Southend Athletic Club continued their triumphant ways in Division Two of the Southern Men's League with two new stadium bests being set at Garon's Park.

In the javelin Gary Jensen left his rivals standing with a huge 68.91 metres effort - 21 metres clear of the next best thrower.

It's 11 years since former international Gary broke the club record with 78.54 and, with his improving performances, it will be interesting to see what further inroads he can make on that ten metre gap on his comeback.

The other stadium best - the club moved to Garon's Park in 1994 - came from Dave Condon in the shot putt. He held the previous record for the venue himself, but improved it with a 16.61m effort, finishing a convincing four-and-a-half metres ahead of the next athlete.

With five teams competing in each match the A squad won by two-and-a-half points ahead of their nearest rivals and the B team, in Division Six, were a convincing second - 11 points behind Walthamstow but a huge 53 points ahead of third placed Biggleswade.

A welter of other winning performances helped the A team amass the necessary points for glory.

Vets Keith Purvis and Peter Binns notched a double in the 5000m with 16m.28.8s and 17m.10.1s respectively, while Mark Waine (10m.20.1) and Roy Scott (10m.42.6) tackled the arduous 3000m steeplechase with success.

There was a double win in the pole vault by under-20 pair Steven Brown (4.20m) and Jamie Webb (4.00m). Further wins were achieved by Condon (B javelin 46.97) Brown (triple jump 11.88m) Clive Farrow (long jump 5.83) and Neil Scrivener (high jump 1.80).

Scrivener obviously had a lazy day - competing in just six events. This was not such a tall order as for some as he is the club's star decathlete.

The rest of his programme on the day was 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, long jump, triple jump and shot putt and his single-handed contribution to the points haul was 18.

No fewer than 11 wins meant the club's B team also enjoyed success, with new recruit Jon Baker achieving a hat-trick in the 100, 200 and 800 - the sprints both being covered in national standard times.

Team manager Dave Hallett led from the front on the points assault. He won the 1500 in 4m.38.1 and the 3000 steeplechase in 11.38.7 - almost a minute inside his best time.

Jump to it - Neil Scrivener contested six events for Southend at the Southern Men's League match

Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL

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