BASINGSTOKE and Mid Hants made a good start to their British Athletics League Division Two at Yeovil, writes IAN BYETT.

On paper the team looked a bit on the light side, but a succession of top performances from the 16 athletes on duty saw the club finish fourth out of the eight clubs in action.

Star run came from Ben Pattison in the Men’s 400m, after a fast 200. Pattison maintained his form to the finish and record an outstanding time on 47.25 secs, a stadium record and a new under-17 club record, breaking the one previously held by former Olympian Robert Tobin, who set a time of 48.01 back in 2001.

In the 3,000m there was also a very good win for Fred Slemack who kicked for home with 150m to go and win in a time of 8.29.71.

There was also wins for Ryan Bonifas in the high jump clearing 2m 5cm and on the track he followed this up with a win in the B 110m hurdles running a personal best 15.62 and to show his versatility took the B string pole vault with a leap of 3m 50cm.

Another multi-eventer in action was Caius Joseph and he delivered wins in the pole vault clearing 4m 20cm and sharing a dead heat for first place in the B 100m with 11.01.

His father and coach Rafer Joseph showed his experience in winning the B hammer with a throw of 43.07 while team manager Ben Hazell doubled up to win the B Discus with 39.72.

The whole team contributed to the overall performance but gaps in the team sheet meant the club were unable to take the win, but the result showed that promotion back to Division One could be a possibility.

The final team result was:

Bournemouth 322 points, Havering 303, Newquay and Par 294, Basingstoke 289, Kent 272.5, Crawley 262, Glasgow City 253, Rugby and Northampton 177.5.