Crawley were inched out of a top four placing on their return to the Third Division of the British League.

The team, who won promotion at the end of last season, narrowly lost out in a close battle for the mid-match positions, eventually finishing seventh, just seven points away from fourth place.

The performance by the Sussex side, who went into the match at Cardiff without their leading middle-distance run-ners, pleased team manager Mark Sheridan.

"We went into the final relay battling with Cardiff, Stoke and Luton, who came up with us last year, for fourth place, and it all depended on the order we finished in that race.

"We were close up in fourth place, but our rivals were inches ahead, which meant we had to settle for seventh team spot."

Added Sheridan: "It was certainly not the start we had looked for as we now have to fight harder in the other mat-ches to make sure we don't go straight back down.

"But many of the team were young, and they really put their hearts into it."

Good news for Crawley is that Gavin Thompson will be back from the United States for the next match.

"Just his presence at Cardiff would have made all the difference, and I am confident we can finish fourth or fifth next time to get us out of trouble."

Pole vaulter Leigh Walker and thrower Ashley Ward gained the highest placings, both finishing second, with Walker clearing 4.60m in the pole vault and Ward, who is now only a couple of years away from the veteran age group, throwing the discus 41.56m.

Ward also picked up a third placing in the shot putt with 12.57m, while Sheridan himself made a major contribution to the points tally.

Still one of the best hammer throwers in Sussex, despite finding it difficult to allocate much time for training, Sheri-dan threw 47.74m for fourth place.

He was probably even more pleased with his javelin effort of 47.90m which gave him third place in the B throw.

Terry Fidler, who has been sidelined through injury for a couple of years, returned to the fray and threw 48.42m for sixth place in the A javelin, having earlier cleared a splendid 4m to take third place in the B pole vault.

Matt Barclay, who is only in his first year in the under-20 age group, clocked 11.9sec. and 23.9sec. for the 100m and 200m in his first competition since injury ruled him out of the All England Schools Champion-ships last July.

A sharper Barclay, plus the return of Thompson and English Schools' 3,000m champion Ed Prickett, should see a much better result for Crawley in their next match at Edinburgh in July.