A COMPOSITE Wycombe Phoenix Harriers and Chiltern Harriers athletics team arrived on the scene with a bang last weekend as they won their first meet as a coalition club.

South Bucks Athletics, comprising the best athletes from Phoenix and Chiltern, stormed to victory against seven other clubs in the first round of the Youth Development League.

Coach Steve Perkin said: “We had a few preliminary discussions and all the athletes and coaches already knew each other. But the two clubs haven’t merged, it’s just for this league.

“At previous meetings both clubs would go with about 25 athletes and we wouldn’t cover a great deal of the slots. Now we’re taking 50 athletes, so we haven’t just got good athletes, but a lot of them.

“We expected a few teething problems but we’ve been surprised how well it’s gone and we did very well on Sunday. We’re quite optimistic for the remaining three meetings.”

South Bucks are competing in the North 2 of the Southern Section this season.

Promotion to North 1 is the aim and the composite club made the best possible start at Perivale.

They powered to 795 points, more than 200 points clear of second placed Guildford & Godalming, with St Albans third.

The next meet take place in Sutton on June 1.

For all the results, see Friday's Bucks Free Press.