Essex Vets XC 2015: Gold for M50s, bronze for Kev Murphy
There was another fine day's racing at Hainault Forest on Saturday when Ilford AC hosted the Essex Veterans XC Championships. There was enough mud and hills to satisfy the grittiest, and stymie the most elegant, veteran, but the event was blessed with lovely, mild weather. Our M50 men proved a dominant force, while Kevin Murphy and Ray Dzikowski earned bronze medals in the M40 and M50 categories respectively.
Photos (by Alex Wardle)
With Adrian Mussett of Colchester, probably the county's best all-round vet, absent for whatever reason the week after running a 69-minute half marathon, the favourites for the M40 race became our own Kevin Murphy, Ilford's Malcolm Muir and Orion's Nick Shasha. We were not fielding a medal-contending team, but Gareth Cavell was hoping to be close to the medals, and it was going to be interesting to see who would make up the scoring four.
When Murphy appeared, it turned out he had been unable to do much training since mid-October as he was carrying a calf problem. So, although he was with Shasha and Muir for the first mile or so, Shasha and Muir then moved away, in that order, and Murphy was secure in third for the rest of the race, finishing 34" ahead of the next man.
Gareth Cavell ran a great race. Now 47, he shows no signs of slowing, and followed up his 5th place in 2013 with 6th here (in a field of 67 finishers) and taking a fine scalp in the form of Havering's Matthew Bland, who is a veteran international 1500m runner.
Neil Ford and Mark Cambridge were both adding to their extremely limited XC experience, and both handled the challenging course very well. Ford went through the first lap in 46th place and then slipped past a few to record 42nd. Cambridge used occasional training partner Richard Hogg as a guideline, and they went through the first lap in 51st and 52nd before also doing a little overtaking and notching 47th and 48th, with Cambrige opening a gap of 21" over the last quarter of the race as Hogg struggled on the long uphill drag. Thus Cambridge was our fourth scorer as our team finished 4th on the day. Our final man in was Andy Smith in 57th, fresh from popping the question to long-time girlfriend Helen on a Cornish beach. (Happily she said "Yes").
There was an impressive turnout from our M50 men, many of whom have been with us for 15 years and more, or 45 years and more in the case of M60 Dave Cox, whose precise joining date is lost in the mists of time and fails to make the club's database. Colchester's Colin Ridley and Chelmsford's veteran international Mike Bridgeland broke away early on, with Ray Dzikowski leading the chasers who included Cox and Matt Flannelly. Thurrock Harriers looked like a possible threat early on but faded, and Orion are usually strong in this category, but their top man Eric Paul slipped away on lap 2 after suffering "palpitations". On the other hand, Alan Rugg carved strongly through the field to bolster our leading three men. With Dzikowski using all his experience to defend third-place by a mere 5", Cox overtook Flannelly late on and finished just 17" outside the medals. Rugg was around 50" back in 8th place for a convincing team victory.
Around a minute back, Richard Holland (no longer Essex-eligible) was 16th and Tony Pamphilon came in 18th off a series of injuries and setbacks. Another fine trio - Steve Lambert, Alun Evans and Andy Coleman - finished 36, 37 and 38 in a field of 105 finishers. That closed our B team in a very good 6th place.
Tom Spanyol had a very good run to be just 2 minutes behind Coleman and finish 50th, enjoying a particularly strong second lap, and M60 Trevor Powell also had a very good run in 62nd, ahead of many M50s, and around 7 minutes ahead of old foe Stuart Phillips in 92nd.