Saturday saw the Braintree Mens' Athletics team travel to Portsmouth for their fifth match of the season in division three of the Southern Mens' League.

This was potentially the toughest fixture of the season against Ipswich (fourth in the table, just above Braintree), Walton (6th), Hounslow (8th) and Havant, the hosts (22nd).

Braintree left for the match short of javelin throwers and a long jumper.

To make matters worse, team captain Leighton Green had to pull out of the match with a niggling hamstring injury as he warmed up for his 100m race.

However, the other athletes chopped and changed their events to cover the absences and gradually the points mounted up as the afternoon wore on and the sun shone more strongly.

Clint Barrett competed in six events, some at short notice and he won the javelin and 110m hurdles (B).

Other wins were recorded by Damien Hartshorne in the 800m, Jon Hassain 400m, Alex Zulewski 110m hurdles (A) and Colin Joyce 1500m.

Joshua Winwood, 15, competed for Braintree for the first time and cleared 11m 64cm in the triple jump which was most impressive.

The final result was Ipswich 125 points, Braintree 113 points, Walton 105 points, Hounslow 101 points, Havant 94 points, which confirms Braintree in fifth place in the division with one match to go and promotion beckoning.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.