Luton AC slipped out of the promotion places and into sixth place in Division Two of the Southern Men's League on Saturday as they finished a disappointing third at Walton.

Late withdrawals, coupled with unavailability and injuries to key athletes, meant Luton slipped three places to drop to one spot below the promotion places.

Luton are now just half a point below Worthing in fifth place and a further point below fourth placed Ilford but still have a chance to seal promotion with two matches to go, including a home match at Stockwood Park on July 12.

On the day, Victoria Park won the match with 134pts, Ryston Runners were second with 108, Luton third with 103, Walton fourth with 97 and Dacorum and Tring fifth with 90.

Luton were neck-and-neck with Ryston throughout, but lost out due to a lack of sprinters.

Acting team manager Gerry Gough said: "The inability to fill key events, such as the pole vault and 110m hurdles was the difference between third and second place in the match.

"We only had one specialist sprinter, which also meant losing valuable points in the relays."

The club's throwers continued their impressive form, Dave Burrell winning three of his four events, including a personal best 11.70m in shot and season's bests of 36.20m in the discus and 44.85m in the hammer. Burrell also came fourth in the javelin with a throw of 40.70m.

Ricky Rasmussen won the B string hammer with 36.03m, came second in the shot with 9.44m, and third in the javelin with a season's best 35.94m.

Middle distance runner Tim Harris had a runaway victory in his main event, the 800m, in 1.56.8mins, ran a new best of 51.2secs in the 400m and filled in the B string 200m to come third in 24.5secs.

The talented Tom Best returned from university to triumph in the 5,000m in 15.32.8mins, lapping all but two of his competitors.

Running his first 5,000m on the track, Liam McNabola came third in the B string in 19.46.6mins, while Andy Johnson was runner-up in the 1,500m in 4.17.1mins and second in the 800m B string in 2.03mins.

Peter Benedickter Junior returned following sickness to come second in the B string 1,500m in 4.21mins, and he will be running in the 3,000m at the English Schools Championships in Gateshead on July 11-12.

Dad Peter ran a season's best 59.3secs in the 400m hurdles, while Ben Cruise was fifth in the B string in 1.06.4mins. Benedickter Senior also ran the final leg of the 4x400m relay, as the Benedickter family performed valiantly despite suffering from an E-Coli outbreak.

Sprinter Darren Green raced to a brace of victories, winning the 100m in 11.0secs and the 200m in 21.9secs.

Cruise, meanwhile, clocked a PB of 11.7secs to come second in the 100m, finished second in the B string triple jump with 11.61m and ran a leg of the 4x100m relay.

Craig Andrew was runner-up in both the triple jump and long jump and fourth in the high jump with 1.65m, while Stuart Baird and Chris Green came fourth and fifth respectively in the steeplechase. Baird also gained valuable points for the team by filling in in the 400m and long jump.

Meanwhile, Luton's ladies finished fourth in their third match of the season at Peterborough on Saturday.

A small team of only eight athletes produced their second highest score of the season, 65 points, to finish behind Herne Hill with 105, Peterborough, 81, and Nene Valley, 71.

The result kept Luton in 12th place out of the 16 teams in Division One of the Southern Women's League.

Shannon Bunker and Suzanna Wise were again impressive in the throws, with Wise finishing in second place in the hammer and Bunker runner-up in the B string.

In the discus, Bunker threw a club record 32.58m for third, while Wise won the B string. Bunker also set a club record in the shot of 11.13m to come second with Wise winning the B string, while in the javelin, Bunker threw a new best of 30.13m to finish third and Wise came second in the B string.

Shakira Francis came second in the triple jump with 10.45m and third in the long jump, while Claire Bassill won the 800m and finished runner-up in the 1,500m.

Louise Peters, who won the Luton AC five-mile race the day before for Stopsley Striders, was second in the B string 1,500m and third in the 3,000m, while Monica Bramwell and Jayne Rasmussen excelled in the sprints, both claiming second place finishes in the 100m and 200m. They also brought the 4x100m relay team home in second place.