On the 19th of February Highgate Harriers’ senior men go for their eighth consecutive victory, out of 21 clubs, in the Metropolitan League Cross Country at Trent Park, Cockfosters. They have an excellent chance of carrying off the trophy. The leading three clubs after the fourth of five Start Fitness Metropolitan League fixtures were: 1, Highgate, 6,046; 2, Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets, 5,127; and 3, London Heathside, 4,252.
Two Highgate Harriers ran in the first Metropolitan League in Hainault Forrest in 1966. They were twice Club President Terry Driscoll and Press Secretary Alastair Aitken. The fields have grown and grown since then.
In the first four League races of this season, one of the successful Highgate Harriers has been Alex Lepretre. His finishing positions in the first four fixtures were 5, 3, 2 and 2 respectively. In the fourth one he was second at Wormwood Scrubs on the 15th of January. He gave an exclusive interview to Highgate's Press Secretary. The winner for the second time was Tom Frith of Woodford Green & Essex Ladies. Alex comes in:
"We had been told to expect the worst conditions at the Scrubs in years, and following on from the incredibly muddy and boggy Horsenden Hill at the Middlesex Championships, it's fair to say everyone was expecting the worst. It turned out that, whilst still very muddy and with some standing water in some places, it wasn't quite as bad as feared, and in fact there were some patches where some good running was to be had. Indeed, the first mile went out in a touch over 5 minutes, although it did settle down somewhat after that. There was a decent group for the early part of the race, with a TVH runner taking out the race at first, but by the time that we got to about a mile in, it was Tom Frith and myself. Tom and I battled it out most of the way round, exchanging the lead on a couple of occasions but never quite managing to shake the other until about 3.5 miles when Tom made a move to which I couldn't quite respond and he built up a lead which he consolidated during the rest of the race."