With six firsts, a second and a third, North Down men stormed to the final of the Mazda League in Tullamore in two weeks time. Only an uncharacteristic lapse by Brendan McConville in the vault, when he failed his opening height of 4.30m prevented a perfect score of 63 points.
Richard Lockhart won hammer with 35.99m, Brendan won 400H in 55.8 (club record), Jeremy Harper won discus with 40.94, Scott McCauley won triple jump with 12.31m, Philip Browne won 200m in 22.8 and Michael Dyer won 800m in 1.55.3. James Budde was 3rd at 5000m in 16.47.4 and Brendan, James, Michael and Chris Whelan were 2nd at 4 x 400m in an unofficial time of 3.28 with a 49.5 leg by Michael.
North Down won with 61. Abbey with a first and 5 seconds were next with 50 and Carrick on Shannon had 40.
Thanks to the league’s liberal policy on guests, North Down athletes and supporters enjoyed extra competition in shot and javelin as well as the 56lb weight where Richard, Jeremy, Paul and Michael formed a whole new ranking list.
Provisional Results: Division 1 Pool 1: 1. County Monaghan 55 points 2. Shercock AC 53 points 3. City of Derry AC 45 points 4. Letterkenny AC 45 points 5. Finn Valley AC 40 points 6. Navan AC 26 points
Division 1 Pool 2: 1. North Down AC 61 points 2. Abbey AC 50 points 3. Carrick on Shannon 46 points 4. Sli Cualainn AC 12 points 5. Sligo AC 11 points
There were two more pools in Cork.