Metropolitan League Race Five, Wormwood Scrubs, 08 February 2013
A strong turnout of the club’s better runners at the final Met League race of the season at Wormwood Scrubs ensured that Hillingdon AC’s Senior Men’s A team will once again compete in Division One of the Met League next season but with many of the middle order athletes missing, the B team missed out on promotion from Division Three.
The A team had their highest points score of the season (616) but this was only good enough for sixth place in Division One on the day as they were narrowly pipped by Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets in both the individual race fixture and in the league overall, finishing in eighth place in Division One after five fixtures with 2833 points compared to Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets in seventh with 2839.
The B team finished fourth on the day and fourth overall after five fixtures in Division Three, missing the strength in depth at both this fixture and at race three at Alexandra Palace required to make a sustained challenge for promotion to Division Two.
Robert Thompson was first scorer for the club in a season’s best eighth place with second scorer James Laing also recording a season’s best finish in 23rd. Behind James, Martin Bateman continued his return to form finishing 70th and then the remaining A team scorers packed in well to complete the scoring 12 with Philip Warburton in 154th. Of the A team scorers, Mark Speight made his senior Met League debut for the club, finishing ninth scorer in 122nd, while the commitment of the A team scorers was evidenced by eight of the 12 competing in all five Met League fixtures.
Paul Leppard was first scorer for the B team in 155th with the scoring eight completed by Simon Claridge in 286th, while there were season’s debuts in the Met League for Mike Ingram (297th), John Myall (343rd), Tony Shaw (346th) and Kevin Brannagan (347th). There were 37 senior men competing for the club out of 362 finishers.
Full results may be found here: http://www.metleague.co.uk/results
