South of England XC: Senior Men & Women
Our men's team finished 13th and our women 34th yesterday in the South of England CC Championship at Parliament Hill. The men retained the Essex Cup (for the first Essex club to close 12 men) for the 9th year in a row). Martyn Cryer led our men home, while new signing Jenny O'Sullivan was the first of our women.
Photos (by Terry McCarthy)
Men
Parliament Hill lived up to its billing as a mudbath, and the SEAA stuck to their policy of making the men's race 15 kms as opposed to the 12 kms of the Midlands and North, but it did not stop almost one thousand men finishing the race, mostly - fortunately - just before a huge storm of freezing rain hit the venue.
Although Martyn Cryer led the men home, his run was not without its despair. He actually started off in the 30s but drifted backwards to finish 62nd. Nonetheless he is training more than he has done since university days and is aiming to run quickly over 10K later this year. Kevin Murphy (75) was just 35" behind Cryer, and this was a taste of the vintage Murphy, gobbling up the mud like a premium piece of JCB equipment. Due to turn 40 in April, there was just one M40 ahead of him, plus one M50. A minute behind Murphy, Angus Holford (94) is on an upward curve as he recently kick-started his winter, and hopefully we shall see the real Angus at the National.
M40 Jim Roche continued his good form by being our fourth man home in 164, 2 minutes behind Holford. It is good to see Roche running more confidently and making his mark on behalf of the club. 70" behind Roche, M45 Gareth Cavell (204) is another now scoring regularly in our teams. He came on top in a 3-way battle with Rob Wilbraham (212) and Joe Everitt (272) which lasted for 6 miles until Everitt lost his calm and started to run raggedly, while Tony Russell (234) came from behind to pose a potential challenge to Cavell and Wilbraham. Cavell's run continued his consistent season, while Wilbraham over-achieved for a man on very low mileage but he seemed to benefit from his classically elegant style, somewhat like winner Richard Goodman of Shaftesbury! Russell was pleased to come back this strongly after a winter disrupted by 2 injuries, while Everitt admits he has taken on Parliament Hill twice and lost both times.
Wilbraham, then, closed our scoring six for a total of 811 points which put us 13th. Congratulations to our Met League rivals Shaftesbury (gold) and, especially, Serpentine who have for some years now shown tremendous team spirit and no little ability but never, before this race, won anything. They took bronze with two of their men in the top 15. Neither Newham (8) nor Highgate (9) enjoyed their best days, while we put one over Essex champions Chelmsford, who finished 19th out of the 74 clubs who closed 6 men. Our own result was notable for the unusual absence of Bertie Powell who, now that he has completed his 50 consecutive scoring Met Leagues, has decided to give his body and, particularly, his heel a rest for a while.
Around 4 minutes behind Everitt there was a competitive duel between M40 Matt Molloy, returning after injury, and Jon Powell. Molloy eventually won that one by around 20", 406 to 422. M45 Steve Lambert and Julian Russell were similarly locked, with Lambert finishing 40" ahead in the end, 497 to 528. This was our 12th man. On this occasion we were not the only Essex club to close 12 men - Eton Manor closed 12 in 902.
But we had 3 more men out there. M45 Richard Hogg 712, M50 Alun Evans 736 and M60 Trevor Powell 982. As time went on, the wind picked up and made things even less pleasant. Powell, in particular, deserves enormous credit for toiling around in 1 hour 40 minutes and must have suffered the worst of the weather around the time he was finishing.
The final results revealed that our B team (scorers 7 to 12) finished 51st
Women
After about two months of rain nobody expected this rolling course to be firm, but to say it was muddy was to speak nothing of the quagmire that followed. Deep, dark, treacherous, be-cambered gloop awaited the women in the weak afternoon daylight. 5 miles of it. No place to gain purchase, no time to regret cake-forsaken core training. Only one way through: to the end.
The end came first, in 30:39 for Aldershot & Farnham’s Jess Andrews finishing 15” clear of her nearest rival. Closing 3 in 6 and 4 in 54, Aldershot went on emphatically to win the team prize. First home for Woodford was Woodette newbie Jenny O’Sullivan (138) a very promising finish just outside the top 25% for the shell-shocked Dubliner who declared it “the toughest race I have ever done.” This was Jenny’s second line-up for Woodford in a fortnight and second time as top scorer. We certainly hope there will be many more. Second home, an interminable 3:38” behind was namesake V45 Jenny Thomas (240) whose hamstring-tormented run left her disappointed to be just outside of the top half and around 80 places below her last ranking in this fixture and headed for the foam roller. Never intending to run if she could help it, but nonetheless next to finish, was V45 Alex Wardle (290) 2:13” behind Thomas and simply glad to have put in a solid, challenging training run. Last home, 56” behind Wardle and closing for the Woodettes, recently retired ex-policewoman V50 Karen Horswood (311) made it four to end the day for Woodford ladies in a 'could have been worse' 34th.
Raceday Captain Wardle said “Massive credit today to us gritty girls who finished this, when so many were undone by the relentless mud. It's been a very disappointing season so far for the women with so many of our squad missing, and each fixture has felt more difficult than the last. But we know we can come through this tough patch fighting. Our Scrubs signings look very good indeed, so I’m confident we can end the season on the up.”