BRACKNELL Athletic club were knocked off top spot in Southern League Division Two West after finishing second to new leaders Woking in their recent match at Braunton.

Woking tallied 222 points, a mere nine points ahead of Bracknell, while hosts North Devon came third with a tally of 157. Yeovil were fourth, scoring 119 points.

Bracknell Men easily won the field events, scoring 53 points from a maximum total of 64. Under 17, Charlie Ashdown-Taylor, improved his best performances in both the shot and discus, to finish second A string and first B string respectively.

Team captain Jan Drzewiecki gained two season best throws, winning the B string hammer and taking second place in the senior discus.

Ben Russell and Peter Marlow notched up five double wins in a row in the high jump, and in the pole vault, Russell achieved a new personal best height. Accompanied by Nathan Stanley, the partnership took double second places.

The first triple jump double since July of last year was achieved by Robbie Wilde and Harry Henson, the former having earlier, won the senior long jump.

The male team were invincible in the sprints. South of England Senior Champion and National U23 Champion, Adam Thomas, could not be caught in either of the senior short sprints.

Finishing almost a second ahead in the 100m, Adam finished 1.2 seconds in front of the Woking athlete, the second man home in the 200m. Indeed, timewise, Adam’s nearest rival was team mate Sam Collins, who won both of the B string events.

Non-scorers Under 17 Matt Buckner and U23 Jake Hafield equalled their PBs in the one gasp dash, then in the 200m, Buckner set another new best time.

Conor Breslin finished more than a second and a half in front in the 400m, the same sort of distance that his team mate Matthew Collins, won the B string event.

Henson won the senior 400m hurdles by more than three seconds, and Calum Wesley won the B string with a five-and-a-half second advantage.

Ryan Brackstone set a new PB in the 800m, allowing his partner Harry Digby, to win the B string race. Iliias Hadeq raced into third in the metric mile, establishing a new personal best time.

In the Ladies’, there were double wins for Connie McCafferty and Ella D’Abreo in the 400m, Connie and Emma Haines in the high jump, and Ivana Koynarova and Emily Spencer-Jones in the hammer.

Rebecca Watkins took maximum points in both of the senior short sprints and Emily Read won the senior 800m.

Emily MacDonald won the senior pole vault, Marie Halliday took second place in the A string 400m hurdles and Jessica Elliott won the B string event.

On the field, close runners up were Rebecca Watkins and Tanya Grosvenor in the long jump, and Yasmin Bryan in both the shot and discus.

Bracknell won three of the relays, with Emili Read, D’Abreo, Spencer-Jones and McCafferty finishing more than 22 seconds ahead of their nearest rivals in the 4x400m relay.

The male quartet of Thomas, Buckner, Wesley and Sam Collins were nearly five seconds ahead of their nearest rivals in the 4x100m sprint relay, and then in the 4x400m, Conor Breslin, Matthew Collins, Brackstone and Calum Wesley, brought the baton home to win by more than 70 metres.