Met League 1, Claybury: Senior men/women
The new CC season got off to an exciting start yesterday with the first fixture in the London City Runner Metropolitan CC League on our home terrain of Claybury. Our men and women are both the defending champions but face a serious twin challenge from Serpentine AC who came out with all guns blazing to win both races. Daniel Agustus led home our men, and Lauren Stewart our women. Our men's B team got off to a very strong start and set the early pace in Division 2.
Results from the league website
Photos courtesy of Dave Barrett
Men's A team
Pre-season rumour was rife that Serpentine, Shaftesbury and Highgate all fancied their chances of toppling our men, and it was, in fact, these three and ourselves who took places 1-4 in Division 1, now reduced to 10 teams (9 clubs, as it includes Serpentine's B team) after a restructuring.
It was Shaftesbury's prodigy Richard Goodman, 5th in the European U20 CC last winter but only now beginning his final year at school, who tracked Serpentine's Nick Torry for a while before imposing his class on the race in impressive fashion. Of our men, Dan Agustus (8) and Hywel Care (10) were rarely far apart in the field of 338 finishers before Agustus clinched maximum Ken Bray points by a mere 2 seconds. Things look promising for the winter as the duo were within a 
mere 20 seconds of classy CC man, third-placed Edwards (SBH). Kev Murphy (17) produced an excellent run off the back of just 25 miles per week (but with quality sessions). The toughness of Bertie Powell (20) never ceases to amaze. He arrived at the race with a hip injury and ran the entire race in pain in a bid to a) help the team and b) defend his Ken Bray consistency title for the 6th consecutive year. It was Powell's 35th consecutive Met League race!
Jordan Donnelly is back to boost us after 18 months working for Adidas and Puma in Germany, and he showed the benefits of recent clean living by notching a Met League PB (23). U20 Alex Cornwell (26) began the race cautiously, choked with a cold and cough, but after halfway his tubes had cleared enough to allow him to cleave nicely through the field. It was probably also a minor lesson in pace judgement for the developing former English Schools 1500m champion. Gareth Lloyd did well in his first Met. A 3.51 1500m man, he started fast before only gradually losing ground and finishing in a decent 27th place. In 33rd, Angus Holford was content with his run on the firm terrain which he does not excel on.
U20 Darren Southcott (43) had been targeting the top 40, and finished 9" outside it, so a very satisfactory run. He just pipped Tom Phillips (44), a 12th-placer two years ago but rebuilding his endurance after almost a year of low mileage. Craig Berg (50) was 13th at the same race last year, and we may also expect substantial improvement from him. The scoring 12 was rounded off by our first vet - Matt Molloy (51), who was also 5th M40 overall.
12 in 51 would normally guarantee a win in the team race, but Serpentine not only fielded 68 men (to our 42) but had good quality, with 6 in 14 and 12 in 48, so it was they who took the honours. Their lead of 34 is not too worrying at this point but if it were to grow much more, they are unlikely to slip up. Our lead of 123 over Shaftesbury is a tidy start, but no reason for over-confidence. 411 behind us already, Highgate's threat seems to have been more verbal than legpower-based.
Team manager Terry McCarthy commented, "I'm satisfied with that as an opener. It was a bit of a Stalingrad-type situation, and we ceded very little ground to Serpentine's head-on assault. We can reasonably expect a good number of our lads to get significantly fitter from this point as everyone really has their eyes on the January to April period."
1, Serpentine 1685; 2, WGEL 1651; 3, Shaftesbury 1528; 4, Highgate 1240.
Women's A team
On the women's side, with 1 or 2 changes in our women's circumstances, we cannot expect the same high percentage turnouts that we enjoyed last season. Serpentine and Highgate are setting the early pace and we shall need a couple of big performances to overhaul either club. We may have a fight on our hands to defend third place from the Met Police squad.
Winner of the race by a whole minute was Highgate's Becky Penty. In fact she was 2 minutes ahead of our first woman, Lauren Stewart, who was 10th of 145 finishers. Stewart as usual came through from behind and pipped a very washed-out looking Kat Gundersen (11) who, after recently attending two party conferences, should probably have been sleeping in bed rather than racing! Bernie Pritchett was delighted with her 19th place after 2 months' hard work to get back to her old self after time off, and she was second W40.
Normally so strong in the 15-25 zone, this time we had to wait until 38th for our 4th scorer, Sidnie Sales, who ran very well in her first senior race. Our remaining scorers were also young - 19-year old Kay Foy in 44th and another young debutant, 17-year old Claudia Conway, in 48th. Team Manager Alex Wardle said, "It was pleasing to see the youngsters contributing so usefully in the absence of more experienced big-hitters. This season we may have to battle the police - the Met Police - for a podium place, unless I can flush out some of our talent that has gone into hiding."
1, Serpentine 415; 2, Highgate 393; 3, WGEL 352; 4, Met Police 349
Men's B team
A lot of good men are knocking on the doors of our A team, and the result yesterday was a clear B team victory in the Division 2 fixture as we packed our next 12 men between 59 and 124. In 59th, Jim Roche was delighted with his position and with the fact that his unreliable leg did not fail him this time. Ed Messer (65) continued his controlled steady recovery from last winter's abyss and overtook M40 Gareth Cavell (66) in the sprint finish. Cavell has limited experience at this level and was making his debut for us, so for him it was a case of assessing the terrain. Former University Challenge winner Harold "Warwick" Wyber (72), showed definite signs of at last responding to the many wake-up calls that have gone his way.
In 83, U20 Gavin Lewis delivered a not entirely explicable result for someone who is essentially a top 30 or 40 man. M45 Ray Dzikowski (96) produced a decent run to crack the top 100, something M50 Tony Pamphilon (107) will be aiming to do next time if his suspect knee permits the necessary training. New-look, slim-fit M45 John Wallis (114) turned in his best run for years and just held off an under-the-weather CJ Shepherd (115). As the hoops flooded in, Rob Cox gained several places in a massive sprint to record a very pleasing 117 - a man on the up! His late-on scalps included U20 Karim Ali (122) who has not been training too hard recently and M45 Andy Coleman (124), who is currently enjoying a very decent spell of form and who closed the B team.
B team skipper CJ Shepherd is still brooding on the team's demotion to Division 2 as part of the league's restructure following their arduous promotion struggle last year. He remarked, "Ay-oop, this'll pay 'em back for that Southern stitch-oop! 'appen as the'd ne'er gerraway wi'it in Yorkshire!"
1, WGEL 971; 2, Mornington Chasers 820; Garden City 724; Frontrunners 585
Women's B team
The women's B team occupy a Division 1 (of 3) position and find themselves in an immediate relegation battle with St Albans and Ealing. Just 12 points separate the 3 clubs after fixture 1.
A solid run by Kavita Solder led the Bs home in 69th, just 10 seconds of skipper W40 Alex Wardle (76). 17 seconds further back was W40 Jenny Thomas (83). U20 Kate Stockings (92), on her debut, was a little short of strength, as might be expected, in the latter part of the race, but was pleased to lay down a marker for future improvement. And Simone Panayi closed our B team effort in a brave 126th.
8, St Albans 132; 9, WGEL 'B' 121; 10, Ealing 120
Men's C and D teams
C and D teams not being officially recognised by the league, these are more symbolic 'teams' in which intra-club rivalries play a major role. So our 25th man home was U20 Paul Scanlan - 127th from a classy young 400m runner was absolutely admirable. The "Baron of the Baize" Ronnie O'Sullivan (140) probably started a little quickly but his finishing position did his fitness justice. Steve Dawkins (148) had a very decent run. M50 Iain Cumming (150) will be looking for improvement. Jon Long (155) is just back from months working abroad and has little training background. M50 Paul Chase (171) was just outside the top half of the field and ran a decent race. It looked a struggle for M45 Dave Barrett (212), who is more of a tri-man these days. M50 coach Alistair Holford (215) was 4 seconds behind Barrett off his usual limited training.
M55 Steve Sharp reappeared after a two-year absence to finish 222 and beat M45 Paul Stockings (226) a day before he evolved into an M50. M40 Mike Rogers was another returning to the race environment after a long absence. M40 coach Richard Hogg ran his second race in 4 days for 257th and closed the notional C team.
M40 Martin Mack (262) and M50 Tom Spanyol (263) enjoyed the titanic struggle to win bragging rights by leading the D team, with Mack prevailing by 3 seconds. In 275, M45 Steve Lambert was eager to underline his commitment by vomiting copiously both during and after his race. Enigmatic M60 Roger Green managed to stay ahead both of cycling fiend Michael Murphy (285) and former top triathlete M45 Richard Stevens (286) who is making a serious return to training as his 50th approaches.
C/D team mentor Tony Pamphilon looked over the ragged remains of his squad and wondered who was ready to make the big step-up to the B team. "Paul Scanlan has ability and age on his side - I think it'll be him or Jon Long. You'd get decent odds on Richard Stevens right now, and I personally think he's worth a punt."