Tis Lovely For You Boyo

Welsh Championships
Pontypool
8th & 9th September

With all roads leading to the English Rivera, or Wales as some of the local prefer to call it, half a dozen of Telford’s finest assembled on Saturday morning in the car park at Pont-y-pwl and hiked their required equipment up an already well beaten track.

Were we in for sunshine, showers, wind or fog? None of us could be sure, certainly the weather took a couple of hours to decide and after offering us a taste of what we'll see in the Alps this winter with a chilly wind it eventually settled for blue skies and a cracking afternoon in the sunshine.

All I had to do now was drag my not so aerodynamic frame up that bloody plastic hill another four times this weekend. My knee ached just from the thought of it. When you get to the top the view is truly breath taking – well it would be if I had any breath left at this point. Usually I find myself devouring air at the summit like a steam train blasting along the Severn Valley Railway, panting like a rottweiler who’d been left out in the mid day sun and sweating like a smuggler who’s been asked to open the back of his Transit. More Noel Edmonds than Edmund Hillary I’m afraid.

On the hill the racing was a fierce as ever. In the minis on Saturday Jordan Fellows followed up his success from the previous weekend by posting the two fastest times of the day in category to make it a National Championship double. Partner in crime, Nathan Breese, again enhanced his burgeoning reputation claiming a number of notable scalps to score another impressive 3rd place overall.

In the girls Charlotte Gould posted an excellent 4th in category and career high of 13th overall, Charlotte Shrimpton claimed 21st overall and 6th in category with Claire (Lara Croft) Brown recovering from a first round meeting with the Dendix with a cracking 2nd run to place 9th in category and sister Ellen claimed an excellent 4th in category with two solid runs. Mixed news for our other two girls however as Abby Clifford’s 2nd run dnf ended any hopes she had of a podium challenge and I’m delighted to report that Georgina Gould straddled, yes straddled! – must be her new racing line - on run 2.

In the boys Jake Williams suffered a truly unlucky dnf after taking a face full of pole mid way down run 1 as a slalom gate on the steep bounced back up, smashed him in the mouth and split his lip (which of course as a Shrew**ury fan was nothing less than deserved). Ashley Breese again led the Telford charge claiming another top 15 overall position and ending up shaved into a category 2nd and Joe Humfress produced another brace of solid runs to post a super 4th in category.

On the Sunday Emma Taylor added her name to this season’s podium roll of honour claiming 2nd place in the mini girls. Jordan finished his plastic mini career disappointed in 2nd place, looking to go out with a bang it never really happened and mistakes on either run left him well short of the winning post. Better news came in the slightly smaller frames of Nathan Breese and Daniel Taylor, the pocket rocket claiming another well deserved 5th place and Dan-the-Man claiming another impressive 8th position in only his 3rd national outing. With much of the field moving into the realms of children 1 next summer watch out for these boys.

Sunday’s girls race saw Abby Clifford leading the Telford charge with 6th overall and 2nd in category. Charlotte Gould added a spectacular 2nd run to a solid 1st time to finish 18th overall (7th in category) building upon Saturday’s fine performance to make up a splendid weekend. Claire Brown posted 21st overall (5th in category), Charlotte Shrimpton claiming 28th overall (10th in category) and two spots in front of Georgina Gould with Ellen Brown producing a brace of consistent times for 5th in category

In the boys, Ashley Breese flew solo with the injury enforced absence of Jake and again impressed claiming 1st place in category and a fine 24th overall.