An intrepid if not full strength band of GCAC athletes and one David Martin - well, technically there were two of them but only one was team manager - travelled south to compete in the first of this season's British Athletics League fixtures in Watford on 7th May. After some harsh lessons in the Premiership last year, we were ready for the challenge of competing against some new and distinguished opponents: Basingstoke & Mid Hants; Blackheath & Bromley; Enfield; Harrow; Herne Hill; Southampton; and Thames Valley, in the second tier of the BAL.
We travelled to Gateshead on Saturday for our second match of the season. There was fierce competition with our Scottish East Coast rivals, Team Edinburgh. As the match progressed, it was almost a ping pong with each team taking the leading role throughout the day.
The overall points at the end of the match was so close - Team Edinburgh 688, Team Glasgow 686, Kingdom Athletics 599, Gateshead Harriers 581, City of York 536, and Leeds City 369. How close was that at the top?!!
The third Team Glasgow Match this season was held at South Leeds Stadium and this time it was a three way split at the top: Team Edinburgh, Kingdom Athletics, and Team Glasgow battled it out but eventually we obtained first place!
The wildlings once again launched a daring raid south of the wall to fight and plunder anything that they could... this was no plot to a t.v. fantasy series though - nor David Martin on a Saturday night - this was the mighty GCAC in our second round match of the BAL. Lord Commander (I mean, team manager) Sean Watson led the squad to the Linford Christie Stadium, West London, attempting to make the greatest comeback since Lazarus/Jon Snow/ Liverpool in the 2005 Championsh League Final/"Y'ur maw" (delete as appropriate to maturity level). With the return of a number of seasoned campaigners, the team was significantly strengthened from the previous match, leading to a renewed sense of confidence and belief that we could make amends for our disappointing season opener. This turned out to be more than justified as we finished a very creditable 3rd place, 5 points from 2nd placed Southampton. Host club, Thames Valley Harriers, were the runaway leaders on the day. The result leaves us 7th place overall, tied on league points with Harrow AC and Herne Hill Harriers.
The last match of the series was held on Sunday 24th July at York University Heslington Campus. A very close match indeed.