Met League 3, Alexandra Palace: Senior Men/Women

Another great day's racing in the London City Runner Metropolitan Cross Country League culminated with our men's team suffering a very narrow defeat whilst remaining in pole position at the top of Division 1, while our women's team finished 6th and remain in 4th place in Division 1. Our men's B team won the Division 2 race to go a mighty 576 points clear at the top of the table.

There were notable and excellent returns to action from Dave Wardle, Ben Hope, Daniel Hawellek and Jess Sparke.

The racing was again of a very high standard in both senior races. While a very strong Serpentine women's team continue to build an unassailable lead in their premier division, the corresponding men's division has now become 2-horse after an imbalanced Shaftesbury outfit fell very heavily by the wayside.

Results

When the points were totted up, Serpentine had indeed won the battle but we still have a tidy lead in the war, as they chipped just 14 points off our lead to reduce it to 119 points with one fixture remaining.

Due to injuries, Dave Wardle had not raced properly since last June, Dan Hawellek since October, and Ben Hope since last February, but all 3 ran fine races and gave the league effort a splendid boost. Wardle was always inside his target, the top 10. He began the final ascent alongside Henry Dodwell (Highgate) and Orlando Edwards (Shaftesbury), disputing places 5-7. In the event, Wardle's lack of race fitness told, and he finished 7th of the 345 finishers. Hope was always around 20th and that is where he finished after running a tremendously consistent and impressive race for someone away from the racing scene for so long. He showed no signs at all of fading on the last lap. Hawellek (22), who will rarely run more than once a week due to being extremely injury-prone but keeps very fit in the gym, ran a very different race, starting easily and winding it up, particularly over the last lap when he targeted a group of 10 including Hope and passed them all except Hope.

Another terrific run came from Bertie Powell, who since Christmas has battled first chicken pox then another infection which saw him on anti-biotics last week. Yet he paced himself very well in his 37th consecutive Met League race (!), going off easily and working through to a fine 19th with his usual fierce determination which several of his clubmates have said they find a real inspiration. Just 7" ahead of Powell, for Hywel Care (17) this was another inexplicably (relatively) poor result after his run in last week's Merseyside Champs, and he is wondering what the answer is. Dan Agustus (11) was not overly pleased with his run, but is continuing to work hard in training and racing, and he added a little more to his lead in the club's Ken Bray Trophy for winter consistency.

Our 7th man home after another well-paced run was Tom Phillips in 30th, looking balanced and strong which bodes well for his favoured summer track objectives. For a long while we had Kevin Murphy and Stephan Wenk in the 25-35 range, but Murphy was a faller towards the end of lap 2 and his calf grew increasingly tight until he was unable to bend his leg, and he slumped to a very brave 67th, our 12th scorer. And classy Swiss Wenk, 24th in the Trent Park race, was forced to drop out with an ankle injury.

There was a good little battle down around 50th place. A rejuvenated Jim Roche (49th) came closest to fulfilling his personal hopes as his season goes from strength to strength. Notorious Serpie-phobe Roche passed 3 of the rival "yellow perils" in the final 400m. Angus Holford (47) and new signing Tomaz Plibersek (53) both found it a struggle. Holford was probably tired following the very tough Essex Championships 7 days before. One of Slovenia's top steeplechasers, Plibersek was possibly unused to the intensity of the racing, with 20 runners finishing within 30 seconds of one another at that point in the field, and possibly also unused to the boggy English going on the hill.

The remaining member of our scoring team and 6th vet overall in the race was Matt Molloy in 62nd. The quality of the race was evidenced by the fact that the first veteran home was only 34th, very unusual in this day and age but proof that these days the Met League is 'no country for old men'.

Serpentine closed in 55 to our 67, but our 6 in 22 to their 6 in 34 clawed points back for us. There was again little to choose between the teams and our league lead stems from their under-par showing at Trent Park. For Shaftesbury it was as bad as it could be. They had 4 in 18, but they were reliant on men finishing 264 - 290 for their 10th to 12th scorers.

The final league race will be held at Perivale on 12th February and team manager Terry McCarthy expects another determined Serpentine assault, "They'll throw the kitchen sink at us, of course. But we've been there before. We're used to dodging kitchen sinks. The secret is to be ... quick on your feet."

However he has no idea what his team will look like for the shootout, "So far 23 different men have contributed to our A team scores this season. I'll sift through the database and perhaps we'll scrape 2 or 3 more together for Horsenden Hill if we need to."

Team: 1, Serpentine 1694; 2, WGEL 1680; 3, Highgate 1526.....6, Shaftesbury 1181.

League: 1, WGEL 4920; 2, Serpentine 4801; 3, Shaftesbury 4323.

The women's course was a disappointment to many given that the hosts had opted to exclude the hill which is the main characteristic of the venue and stick to 3 flat laps in order to get as close as possible to the requested 6K distance. Others were doubtless relieved.

The team title is going to Serpentine and it looks as though they could dominate for some years to come given their strength in numbers and evident strong management.

It was particularly interesting on an individual level, with our GB cross country international Jess Sparke making a much-awaited comeback after not racing since a solitary track race last July. She hit the race hard and early, taking the race to Becky Penty of Highgate (first claim City of York) who ran 34.16 for 10K a fortnight ago. But things did not go to plan as our girl found it impossible to keep the swift pace going while Penty was by no means demoralised and came back and passed her with great determination and energy. Onlookers felt Sparke looked likely to fold and be caught by Glover and Lloyd, both of Serpentine. But she pulled herself together and drove on well to finish 15" behind Penty and 41" ahead of Glover.

Initially disappointed, she later admitted that she would benefit from more racing, whether she wins or not. There's no fitness like race fitness!

12th of the 135 finishers, Kat Gundersen was also negative on crossing the line, but brightened up when she realised that she was only 25" off her best run of the season. Neither did the exclusion of the hill favour her style.

Bernie Pritchett and Diana Kennedy, who was making her first visit to the capital to race since moving to live in Bristol, were separated by just 2 seconds, in 29 and 31. Both were reasonably pleased given their current fitness levels. With 4 in 31, we waited a long 3 minutes for our final two, very valuable scorers, separated by 6". W40 Jenny Thomas (85) just caught and passed Kav Solder (86) late in the race after Solder had developed a big lead early on. Team manager Alex Wardle (109) simply paid the price of lots of missed training.

Team: 1, Serpentine 409; 2, Highgate 370....... ; 6, WGEL 288

League: 1, Serpentine 1251; 2, Highgate 1097; SBH 1010; 4, WGEL 931

Our men's B team won the fixture but drew well clear of the chasing pack and the title looks to be in the bag. (After being promoted to Division 1 last winter we were then relegated back when the league was restructured to 10-team divisions.)

Our A team having closed in 67, Harold Wyber got the B team off the mark with a good run in 71st. Poor Ed Messer (87) ran miserably and looked distinctly unwell afterwards. Neither did M40 Gareth Cavell (90) seem himself. In between both, Richard Holland (88) is in excellent form and was 2nd M50 home, 45" ahead of the 3rd M50 though 80" behind Scottish international M50 Iain Campbell of Ilford. This was very good B team scoring!

Rob Cox continues to improve and notched a Met League PB of 105 as he clearly beat his dad, apparently rather out of sorts, for the first time ever. Karim Ali produced another consistent run for 120 (122 at Claybury). M45 John Wallis (153) and M55 Dave Cox (155) - two old war-horses if ever there were! - mixed it up together for long patches, but M50 Iain Cumming (142) came from behind and put a good 25" between himself and them by race-end. Men were crossing the line at the rate of 1 per second at times in this section of the race.

Ben Phillips (182) again did the race as part of his training to build strength for the 400m hurdles in the summer, and he did indeed look strong on the hill. M50 Steve Murray (224) achieved his main aim of beating M50 Paul Stockings (245), by 70". M50 Alistair Holford (228) chased him all the way and, in the process, managed to stave off a strong challenge to close the B team in front of our first C team man, M40 Martin Mack (231), as he had the previous week in the Essex.

Standing in for no-show B team manager CJ Shepherd, deputy Harold "Warwick" Wyber was so delighted with his team more or less assuring themselves of the Division 2 title, and celebrated so intensely, that he fell asleep in a local hostelry and was unceremoniously given the bum's rush, escorted by an embarrassed A team manager Terry McCarthy. When our reporter approached him at the bus stop, Wyber was unable to articulate a reply and simply continued to gaze at and eat from a large bag of pork scratchings. How the mighty (winning University Challenge team) have fallen!

Andy Smith (272) had a happier race than last week - no falls and no spike changes for this no-nonsense battler. Steve Lambert (292) looked a bit short of training and continues to regard all hills as personal insults rather than old friends. Michael Murphy (295) kept Lambert in his sights but was unable to do enough to close the gap. Roger Green (307) was fourth M60 in a race which most M60s strive to avoid, though it should be said that a vigorous M75 from Herts Phoenix finished ahead of over 20 runners.