During the Winter we take part in 3 predominantly cross-country leagues. This means that we have 17 races in which we compete. I think we all agree this is a heavy workload and we have looked at various ways in which we can reduce this including dropping one of the leagues but for various reasons don’t feel we can do this.
Having called this a midseason review we are in fact past the midpoint and in fact have completed 11 of the 17 races and the brilliant thing is that quite a number of our runners have achieved the milestone of running all the races. The good news is that there are only 6 league races left in the next 10 weeks to the end of the season. There are of course a few championship races in that period. It would be great to see lots of new faces take part in those 6 races.
In spite of sometimes putting out teams that are limited in numbers we are having a good season. In the Met League, which is one of the premier cross-country leagues in the country we are up against some of the biggest clubs and international runners. We have modified objectives of the men retaining their place in the top division, the women to get back in the top division and both men and women vets challenging for top honours. We are well on course to meet all these objectives but we do need bigger turnouts than we have recently managed. You don’t have to be super fast just willing to have a go.
The other two leagues are the Chingford League and the Sunday League. The Chingford League is a mixture of cross-country and tarmac so it does give some of those runners who don’t like running in mud an opportunity to race. We are doing very well in this league but are missing out on top spot to one of the big clubs in Victoria Park. We should have some individual trophy winners when it comes to the end of the season. The Sunday League is the final league we take part in and so far we have taken part in 4 of the 5 races in this league and are currently in a very strong position to win most, if not all, of the important competitions. At the final race at Royston in February we need to be at maximum strength to confirm that position and the women to close the small gap to win the A team.
Overall the men’s team is probably a bit stronger than it has been for a few years but suffers from higher levels of unavailability. We have had 7 different runners finishing first for TP which demonstrates our depth but also the level of unavailability. We have benefitted from 3 of last year’s Juniors, Ben Halstead, Ethan Jackson and Max Kercher performing superbly but sadly they are likely to be away at Uni next year. We have been lucky in that we have a clutch of strong runners who have been the backbone of the team for a number of years and they turn out for just about every race. What we really need is more runners to turn out. These races are not just for the fast boys, they are great for every level and are good fun and wonderful for Club spirit.
The women’s team has been decimated by the loss of many of our top runners this season and the fact that we are still in there challenging at the top of each of the leagues is a great credit to those regularly turning out. Our 3 top runners, Kat Alpe, Alex Baird and Anja Greenwood have really run superbly regularly. New recruit Beata Falkowska has been a great addition and along with Anna Sikorska have been regular scorers. It has been great to see some Transformers taking part, especially Julie Mimnagh and Jo Allen. We have some great runners around the Club who never take part in these races and they would be important additions to the team and I’m sure would really enjoy the experience. Please give it a go and join the rest of the team.
We can’t review the season so far without thanking people involved. The most important people to thank are the team captains who do so much unseen work, not least pulling together the best teams possible. Scott Aiken has taken this role for a number of years and is now representing the team on the Club committee. As an aside Scott is having a great season running and will be challenging for trophies in the various leagues and the Club Championship. Anna Sikorska and Bev Tipping have jointly taken over the ladies captaincy this year and have very quickly got up to speed and are creating a super team spirit.
There have been many other people who have supported the team activity by taking on various tasks like scoring, taking photographs and many other roles at our regular races. As usual we hosted a Sunday League race and needed a significant number of volunteers for that. Giovanni Ferrari was Race Director for that and along with all the other volunteers made it a brilliant success. We have been asked to jointly organise with Barnet the Met League race at Trent Park on Saturday 10th February and I am delighted that Matt Bannon has agreed to lead our part of that organisation. Please respond positively to his requests for volunteers.
The final group to be thanked are all those runners who have turned out for us over the season so far. We have really punched above our weight against some of those big clubs who are able to put out strong teams regardless of unavailability issues. We need more of you to give it a try. There are only a few races to go and if we get the right numbers out we have the opportunity to make it a very successful season.
Chas