For those of you who may not be aware of the background of the competition the Youth Development League Upper Age Group is an interclub team competition for U17 and U20 athletes, though U17 athletes can also take part as U20s.
The format and standard of the competition is such that it is very difficult for any of the clubs situated in the old county of Avon to compete against the top clubs in the country. To this end five of the clubs within the Avon area (Bristol &West, Mendip, North Somerset, Team Bath, and Yate & District) have joined together to form a composite team called TEAMAVON.
This season TEAMAVON came top of the Midland Premier Division, thanks to excellent performance by athletes from all 5 clubs. For the first time this year, we had an area final instead of a fourth league match which was hosted at Yate very successfully. Unfortunately, we had
no control over the weather and the final had to be abandoned after 40 events due to an extensive thunder and lightning storm. At that point we were lying fourth and so did not win automatic qualification for the national final. This meant we had to enter a ‘paper’match to try and grab a final place. However, we did not have sufficiently high enough performances to beat other 4th place teams in order to qualify for the
national final.
We will be contacting all the clubs prior to the start of next T&F season to ask them to publicise the league and request that athletes provide Avon team managers with details of availability and best performances. It is very important that athletes provide this information so
that as team managers, we are aware of those athletes available for each match.
We use a large number of athletes each year to cover the wide spread of events in this league. Athletes should not be put off if they are not selected for match 1, as opportunities arise during the season. It would be particularly helpful if clubs were able to make their current U15 athletes who move up to U17 in 2018, aware of how Team Avon works before the end of this outdoor season. We will be happy to answer any questions clubs and individual athletes might have.
Below is a selection of the best performances by athletes of Team Bath AC on behalf of TEAMAVON in the league this season.
Best Performances Team Avon 201 7
Zoe Mattacks 100m 1 2.71
Imogen Dawe-Lane 100mH 1 5.1 2
Imogen Dawe-Lane 400mH 68.9
Caitlin Wosika 1 500 S/C 05:09.2
Sarah Wilson 800m 02:22.6
Jenna Blundell 80H 1 1 .85
Abigail Elms 300m H 52.41
Gabriella Holt Hammer 41 .56
Grace Davies-Redmond Javelin 34.15
Becci Ousby TJ 10.28
Renee Jelf HJ 1.58
Jordan Earley 100m 11 .36
John Howarth 1500m 04:04.4
Robert Howorth 2000m S/C 06:53.8
Cameron Sprague 200m 22.10
Hayden Bailey 400m 51 .24
Hayden Bailey 800m 02:01.4
Sean Barry 1 500m 04:21.6
Joseph Collins 100mH 14.0
Rory Howorth 400mH 57.8
Robert Jedrzejczak Discus 40.79
Robert Jedrzejczak Javelin 41 .42
Robert Jedrzejczak Shot 11 .8

By Sandra Woodman and Jim Strudwick

TEAM AVON Team Managers