2021-22 Met League 4: Senior Men
Tom Frith won his 2nd Met of the season on 15th January at Wormwood Scrubs, leading the men's team to 4th place on the day. The women's team was led home by Suzanne Phillips in 20th. We also bring overdue news from 8th January, of the Cheshire County Cross Country title for Ed Shepherd, Hertfordshire silver for Michael Waddington, and a sub-69 minute half marathon for James Stockings.
Wormwood Scrubs is renowned as ‘the track runners’ cross-country course’, but this legend felt a hollow joke after 5 miles dominated by mud, icy puddles and a liquid morass of bark chippings. Speaking after the race, winner Tom Frith said this strange and draining kind of mud meant he had to pick carefully his moment to strike. He chose a point with 2k to go, emerging onto a rare patch of firm surface, following a long uphill drag. In a decisive move he created an 8 second lead and held steady to, again, solo to victory. Frith now looks to individual honours in the Southern on 29th Jan.
Earlier in the day, Suzanne Phillips finished 20th to lead the small women’s team in. After 21st at Claybury and 20th at Welwyn, Suzanne is showing consistency rivalled only by Tom Frith! Alicia McArdell rolled her ankle and was unable to finish, so Kate Stockings was next in, in 147th, ahead of Alex Wardle in 166th. In completing her 99th Met League out of a possible total of no more than 139, Alex tees up possibility of being the first woman to complete a century at Trent Park. Despite diligent detective work, Alex accepts that records are patchy and would be interested to hear from anyone claiming to have achieved this already.
Back in the men’s race, after a tussle that went the distance, second in was Michael Waddington (29th). His outclassing of Angus Holford (34th) in anything apart from the deepest mud outweighed Angus' relative strength in the hardest going sections. More than anyone else, former Southern 1500m champion and 7th placer on this course Tom Phillips’ 48th place betrayed the Scrubs no longer being for track runners. Tom Beedell felt his 52nd place shows he’s improving to be ready to achieve what he’s capable of by the National in 5 weeks’ time. Jack Gooch showed he had recovered from his calf ‘ping’ at Uxbridge with a cautious 59th place. He reflected that he’s performed better when he hasn’t tapered his Friday night but the team managers know his higher placings have come off the back of more regular training. Bertie Powell was 73rd in his 87th consecutive Met League, edging out Tom Adolphus by one place and 2 seconds. Injury disruption pre-Christmas means Tom is building again, but should look to his final two junior championship races with increasing confidence.
Dan Steel was next in in 93rd, and looks forward to a ‘home course’ in two weeks at the Southern in Beckenham. He was delighted to be back where he belongs in the top 100. The team was then closed by the tightly packed trio of Simon Beedell (123rd), Julian Russell, whose 127th left him weighing up whether he started his finishing push too late, and Harold Wyber just 8 seconds back in 133rd. Simon was coming off the back of a 7-day isolation period where he utilised Peloton for distraction and admitted he hadn’t quite got his running legs back. Julian has maintained his strong form that was forged through marathon training that yielded two PB’s in late-2021. Harold had a better run than at the Essex Champs the previous week but is hopeful that a week of cross-country skiing will see him place a lot higher at the next fixture.
Unlucky not to make the scoring team was Peter Caton, who did well to finish 165th after contracting COVID around Christmas, and looks forward to some indoor blasts over 800m as his reward. Separated from Peter just by a narrow Serpie was Paul Manson in 167th. Paul has been somewhat of a revelation this season and is making a habit of closely chasing his teammates in. Finally,
Paul Stockings, who achieved his own century of Met Leagues in Ruislip in 2005, was 371st. He was well rested after time off to shake off illness, but reflected that this benefited him less than it used to. Trevor Powell reminisced that he used to relish such muddy conditions but he battled around to finish 439th and again succeed in his personal target to avoid placing last.
The previous week, Ed Shepherd had taken the Cheshire title over a four lap course at Pickmere. He already held a lead after one lap and eventually won by 50 seconds from junior champion Finley Proffitt of Trafford, in such atrocious conditions that Ed, a 14:23 5000m runner, was reduced to an average pace of just 6:09 per mile. Michael Waddington's silver in the Hertfordshire championship in Stevenage was part of a 1-2 for his first claim Ware Joggers, 50 seconds behind Oscar Bell. The day after Wormwood Scrubs, James Stockings posted a half marathon of 1:08:59 at ‘The Brass Monkey’ in York, finishing 8th in a high-quality race won in sub-66.
The women’s team managed to hold onto 2nd place overall in Division 2 but will want a stronger turnout for the final fixture at Trent Park on Feb 19th to secure promotion. The men’s team were fourth on the day, and now sit 5th in the League, just 16 points ahead of Ealing in 6th, and a bridgeable, if challenging, 177 points behind Thames Valley Harriers in 4th. Along with Woodford's retaking of the Essex Championship last week, this pair of strong, competitive team results will ease pressure on the beleagured managers, giving them space to plan for the final fixture and build toward the major championships and 12-stage relays.