Essex Vets CC; local league CCs
Our teams won medals in two of the three categories on Saturday in the Essex Veterans CC Championships hosted by Ilford AC at Chigwell Row. Our W35s took the gold and our M50s the silver. We also took two individual medals through Evie Serventi in the women's race and Tony Pamphilon in the M50s.
Photos courtesy of Dave Barrett's partner Helen
Either studs or spikes were definitely required for this one as the first muds of winter reared their ugly heads. But much of the terrain remained firm. The first race was the women 35 plus and men 50 plus.It was taken out at a startling pace by David Butler of Billericay, accompanied by Ilford's Iain Campbell and Chelmsford's Mike Bridgeland. All 3 had run for their country a week earlier in the International Veterans CC fixture in Glasgow. Our top hope, Tony Pamphilon, was unable to match this initial pace and found himself behind Orion's Eric Paul and the first woman, Havering's Debbie Appleton, for the first lap and a half of the two lap, approx 5 mile race.
At the foot of the long uphill climb on lap 2, Pamphilon sensed weakness in Paul and put in an effort to get away from him (and Appleton). Shortly afterwards he noticed Bridgeland struggling ahead of him and, encouraged, continued his effort till he caught the England man at the top of the hill. From then on it was a race to the line, with our man getting the verdict by 6" from Bridgeland and 14" from Paul. Butler, in 2nd place, was 55" ahead, and winner Campbell 90". Campbell's time would have won the M40 race too!
It was a tremendously plucky performance from the little chap from Leytonstone to get in amongst the international 'toffs' and shake them up. However, our man was shortly afterwards observed to be mixing with those same upper classes and taking tips on how to get a representative vest himself in the coming years. We urge him to keep his feet on the ground! Eating chips from a newspaper, the rugged bronze medal winner noted, "It's all very well them fellows swanning off to so-called international events. I prefer to pit myself against the younger chaps in the fierce heat of a Met League race. It's that as what puts steel in your veins."
Behind Pamphilon there was a remarkable run from Andy Coleman, who has hardly trained for weeks, to take a very good 19th place in the field of 110 finishers. For much of the race, Terry McCarthy was our third scorer but he relinquished this position to Paul Stockings on the final hill. "I have taken quite a liking to my little walks on the uphills," chuckled McCarthy, "But I usually pick up the pace again at the top." And so it proved as he left Stockings trailing in his wake with a fierce burst over the final 400m which took him into 23rd place compared with Stockings' 28th. In actual fact, Stockings had a good run and well earned his first county medal in many years.
These four scorers gave us a team total of 73, behind Benfleet's 57 but ahead of Billericay's 78. Thus, silver medals.
Our next man in was Alistair Holford (35), around a minute behind Stockings and a minute ahead of Steve Herington (41), up from Hereford for his annual outing with us. Herington is accustomed to winning every honour possible down there near the Welsh border, but the competition in Essex is somewhat sterner, and he was 6th M60 here. Just in front of him was Ray Selwyn of Castle Point Joggers, who regularly ran for Woodford in the 1960s and 70s. 2' 20" behind Herington was M60 Roger Green (66) and 30" further back came Vic Wilson (71), with Stuart Phillips 89th, 3 minutes further back.
As described above, former international Debbie Appleton dominated the women's race, winning by 3 minutes. But there was a very competitive medal battle with the positions in doubt throughout. Our Bernie Pritchett and Evie Serventi both had a strong second lap in which they picked off several runners. Towards the top of the 2nd hill, they passed Terry McCarthy and Paul Stockings and, shortly afterwards, Serventi passed Pritchett for the first time in the race. And made a strong bid for home! Andy Coleman got caught up in this little battle. In the event, Serventi just took the win from Pritchett, officially by a mere second. They finished 4th and 5th in the race, but Kate Malcolm of Eton Manor, who had finished 23" ahead of Serventi in 2nd place, was subsequently disqualified because her club had not pre-entered her name, so Annette Oakman of Colchester Harriers was awarded the silver and Serventi, 9" behind, was given the bronze.
In a field of 84 finishers Lucy Sinclair, who is relatively new both to this class of racing and to the 'veteran' ranks, had a fine run to finish 19th and win her first Essex medal. The fourth place was taken by Jenny Thomas (28), who was initially behind both Andrea Possee (31) and Alex Wardle (34), but passed them at the foot of the first hill and took a 34" victory over Possee. "The girls have bought into this raising of the bar," panted Thomas as she crossed the line, "and are upping their game. Lucy is a prime example." Spot on, Jenny!
It was a distance that suited mileage-queen Thomas, but Possee and Wardle will be looking to overturn the pecking order over the 6K Met League course at Ruislip in a fortnight's time. Simone Panayi, feeling a little under the weather, was a brave 62nd.
The team won by a sizeable margin, scoring 56 points, with Colchester Harriers on 71 and Springfield Striders 78.
The M40 category is one in which we are not currently strong. But we had well-placed interest with Gareth Cavell in particular. He went through the halfway point in a group of 4, placed 10-13, but had a very good 2nd lap and pulled through to a very good 8th, 3" behind our second-claimer Ray Dzikowski of Ilford and just 6" behind 6th placed Paul Spowage of Colchester. This was probably Cavell's best CC race of his short career so far and will give him confidence as he learns to run races by feel rather than by his watch or heart rate monitor.
In the field of 88 finishers, we then had to wait 7 minutes until Martin Mack finished in 62nd. Behind Mack, Dave Barrett was making his tentative return to racing after long-term injury. The man of whom it was once said, "He is incapable of running an uncontrolled race" crept almost unnoticed through the field until he was right behind teammate Steve Lambert. Waiting until they were passing a bunch of WGEL supporters 300m from the finish, former 1500m man Barrett switched gear and cruised past "the man they call Lambo". To Lambert's disgust, the supporters, who had been yelling for him, switched riders mid-race and started backing Barrett for the win. The two charged down the home straight separated by no more than Lambert's breathless oaths, but Lambert (70) had to settle for a 6" defeat as Barrett (68) also passed Adams of Eton Manor. The fickle supporters went home disregarding the thespian's feelings of betrayal and feeling that they had been given jolly good entertainment for their money.
Local league results from around the country
Tom Phillips was an excellent 4th in the Gwent League race at Bath which was won by Enfield's Ben Nagy. Bertie Powell was a good 18th in the Hampshire League, and Alex Cornwell a decent 24th in the Birmingham League race. Emily Moss finished 5th in the Chiltern League event.