Met League 5 at Trent Park: Green shoots for the green hoops
Woodford’s Senior Women’s team finished the 2022/23 Met League campaign in 10th place, staving off relegation by just two points after a dramatic day and night of spreadsheet-refreshing, not to mention feisty runs from Suzanne Phillips (13th) and Alicia McArdell (36th) at Trent Park on Saturday. Both were slightly down on their typical positions this season, but their fighting for every position over the five races was vindicated by the team having accrued 577 points to Ealing Eagles’ 575, meaning the women’s squad stays in the first division.
Standout runs from Tom Beedell (14th) and Mike Waddington (18th), and a major contribution from debutant Tom Rehal (28th) helped the Senior Men’s team to a solid 6th place on the day, and 6th in the league.
Beedell’s 14th place was one better than his, then surprising, 15th at the previous fixture at Welwyn and secured him 7th in the season’s individual rankings. He was pleased to have stayed focused on a group just ahead including four Highgate runners and a Heathsider, one of which he caught in the final field. Rehal, a final year student at Leeds University and occasional training partner to Angus Holford (26th), had been quicker out of the traps, in 5th place at the first corner after 400m, and around 10th entering the woods after the 1 and ¾ laps of the start field. He later acknowledged that he started too fast, but he did hold his ground well, shipping only two places in the whole of the second lap after finding his level. One of these places was to Angus, and we hope Tom will return for the first of many rematches in the new season. Angus came in just about better than his average for the season, but not sure whether the gaps still opening up in front of him towards the end were a sign of an off-day, or of a well judged and more aggressive than usual first lap. He dwelt on this, because one of those running away from him was Mike. Merely 20m ahead at the half-way mark, Mike stretched this to 30 seconds and 150m or more by the finish of a commanding second lap, overtaking a group of 7 opponents while he was at it. He was delighted to fulfill his pre-race goal of a first ever top-20 finish in the Met, even more impressive following a winning half marathon performance the preceding weekend.
Tom Phillips’ marathon training is clearly kicking in. His 35th place marked a huge improvement over his only previous Met this season, and was much closer behind his colleagues than even at the Southerns two weeks ago. Dan Steel was 46th following an extended sprint finish, in which the line came just in time for him to win out of 6 competitors separated by just two seconds. Simon Beedell delivered his best Met League performance since Claybury with his 93rd place and was pleased to place 7th Vet for the season. Paul Manson made a welcome return to the race-day squad, which would have been sooner if not for illness. His 224th place, for a past top-60 man, is a stark reminder of the quality of the league. Bertie Powell came in 261st, and with a bloody knee, in his 92nd consecutive Met League. His Dad Trevor Powell, though flying past the halfway stage and gaining lots of kudos from the youthful crowd, withdrew shortly afterwards to help Bertie. Paul Stockings added another to his huge tally of Met League appearances finishing in 328th, and just 2 seconds ahead of a rival Division 1 athlete. He was one of five ever-presents this season, alongside Bertie and three of the four team managers.
The men’s squad’s team positions are representative of a season where incomplete teams or lack of depth has cost the squad many points in the demanding 12-to-score Div 1, but there is much encouragement to be taken from the breadth of scoring team members (21) over the whole year, and juniors soon to arrive in the senior ranks. The next fixture is the National Cross Country, at Bolesworth Castle in Cheshire, in two weeks, where Ed Shepherd will be leading the individual charge, and Tom Adolphus, who was absent on Saturday for a 16:00 5km clocking in the Hyde Park relays with his victorious Cambridge University team, will be making his senior National debut.