LOWER YDL
Well, what a season!!
We seemed to go from nothing last year to everything this year!
All athletes did superbly, especially considering last year there were no league matches at all and they had only a few months training before competing in what was a super hectic season. Everyone was incredible! Incredible. There were a few injuries, but overall all the athletes coped amazingly well.
In the Youth Development League we had three matches, and we won overall by 11pts, which, in a “normal” season, would have seen us promoted!
We had the girls U15 4x100m smash the club record three times over the season and the 4x300m Girls relay often having to run with the boys as no other club had a team.
Athletes came just to do the relay, racing back (no pun intended) from family events just to compete for us and athletes, as always, jumped into events just to help out.
SAM SMITH
UPPER YDL (U17/U20)
YATE AC ATHLETES IN *TEAM AVON
*TEAM AVON is a composite team of athletes from Yate AC, Bristol & West AC, Bath AC and Mendip AC, managed by Sandra Woodman and Lesley Nunn from Yate AC)
Season 2021 has been a strange one due to Covid 19 and the restrictions that we had to work with. The first two matches were based around a reduced timetable, dividing the full timetable between two matches, with the last two working to the full timetable. An additional change was that teams were placed in divisions decided upon locality of clubs rather than the usual strength of the team, and the Regional and National Finals were cancelled.
Three out of the four fixtures were at Yate, which was a great advantage to TEAM AVON however, it put an enormous pressure on Yate and District and Avon Officials, as they tended to take on most of the work.
The great news is that Team Avon came top of the Midland South West B Division with a winning margin of over 1,000 points over the four matches. This was thanks to some excellent performances by Yate and District athletes who constantly made up to almost half the team in every match. Team spirit remained high and we maintained TEAM AVON’S fine reputation as one of the top UAG teams in the UK.
All the Yate athletes who took part in the YDL UAG this season have been a great credit to the club. Our athletes are always willing to take part in whatever needs doing.
U20 men: Greg Hayward, Scott Collier, Max Elliott, Isaac Corey, Liam Hillier, James Viner, James Harrod, Alex Wilson, Christopher Page, Lewis Wall, Thomas Reed, Toby Conibear, Bryn Davies.
U17 men: Adam Nolan, Seamus Robinson, Luke Ball, Artie Savage-Swaine, Freddie Cooper, Dylan Menhennet, Matthew Page, Archie Hally, Dan Falconer, Alexander Elliott, Harry Williams, Theo Spurrell.
U20 women: Tilly Spinney, Daisy Harvey, Rosie Hamilton- James, Kirsty Treglown, Jodi Dale, Rhiannon Paton, Fiona Barkley, Maisy Harvey, Stephanie Brooks, Hannah Lewis
U17 women: Emily Kovac, Hannah Holman, Evie Turner, Grace Horswell, Jennifer Keogh, Maddox Davies, Falicity Whiteway, Sophie Hornung, Abigail Woodworth, Naomi Dawson, Emma Lovell, Georgia Randall, Constance Talbot. Audrey Stuart-Menteth, Clementine Lee, Amelia Wong
Only two male athletes competed in all matches: Scott Collier and Greg Hayward. In fact, Greg won all of his races as well as running in the 4x400R, contributing many points to our total. We shall miss him next year as he moves up to the U23 age group. There were many graded performances during the season including grade one performances from Seamus Robinson (U17 800) and Luke Ball (U17 HJ).
On the female side there were four athletes that competed in all four matches: Fiona Barkley, Evie Turner, Felicity Whiteway and Grace Horswell. All athletes won their individual event, with Evie and Grace contributing to winning relays as well, making a big contribution to the overall points total. All four are eligible to compete next year. Despite no grade one performances, there were many PBs and other grades achieved.
In addition, we would like to thank all our faithful officials who have gone over and above to support the team throughout the season. Our parents have played an essential part in keeping up morale and their cheerleading for the relay teams from the bank at Hereford created a magical moment.
We have had a wonderfully successful season and are very honoured to say that TEAM AVON is one of the best teams in the country.
Respectfully submitted,
SANDRA WOODMAN (men’s team manager) : LESLEY NUNN (women’s team manager)
MIDLAND LEAGUE
Overall, the combined team performance was good, with a very strong performance at the 2 home matches, and a slightly weaker turnout at the away match. Although the points were not officially taken for this season, it resulted in an overall 2nd place finish.
This was of course a 1 off regional league for 2021, but in a normal season Gloucester and B&W are in Div 1, Cheltenham are in Div 2, Yate are in Div 3, and FoD are in Div 4west, so we did very well against teams who are in higher divisions
Match 1 (Yate), Match 2 (Chelt), Match 3 (Yate), Total, Position
- Bristol and West 3 4 3 10 3rd
- Cheltenham 2 3 2 7 4th
- Forest of Dean 1 1 1 3 5th
- Gloucester 4 5 5 14 1st
- Yate and District 5 2 4 11 2nd
I can’t really compare overall points scores with previous years, as this is the first season away from the composite (Yate / Bristol) team for 8 years.
The athlete numbers by match are below, including [2019], (2018) for interest:
Men Woman
Match 1 20, [17], (18) 18, [9], (9)
Match 2 13, [11], (10) 12, [10], (10)
Match 3 15, [13], (9) 20, [7], (8)
Match 4 NA, [16], (11) NA, [10], (8)
Average 16, [14], (12) 17, [9], (9)
And athlete participation overall for the year by age group, including [2019], (2018) for interest:
U17 U20 U23/Senior/Masters Total
Men 6, [4], (7) 8, [7], (9) 18, [10], (9) 32, [21], (25)
Woman 12, [9], (7) 8, [4], (5) 11, [5], (3) 31, [18], (15)
It’s good to see the number of up across the board over the last couple of years of the composite team. On the Men’s side a huge jump in Senior Athletes is very nice to see, where-as on the Ladies’ it is up more evenly across all age groups, with a much larger reliance on the U17s. Overall >30 athletes for both Men and Ladies took part in the league through the season, which is the highest number ever recorded since I have been team manager.
In terms of commitment to the league, there were 9 athletes; 4 Men (Ethan Steele, Matt Muggeridge, Scott Collier, Liam Hillier) and 5 Ladies (Katie Robbins, Jo Smerdon, Harriet Middlebrough, Hannah Jackson and Maddox Davies) who competed in all matches.
Overall, 2021 has been an unusual, but reasonably successful season standing alone in the Midland team for the first time in 8 years.
MATT MUGGERIDGE
AVON TRACK & FIELD
U13/U15
In Avon League, Team Yate overall won with a whopping 3009 pts (2nd place had 2456.5) but the age group points were as follows:
U13G = 2nd place with 293.5pts
U15G = 2nd place with 433pts
U13B = 1st place with 361pts
U15B = 3rd place with 358.5pts
The highlight for me was, (to my knowledge) the first EVER mixed relay! Consisting of Max Elliott (U20M), George Horswell (U15B), Liam Hillier (U20M) and Summer Richards (U13G), I clocked your time at 51.72. It was so fantastic and hopefully something we can see more of in the future.
Overall, so many PB’s and SB’s were achieved – too many too mention! Athletes found new events they were good at (Nina and the 800m spring to mind!). And some competed for the very first time – which is incredible following a year of little to no training. Just dealing with the mental strength it took to get back out there and compete was incredible.
Thank you for being so awesome, thank you to the parents for your time and commitment, Kate for being our photographer, Phoebe for leading the relays, Liam for being my PA, Ellen for announcing, the parents that jumped in when I was off somewhere doing something else and all the officials and volunteers for giving up your weekends – competitions simply wouldn’t happen without you.
It has been an honour to be your team manager for the last eight years and I’ve been so proud to manage you all. I wish you all the best in your future athletic careers, remember – regardless of position, a PB is the best YOU can do!
SAM SMITH
U17/SENIOR
Avon track and Field U17 and Senior Women.
U17 women finished 2nd overall
Senior Women finished 1st overall
Overall we struggled to feel spaces especially in throws and jumps U17. Good take up from hammer throwers though!
U17 Distance runners stepped up and ran Senior in some events if they wanted a race, as we had good numbers for 800m but less so for 1500m.
However we did well to finish in the positions we did even with not all events covered.
Stand out performances –
Jodie Dale – Senior Womens ATF record thrown in Javelin – 40.11m and athlete of the match in round 3.
Fiona Barkley, Jo Smerdon, Katie Robbins all attend 3 matches and preformed well.
Maddox Davies U17 – was consistent in her matches
Felicity Whiteway PB at Gloucester
Grace Horswell PB 300m in round 3 & PB 300mH in round 4
Tracy Watson gets a mention for Masters – always willing to help out as a senior or master.
Caitlin Witham and Bea Russe also stepped up from U15 to fill some spaces.
SAM HORSWELL
