Essex Vets CC 2009
An excellent day's racing in the Essex Vets CC Championship at Hainault Forest saw Alan Rugg and Bernie Pritchett win individual bronze medals, while a very strong men's M50 squad won both team gold and team bronze.The 2 races (first, M50, M60 & M70 along with W35, W45 and W55; then M40) were run on a course most of which was new even to local runners of many years' experience, and which most judged to have been very enjoyable - being run almost entirely in the forest - and an excellent test. After an initial half-mile of boggy terrain, the 2 lap circuit dropped down a long, firm, serpentining trail before crossing a brook and rising up to the top again in 2 stages and winding through flattish forest back to the start.
4 of our M50s put themselves in the first 10 from the gun and there was a fierce contest with Chelmsford AC, who had the runaway leader Mike Bridgeland plus 3 other well-placed men in the field of 94 finishers. The revelation of the day was Alan Rugg, a man who has never won any worthwhile running honour, but who has been training terrifically well and ran an inspired race amongst quality rivals many of whom are well-versed in the art of winning. He, Dave Cox and Richard Holland ran most of the race in 3rd, 4th and 5th, and Rugg did marvellously to hold off England Masters international Cox and finish around 10 seconds behind silver medal winner Butler of Billericay, with Holland not far back.
Paul Chase returned strongly after being injured since mid-summer to snatch the final place in the scoring quartet, in 11th place. Our men took the gold with 23 points compared to Chelmsford's 26.
Tony Pamphilon and Terry McCarthy both started moderately before carving through the field together until Pamphilon cruised away in the last quarter of the race and pulled through to 12th, only yards behind Chase. It was great to see former county M40 champion Pamphilon achieve this placing having done absolutely no hard running in training following a 4-year absence with a mystery fatigue-type condition. McCarthy finished 15th, and Alistair Holford ran very well for 23rd. The final B team place boiled down to a contest between M60s Steve Herington and Roger Green, with an under-par Herington just nicking it, 38 to 39. The B team took bronze medals with 88 points to Springfield's 91. We also had M60 Vic Wilson in 65 and Stuart Phillips in 91.
The women's race was very competitive and four women entered the final straight very closely together, with Bernie Pritchett passing one athlete to move from 4th to the bronze medal position. At 42, she was up against younger women, but has recently recovered much of the excellent form for which she is well-known and which has led to her being invited to spend 3 nights in New York running a Masters' Mile in January. She will then go to Canada for the World Masters Indoor Champs.
Andrea Possee was our second woman home, in a satisfactory 17th place. Alex Wardle had a very good run for 26th and Jenny Thomas closed the scoring team in 27th. Our team finished 4th, 7 points behind bronze medal winners Springfield.
Stef McCarthy also ran very well for 30th, while in the field of 79 finishers we also had Karen Burns in 38th and Simone Panayi in 50th.
Though four of our men started the M40 race, only two finished. Ray Dzikowski was a very useful 15th and Martin Mack 43rd. Andy Coleman and Dave Barrett decided they had just two good legs between them, as one DNF'd with an injured left leg and the other his right leg.