2014 ATW Met League Race 1: Seniors
Men's Race: photos by Alex Wardle
Senior Men
On Sat 11th October, where continuous rainfall was forecast but blue skies mainly happened, clubs from around the capital descended on the leafy suburb of Woodford to start the ATW Metropolitan Cross Country League for the new season. With Highgate claiming silver in the national 6 stage road relays only a week earlier, and Serpentine, Newham and Essex Beagles and Shaftesbury all having good men out, it meant, as usual, there would be no gentle opener to the season.
Getting out Pete Matthews is always a massive bonus, but even more so this time as we'd lost club rock Martyn Cryer for this first race. The man from Loughborough, even though not fully satisfied with his fitness and a sore hip, did not disappoint, getting a solid 19th place for the team. In next was track man Tom Phillips. Tom has had a great summer, so much so he had finally put clear daylight between himself and his doppelganger on the track, a man with the same name and very close pb's at the same distances, until this season! Tom has had a heavy cold but he showed his class, starting steady before coming in for 32nd. Tom was closely followed by Kevin Murphy in 33rd. The newly turned V40 had no doubt been keenly watching the successes of Jo Pavey and Steve Way this summer, and wanted in on the action as he targets some medals in his first vet season. Then came a surprise to this manager in the form of Omar Mansour. Not for talent, on that Omar could be right up there, but he has not liked this discipline, so much so many years ago this manager passed him and another club man having a chat as they climbed up a big hill! But in training for a half marathon for work, he put in a great shift for 37th place.
In fifth for us was Angus Holford in 41st. He has just been offered a full time job as his PhD comes to a finish, so his schedule has been hectic recently and he admitted this race was a real step into the unknown, so the result should have pleased this Woodford man, and hints this could be a very good season for Angus when things settle down. Just behind, in 42nd, was a man who last week ran a 2.28 in the Chester marathon, Tom Beedell. When asked by this manager if he wanted to sit one out, he replied that he was happy to 'jog' round. It is testament to Tom's ability that at the end he finished looking fully in control, and we hope to see him back to his best this season, which is a very valuable athlete to have! In next was Darren Southcott in 44th, who thought he finally had beaten Kevin Murphy when ahead of him on the first lap, but like so many down the years he found that Kev has a massive amount of reserves! But Darren is only 5 weeks back from injury and enjoying his training which hopefully means that he will be eyeing to close the gap over the next few races, so he may have the same thoughts on lap 3!
In eighth was Donatas Tumaitis. The new first claim Woodford man had shown his class last year in the Met, and although he said he had suffered with a cold, so bad it had caused a burst blood vessel, he produced maybe his best run in a Woodford vest, coming in in 46th place. A mention must go to our man in 50th, 16 year old Canaan Soloman who was a guest as U17. His talent is highlighted by the fact that Canaan did not look out of place in a race of high calibre and which is 2k further then his national championship race will be!
The next man in was Tony Russell, in 67th. Tony had a tough last winter with injury, so it was welcome to see him back not just to his best, but better then ever, as he posted his best ever Met League position. Just behind was new man Simon Beedell in 71st. His brother Tom alerted me to the fact that Simon was playing hockey to a good level, but now wants to give running a go, on this evidence it will be a tremendous benefit to the club, and the usual brotherly 1-upmanship could see Simon leave no stone unturned to get one over on Tom! In 71st was Jim Roche who, half way through last season found his form and has been running well ever since - always good to see the effort pay off for the hard working London cabbie. Closing the twelve was new signing Daniel Steel, who on his first outing racing on non-solid ground had a fine run which highlighted his running potential, and post-race he seemed to have enjoyed the race and his first Met experience.
We closed the 12 in 83. This massively bettered last years 12 in 130 and was an excellent performance, as although some things went right, others did not (see conclusion) and so the fact that the team pulled together to produce as they did was testament to the team spirit, talent and effort demonstrated in this first race. We lost out to an exceptional Highgate, and narrowly lost to Serpentine, but we put 100+ points on Shaftesbury who had 4 in the top 20, which shows how tough this top division is.
First in for the B team was Joe Everitt in 91st. Joe looks better and better with every passing month, and his goal to crack the top 100 in the first race was ticked off the list, he may have wondered if the running gods were against him as he just missed out on the 12, but if his progression continues like it has, soon there will not be a Woodford team he can be kept out of! CJ Shepherd was next in 94th. As usual he used his preferred dynamic warmup of getting from his house to the race with only 20 minutes to go, but this sort of adrenaline rush just seems to help the Barnsley man, if not the nerves of this manager! Our next man in was Robbie Cox in 100th. Robbie had been going very well until injury struck. Someone pointed out that Robbie can't do boring injuries, last year he was injured running into a car door, this year he was injured falling off a pole dancing pole! Robbie, not long back from injury, did show a good glimpse of what form he was in pre-injury and when fully back he will be eyeing a top 12 position with interest. In fourth for the team was Bertie Powell in 120th. Bertie has been injured since pre-12 stage relays last winter, and was in two minds whether he'd be able to run at all. He decided that he had to and so would run at a pace that managed the injury, and he stuck to the plan well, holding back enough so to finish and get the team some valuable points.
Just behind in 121st was Ray Dzikowski. This manager was pleased when Ray said he could run, as he had been interested in defending the Southern V50 Road Relay title at Aldershot recently, which meant that he must be in good form, and so it proved as he put in a solid performance to come only one place different from last year! Next up was Dave Cox in 125th. Dave hurt his back in the week so his participation was in doubt, but the V60 who ran 35.27 for 10k only two weeks ago, is made of tough stuff and scored some very good points for the team by getting round. In next was new man Adam Mead in 155th. He joined Tel's group 4 months ago in an aim to get better for the marathon, but has taken to running very well and has displayed a very good ability and mindset, so if the training continues steadily we could expect some very good results from him by the end of the season. Closing the B team was Stuart Smith in 185th. He must have wondered what was going on, he comes to training on the Tuesday, joins and gets put in a Met on the Saturday! But if Terry is spotting your potential after one session you must have something, and so it proved as he edged out others to take the last B-team spot.
This closed the B-team, and with a great effort takes us to second in the Division 2 table behind Barnet and District A, and ahead of London Heathside B and Highgate B. With two teams gaining promotion we are in a good position, and the effort from the team showed that we'd managed to have talent in depth which is what every club needs as the season progresses.
The C team was started by Gareth Cavell in 187th. Before the Aldershot race three weeks ago, Gareth would have been looking to score in the A team, but in the Aldershot race his calf completely went, so it was excellent to see Gareth start this race at all and even more pleasing to see him finish it. Pete Caton was next in 192nd, it was only Pete's second Met League for us but I hope he enjoyed it more then his first at Ally Pally last year, and this was his first time in the top 200 for us. In third for the team was Nick Andrews, our second claim man from Telford in 213th. It was good to see Nick and have him run, as an achilles problem is hampering him at the moment so to have him come out and get some good points for the team was a bonus. In next was Neil Ford in 249th. Neil has been a long time supporter of the club in social events but finally has decided to see what all the hoo-ha was about and join the club, and to make a solid C team position, on his first outing, shows he will be a valuable member of the club.
It must be noted that just behind Neil was Ben Jones in 250th, who is Ilford first claim looking to join us second. If the papers can be pressed through he will be another useful addition to the squad. Our 5th place man was Tony Pamphilon, who was in doubt due to injury but it being at Claybury and Tony being a good club man, decided to give it a run out and showed tremendous grit to get round the three laps for 261st place. In next was Ronnie O'Sullivan, getting back into training and enjoying his running again it was good to see Ronnie finish in 273rd place as he beat his friend who guested, George Pallecaros, by 30 places as he came 303rd. Our seventh man was Richard Hogg in 290th, who is also enjoying his running, and would have been pleased to edge out Alun Evans to 291st, as Alun is usually a mid to low 200 Met man but is just getting back into it all.
This closed the C team in 291 and put the team in 5th place in Div 3, where London Frontrunners set the pace this year. But we still had more runners to come! Mark Cambridge crossed the line in 303rd, with slight disbelief in his expression, I promise Mark this new Met is the best league race in England, they are not all like this! Paul Stockings kept his Met streak going and made a solid 331st. Tom Spanyol was just behind in 335th and would have been pleased to beat fellow clubman Andy Smith who is getting back into racing after a busy year last year. In 380th was Jon Webster with a look of complete incredulity on his face maybe with the strength of the race, or maybe due to the heart shown by the man just behind, Trevor 'C team captain' Powell in 383rd, who was delighted to see his C team start the season so strongly. Trevor would also have been pleased to get one up on arch-rival Stuart Phillips who rounded the team off in 402nd, and contributed to us finishing 37 people plus 3 guests!
Our three teams are handily placed and we improved our first 12 positions and score from last year, which was a great effort by the teams. It must be mentioned that Stephan Wenk had come up from Maidstone to run but due to traffic missed the start of the race. Usually losing him would be a total catastrophe but it is testament to the team that the loss was limited to a minimum, and after Stephan had done a quick training session in the park it was great to see him in the bar afterwards, so I hope he didn't feel the journey was a total blank. Roy Williams did a fantastic job setting up the tent at the venue and in the club house, where the food and drink added to an excellent atmosphere post race, and really set the bar at a high level for any other club to match, as Roy (and his wife Pauline with the cooking) really excelled. Thank you to everyone who came back after. The list of thank you's would go on forever with the amount of people who helped behind the scenes, but special mention must go to Michael Murphy who has the stressful task of making sure all health and safety regulations are checked and complied with for all the races, as without him we'd have no race day at all! Next Met is Stevenage on November 8th, a coach will be going up from Ashton, leaving at 10:45am.
Women
After a pretty challenging 2013/14 cross country season, finishing overall 5th in this competition; and after a faltering start to 2014/15, having failed to field a team for the traditional season-starting Aldershot relays; the call for WGEL women to rally for the real start of winter was made with some trepidation.
Last season’s semi respectable placing belies the significant struggle it was to assemble more than a handful of women WGEL runners for cross country - including in this increasingly prestigious series - let alone a competitive six. With busy, committed lives and so many other warmer, drier, Saturday temptations on offer, you’d think the choice was clear for any rational person; except that elsewhere in the London Metropole, the opposite is true as this League goes from strength to strength, attracting quality, mire-loving female athletes faster, it would seem, than a be-Speedoed Daniel Craig in a mud-wrestling ring.
However, whether tempered by the mild Autumn weather or a nostalgic commitment to the home fixture, the Woodettes have heeded the call, and on Saturday eleven of us toed the line in what, at 169, was by some margin a record field for this competition.
Women’s A Team
On firm going, made a little greasy at the beginning from a week’s damp weather after a warm, dry summer the size of the race became immediately apparent as runners shuffled and jostled for a clearance into the first small loop. Ahead of the congestion, Emily Moss and senior’ debutante U20 Anna Clark could be seen battling it out with the front runners in sixth and tenth place respectively. Slipping back several places as the race progressed, Moss (14) made it first home for Woodford, pleased with her run, 55” faster than last year’s for 13th place. Half a minute behind her, Rachel "one run a week” Lund (22) was second to score, with a typically strong performance. On the rower’s heels by 2” the ever-classy Kat ‘Gundo’ Gundersen (23) was third - her finish here, 27” faster than last year’s for 14th place is an indication of this year’s intensity of competition. Next up and 1’09” behind her more experienced teammates, was 800m specialist Anna Clark (40) in a creditable position no doubt bound to improve as she adjusts to the different kind of pacing needed for these off road runs. The battle for fifth, meanwhile, eventually closing 1’37” after Anna was fought on the second lap of The Hill between Zoe Watson (68) and V45 Jenny Thomas (70). Thomas having led for the first lap and a half, Watson surged ahead with about 1km to go only to concede momentarily to the more Hill-familiar Vet before finally scalping the Scouser by 10” who, two places lower but 90” faster than last year, was delighted to score for the A team.
The girls were happy to be out of the blocks with a reasonable baseline score. Captain Jenny Thomas said ”Six in 70 without a top ten finish was never going to be a winning score, but our marker is down. We’re two places and 69 points away from our starting position of 3rd last year and 94 off of 1st. But that’s not an unassailable gap. The girls did a great job today to show a good Woodford presence and set a good baseline score. The objective for Stevenage is an even stronger squad to help us narrow that gap”.
Women's Division One: 1. Serpentine (272); 2. Highgate (260); 3. Heathside (258); 4. Shaftesbury (247); 5. WGEL (178)
Women’s B Team
First home for the Bs after 1”55” was V45 Alex Wardle (102) also faster this year (by 23”) than her placing 20 positions lower would suggest. 40” behind, V50 Karen Horswood (110) was second to score, 5 places behind last year in a run faster by 1’17”, suggesting that her running has been among the many benefits of her newly retired lifestyle. On her heels after 2”, Nusrat Ceesay (111) made it third. The 400m hurdler being the only voice heard to call for more obstacles on the course as she competed her second outing of what we hope will be many more in this league. Fourth was Kate Stockings (114) after 12” in an admittedly more relaxed effort than usual; and closing for the Bs as fifth scorer after 1’25” was Anne Gombert. As a result of a recent bout of illness, Anne was over three minutes slower than her superb A scoring 48th place last year, and simply relieved to have finished at all.
Jenny Thomas commented that “Not bad for the Bs to place seventh with an incomplete team; and delighted that so many girls turned out to race - though it will be an uphill climb to get anywhere higher without more Woodettes out for the next four matches. We’ve more chance in the Vets competition where only 52 points separates our fifth from Serpies’ first place. Its all about the numbers on he day”.
Women's Division Two: 1. Vicky Park & Tower Hamlets (324); 2. Barnet (320); Serpentine (286); …. 7. Woodford B (137)
Veteran Women's Division One: 1. Serpentine (199); 2. Heathside (192); 3. barnet (185); 4. Ealing, Southall, Middx (177); 5. Woodford (147)
Brenda Bray Trophy scores after one event are as follows: 1. Emily Moss (20); 2. Rachel Lund (19); 3. Kat Gundersen (18); 3. Anna Clark (17); 5. Zoe Watson (16)