Southern Athletics League - Saturday 18 August 2018

On Saturday 18 August Radley AC hosted the final fixture of the Southern Athletics league of 2018.
League summary: The Southern Athletics League (SAL) is a joint men’s and women’s track and field league that provides senior competition (including U20 and U17s) for clubs in the SEAA region. There are five fixtures every year.
On Saturday 18 August Radley AC hosted the final fixture of the Southern Athletics league of 2018.
Radley AC travelled to Walton for their first SAL fixture of the 2018 season.
The weather was usually kind for the time of year and Radley took great advantage of the conditions to shine along with the sun.
Radley AC hosted the final SAL fixture of 2017 and finished on a high with another comfortable win over rivals Hillingdon, North Devon and Brighton & Hove.
A great team performance from the small Radley team saw them win a significant number of events and rally to fill gaps for valuable points.
Radley hosted the 4th SAL fixture of 2017 at Tilsley Park on Sat and came away victorious with a comfortable win.
The team spirit was the winning recipe on the day, coupled with some great performances.
A small Radley team travelled on one of the hottest days of the year to Perivale nr Ealing in West London for their 3rd SAL match of the season.
Despite having a number of athletes at the U20/23 National Championships this did not stop the team rallying round to fill the vacated slots.
Radley took a small team to Reading for its second SAL fixture of the season.
There were many good performances including 3 Club Records by middle distance treble Alex Miell-Ingram, Emma Haley and Rachel Burton.
Radley AC travelled to Tooting for the first SAL senior fixture of 2017. Having been hit hard with Easter unavailability they rallied to fill as many events as possible and managed to come 2nd to a very strong Windsor Slough and Eton team.
Radley’s senior team travelled to its final SAL match in Dartford on Sat 20 Aug.
Lack of availability of athletes meant the team was only 16 athletes strong (including 6 masters athletes) across both genders and this was therefore always going to be a struggle to fill every event (2 per event) against the top 2 teams in the league. Despite this the athletes there covered as much as they could and rallied around, showing great team spirit to muster as many points as possible. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough and the team came 4th on the day with only 143 points.
A fantastic team effort saw Radley’s senior team clinch 2nd place in their penultimate fixture of the season behind a very strong home TVH team.
Radley AC made the long trip to Peterborough for their first SAL fixture of 2016 having returning to the top division (Div 1) this year.
The fixture was always going to be a tough one with the overall league winners at home (Nene Valley) as well as Colchester who finished 5th last year, whilst the other team (Harrow) was promoted along with Radley but as winners of Div 2W last year.
Radley rallied around to put a team together despite exams and injuries taking its toll and the efforts of the athletes that were there paid off.