17th May, 2008
Pendle Club National
Pendle Hill, an 1800 feet giant of the Ribble Valley, home of the legendary witches and, in ski circles at least, the equally legendary Pendle Ski Club. A hill where if you can’t see the valley below then it’s probably raining and if you can see the valley base then it’ll probably be raining soon. On a good day a blustery oasis of sheep, sunshine and ski slope. Not the place you want to be chasing the game with a final all or nothing blast. Indeed almost every do or die run I’ve ever seen on this hill inevitably ends on the wrong side of the equation and a metaphoric moments silence follows the winced oooooh’s of the watching crowd as your run descends into at best dnf territory or, at worst, a hefty trip onto camouflaged matting.
So this wasn’t exactly the best day for the representatives of Team Telford to leave their best form in Shropshire and venture deeply into the realms of catch up ski racing.
In the minis William Lucas at least proved that one Telford racer had bought an ounce worth of form with him producing possibly his best club national performance of a fledgling career in claiming a well deserved 5th place. An unusually ragged Nathan Breese however failed to adapt his style to the idiosyncratic contours the Pendle hill provides and ended up having to settle for 3rd place on the podium.
In the Girls, the latest chapter in the Gould / Brown head to header saw Claire claim the honours with a career high 2nd place in Jun 1 with Charlotte having to settle for 4th in the same category. In Children 2 Charlotte Shrimpton also struggled to adapt to the challenge of the slope posting 8th in category mainly built around of a much cleaner and more aggressive afternoon run. A feat mirrored by George Gould, whose 3rd run time sliced 1½ seconds off her opening effort and placed her 12th in the same category.
An then there was Kelly Greenbank. Three years since she abandoned plastic racing and with only the practice session the night before to re-find her feet Kelly produced a impressive day of improving times to place an excellent 2nd in Children 1.
In the males Josh Mills & Marco Furio again stole the show from their more experienced team mates. Josh, in his second race, produced possibly the gutsiest run of the day from a Telford racer placing 21st in the traditionally most competitive category of children 2. A position that was bettered by Marco, again making light of his relative inexperience, to place 14th in category and drop below 160 BARTS points in one swoop.
In Children 1 Ashley and Jordan failed to finish run 3, both abandoning and semblance of self preservation in the quest for 3rd round speed and a leap up the final standings. Jordan’s inside edge snagged just beyond midway of a decent looking run and Ashley perished one gate later in a blaze of kung fu kicking glory leaving the matting by a full 2 feet before symbolically crashing back down to earth with a hell of a thump. Both went gung ho and finished with nothing to show.
18th May, 2008
NWSA Grand Prix
And so to the following day’s grand prix. Again Claire Brown claimed Team Telford honours this time producing an absolute sizzler of a first run that forced Charlotte Gould to throw caution to the wind on an unforgiving 2nd run course. Pressure that told on Charlotte who stretched herself on ounce or two too far and ended up with a dnf. Credit has to go however to her younger sibling George and Charlotte Shrimpton who both kept their head amongst the carnage of run 2 and profited with career best 7th and 4th place category placings respectively. A feat mirrored by Kelly Greenbank who placed a fine 2nd in Children 1
In the boys Jordan completed a miserable weekend by surviving the tight fast turns at the top of run 2 and then relaxed a little too much on the bottom section and paid the ultimate price with a trip to the matting and Ashley regained a little pride for both himself and his team with an excellent 2nd run to finish 2nd in category and 9th overall.
Yet again the witches of Pendle Hill had cast their spells and one or two Telford racers will be spending the next week looking for a princess (or handsome prince) to kiss and end the spell. The last thing I need is another frog in my shed!
Friday 23 May 2008
Saturday 10 May 2008
The Outstanding Venue…..but where was the Black Label?
Norwich, heart of Anglia, England’s most complete medieval city and home to the best ski facility in the UK. Indeed, if a plastic ski facility can ever be called sexy then the particular few acres that this site is sat upon are just about as sexy as Dendix can get. And that’s before you can get a pre practise full English brekkie and still have enough change for a post race pint out of a five pound note! Yes, I do love this place.
With the Breese brothers returning to the fold after giving Welwyn a wide berth and Josh Mills making his Club National debut Team Telford were again out in sizeable numbers, evenly spread over mini, girls and boys events.
In the minis Emma Taylor again proved her abilities to mix it with anyone in her category barring the exceptional Megan Jenkins this time however having to settle for 3rd place with a time that would also have found her well placed in the boy’s race.
In the male minis Team Telford were well represented with Nathan Breese, Daniel Taylor and William Lucas all in action. After a 1st round meeting with the matting William Lucas recovered well to post a solid time in run 2 and shave almost a second off it in run 3 on the way to claim 8th place. As usual the scrap for podium positions was hard fought and bought the very best out of both Daniel and Nathan. Rocked by Daniel’s superb 1st run which had in front of his rival Nathan reacted magnificently to rip 0.99s off his first run time and backed it up with an even better 3rd run time to claim 2nd place overall. With just too much to make up after run 2 Daniel then produced his personal best of the day in run 3 comfortably collecting 3rd place overall and ensuring another sizeable Telford representation on the Mini’s podiums.
In the girls race Charlotte Gould and Claire Brown again locked horns in what appears to be a season long battle for Telford honours. This time it was Charlotte who gained and maintained the edge, posting a trio of times that her team mate got close to without ever looking like surpassing, culminating in Junior 1 category finishing positions of 10th & 11th respectively. In Children 2 Charlotte Shrimpton looked in better form than her previous Club National outing at Welwyn, posting solid 1st & 2nd run times before wiping over 1 second off this with an excellent 3rd run to finish 9th in category and notably score substantially below her seed point ranking. A little further back in 17th overall was Georgina Gould, still finding her racing legs after a lengthy absence following a fractured right arm, posting a third run time almost 1.5 seconds less than her first run time.
With injury biting hard into Team Telford’s already smallish pool of Junior males it was left to debutante Josh Mills to represent us in Chi 2 and Ashley Breese and Jordan fellows to fly the flag in the younger children’s category. After a real confidence boosting 1st run the scene was set for Josh Mills to have a real attack at run 2. A run that never actually made it over the start line as the new kid on the block (remember them?) burst his bindings, buck-a-rooing through the start wand before gambolling through gate 1. Now, (hands up time) I have to say that I let the lad down here, failing to check that bindings had been adjusted from the relative serenity of training mode to the requirements of bursting out of the start gate like a bull in a china shop. Standing, utterly helpless, only 2 feet from his stranded Atomics as Josh regained his senses and then hiked back up the hill before struggling to snap on his skis was possibly the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do at a race. Somehow I doubt that he’ll let me forget it in years to come. Not that it affected his afternoon run as with bindings freshly adjusted and edges sharper than Paul Merton’s sense of humour the new boy showed his mettle with a solid 3rd run that claimed a more than respectable 21st in category position.
In Children 1 Ashley improved on an iffy 1st run with a super 2nd run time that had him well placed for a 3rd run attack on the upper echelons of the podium. An attack that came undone just past the halfway mark on run 3 as an over reliance on the inside ski proved his undoing and left him in DNFville. A feat mirrored by Jordan, who after a scrappy 1st run improved sufficiently on run 2 to find himself in a position to challenge for a podium place before succumbing to a similar mistake to that of his team mate and ending up shed bound (or, as it is better known, with a DNF).
The post race visit to the bar for refreshment (it was a very sunny day after all) threatened to descend into a bit of a lengthy spell of, erm, refuelling before the sense of reason (aka Mrs Breese) suggested that our time may be better spent checking into hotels, feeding children and preparing skis for the following day. Alas, despite coaxing (yeah, right) half a San Miguel down her a re-think was out of the question and a trip to the hotel wasn’t. Clearly she’s more of a Carling Extra Cold girl!
The following morning’s Grand Prix was new territory for Jordan and with Ashley looking to make up for the disappointment of the previous afternoon the chances of an improved return from our males were substantial. Still, given that neither recorded a finish in the Club National, it couldn’t really get any worse!
Neither failed to deliver. Ashley produced a vintage Breese performance to demolish a field that gave their older contemporise a real run for their money, notching a time that not only gave him a victory in his own category but also would have been good enough to claim 1st in Children 2. Jordan, whilst not quite at Ashley’s pace, bagged a brace of excellent times to post a fine 6th in category, again a time that would have claimed 6th in the older children’s category.
In the ladies category Claire Brown turned the tables round on team mate Charlotte Gould claiming 10th place in Junior 1 and relegating Charlotte into 11th. In Children 2 Charlotte Shrimpton continued the good form of Saturday afternoon with another brace of fine runs, again shattering her BARTS ranking points in the process of claiming 10th in category whilst George Gould posted another brace of solid runs to claim 17th in the same category.
With the Breese brothers returning to the fold after giving Welwyn a wide berth and Josh Mills making his Club National debut Team Telford were again out in sizeable numbers, evenly spread over mini, girls and boys events.
In the minis Emma Taylor again proved her abilities to mix it with anyone in her category barring the exceptional Megan Jenkins this time however having to settle for 3rd place with a time that would also have found her well placed in the boy’s race.
In the male minis Team Telford were well represented with Nathan Breese, Daniel Taylor and William Lucas all in action. After a 1st round meeting with the matting William Lucas recovered well to post a solid time in run 2 and shave almost a second off it in run 3 on the way to claim 8th place. As usual the scrap for podium positions was hard fought and bought the very best out of both Daniel and Nathan. Rocked by Daniel’s superb 1st run which had in front of his rival Nathan reacted magnificently to rip 0.99s off his first run time and backed it up with an even better 3rd run time to claim 2nd place overall. With just too much to make up after run 2 Daniel then produced his personal best of the day in run 3 comfortably collecting 3rd place overall and ensuring another sizeable Telford representation on the Mini’s podiums.
In the girls race Charlotte Gould and Claire Brown again locked horns in what appears to be a season long battle for Telford honours. This time it was Charlotte who gained and maintained the edge, posting a trio of times that her team mate got close to without ever looking like surpassing, culminating in Junior 1 category finishing positions of 10th & 11th respectively. In Children 2 Charlotte Shrimpton looked in better form than her previous Club National outing at Welwyn, posting solid 1st & 2nd run times before wiping over 1 second off this with an excellent 3rd run to finish 9th in category and notably score substantially below her seed point ranking. A little further back in 17th overall was Georgina Gould, still finding her racing legs after a lengthy absence following a fractured right arm, posting a third run time almost 1.5 seconds less than her first run time.
With injury biting hard into Team Telford’s already smallish pool of Junior males it was left to debutante Josh Mills to represent us in Chi 2 and Ashley Breese and Jordan fellows to fly the flag in the younger children’s category. After a real confidence boosting 1st run the scene was set for Josh Mills to have a real attack at run 2. A run that never actually made it over the start line as the new kid on the block (remember them?) burst his bindings, buck-a-rooing through the start wand before gambolling through gate 1. Now, (hands up time) I have to say that I let the lad down here, failing to check that bindings had been adjusted from the relative serenity of training mode to the requirements of bursting out of the start gate like a bull in a china shop. Standing, utterly helpless, only 2 feet from his stranded Atomics as Josh regained his senses and then hiked back up the hill before struggling to snap on his skis was possibly the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do at a race. Somehow I doubt that he’ll let me forget it in years to come. Not that it affected his afternoon run as with bindings freshly adjusted and edges sharper than Paul Merton’s sense of humour the new boy showed his mettle with a solid 3rd run that claimed a more than respectable 21st in category position.
In Children 1 Ashley improved on an iffy 1st run with a super 2nd run time that had him well placed for a 3rd run attack on the upper echelons of the podium. An attack that came undone just past the halfway mark on run 3 as an over reliance on the inside ski proved his undoing and left him in DNFville. A feat mirrored by Jordan, who after a scrappy 1st run improved sufficiently on run 2 to find himself in a position to challenge for a podium place before succumbing to a similar mistake to that of his team mate and ending up shed bound (or, as it is better known, with a DNF).
The post race visit to the bar for refreshment (it was a very sunny day after all) threatened to descend into a bit of a lengthy spell of, erm, refuelling before the sense of reason (aka Mrs Breese) suggested that our time may be better spent checking into hotels, feeding children and preparing skis for the following day. Alas, despite coaxing (yeah, right) half a San Miguel down her a re-think was out of the question and a trip to the hotel wasn’t. Clearly she’s more of a Carling Extra Cold girl!
The following morning’s Grand Prix was new territory for Jordan and with Ashley looking to make up for the disappointment of the previous afternoon the chances of an improved return from our males were substantial. Still, given that neither recorded a finish in the Club National, it couldn’t really get any worse!
Neither failed to deliver. Ashley produced a vintage Breese performance to demolish a field that gave their older contemporise a real run for their money, notching a time that not only gave him a victory in his own category but also would have been good enough to claim 1st in Children 2. Jordan, whilst not quite at Ashley’s pace, bagged a brace of excellent times to post a fine 6th in category, again a time that would have claimed 6th in the older children’s category.
In the ladies category Claire Brown turned the tables round on team mate Charlotte Gould claiming 10th place in Junior 1 and relegating Charlotte into 11th. In Children 2 Charlotte Shrimpton continued the good form of Saturday afternoon with another brace of fine runs, again shattering her BARTS ranking points in the process of claiming 10th in category whilst George Gould posted another brace of solid runs to claim 17th in the same category.
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