BLACKHEATH and Bromley (B&B) opened their British League season with fifth place in their opening Division One match at Copthall.

With a number of athletes missing for various reasons the result showed that, with a stronger team in the remaining three matches, the Club are perfectly capable of challenging for one of the two promotion places to the Premiership.

There were a number of good individual performances.

Ed Harrison got the track programme off to the right start winning the 400m hurdles in 52.91secs, a particularly good run as he was in the outside lane.

Captain Michael Skinner doubled up in the middle distance winning the 1,500m with some ease in 3.56.56 following his third place in the 800m.

There was a welcome return to league competition for Dwayne Grant.

Having just arrived back from warm weather training the British international ran the opening leg of the 4x100m and looked in tremendous form.

Unfortunately the team were disqualified due to an infringement at a later changeover, a great shame as they crossed the line first.

Anchor man Duayne Bovell had earlier claimed an excellent third place in the A-string 100m.

There was better fortune for the 4x400m who placed second in a very useful 3.15.91 with splits of Neil Simpson (50secs), Bomene Barikor (49.2secs), Ian Allerton (49.1secs) and Alloy Wilson (47.7secs).

In the field Stuart Harvey threw the javelin 59.05m despite the rainy conditions to finish second and there was a welcome return to competition for Tom Robinson who cleared 3.60m in the pole vault.

Man of the match for the Club was Alex Pope who competed in seven events setting a personal best in the hammer and gaining a valuable second place in the B-string javelin.

Veteran Paul Sutherland also scored valuable points as he took third in the B-string 400m hurdles, fifth in the A-string sprint hurdles and competed in the shot and discus.

Match Result and standings: 1. Trafford (381); 2. City Of Sheffield (376); 3. Border (323); 4. Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow (298); 5. Blackheath & Bromley (236); 6. Cardiff (205); 7. Bedford and County (173); 8. City Of Edinburgh (157) The previous weekend in the States, Scott Overall smashed the Club 5,000m record at Stanford with a time of 13.38.19, bettering Jamie Harrison's old record which has stood since 1992 by more than five seconds.

Overall's time is the fastest by a Briton this year and is inside the UKA Development standard for the European Championships of 13.42.

Closer to home in the Southern Men's League Division Two match at Kingston, Amir Williamson improved the club record for a junior using the senior weight hammer launching the 7.26kg implement 57.78m to win the competition and the match.

His brother Alistair won the B-string event with a new best of 52.37m and together with Alex Pope and Stuart Harvey they achieved near maximum points in the throws.

Highlight of the Division Three match at Deangate was the appearance of a 4x400m team made up entirely of members of the same family.

The Daniel brothers Chris, Mark, and Richard ran solid legs before handing over to their father and Club President Ken, who ran a useful 62secs for a 55-year-old.

The club's youngsters travelled to Harrow for a potentially tough match against the host club, Tonbridge and Basildon, in the first round of the Southern Premier Division of the National Young Athletes League.

The national champions came away with an excellent victory which means they have not been beaten since the league went joint scoring in 2004.

All four Athlete of the Match awards went to Blackheath & Bromley stars.

On the track Dan Putnam scooped the award for his 53.1secs winning time in the 400m.

Vanessa Nakangu took the women's prize for her time of 41.2secs in the 300m.

In the field Emily Godley's 3m leap in the pole vault gave her the award while the boys title went to Andrew Jordan who threw 52.14m in the hammer.

B&B top the Southern Premier table 45.5 points from Windsor, Slough, Eton and Houslow.

More of the club's athletes were in action at the British University Championships in Birmingham and there were again some good performances.

Highest placed was Sandra Alaneme who was fourth in the women's triple jump with 11.82m while there was a new best for Joe Godsell in the men's 400m with 49.01secs and Katy Benneworth claimed a useful sixth place in the 100m.

Mark Steinle dominated the club's Ted Pepper 10km race at Beckenham on Bank Holiday Monday.

The marathon star won the race by more than two minutes from team mate Peter Tucker in 31.02mins.

Steve Holmes placed ninth having run the London Marathon the week before and timed 4.12mins for 1,500m on the Saturday in the Southern League.

Youngsters Danny Brewer (11th) and Jonathan Vintner (15th) both made good debuts at the distance while over-50 runner Con Griffin did well to finish in 36.35mins.

First woman home from the Club was Viv Mitchell in 41.31mins followed by Annie McDonough and Kate Pratten.

In a related discipline Anthony Draper had an impressive win in the Sevenoaks Triathlon.

He timed 6.59mins for the swim; 44.35mins for the bike and 29.54mins for the run to win the title by nearly two and a half minutes.

Full results and pictures from these matches are available on the club website at bandbhac.org uk