Met CC League, Seniors, Race 2 at Claybury
Who says British distance running is dead? On the evidence of the competitive racing at Claybury yesterday, it is too early to write off the sport. The women's race saw a high-quality battle between our team and Highgate, while the men's field of 354 finishers pulverised the previous record number of 331 in a thriving, 43-year old league. The happy outcome for our own teams was that both men and women ended the day as league leaders, while our men's B team hoisted themselves further clear of the relegation zone. The spectators enjoyed an outstanding win by Jess Sparke, while Lotfi Chebli ran a classy debut to finish 2nd man home behind an in-form Matt Barnes-Smith.
Women
Our women's team went head-to-head with an excellent Highgate squad and were pipped by 4 points on the day, but retain a 25 point lead in the league. Jess Sparke, who was 2nd fastest of the day last weekend at the National Cross Country Relays, showed tremendous form to win by 71" over the 6K course in a big field of 135 finishers. It looks as though Sparke, a GB U23 cross country international, will be a contender for a place in the senior GB team for the European CC Championships, which will be selected based on the trials in Liverpool in 3 weeks' time.
Linda Jackson (4) produced her usual fighting form, just being pipped in the sprint for 3rd place. Next in was 18-year old Georgie Sales (8), running well in her first race for some time. Sales was 12" ahead of Kat Gundersen (10), who had another good run. With Highgate closing their scoring 6 in 20, we waited for Rachel Lund (22) and Bernie Pritchett (24) to close ours, thus allowing Highgate to make a tiny inroad into our league lead.
As our squad strengthens, our B team are beginning to make an impact on the league, too. They finished a terrific 6th on the day, which leaves them 10th overall and ahead of 11 A teams. They were led home by Maggie Powell (28), just 2 weeks after making her 3hrs 23mins marathon debut with Berlin. Andrea Possee (47) ran far better than in fixture 1 and was rewarded by breaking into the top 50. In 53rd, Lucy Wilson had another useful run and could soon join Possee below 50. Two youngsters, Kav Solder (63) and Jess Docking (68), just broke into the top half of the field, and the B team was closed by Jenny Thomas (71), who had a mildly disappointing run after an off-colour week. Team manager Alex Wardle finished 80th.
Wardle commented afterwards, "With Serpentine having a bad one, it looks as though it's between us and Highgate again. It's great to see Jess in such good form and we're hoping she can make the GB team for the Euro Champs. And I'm sure young Georgie will go from strength to strength as the winter progresses. Now we want some of our B-teamers to progress and become A team possibles!"
Men
Such was the unprecedented size of the men's field that team managers were swamped at the finish line, and the officials ran out of discs when the 350th man crossed the line. The 4 pieces of paper with 351-354 scrawled on them may end up on Antiques Roadshow in 100 years time!
Our fantastic turnout of 42 men was matched by exactly 42 Serpentine finishers – a tremendous effort by both clubs and one which illustrates the serious nature of the red-and-yellow challenge. Shaftesbury fielded their usual tough squad, closing 12 in 110 and 20 in total, while Highgate pitched in with 21, including 11 in 100.
Serpentine pretty much matched our 5 in 14 with 5 in 19, but while their 11th and 12th men finished in the 90s, our 11th was Kev Murphy (54) and Darren Southcott closed the team in 77. We thus overturned the lead both Humbugs and Serpies had established over us at Ruislip.
At the front end, it was another win for Herts Phoenix's international Neilson Hall (1st claim Bedford) with Heathside's classy U20 Mehretab Solomon an excellent 2nd.
Matt Barnes-Smith (4) had his best run yet for Woodford, starting more conservatively than at Ruislip but roaring through and finally attempting to close down Shaftesbury's third-placed Steve Murphy. Second home was debutant Lotfi Chebli, a former Algerian U20 international who has been training with Richard Thurston's young group at Ashton. Again, a finely judged run: Chebli looked strong in the final stages of the race. In 10th, Bertie Powell's performance reflected some excellent recent training with the promise of more progress to come.
Cold-stricken Dan Agustus made a late decision to race and delivered an invaluable contribution in finishing 12th, just 4 seconds ahead of another very good Craig Berg (14th) run. Our 6th man home was Ed Messer in 22nd. Messer got off to a horrible start in the bunched pack that bottlenecked early in the initial sprint, and spent the entire race using his excellent strength and determination to work his way through the field.
Alex Cornwell (30) was one of our few disappointments, but definitely learned from the experience of starting too quickly while fatigued from a heavy training week. Next in were Angus Holford (36) and Andy Mariani (42) who had travelled down from Lancaster and Loughborough Universities respectively to enjoy the home fixture. It was a pleasing result for Holford and certainly Mariani's best CC for the club. Like Messer, Gavin Lewis (46) suffered in the bunched start but, unlike Messer, he ran too fast too soon in attempting to right the wrong, and ended up suffering. An off-colour Murphy (54) and a tired-looking Southcott (77) closed our scoring 12.
The team result leaves us 101 points ahead of Serpentine, 144 ahead of Shaftesbury. Serpentine still look extremely dangerous, while Shaftesbury's squad is certainly strong enough to turn things round.
Our B team got underway with Andrew Clare, very disappointed with his 81st, Harold Wyber in 90th and M45 Matt Flannelly, who missed all last winter through injury, in 98th. Alan Rugg (112) ran brilliantly for first M50, and young Karim Ali very well for 118.
There followed a rare breathing space before our men started pouring through again. M50 Iain Cumming (151), CJ Shepherd (157) and Jon Long (166) were bemused by their placings before discovering the size of the field. Keith McShea returned from lengthy injury to grab a good 167, beating Tuesday night regulars Steve Dawkins (175) and Steve Ladhams (in his Met League debut, 181). Club stalwart M45 Paul Stockings just sneaked in to close the B team in 193.
The big losers in the relegation zone were St Albans, with Garden City continuing to struggle too. Our B team are now around 500 points clear of the dreaded drop zone, so we have a decent buffer to defend.
Our (notional) C team got underway with Iain Thompson (197), a good run from M40 Martin Mack (205) and Robbie Cox (208) who possibly started a little quickly. There followed M50 Steve Murray (212), M50 Alistair Holford (220), Andy Smith (225) and M50 Paul Chase (234). The remaining C team places were stolen by M45 John Wallis (244), M40 Richard Hogg, M60 Roger Green (268), M45 Dave Barrett (270) and Michael Murphy (280).
And our D team men included Jonny Hargreaves (288, also 2 weeks after his marathon debut in Berlin), good runs from M45 Steve Lambert (290) and M50 Tom Spanyol (291), M50 Tony Pamphilon (a comfortable 308), M60 Vic Wilson (31) and M50 Stuart Phillips (took the historic first piece of paper labelled 351).
Manager Terry McCarthy played down the league leadership, "More importantly, it was a great day for the Met League, and a tribute to Howard Williams whose brainchild the league was back in 1966 and who is still at the heart of everything 43 years on. It's great to see that our men and women are playing a major role in driving the league's current success."
He did, however, draw attention to his team's relative youth, "If you subtract Kevin Murphy from the equation, the average age of our scoring twelve today was 21 – the lowest it's been in many years, and perhaps the lowest ever! In fact, only 4 vets made our B team!!"