South of England 12 and 6 Stage Road Relays
In a wonderful display of team spirit, a total of 55 of our senior athletes competed in the South of England 12 and 6 Stage Road Relays at Milton Keynes on Sunday. Our men were 4th and our women 5th. Our men's B team were 1st B team and our women's B team were 4th B team. We were the only club to close a full men's C team, and we also had 7 men in a D team. Hywel Care was nominated the men's Man of the Match, and Georgie-Lou Sales was the fastest of our women.
This year some of the leading participant clubs, including ourselves, had made an effort to promote the race more heavily than in the recent past in order to keep the quality of the event as high as possible. There was certainly some degree of success, as some clubs made a far more concerted effort to put their best teams together.
It was a fabulous day out for our athletes and supporters and culminated in our men's team winning a small but very aggressively fought tug-of-war contest!
Men
We felt that our team was stronger than 2011 when we were 3rd, and that any team that beat us would need to be both well-organised and talented. And so it proved. The odd-numbered legs were "long" (7664m) and the even-numbered legs were "short" (5053m), with the long runners lapping Linton Woods twice rather than once. It was a new course this year and the athletes reported that it was fairly tough, with a number of inclines.
Leg 1: An old Leg 1 hand, Matt Shone, started the ball rolling. It was marvellous to see him on the line with Angus Holford (B), CJ Shepherd (C) and Jim Roche (D) representing our 4 teams, a total which possibly has not been achieved before at this event.
Shone stuck just behind the lead group for the first loop of the woods, but was annoyed with himself for slipping out of the top 10 over the latter stages as the fact that he had only put in about 10 days' training for this event after winning the Welsh 40 mile track title 3 weeks ago exacted its price. He came in 14th in 24.44 (the 1st man home clocking 23.30), but it was pleasing to see Henry Dodwell of Highgate, who we knew would be a challenger club, 16" behind him. Holford ran an extremely good race for 25th of the 44 men who began the race and his 25.34 will have given him confidence for a couple of upcoming 10000m track races. Roche had been placed in the D team rather than B or C in order to give a decent springboard to James Stockings on leg 2 of the D (Stockings being in the D team because he was officially too young to run this event, but some leeway is granted to an incomplete team). And he did an excellent job, replicating his cross country form by clocking 27.51 for 37th. CJ Shepherd accepted the poisoned chalice of the tough leg 1with good grace and was happy enough to 6 minute mile for 29.15 at this point in his London Marathon training - and happy enough to beat 3 men rather than trail in last.
Leg 2: Harold Wyber (A) was a slightly unknown quantity, having recently excelled on long, tough courses. But he did a fine job for us, running 16.00 and gaining 3 places. Dan Yaxley (B) made his senior relay debut and ran a decent 17.32, slipping 1 place to 26th. Ed Messer (C) churned out a par run (17.50) based on a recent time trial and gained two places to 39th, while young James Stockings (D) flashed around in a very impressive 16.11 to lay down a marker for next season when he will be old enough to be officially eligible and to run the senior Met League. Now our Ds were 30th and 3 minutes ahead of our Cs! The race was now led by Shaftesbury, Blackheath and Belgrave.
Leg 3: Tom Phillips (A) found the going tough for whatever reason and didn't reproduce his excellent winter form, losing 3 places as we slipped back to 14th, and running 25.35. Mat Clarkson, on the other hand, could feel very pleased with his 26.26 which lifted the Bs to 24th. Iain Cumming (C) also performed well and his 30.09 closed the gap on Chris Maybin (D) to just 32 seconds, though Maybin was handicapped by having been at a 2-day whisky tasting on Friday and Saturday - he said the low point of his race (32.40) came when he thought he had hauled back and overtook a runner who had overtaken him, only to realise it was a jogger out for an easy Sunday run! Shaftesbury were still leading but Highgate's Russell produced a storming 23.57 to put them 2nd in front of Bedford. The speedy Mehretab Solomon of Victoria Park made a horrible error by running 3 laps of the woods instead of two and, unfortunately, lost 26 places in the process, which was a massive blow to a club who had made a genuine and very good attempt to field a competitive team. Kent's Florian Neuschwander had flown over from Germany for the weekend and ran the fastest long stage of the day, 23.20.
Leg 4: Bertie Powell (A) did a good team job, overtaking Newham and growing the gap to our pursuers as he ran 16.02 to leave us 13th. Chris Symonds (B) ran a decent 17.20 considering he had a minimal warmup after arriving late, and he closed the gap on Nene Valley, but we remained 24th. Sam Benge produced a steady 18.20 and took our Cs past our Ds and Serpentine's incomplete C team. It was M50 Andy Coleman in our Ds and his 19.22 seemed excellent considering he hardly ever trains! Our Ds were now ahead of 3 teams (Belgrave B, Victoria Park B and Barnet). Shaftesbury still led, but Kent shot into second through international Jermaine Mays.
Leg 5: Harun Abdi (A) is young (20) to take on a long leg but he did well, running 24.55. He was chased all the way by Newham's Pike, and both teams passed Milton Keynes, Windsor and Belgrave to move into 10th and 11th respectively. New signing Louis Clark (B) made a net gain of 0 places as we stayed in 24th. His 27.57 really was impressive off just 6 months' running experience and it will be interesting to see what he can do next winter. Rob Quantrell (C) was rightly content with his 29.25, which took us past Newham B, and Paul Stockings (D), like the old hand he is, agreed to do a long leg just to keep the D team going, and ran 33.18, slipping one place to 40th. At the front of the race, Kent's 2.19 marathon man John Gilbert ran a storming 23.37 to take the lead, and Ryan McKinlay of Highgate ran a good 24.15 to leave them in 3rd behind Shaftesbury.
Leg 6: Daniel Bruynooghe (A) was a fraction below his best, with 16.17, but moved us past Luton, Tonbridge and Thames Valley, but was himself passed by Newham's Hepples as we moved up to 8th. Darren Southcott (B), who was unfortunate to miss out on A team selection, was very disappointed with his 16.34, but it only underlined the fact that a road relay is an artform in itself. Ben Phillips (C) showed that his winter work is paying off as he ran a good 18.12 and lifted the Cs two places up to 34th. And in our D team we revealed former junior GB cross country international Andrew Livingstone, who is slowly starting back after a knee operation and in the process of signing for us - he was timed at 17.53. This proved a fairly quiet leg at the front, with no impressive times being recorded.
Leg 7: Not at all so quiet, this leg! Kent built a tidy lead through Paul Pollock's 24.14, and Belgrave's Paskar Owor carved through the field into 4th with 23.35. Our Ben Hope (A) suffered a flare-up of his troublesome achilles, and a sudden change of direction when he was in the process of misreading the route did not help. He slipped one place to 9th with a 25.30 which didn't reflect his cardio fitness. M50 Alun Evans did a very good job with 30.05 which could not prevent the Bs slipping to 25th, and M45 Martin Mack's sound 31.02, likewise could not prevent the Cs slipping to 37th. M55 Stuart Phillips concluded our fantastic D team effort with a solid 36.48.
Leg 8: Andy Mariani (A) pulled back time on everyone ahead of him except the recent winner of the English National CC, Newham's Keith Gerrard, as he ran our fastest short stage so far of 15.37 to Gerrard's 14.37 which proved the fastest short stage of the day. We were now in 7th but gaps had closed! Liam Blaikie (B) ran a solid 17.29 - he was a fraction quicker than Dan Yaxley but was unable to take the full minute out of Sam Benge, an issue which had had the connoisseurs speculating so wildly about for days beforehand. Jon Long (C) produced a pleasing result of 18.13 which surprised himself, off little training, and now the Bs were 25th and Cs 35th as 38 teams were still on the road.
Our A team having no out-and-out stars, our strength is our solidity and we have become used to working our way steadily through the field. The question is always, "We know that we shall remain solid, but how solid are the teams in front of us?" We were about to start finding out.
Leg 9: Hywel Care (A) gave our race a completely different complexion by nailing a top class performance in what could be, alas, his final relay for the club as he is about to embark on a career abroad. He passed Belgrave and Bedford and took a chunk of time out of Newham in particular as he produced his best run since falling ill after an excellent run in the Merseyside CC in early January. The 24.05 he ran while chasing Aldershot's Paul Rodgers (24.15) was the quickest of the stage, quicker for example than Highgate's Shaun Dixon who has had such a fine season. It left us in 5th, only 2" behind Aldershot and 29" behind Newham, who were in the bronze medal position. At least we now had a fighting chance! Rob Cox (B) delivered a par run of 27.46 which bettered, by a fraction, the times of Jim Roche and Gareth Cavell, with whom he can be compared in our current ranking. (Louis Clark now joins that little bunch.) Cox's run made us first B team by taking us past Highgate B and Ealing. For the Cs, M45 Ron Daniel delivered a very tidy run of 31.00 which took us past Harrow into 34th.
Leg 10: Running his first Southern 12 stage for us, Tom Beedell (A) found himself in a high-pressure situation, but absolutely did not flinch. He passed the Aldershot man immediately and set about chasing for a medal. And, indeed, he took about 40" out of both Highgate and Kent in running a good 15.53, though Newham's man pulled away with 15.02. Now we were just 20" behind the bronze, 1' 20" behind silver and 2 minutes behind gold. What did the others have left? In the B team, Gavin Lewis produced a real eye-opener. With no recent form of any kind, he had never been a top contender for an A team run, but he sped around in an excellent 15.56 which must have delighted him and leaves him in contention for a place in our National team. And this, it must be pointed out, was a totally solo run as he started 4 minutes behind the team in front! Lewis is back! For the Cs, M45 Steve Lambert had run a PB of 95 minutes in the Brentwood Half Marathon in the morning, then ridden his motorbike to Milton Keynes where he ran 22.03 and lost a couple of places.
Leg 11: Daniel Agustus had the tough task of chasing Highgate's experienced Ben Noad, but he gave it his best shot. For the first half of the leg he at least maintained the gap, but the wily Noad poured on the pressure to race to a quick 24.06 to Agustus's sound 24.36. Their race, though, took them closer to Kent in particular, since the Kentish man was timed at 25.31. We were now 50" behind bronze and 66" behind silver, with Newham looking comfortable in the lead. Surely it was impossible for our anchor man, young Alex Cornwelll, to retrieve anything from this lost cause? Those teams would never select weak men for their final leg, surely! Back down the field, M40 Gareth Cavell (B) produced his usual sound run although very detached and running solo - 27.58 and still in 23rd. For the C's, young Karim Ali took on a long leg for the first time, in quite isolated circumstances, and delivered a decent 29.10 which kept us in 36th.
Leg 12: In the battle for the medals, all hope was lost, really. Until reports filtered back to the track that Cornwell was making significant inroads into both Highgate and Kent! The excitement grew and then boiled over as the athletes appeared, running parallel to the track on the other side of the fence with 600m to go. First came Newham's Stuart Major. 150m back came Highgate's inspirational captain Ben Pochee, now up to silver. 60m further back was Kent's Andrew Dunwoody, absolutely eyeballs out and on his last legs. And another 60m and it was our flyer! There was still hope, IF our speedy, 20 year old track runner had anything left in reserve for a quick finish and IF Dunwoody were to fall to pieces. They disappeared around the rear of the facility. They reappeared. It was not to be. Dunwoody was hanging on for grim death. As Newham crossed the line to win, Highgate, Kent and Woodford were also inside the track facility but nothing would change now. After 4 hours of running, 4 clubs finished within 57" of each other, and we were left 13" behind Kent and 25" behind Highgate by Cornwell's storming 15.24. For the Bs, the injury-stricken Kevin Murphy added another minute to our lead over Highgate B as he ran 17.18. For the Cs, Alistair Holford set off in the so-called "mass start" of all the remaining runners - in this case, three. Temporarily in the lead, he subsequently lost out to Wymondham AC, who ultimately beat our C team by 2 minutes, but his very acceptable 20.22 placed him well ahead of the Barnet man as we finished 35th of the 36 complete teams.
1, Newham 4:03.41; 2, Highgate 4:04.13; 3, Kent AC 4:04.25; 4, WGEL 4:04.38; 5, Aldershot 4:06.57.
Despite losing out on the medals, it was a thrilling finish and a race we can be proud to have been part of. We have an unusual team in that we have a large number of men of roughly similar standard, a very good standard, but what we lack are a couple of really big-hitting men - match winners - who can make the difference on long legs. We had 8 guys run 16.17 or faster on the short legs (top 41 out of 237 runners), but only Hywel Care (14th) made the top 33 long stages. CJ Shepherd had donated a bottle of Moet & Chandon to be awarded by team manager Terry McCarthy to his "Man of the Match". McCarthy chose Care on the basis that his run was both excellent and gave us a fighting chance at a critical moment in the race.
Women
The women have had a mixed season, but this was undoubtedly a high note. Alex Wardle had succeeded in assembling a competitive A team and a full B team.
Leg 1: Kat Gundersen (A) and Kay Foy (B) led our teams out as 31 women hit the road. Foy stuck with the A team woman for 3K before Gundersen pulled away to finish 14th in a good 19.03, albeit more or less tied with our Met League rivals Serpentine. Thames Valley, London Heathside and Barnet were also Met League clubs ahead of us. Foy ran a very useful 19.55 for 20th as Webster of Shaftesbury led the pack home in the 4th quickest time of the day, 17.16. We were second B team behind, as one has come to expect, Aldershot.
Leg 2: Bernie Pritchett (A) had been feeling low on energy in recent weeks so was pleased to feel more like her normal self as she raced around in a decent 19.38, overtaking Barnet but being overtaken by a speedy Aylesbury woman. So still 14th. Aldershot had taken the lead and Thames Valley were flying in 2nd place, but Pritchett opened up a tidy gap over Serpentine A. Kate Stockings (B) was unlucky to find herself just in front of some quick runners, including Heathside's and Serpentine's B runners, and lost 5 places despite running a respectable 22.35.
Leg 3: The in-form Georgie-Lou Sales (A) ran her third excellent race in succession, clocking the 4th fastest on this leg and 21st fastest of the 178 athletes overall. With her 18.15 she passed four women, including our former National CC bronze medallist Birhan Dagne in her Belgrave colours, and crossed the line just a second behind Tonbridge. So up to 10th. Maxine Davies made her relay debut for the club and ran the B team's 2nd fastest leg of the day, 21.57, as she passed 3 clubs including Serpentine B. If she knocks 2 minutes off that time she will be challenging for an A team place.
Leg 4: Sidnie Sales (A) kept up the good work and progress by running a nippy 19.09 for the 3rd fastest of the stage and passing another four women to leave us in 6th. Aldershot's A and B teams were leading the race now while Shaftesbury were the only Met League club in front of us as our team's solidity reaped rewards. Team organiser Alex Wardle (B) defied a painful achilles to help the team and ran 22.39 to lose just 1 place and keep us in 23rd place and 4th B team.
Leg 5: Rachel Lund (A) set off a minute behind 5th place but was still able to record the fourth fastest time, 19.41, on this stage as she made big gains on Shaftesbury who dropped from 3rd to 5th on this leg and were now just 4" ahead of us. Dulwich and Windsor, in 3rd and 4th, both ran good legs too, to preserve their positions. Kavita Solder (B) ran solidly to close on the 3rd B team, Windsor, though she was passed by Reading's A team as she ran 24.35. Meanwhile she extended the gap over Serpentine's B team.
Leg 6: Lauren Stewart (A) went straight past a fading Shaftesbury and set off after Windsor, while at the same time resisting a strong run from Heathside's Sue Rust. Closing all the way, she was not quite able to raise the finishing speed to turn 5th into 4th as W50 Marina Stedman used her experience to keep enough in reserve to fend off our challenger by just 2 seconds as Dulwich consolidated the bronze medals. So we were the first Met League club home, 23" ahead of London Heathside, with Serpentine 8th, Thames Valley 9th and Shaftesbury 10th. Nicola Lawrence (B) made her debut but found herself very isolated, 2 minutes behind Windsor B, and she was unable to d anything to change that. However her 23.22 brought us home in 24th position as 4th B team behind Aldershot, Heathside and Windsor.
1, Aldershot 'A' 1:44.17; 2, Aldershot 'B' 1:5023; 3, Dulwich 1:53.02; 4, Windsor 1:54.08; 5, WGEL 'A' 1:54.10
Tug-of-War
Prior to the prize-giving and while the last runners were finishing, host club Milton Keynes organised a men's tug-of-war competition entered by 4 clubs: Woodford, Highgate, Heathside and Norwich (actually an amalgam of St Mary's University students). In match 1, Norwich beat Highgate 2-1 in a best of 3 pulls. In match 2, Woodford beat Heathside 2-0. So we faced Norwich in the final. Our team of Hywel Care, Ben Phillips, Alex Cornwell, Tom Phillips, Gavin Lewis, Harun Abdi, Steve Lambert and anchor man CJ Shepherd remained invincible to the end, almost pulling Norwich arms out of sockets with the ferocity of our tugging as we clinched another 2-0 clean sweep.