Senior CC/Met League roundup: county title for Norman
Woodford’s senior women’s and men’s teams both delivered considerably improved performances in the third Met League of the season at Uxbridge, scooping 12% and a massive 43% more points than the previous fixture at Wormwood Scrubs, respectively. The men enjoyed the return of James Stockings with a stellar 6th place, while the women were led in by Suzanne Phillips in 11th. We also bring news of a county title for Phil Norman and successes in the Essex Vets championships.
The legendary Uxbridge river crossing was less fearsome than in recent years, but judging the ascent of, and recovery from, the disused ski-slope on each lap was as tough as ever, and the fields were quickly strung out. The women’s team are still unable to rally together a full scoring team due to injuries, commitments and covid. But the team of four women who ran apprehensively debated the river crossing tactics in the warm up and braved the cold, all opting to take the plunge through the river (twice!). Suzanne Phillips was first home in 11th, admitting she was slightly disappointed to slip out of the top 10, but a hip niggle has hindered training recently. Next was Alicia McArdell in 26th, showing strength and consistency, particularly impressive after being unwell recently. Zoe Watson came home in 58th, it was great to see her running in the green and white for her first Met League of the season. Hopefully she will be able to make the others and keep up the strong running. Kate Stockings was 77th, a whopping 20 places up from scrubs, a really great run. The women’s team were 8th on the day, and sit 9th in the league.
James Stockings 6th place in the men’s race was only one off his all-time best, and his third career top-10 finish. With nearly 6 years between his first (an 8th place at Wormwood Scrubs in December 2016) and second (at Claybury earlier this winter, two in the space of 6 weeks shows he is hungry to make his mark, has the fitness to keep doing so. His presence will keep making a massive difference to the team’s fortunes, with the team’s 6th place on the day, taking us to 7th in the league, an encouraging turnaround.
2nd claim recruit Oliver Bushdari (23rd) held roughly that position for the entire race, and we hope he will be encouraged to return frequently for this level of competition experience. The next three Woodies were tightly packed, with Angus Holford (31st) tracking Mike Waddington (32nd) for much of the race and only overhauling him in a sprint finish, and both spurred on by the knowledge that Tom Beedell (34th) was close behind.
Thomas Adolphus did very well to finish 72nd after a long injury lay-off, but this decent performance reflects his sensible approach to building up his mileage, amid the pressures and time constraints of the final year of his degree. Simon Beedell (118th) was disappointed to lose places for a shoe-lace tying pit-stop ahead of the first river crossing, but mid-race this was the right thing to do since losing spikes in the river would have made things much worse. His actual running, he felt, was perfectly creditable. Rhys Edwards (121st) was only 3 seconds behind, stepping up the distance, by a factor of 10, from his recent 5th place in the London Colleges and Universities indoor championships over 800m.
There was a longer gap to Paul Stockings, who was 333rd and 13th of the V60s on the day, remarkably running exactly the same time and only one place lower than on this course the previous year. With this consistency and a linear trend, who knows what Paul will achieve with his 200th Met in 8-10 years time? Last in for the team and in the field was Bertie Powell (373rd), heavily injured already at the gun, who chose to complete the course at a brisk walk.
Elsewhere Phil Norman took the senior Devon Cross Country Championship title. The Olympian described the firm conditions underfoot as very favourable for him, on a hilly course in Exeter with almost no flat ground.
Earlier in the day at Writtle, three Woodies ran the Essex Veterans cross country championship. Steve Herington, who long ago moved to Herefordshire, made his annual journey back east and was rewarded with silver in the V70 category from his 115th place in the combined men’s over-50s race. Steve prefers and is used to hillier courses, but Writtle’s flat and fast course was more to the liking of Alistair Holford, who overtook him in a strong second half on his way to 8th in the V65 category from his 106th place. Peter Caton was Woodford’s sole representative in the over-40s race, squeezing into the top half with his 24th place. The overall races were won by Chelmsford’s David Fewell (V40) and Colchester’s Adrian Mussett (V50), both highly competitive seniors.