Lil Nath and the Norfolk Express

Saturday 14th July
Celtic Cup Round 5
Gloucester

I never came here before the landslide wiped out the top 100 metres or so but, by ‘eck, what a slope it must have been in those days. The now first 15 metres of flat nothingness would have been an entirely different kettle of fish as you thundered over the ridge at full throttle. What would have certainly been a leap of Dendix based faith is now little more than a signal that the early pushes are over and it’s time to settle into some kind of rhythm.

Not that Gloucester now isn’t a fine facility - because it most certainly is, I just wish I’d been able to witness what must have been an awesome challenge from the very top.

However, whilst bemoaning the reduction in length it is worth noting the quality of what is left. This is a slope that clearly looks after its surface, no worn patches to demolish you brand new pair of Fischers or Volkls, a lift system better than almost everywhere and the menace of tubing parties and snowboarding cast onto the snowflex slope that runs alongside without ever interfering.

As always, with Gloucester being relatively local, Team Telford were again out in fairly substantial numbers. In the minis Nathan Breese led the charge recovering from a first run dropped pole with a stunning second run that placed the pocket rocket overall 2nd position. William Lucas and Joshua Ainsworth also both produced improved second run times to place 8th & 10th respectively.

In the girls race Claire Brown stole the Telford honours, claiming 5th in Jun 1 category with an excellent time of 12.89 in her second run, a time the assisted her to leapfrog 6th placed (in category) Charlotte Gould. Alex Bullock produced an excellent 2nd run of 13.30 to place 4th in category and qualify her for the afternoon dual slalom, whilst Charlotte Shrimpton & George Gould posted 5th & 6th in the same category respectively. In Children 1 Kelly Greenbank again found herself on the podium, this time in runners up spot, Claire Ainsworth finished in 6th place in the same category and the ever smiling and always cheerful Kirsty Thomas delighted everyone by shattering her seed point ranking (134 + penalty) with an excellent 5th in Jun 2 category.

In the boys, with Ashley still on the injury roster, Jordan Fellows claimed Telford honours with a brace of solid runs that claimed 1st place in chi 1. Chris Yates produced 2 equally solid runs to complete a Telford 1-2 in chi 1 with Joe Humfress being the meat in a chi1 sandwich consolidating an excellent 1st run with a solid 2nd to score sub 120 points. Marco Furio’s brace of clean runs was enough to see him finish 8th in chi 2 with Josh Mills just behind in 14th.

As usual the afternoon dual slaloms produced the expected thrills and spills and not for the first time the minis proved that they have the hearts of lions (and lionesses) in this most exacting of environments. At the semi final stage Nathan Breese and home slope heavyweight Matthew Davis slugged out two fantastic head to heads. With Matthew taking the first Nathan reacted brilliantly to burst out of the start and produce a victory margin large enough to claim a place in the final.

A final that was real David and Goliath stuff as ‘lil Nath (all three stone nothing of him) faced up to the powerful and ever impressive Megan Jenkins, Queen of the minis. Again the first run was a real slugfest as Megan reacted to an absolutely blistering start from the boy Breese to claw back almost all of the half gate deficit she’d conceded and they crossed a line with no more than a cigarette paper between them.

With a 0.028 second lead you could hardly claim it was advantage Nathan but the Norfolk Express knew she couldn’t afford the Telford racer another start like the first one. Sure enough, Jenkins bulleted out of the start gate on run two, gained a lead that Nathan never really looked like closing and in skiing a clean run crossed the line as victor.

Yet again however the true winner was mini racing. The young lions British ski racing again proved that they have the technique, temperament and desire to race hard and true. Believe me, the more you knock them back the more often they will come back for more. The Celtic Cup offers them the platform to display their full range of talents first hand and credit has to go to the organisers for having the courage and foresight to allow them the opportunity.

Sunday 15th July
Celtic Cup Round 6

And so to the final race of the series. With a number of Telford racers in overall contention the pressure was on to bring you’re a game to the top of the hill. In particular the battle between good friends and, almost certainly, future partners in crime Chris Yates and Jordan Fellows produced a fascinating backdrop to the morning’s proceedings. Awaiting their first runs five yards apart with backs facing one another two dads chuckled in the expectation of guns that looked soon to be drawn in a winner takes all shoot out. With the sun shining brightly and temperature already high all we needed was Clint Eastwood to appear from under the start ramp and the bullets could have flown in from all directions.

In the end Chris claimed the honours, deservedly doing enough on the day, as his excellent 1st run left Jordan’s no show run dead and buried and offered Chris the knowledge that a safe no risk 2nd run strategy was always going to be enough. From a personal point of view the sight of them playing at lunch time amid the pressures of what had and was going to occur told you more about these boys than 13 ½ seconds of plastic racing ever will. Ten out of ten in the sportsmanship stakes to both lads.

Elsewhere William Lucas produced a season best finish of 4th, capitalising on course inspection error from Nathan Breese which left the previous afternoon’s hero in DNF country.

In the ladies, Charlotte Gould (5th, Jun 1) turned the tables on Claire Brown (7th) with the point gleaned from 5th position gave our favourite Brummie 3rd place overall in the series, whilst 4th in Chi 2 was enough also ensure that Alex Bullock claimed an excellent 3rd overall in her category. 5th in category was also enough to ensure a top 15 overall finish for Charlotte Shrimpton whilst George Gould was just squeezed out in 17th (6th overall). In chi 1 Kelly Greenbank’s 2nd in category gave her 2nd overall and Claire Ainsworth’s 5th place ensured and overall series finish of 4th.

In the boys, Marco Furio took Telford honours with 5th in chi 2, Joe Humfress perished on the technical mid section of run 2 whilst Josh Mills climbed off the floor like a pole-axed super middleweight to cross the line and finish 13th in category.

All that was left was to witness an absolutely spectacular and utterly sickening crash from first run leader Andrew Watson. Fortunately, after a minute or so of real concern, he appeared to be OK but at the end of another excellent Celtic Cup series the sight of Watson double flipping himself backwards(ish) down the hill at racing speed highlighted the dangers that these kids face every time they snap their bindings closed. Where ever they finished, they are all winners.