ILFORD S Terry Knightley suffered the heartache of agonising cramp when in third position in the Ted Pepper 10k at Beckenham on Bank Holiday Monday, forcing him to retire from the race. Team-mate John Batchelor passed him, and went on to finish 20th over

ILFORD'S Terry Knightley suffered the heartache of agonising cramp when in third position in the Ted Pepper 10k at Beckenham on Bank Holiday Monday, forcing him to retire from the race.

Team-mate John Batchelor passed him, and went on to finish 20th overall, clocking a solid 39.42 in a poor quality race won in a slow time of 35.14. This gave him the top M65 spot of the day, only four seconds behind the first M55.

In the women's race, Pam Jones was rock solid as usual, finishing in about 51.06 as the only lady winner of an SCVAC category.

In the Southern Mens League at Cricklefields, Antoine Green's fine personal best of 16.3 seconds in the high hurdles was not enough to lift Ilford AC's men's team as they finished fourth.

Green, also assisted the sprint relay squad to second place in 44.3 seconds, narrowly beaten by Victoria Park.

Wesley Clarke returned from serious injury, throwing 39.22m in the hammer, with Craig Burrow throwing 31.27m. Burrows also threw 40.49m in the javelin, 12.06m in the shot putt and 36.77m in the discus.

Sam Malekout threw 42.27m in the javelin, 8.68m in the shot and 24.49m in the discus.

Ilford's Simeon Stuart scored a narrow victory over Healson Ihuoma with a return to his best of 6.45m in the long jump.

Stuart's efforts were hampered as he dashed between long jump and high jump and he completed the competition for second with 1.70m.

He was ably supported by Elijah Collins with 1.65m. Ihuoma and Nat Senior scored an excellent double victory in the triple jump with 12.55m and 13.18m, while Malekout performed admirably for his 2.60m in the pole vault.

The other Ilford double victory was in the 5,000m as Mark Crook (16.16.3) and David Dickinson (16.28.0) relentlessly pulled away from the opposition. Dickinson was in action 45 minutes later for a fine 1,500m of 4.23.6.

Malcolm Muir's brave effort in the 1,500m was only six hundredths off his personal best in 4.17.5 while his 800m was half a second behind his best in 2.09.7.

Iain Macdonald held on strongly for a personal best in the steeplechase with 11.15.9, following an 800m in 2.11.1.

Ilford's sprinters fought hard, with Malekout winning his 400m in 51.1 and Jordan Kirby running the 200m with 22.8.

Aaron Balogun attempted a tough double and was a little off his best after illness, with a 400m in 50.6 and 200m in 22.8. There was a surprise return for Gary Smallman in the 100m with 12.0, who followed an excellent run by Gary Madigan in 11.5 into a headwind.

Elijah Collins recorded a fine high-hurdles time of 18.3, while Ihuoma was again in action with a debut in the 400m hurdles of 69.2.

By the time of the last event, Ilford were stranded in fourth place, but fought well to finish in 3.32.7, with Malekout's 50.7 well-supported by Healson (55.5), Kirby (53.2) and Madigan (53.4).