Met CC League, Seniors, Race 1 at Ruislip
With none of our notional top 7 athletes (Snow, K Sparke, J Sparke, Milton, Swallow, Jackson, Stewart) running, the women's squad exhibited very pleasing depth in topping the 19-club event. With Serpentine taking the individual honours with 1st and 2nd, and Shaftesbury packing 3 in 14, our supporters found it difficult to assess our team chances. In the end, our 6 in 28 was the day's best and put us 29 points clear of our perennial nemesis Highgate Harriers.
Within the scoring six there were 3 particularly noteworthy performances - those of Kat Gundersen, Maggie Powell and Becky Hewitt. Gundersen's 8th of the 136 finishers was easily her finest league run and comes off the back of a summer where she has worked hard and improved her speed.
Maggie Powell (22nd) showed the benefits of training for the Berlin Marathon in 2 weeks' time as she ripped out her best performance for many a year. In the process she showed that, aged 25, she still has vast unexplored potential. And 17-year old Becky Hewitt made an exellent senior debut in finishing 28th overall and 3rd U20. Our other two scorers were Bernie Pritchett (12 and 1st W40) in her first race back after a summer ruined by imperfect health, and Di Kennedy (20) who yet again showed tremendous club loyalty in jumping off a flight from Antigua and coming straight to the race. Just holding off Powell was Rachel Lund, whose excellent 21st comes off more rowing than running training.
Our B team beat six clubs' A teams in finishing a good 16th (of 29 scoring teams). Breaking safely into the top half of the field were Andrea Possee (58), Jenny Thomas (60) and Lily Murray (68). Training partners Possee and debutant Murray both admitted to walking on one of the hills (albeit separately!) so there is definite room for improvement. After herself finishing an admittedly mediocre 89th, team manager Alex Wardle said, "It's a good start, but let's not get carried away yet! The girls need to keep knocking out the huge sessions so that they stand strong once the muds roll in."
Team: 1, WGEL 711; 2, Highgate 682; 3, Serpentine 671.
Race One of the men's season showed that the Woodford-Shaftesbury duopoly has been shattered by a genuine upstart challenger - Serpentine. After finishing runners-up behind us last year, they underlined on Saturday that this was no fluke as they finished just 7 points behind the day's winners Shaftesbury and 43 ahead of ourselves. Moreover, their B team finished a tremendous 9th in Division 1, illustrating their excellent strength in depth.
The top half of our scoring 12 was very strong, and we closed 6 in just 21. But we lost it over our next 6. Matt Barnes-Smith (9) and Dan Agustus (11) both began aggressively before slipping back - literally in Agustus' case as he was a faller. Craig Berg (13) was pleased with another good run as he establishes himself as one of our top men. A lot is expected of English Schools 1500m champion Alex Cornwell, of course, and his senior CC debut (17) generally went very soundly, though he identified a need to improve his hills. Bertie Powell was satisfied with 16th after a poor summer but will be aiming to reclaim his usual place in the top 10, and Kevin Murphy (21) felt much the same.
One of the few eye-opening performances was that of Darren Southcott in 43rd on his senior debut. His trajectory has been upwards for the last 6 months and this run took him to a new level in the Woodford hierarchy. Richard Holland is running very well and his 68th made him first M50, though Ilford's former Woodie Iain Campbell (48th) will turning 50 in January. Both Harold Wyber (81) and Jim Roche (84) felt the race had been a wake-up call, and vowed to knuckle down even more. Former South of England CC team bronze medal winner Jon Powell turned up a little overweight but pitched in with a useful 102nd before M40 Matt Molloy (106), in training for the Dublin marathon, closed the scoring team.
Team: 1, Shaftesbury 2007; 2, Serpentine 2000; 3, WGEL 1957; 4, Hillingdon 1754.
Team Manager Terry McCarthy said, "Good luck to Serpentine - they're obviously doing something right. Perhaps they're being bankrolled by a mysterious Middle-Eastern backer. But we've been here before. We know how to win this league, and we're not panicking yet. Both Shaftesbury and ourselves are capable of much more."
We fielded a fine 28 men in the huge field of 329, and our B team did well to end the day above the relegation cutoff, with Victoria Park and Garden City below us and St Albans just above. With Thames Valley well ahead in 11th, the relegation battle would appear to be between four clubs, and our men will be up for it.
There were few surprises in the pecking order. M50 Alan Rugg led us home in 112, having overtaken Ashley Mildenhall (116) who had made a blistering start. 17 year old Karim Ali (124) did well on his senior debut to beat tough M50 Iain Cumming (126), who is currently a little off his best. M45s Andy Coleman (154) and Paul Stockings (163) crept into the top half of the field, while Robbie Cox (175) was just outside it on his debut, having been paced by M55 father Dave Cox (177). M50 Alistair Holford (200), M40 Martin Mack (204) and Michael Murphy (225) all looked to have had pretty good runs and Andy Smith was rightly pleased enough to be 12th B team scorer in 238.
Into the "useful backup" category, which is nothing to be sniffed at, fell Jonny Hargreaves (264), M45 Steve Lambert (270), M50 Tom Spanyol (278) and former Essex vets CC champion M50 Tony Pamphilon (300) who is targeting a controlled return to competition after a lengthy and debilitating virus.
Manager McCarthy said, "This is a decent start - we've earned ourselves a breathing space in what is, literally, a death struggle."
Relegation zone: 11, Thames Valley 1140; 12, St Albans 830; 13, WGEL B 826; 14, Victoria Park 626; 15, Garden City 297.
Footnote: M50 McCarthy ran the Birmingham Half Marathon in 1:26.21 on Sunday, towards the top end of his expectations. He was again pleased with his footwear.
And Stuart Maxwell, a member of both teams that won bronze medals in the last two SEAA 12-Stage Road Relays, ran a 2.38 debut marathon on Sunday in Chicago. The 36 year old was forced to manage a touch of cramp through the last 4 miles but was very happy overall.
Ben Whitworth was 3rd in the Kingston Run 16 in 1:30.26 three weeks prior to his marathon debut in New York where he is hoping for a time close to 2hrs 40mins. Andrew Clare, Lucy Wilson and Adrian Russell ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon. Clare chose to run it within himself and clocked 1:20.32 for 26th place in a field of almost 10,000, while Wilson recorded a satisfying 1:46.10 on her debut for a position of 2075th. Russell ran a huge PB of 1:46.44 (2181st).