Having led the match from the seven-event mark, they went into the final relay at Guildford on Saturday (August 2), the 19th event, level on points with their promotion rivals Luton. Their four runners pulled out everything in the drawer and thrashed Luton in the decisive 4x400m, then minutes later got the unwanted news that east enders Victoria Park had won their home match at Mile End.

Victoria Park, by defeating division leaders Enfield & Haringey, plus their own local promotion rivals Ilford, ended level on points with Worthing. But their victory was so handsome it left no doubt that their superior team points over Harriers - accumulated by individual event success within their five matches - would take them from sixth to fourth and leave Worthing in sixth and outside the five promotion spots.

Ilford, who started the match in third place, ended up half a point behind Worthing (25 points) in the also-rans. Luton, half a point ahead of Worthing, therefore went up after all, in the last available place, behind champions Enfield & Haringey (28pts), runners-up Brighton & Hove (26), Hercules Wimbledon, who started the day in fifth place (26), and Victoria Park (25.5).

Mention needs making of the heroic Worthing 4x400m team, who knew the task before them and the consequence of defeat. They were up against a Luton team who had won both strings in the flat 100m and 400m and share the honours with Worthing in the 200m.

White hot running

In an adjacent lane to Luton, they steamed straight into an emphatic lead with 800m B string winner Tom Marsden's relish for winning from the front. Mark Burchett, first in the A 800m, second in the 1,500m, actually took the baton in second place to the Bexley runner but immediately stormed into a significant lead that 28-points-scoring all-rounder Craig Baker scorchingly maintained.

The job done and Luton struggling near the back, anchorman Michael Di Laura, earlier second in the 400m in 50.4sec, burnt a 50.1sec victory lap to the line. Bexley were second but disqualified for a handover out of bounds and so Luton, third, were promoted to second.

That closed Worthing's matchwinning margin to one point instead of two. Behind Luton's 140 points came Aldershot & Farnham with 102 points, Bexley with 92 and the Royal Navy with 54.

The other points-culling stand-out was runner and jumper Dean Storry with 19. He maintained his season's unbeaten high jump record with Dan Dunscombe, who also won the 110m hurdles B. Like Burchett, sprinter Andy Millen and thrower David Vandyke had a win and a second place. Lee Fulham contributed a short sprint double second.

More in the Herald this week. Watch out for pictures on this website.