No amount of relentless rain could dampen the astonishing spirit of Croydon Harriers' athletes in action at the Albert Road arena on Sunday.

Hosting their first UK Premier League match since regaining top status last autumn, the determined boys and girls team gave highly placed Enfield and Haringey (422 points) a good run for their money to take a well earned second place with 375 points, ahead of Havering and Mayesbrook (348) and Basildon AC (306), to consolidate their seventh position in the 16-strong division.

Surrey U17 800m champion Daisy Collingridge set the tone for the day in the first event with an exciting win on her 300m hurdles debut with a national grade three time of 47.8sec.

Later she won her speciality 800m at a canter in 2:23.2, placed second in the 300m with a PB of 43.4sec and ran an excellent leg in the 4x300m relay.

Young Jordan Maurice went one better on the winning front, with three. The U13 county 800m bronze medallist won his "two lapper" with a strong surge down the home straight in 2:29.3 and showed good basic speed with wins in the 100m (14.4sec) and 200m (28.3sec).

New sprint starlet Twinelle Hopeson defied the weather to put on a sparkling display to earn the club maximum points from the 100m and the 200m. She won the 100m in 13.0sec and the 200m in 26.4sec. Sheree Oliver (14.2sec) and Stefanie Braithwaite (28.5sec) both won their strings to make these events a Croydon preserve.

Despite the awful conditions, three Croydon athletes performed at national grade one level. U17 javelin thrower Richmond Baah was not far off his best with his winning throw of 51.31m, while triple jump winner Trevor Okoroafor cleared 13.75m to win by almost a metre.

U15 double sprint runner-up Ehe Obiote was 0.3sec adrift of his 200m best in 24.0sec. He was 0.1sec behind the 100m winner in 12.0 seconds. He successfully teamed up with Kariym Irving in the 80m hurdles to contribute an impressive event maximum with times of 12.2sec and 13.4sec.

Croydon's U17 high jumpers Tsidi Dagadu (1.60m) and Ryszard Buk (1.50m) both sensibly withdrew once certain of winning. Aspiring first year U17 400m runner Adam Fletcher improved to 52.7sec for a worthy second, and both U17 hurdlers Jemel Beckford, (14.7sec), and Anton Denny-Browne (15.5sec) overcame the adverse elements for good second places.

The middle distances in particular benefited from the influx with eight newcomers in the fray.

Eleven-year-old Elliott Verheary almost took the U13 1,500m by storm, leading until the home straight before finishing a creditable third in 5:06.9.

Hannah Tailleur, an U15 debutante, cut her 1,500m best by 16 seconds to take a very encouraging fourth in 5:56.81, while Gemma Dungay and Alice Schroeder were the first athletes for several years to pick up valuable points for the club in the U17 1,500m.

The relays were an unacceptable mixture of success and disqualification, featuring two disqualifications and two wins which were credited to the keen U13 boys and girls 4x400m teams.

This excellent match result moves Croydon Harriers up to sixth in the 16 Southern Premier Division. Their next match at this elevated level will be at Copthall Stadium, Hendon, on Sunday, June 4, when the opposition will be Shaftesbury Barnet, Vale of Aylesbury and Harrow.