Joel leads Woodford senior men to 9th at National Cross Country
Woodford’s Senior men came 9th at at the National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill on Saturday 22nd February. Last year’s Junior bronze medallist Joel Doye finished 25th and the team closed 6 in 203, for the best team result at this championship since 2010.
While it wasn’t quite true that, as some finishing young athletes were heard to proclaim, that there were no firm patches, the Parliament Hill mud was the most persistently deep and clingy that any running could remember. Throw in the multiple hills and the consensus was this surpassed even the Wollaton Park bogs and mires for toughness. Even the initially welcome sunshine created a glare that no doubt contributed to many of the falls out on the course, though not, fortunately, among Woodford’s ranks.
The team positioned itself in the middle of the start line, with Tonbridge to the left and Aldershot to the right, in the mix of the big hitters of recent years. Woodford’s men forbore to attempt to claim the newly official ‘King of the Hill’ title for the first to reach the summit (previously captured unofficially by Tom Phillips in 2018); and settled into the ‘race proper’. Joel Doye’s run was his first ever cross country race over the 12k distance, and was a superb full senior debut. He surpassed the performance of our 2010 first man, Matt Gunby, who had led the team to 5th on that occasion; and no doubt can aspire to match or surpass Ed Shepherd’s 16th from 2022; our best in recent memory. Tom Beedell was next in, in 72nd, a personal best for the National (excluding, as do subsequent statistics here, the rearranged 2024 National from last September). Oliver Bushdari was 80th and should appreciate how good a top-100 finish, comfortably, is at his first ever attempt. Tom Adolphus had bullishly set top-100 as his target; but took a measured approach and delivered a fine 125th place.
His gap over Angus Holford yo-yoed throughout the race, with Angus gaining ground (and perhaps over-exerting?) in the muddiest and hilliest sections but Tom speeding away when the going became firm. Angus’ 131st matched his best Parliament Hill National from 2018, and was one place off his joint best ever from 2011 and 2023. The team was closed by Ed Shepherd in 203rd. Ed had not tapered and was completing his third consecutive 100-mile week, so this performance doesn’t reflect his true form, but the team was pleased to have him close the team with 636 points.
Woodford’s 9th place was the highest since the aforementioned 5th place at Roundhay Park in Leeds in 2010, when the team finished 6 in 93 with a score of 390, and just edges out two 10th place finishes from Alton Towers in 2011 and at Parliament Hill in 2015, all under the managership of Terry McCarthy. Saturday’s performance was only the second single-digit place since the club’s streak of 6th, 3rd, 6th and 7th from 1960-1963.
The title this year was won by Bristol and West (115 points) from Shaftesbury Barnet (199) and Highgate (228). The team standings were dominated by Southern clubs, with Bristol were the sole Midland Counties club ahead of us, and 4th-placed Leeds City the sole North of England club ahead of us. The scalps of both Belgrave and Kent AC are also not to be sneezed at.
Dan Steel provided admirable back-up, running the whole race without seeing a single teammate. He finished in 277th, a position that would still have secured top 10 for the club if substituting our 6th man. Dan retains a three-point lead at the top of the Ken Bray Trophy standings with two races to go. Bertie Powell in 965th and Richard Hogg in 1568th completed our 9-man team that finished in 18th place in the secondary competition. Richard proved the nemesis to our 10th and final man Alistair Holford who was 1622nd. Both barreled down the final hill and took the racing line at every opportunity. All were pleased to have run it, past tense, with feelings mixed about how much they enjoyed it. All should be proud to have been part of one of the club’s most successful days on this stage for many years. Some satisfaction can also be taken from the fact that this was an entirely ‘home-grown’ race-day squad, in that all 10 finishers have trained regularly at Ashton at some point in their careers.
Results from 2025 races here:
https://results.sporthive.com/events/7298289599397232640
Results archive from all prior championships:
http://national.crosscountrychampionship.uk/index.html
L to R: Shepherd, Doye, Beedell, Bushdari, Holford, Adolphus, Steel