only the new Essendon signing, Clare Thompson just ahead, Tash is looking good to go further as the season progresses. Over in the sand pit, Lisa Morrison was once again in the leaders jersey as she managed to clear 6m. Welcome back Lisa! Keeping Lisa company was the usual bevy of Bayside sand queens with Miss Knight jumping 5.72m, Miss Denning 5.56m and Miss Densley 5.38m. Yet again Bayside girls making up close to half the vertical jump competitors. Can any of them walk???
Not so surrounded by team mates was the very much in awesome early season form(that's quite a mouthful now that I read it back), Katrina Steward. Going head to head with Renee Robson, Katrina held on for a strong victory into a headwind to yet again score the fastest sprint time of the night. Also feeling lonely was our sole Pole Vaulter, Viv Potiris, who without the aid of puppy dog eyes copped an evil stare from management for no heighting... new pole and all!!
Boyesy also didn't have to wait around too long for throws, with only four competitors in the discus. But whether there's 4 or 40, Boysey is a competitor through and through and yet again headed off any challenge from Raylene Warren with a throw of 42.85m. Reliability or what??
Megan then headed off to the Shot to once again take maximum points with a put of 10.50m. Other Baysiders looking on and having at hrow themselves were Tessa (11.03m) and Gab (10.20m). A nice time was had by all or so the story goes.
Showing who's experienced and who's not, Bron Loizou somehow managed to wrangle her way out of the No. 1 heat of the 800m and into No. 2. Anneli Uys willingly took the spot and produced a PB of 2:18.30... good decision Bron! With Helena back in action our remaining two combatants took part in the next heat with the results being Bron 2:16.23 and Helena 2:19.51. A good set of performances and some very handy points all round.
With few competitors in the Mens 110m Hurdles, it wasn't long before the Hurdles were being lowered for the Women. After waiting what seemed ages for the tech officials to do their job (OK - I was distracted by the Mens 800's), Natalie Johnstone came out of the blocks and safely crossed the line some 15.55secs later in first place. Appreciate your patience Nat.
Down to the final event and I'd been informed that Bayside Women were well in front and had the comp wrapped up. Did this stop me from conniving, cheating and lying to get a relay squad - hell no!! With Katrina all set to go how could we not field a team, so promptly we gathered our 800m threesome to do a lap of honour. With Katrina blasting out a 55.3sec first leg, it was up to Anneli to hold the lead which she did in fine style, just dipping under 60secs. The third leg turned out to be the battle of the titans - Montgomery v Robson (not Tim v Naomi either) with Robson just prevailing round the top bend. It was then up to Bron to hold position and take a very creditable 2nd place against the strong Doncaster line up. No problem for Bron as she also completed her lap of honour in under 60secs.
And the final scores were:
Bayside 200pts
Melb Uni 146pts
Doncaster 146pts
Western Suburbs 52pts
Geelong 12pts
Another successful Oaks Day for Bayside. Hope you all got home safely from Olympic Park with your hats on straight and shoes still on your feet.
AV have got posted up all the results.
Next week the State League action moves to Ballarat on Saturday 15th November. We'll have the program out to everyone shortly, plus be doing the usual email and phonathon to get bums on seats for the trip to the central highlands. The program starts at 12pm for the field and 1pm on the track.