Met League 2, Trent Park: Senior Men/Women
After another high-quality day's racing at Trent Park in Cockfosters, our men worked their way to the top of Division 1 despite being pipped for victory on the day. Our women had an off-day, finishing 6th. Our men's B team have developed a clear lead at the top of Division 2. Individually, the day was notable for fine debuts from Stephan Wenk and Oli Heeks, plus a terrific Met League PB from Andy Mariani.
Men's A team
The talk pre-season was of multiple clubs going for the Men's Division 1 title, and this is proving to be the case as Shaftesbury made a powerful statement and many other clubs, including Newham, fielded quality teams and athletes. The result was an excellent, huge field of 375 finishers (previous record 353!) with the muddy new venue proving more than capable of handling the numbers.
A quality-laden, energised Shaftesbury outfit attacked the race aggressively at the front along with a few lads from Division 2's Newham. Herts Phoenix's Neilson Hall took the win by 8 seconds from Tom Bedford (SB), son of former world 10,000m record holder David. The order of our first three men was no great surprise, but things after that proved more unpredictable. Matt Barnes-Smith (13) died at the foot of the final climb and lost around 4 places. Dan Agustus (15) and Bertie Powell (22) ran their usual good races. It was Powell's 36th consecutive Met League race but he has a task on his hands this year to retain "his" Ken Bray Trophy with Agustus retaining a slight lead over him at this early stage and proving a terrific clubman since joining us. We then had two interesting debutants featuring prominently: Stephan Wenk (25) is a Swiss duathlete and mountain runner who is on a 4-year osteopathy course in the UK; and Oli Heeks (26), formerly of our neighbours Orion and an 800m specialist, made his first appearance in a Woodford vest. Both delivered valuable runs. In 27th, Jordan Donnelly felt he could have started a little more sharply, but he - another 800m man - had done a session of 9 x 1K with Tim Prendergast (44) on the Wednesday which probably blunted the razor edge of both men.
The performance which really caught the eye was that of Andy Mariani (29), whose previous Met League PB was 42 at a dry Claybury. Admittedly inconsistent, he himself was unsure what he had got right this time, but it will be worth analysing because his run took him back to the level that he temporarily hit with 3.54 for 1500m back in May.
Kev Murphy (40), Angus Holford (42) and Tom Phillips (43) will have been slightly disappointed to finish in the 40s but when they look at the quality of the field, may brighten up. Then it was our 12th man home, Ed Messer in 56th, who proved the old adage that "every man counts", since Shaftesbury's 12th man was 84th - Messer thus 'saving' us a valuable 28 points.
Team-wise, Shaftesbury inflicted wounds over the first 9 men but our 10th, 11th and 12th men staunched much of the flow so that the end margin was a semi-neutral 25 points. Meanwhile, hosts and early divisional pace-setters Serpentine were not at their best and paid the price by slipping to 3rd in the league.
Team manager Terry McCarthy declared post-race, "Now it’s official. It’s a three-sided war of attrition," and, after taking in the Haye-Harrison fight, added, "We're a resilient outfit with a solid midriff, able to take a few decent body-blows while landing a few jabs. And we have less of a glass chin than we did in the past. It's nice to lead on points but this is a 15-rounder and we're not yet on Round 7."
Team: 1, Shaftesbury 1614; 2, WGEL 1589; 3, Serpentine 1422; 4, Highgate 1205
Division 1: 1, WGEL 3240; 2, Shaftesbury 3142; 3, Serpentine 3107
Women's A team
Women's team manager Alex Wardle has made it clear that her squad will not be matching last year's heady heights this season due to injuries and relocations. Saturday's 6th place leaves the defending champions in 4th overall. Kat Gundersen (13) was underwhelmed with her run and will be looking for better things after Christmas. Lauren Stewart had missed substantial training and paid the price with an unusually low 20th in the big field of 147 finishers. Bernie Pritchett had also missed training with a knee problem and struggled backwards in the latter stages for 29th. She finished second W40, though also behind one W50.
Maggie Powell (49) has only been doing steady running, while new signing Canadian Maggie Robins (59) found her first British CC experience highly enjoyable and inspiring. The team was closed by Kav Solder (74), whose performance was on a par with her run in fixture 1 at Claybury.
Team Manager Wardle said, "It looks as though 3rd is as high as we'll finish this season, but Met Police are close on our heels and we don't want to drop to 5th."
Team: 1, Serpentine 427; 2, SBH 394; 3, Highgate 334; .....6, WGEL 291
Division 1: 1, Serpentine 842; 2, Highgate 727; 3, SBH, 670; 4, WGEL 643.
Men's B team
With the A team closed in 56, our B team could begin scoring. Darren Southcott (65) had been under the weather all week and his under-par run reflected the fact. Jim Roche (67) was pleased enough but feels he must start harder. Matt Shone's hatred of cross country is an open secret, but he didn't help himself here by donning a pair of rotted old spikes that fell apart after the opening sprint. He (bravely!) ran on with one shoe sole-less - prompting wannabe wits to question whether he'd "sold his sole to the devil" - and the other flapping hopelessly, as if it were a flag of surrender. This explains him finishing 75th rather than, say, 35th.
M40 Gareth Cavell (78) felt his run was an improvement on Claybury despite finishing 11 places lower in the strong field. Harold Wyber (94) is promising to get back to training 5 days a week by Christmas. Richard Holland (105) took the hard-fought honours as 1st M50 in the race, 50" ahead of 3rd M50 Tony Pamphilon (132), who is currently struggling with constant colds and was 12" ahead of 5th M50 Iain Cumming (140), whose run was a very tidy improvement on Claybury.
Jon Long (112) looked a different runner from the man who finished 155 at Claybury - he had trained! M45 John Wallis' 118 was definitely better than his 114 at Claybury, as was Andy Coleman's 127 (124 a month ago). The mercurial CJ Shepherd, on the other hand, has possibly been on the plum duff a little early in the season, and dropped from 115 to 146.
In the volatile Division 2 environment, Newham scored big points by closing 3 in 12, and it will be interesting to see whether they mount a sustained challenge in a serious bid to gain promotion to Division 1. Nobody else looks capable of catching us at the moment.
Team Manager CJ Shepherd said of the muddy, hilly conditions: “I told t'lads before’and, “If yer think these conditions are brutal, yer ought ter try trudging up t’ cobbled ‘ill ter Ma Peggerty’s place pushin’ bikeful o’ ‘olemeal loaves early marnin’ in t’middle o’ winter!” ‘n I ‘ave ter say, ‘twere a solid performance, wi’ nowt tekken out.”
Team: 1, Newham 'A' 1106; 2, WGEL 'B' 1014; 3, VP&TH 827; 4, Morn. Chasers 767
Division 2: 1, WGEL 'B' 1985; 2, Newham 'A' 1656; 3, Morn. Chasers 1587
Women's B team
1st year U20 Kate Stockings (91) did well to turn a 26" defeat by W40 Jenny Thomas at Claybury into a 9" victory this time round on the sapping course - for Thomas it was a wake-up call to 'do some sessions' as she slumped from 83rd last time out. For team manager Alex Wardle it was even worse, from 76 to 101, but her week had been fraught with all sorts of issues and she will bounce back.
Men: others
Best of the rest was young 400m hurder Ben Phillips (159), who understandably found the mud far more taxing than the firm Claybury surface. Steve Dawkins (177) did not deliver on his promise to close down John Wallis, but he was happy to pip Ronnie O'Sullivan (183) by 8" as both scraped into the top half of the field.
Despite his demanding managerial duties, Young Athlete team manager Alistair Holford was still a very respectable 230th and ahead of M50 Paul Stockings (256) on a day of Personal Worsts for many. 11" behind Holford was M50 Steve Murray in a rare Met League outing. M40 Martin Mack's run (259) denoted a relative improvement or, at least, dignified stagnation.
M45 Steve Lambert (279) happily turned the Claybury tables on M50 Tom Spanyol (295), with Andy Smith (293) just edging Spanyol in the sprint for the line. Michael Murphy (331) knew he was on a hiding to nothing after missed training, while Ben and Tom's dad Stuart Phillips (375) ensured that the club had solid representation from first to last.
The next Met League race on the calendar is 18th December at the mainly flat Stevenage course. There's no doubt it will be another humdinger. Don't miss it!