TAKING 160 points from an available 180 in their match at Bracknell, the Basingstoke and Mid-Hants athletics second team have recorded their second win of the southern league season.

The victory moved them into second place in division four west behind Abingdon, with whom they were promoted last season.

The match at Bracknell got off to a good start with a double victory in the 400 metres hurdles - Dave Ragan recording the first of his five wins, alongside Andy Waddington, who had four successes. In the sprint hurdles, Geoff Butler and Ragan recorded another double first.

Dave Scott won the 100m, with Charles Scouller taking second place in the B event. In the 200m, Waddington won in 24.3sec with Tom Bolton third in 26.4.

In the 400m, Waddington took first place in 53.5 sec, with under-17 Jonathan Elderfield winning the B-string in 56.4.

In the middle distance events, another under-17 athlete, John Burleigh, was second in the A-string 800m, with Steve Quinn the B-event winner in 2min 6.0sec. The 1,500m brought a similar result for Tom Bolton and Paul Hopkin, who trimmed a full five seconds off his lifetime best to record 4min 25.2 sec.

Ragan won the 5,000m in 10min 36.2 sec, with road runner Sam Cooper recording second place in the B-string. Vandalism put paid to the water jump in the steeplechase but this did not deter the partnership of Ragan and Butler, who recorded first and second place respectively in the A and B-strings.

In the field, thrower Doug Kelson won the hammer with 32.74 metres and also won both the B-string shot and discus. Under-20 Stuart Semple won the A-string shot and discus while veteran Bill Hudson took third in the javelin and fifth in the hammer.

Newcomers to the pole vault, Geoff Butler and Sam Cooper, placed fourth and second respectively. A leap of 1.70m brought further success in the high-jump for Waddington with Ragan's 1.65m winning the B-event.

In the long-jump, Dave Scott won with 5.78m with Elderfield the B-string winner.

Elderfield also recorded a triple-jump mark of 11.68m for second A-string place, while team-mate Scott was the B-string winner with 10.85m.

The day's success was sealed by victory in the 4x100m relay for Elderfield, Semple, Scott and Bolton followed by Quinn, Burleigh, Hopkins and Waddington winning the 4x400m in 3:40.8.

The team travel to Hastings a week tomorrow when the visitors will include Team Solent, White Horse Harriers and neighbours Overton Harriers.

Points: Basingstoke 160, Worthing 118.5, Salisbury 96.5, Serpentine Runners 71, London Irish 31.

Overton's fine start to the league campaign continued with another second place at Tooting Bec, where South London Harriers were the host club.

In a below-strength team, Overton's man-of-the-match, Darren Cuff, had a tremendous day, taking wins in the javelin, B-string discus, 400m hurdles and second in the B-string hammer and shot. He added to that by competing in the steeplechase, 110m hurdles, long-jump, high-jump and pole-vault, producing a massive points total in a busy afternoon.

The consistent Simon Morgan gave excellent support with three third places and a win in the B-string javelin.

On the track, Overton continued to dominate the middle distance events with another double first from Jamie Jones and Mike Bliss in the 5,000m. Keith Vallis pulled off a fine win in the 3,000m steeplechase, to add to his second place in the 400m hurdles, and was well supported by Chris Jones and Keith Clark taking nine points out of a possible 10 in the 1500m.

Dave Vosser was in tremendous form with second places in the 800m and 400m and anchored the 4x400m relay team to their best result for some time.

Jeremy Reynolds confirmed his promise with an easy win in the long-jump, second place in the high-jump, and hurdles and third in the triple-jump.

In the Southern vets track and field league at Portsmouth, the weather was so severe that proceedings were halted to avoid a thunderstorm, which threatened the safety of competitors.

Despite sporadic torrential rain, Liz Sandal-Ball was third in her 3,000m in 14:29 and fourth in the discus with a throw of 11.5m. In the same category, Moira West won the 800m in 2:59 and was third in the 200m in 34.1sec.