Met League race 1 2026-27: Seniors
Woodford’s senior women’s and men’s teams began their Met League campaigns with a fine 4th and more modest 7th respectively. U20 Abigail Reid (9th woman) and U23 Nathan Wright (8th man) led the teams in with superb top10 finishes. Both teams featured a range of youth, senior and vet participants including debutants, and the managers will be working hard to sustain, and improve on, these initial positions.
It was a fantastic start to the season with 15 ladies on the start line for the senior women’s race. With many commenting on how this was the biggest squad they can remember, there was a real buzz around the team flag ahead of the race and an eager anticipation to see how the team would perform. The performances did not disappoint and we were thrilled to close both an A and a B team and be only 1 finisher short of a full C team! The A team finished 4th with all 6 finishers in the top 50. As above, U20 Abigail was first home in 9th with Louise Gilbert hot on her heels in 14th. Making her Met League debut, Liz Davies had an excellent run to finish in 21st despite having spent most of the summer telling team manager Kate that she much prefers road to the country. With lots of training banked across the summer, Lauren Evans looked incredibly strong throughout and, despite finding the hills tough, finished in 29th position- a position that we can only expect to improve as she continues to focus on half-marathon and marathon races.
Verity Garcia had only recently joined the club following two weeks of training in our Tuesday night Bertie’s group session but was quickly persuaded to give the Met League a go and had an excellent run to finish in 46th place. Right behind her in 47th was long-standing club member Alicia McArdell, who proved to be fitter than she thought she was and had an impressive run after a long time away with a hip injury. Here’s to hoping she can fit and healthy throughout the season- it’s great to have her back!
With 6 scorers ahead of her, another club debutant Lucy Cloutman kick-started our B team. Lucy has only ever trained solo for half and full marathons and so is new to both club training and racing. As a result, she set off very conservatively but worked her way through the field with each passing lap to close on Verity and Alicia and finish just behind them in 48th. We have no doubt that Lucy will improve on this position throughout the season, particularly as she commented on how much she enjoyed the league racing atmosphere. Next home was Molly Sherrin in 59th whose football fitness clearly showed when she did an incredible sprint finish up the final incline! Molly has recently returned to the club after some time away but is determined to do as many races as she can. Another returner was Claire Allen (67th) who missed last season due to Ironman training but is similarly determined to don the club vest as much as possible this season! Katie Olert (71th) and Zoe Watson (76th) followed to mean strong packing saw our B team finish well and finish the fixture 2nd in Division 2.
After being ever-present in the Met Leagues last season, it was great to see Dawn Holford start this season as she means to carry on and improve upon her 100th place last year with a 93rd position. In 103rd was returning club member Lucy Sinclair who, after some years away running for Orion, is back in green and white. Lucy looked comfortable throughout the race so is another lady to watch this season as she gets back into Met League racing! Finally, our third C-team scorer was Matilda Frith who, like Dawn, improved on last year’s position, going from 151 in 2025 to 134th in 2026.
For the men, the most hazardous part of the Claybury course is always the bottleneck into the first downhill section within 150m of the start, but this was safely negotiated by all the Woodies. So fast was Nathan Wright off the line on his way to his 8th place that Tom Beedell (28th, and 3rd Vet 40) spent the race under the impression he was Woodford’s first man, and concerned about the implications of that for the team score. Nathan has regularly been in the top 3 U20s among the senior fields at Met Leagues over the past three seasons, and his performance on Saturday showed his potential to aim for similar positions outright. After the race, Tom was reassured to hear about his teammate ahead, and reflected that he’d raced as well as he could have hoped after his 2:26 marathon in Berlin two weeks ago.
Tom Adolphus was next, in 42nd place, which was a fine run, 25 places higher than the same fixture last year, particularly having not raced since April. Angus Holford (47th) was similarly pleased, with a similar improvement. He’d hoped to reel Adolphus in on the last lap, but was satisfied to have overtaken a TVH and Harrow runner on the way to failing to do so. Debutant Chris Smith, an ultra-running specialist looking to work on his speed, was 66th, and won out after a race-long tussle with William Muffett who was 5 seconds back in 70th. Chris acknowledged that “speed hurts”, while William’s run-in with some brambles in the way of a racing line introduced a different kind of pain. William was 3rd U20 in the field. An unwell Aidan O’Driscoll was in the mix with these teammates but dropped out midway through the final lap, and we wish him a swift recovery. Dan Steel, the reigning individual Vet men’s league champion, had a difficult start to his defence, with 87th place, after a couple of longer-than-ideal recent breaks off running, but sees it as one to build on.
Harry Stockill made his Senior team debut in 102nd with only a few weeks of training after a summer break. He adjusted well to the race distance almost doubling compared with previous years for him, giving space for his mid-race stitch to disappear and mount a strong final lap. Bertie Powell, in 178th, was already enquiring over plans for this season’s National cross country, showing his continued ambition to be ever-present. Peter Caton (196th) said the race was horrible, but if this was one-tenth of new teammate Chris Smith’s preferred distance, it was ten times Peter’s. In contrast, Tony Pamphilon, who had earlier contributed hours of his time supervising the startline for the previous races, really enjoyed his race. He got quicker each lap to land himself exactly 200th place, less than 50 secs behind the day’s leader in the V60 age group. Chris Hogg (255th) closed the A-team, admitting to limited mileage in the last few weeks as he focused on core stability and strength training inherent in refurbishing his new flat. His Dad Richard’s recent successful ballot for a London Marathon place and subsequent expected return to form as his training progresses, will provide motivation for Chris to put in the work to stay ahead over the coming months.
Asif Hussain led in the truncated B-team in 281st, 80 places higher than last year. He was 75 seconds ahead of Feroz Mansoor (293rd), who in turn was two and half minutes quicker than last year, so reflected that must be doing something right as he starts working towards his target for the season of the Florence marathon. Finally, we welcomed two further debutants, firstly in Ardi Sefre, who was 320th, and reflected on the challenging surface, and then James Geller who was 328th and was better placed to know what to expect having previously raced at Claybury, for his school, in 1984. James was over the moon to finish 4 minutes quicker than his provisional target.
In recognition of the 60th Met League season; and to hand out the trophies from last season (owing to the cancelled final fixture), a buffet was put on in the Woodford Clubhouse after the fixture. Tom Frith’s achievement in winning the individual title was recognised, and we hope the trophy, once engraved, will reach him via his presence at a fixture in the near future. Thanks as always to the clubhouse team for hosting; as well as officials and marshals out on the course, most prominently club secretary and race director David Hollingworth.
For this year, the women’s team sit 4th in the league, less than 100 points behind leaders Highgate, also behind Victoria Park and London Heathside, and with a comfortable buffer over Ealing Eagles. Impressively, the B and C teams are both 2nd in Division 2 and Division 3. The men’s A team’s 7th place, already 800 points behind Highgate in the 12-to-score standings, is more disappointing, though with greater numbers at subsequent fixtures the B team, currently 3rd in Division 3, should expect to push for promotion. The next fixture is at Trent Park on 14th November.