U17/U15 ladies show their Met League class, solid B-grade for seniors

Met League Fixture 1: Saturday 20th October, Claybury.

U17/U15 ladies impress: A 'Rust-y' Start for Heathside Women: Men's Team Avoids Getting 'Buried' in the Clay

Heathside's cross-country runners made a solid, if unspectacular start to the Met League season on Saturday afternoon. After heavy rain during the week, the course was slippery, soft and muddy, which made it tough going on all competitors, and a wake-up call for those of us who have been enjoying smooth, flat running tracks all summer. Many thanks to the 50 or so Heathside members who took part.

In the Junior races, special mention must go to Phoebe Crockford, who finished 17th in the Under-13 Girls race in a time of 14.26, and James Wooldridge, who finished 18th in the Under-17 Men in a time of 14.53. However, probably the most impressive performance of the entire day came from the 6 women who represented Heathside in the Under-17 Women's race, and brought the team in a very impressive 2nd in the overall team standings. Lucy Carter (13th and 7th Under-15), Lily Beckford (14th), Yanna Raykow (18th), Rachel Seckl (19th), Laura Gee (20th and 11th Under-15), and Genevieve Weston (22nd and 13th Under-15) all finished within 45 seconds of each other. Working together until the final push helped the four scorers home and meant that Laura and Genevieve were able to shut out other competitors effectively - which secured second place ahead of Shaftesbury Barnet. It was a fine example of how running as a team can make a difference to the score. Take a huge bow, ladies - we salute you. That was the best result for the Juniors in some time, and the future for the club's senior women looks very promising indeed.

With the introduction of cash prizes for individual competitors this year, and the weight of expectation ahead of the new season, competition in the Senior races was stiff. With the course starting with a steep and slippery downhill section, with mud and overhanging twigs and branches to catch you out if you tried to take a wide berth, it was a fairly brutal way to begin the race. 147 competitors completed the Women's race. Sue Rust produced her usual fantastic run to lead Heathside's Senior Women home, finishing 8th in a time of 22.36. She was backed-up in the women's 'A'-team by Clare Miller (21st), Sarah Swinhoe (27th), Claire Morrissey (41st), Karen Levene (50th), and Jackie Wastell (55th). Jackie, in particular, had a great race, and must take credit for stepping up to the mark to complete the women's 'A'-team scorers. In the team rankings, Heathside 'A' finished 5th in League One. It is perhaps not quite the start we might have hoped for. However, with 132 points, we are only 29 points behind Shaftesbury Barnet in 3rd position. With four more races to go, that is a modest and bridgeable gap, if we can get the Club's strongest runners out consistently. In the meantime, well done Sue, Clare, Sarah, Claire, Karen and Jackie. There were some good runs further down the field as well. The 'B'-team finished a creditable 6th in Division Two. There was some great support out on the course too, especially the encouragement of Anthony's special Heathside bell!

The Senior Men's team was ravaged by injuries and absences. Thankfully, several men put in good shifts to leave Heathside with something to build on as the season wears on. By the time the field got to the third lap of the course it was badly cut-up, muddy and exhausting. Special mention must go to Alex Galloway, first Heathside man home (58th, in a time of 29.03), despite being almost poleaxed by me sliding down the first hill, Rob O'Grady (68th), Matt Convery (77th), Tom Bestwick (80th), Dan McKeown (85th) and Anthony Hall (91st). These men are clearly going to be pushing some of our absent 'stars' all the way when they return (the inverted commas will be removed once evidence of race performance has been provided!), which bodes well for the team later in the season. Incidentally, Heathside had a total of 33 finishers in a field of 337 senior men, which is a great turnout, especially with everything else that was going on this weekend. 

Typically, Heathside would be looking to get most of its 12 scorers for the Men's 'A'-team in the top 100 finishers. This time we managed 7, which brought the team in 7th in League One. Heathside's 'B'-team finished 6th in League Two, whilst the 'C'-team finished 6th in League Three. These are all solid starts, and give us a chance to put together a good League performance this year. Nonetheless, we need to get all our best runners back out at Stevenage in three weeks' time. 

A word on the Vets teams: the Women finished 3rd in League One, and the Men finished 4th in League One, which suggests that we are going to have to up our game if we are to retain our winners trophy this season. More importantly, Heathside women are currently showing the way right through the age ranges. 'Sup, men? Cross-country too muddy for ya?!

All-in-all, I'd say it was a solid B-grade performance from Heathside, with the exception of the impressive showing from the Under-17 Women. With so many absentees, those who were there had to put in a really good effort. But make no mistake: there are some very strong and committed clubs out there. So we will need to do better once we are back to full strength if we are to improve on last year's showing.

Finally, a word of thanks to everyone who was taking part for the first time, and congratulations to those who I have not mentioned, but who finished in front of other clubs' runners and so helped prevent other teams from performing better relative to Heathside. Everyone's run counts. 

We can all head up to Stevenage for the second fixture in 3 weeks time with something to build on.

Full results (pdf) here and and will be posted directly below as soon as possible. 

Chris Hartley

[Video footage of the Met League fixture (and also of Cabbage Patch) can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Fn2InoB2yjAvucOfiqI4A]

Plenty of info to be found at www.activetrainingworld.co.uk or www.metleague.co.uk, too.

London HeathsideComment