Recent Successes

Apologies for not circulating any race results since the Stoke Club National so, to quickly catch up on what's happened since then, here's a summary of the highlights.

Gloucester Club National
* Podium places for: Freya 2nd Mini, Jane 1st MAS, Rachel 2nd MAS, Gerry 3rd MAS and Mark 3rd SEN
* Best ever event points for: Sarah 121.05, Sophia 143.43, Maxine 273.74, Jane 267.51, Rachel 300.34, Gerry 321.98, James E 271.43, Jack 293.56, Phil 296.29, Duncan 322.54 and John 448.79. The male PBs were all the more impressive given the return of David Ryding to the CN scene!

Ipswich Club National
* Podium places for: Ollie W 1st Mini and Emily 3rd JN2

Ipswich Grand Prix
* Podium place for Robbie 2nd MAS.

For anyone who hasn't raced at Ipswich, it's a fast and rolling slope that produces exciting racing. The viewing is excellent and it's certainly a venue I'd recommend including on your schedule for next season.

Gloucester Celtic Cup (5)
* Podium places for: Dominic 3rd Mini, Emily 3rd JN2 and Mark 3rd SEN
* Best ever event points for: Mark 52.48, Chris 64.04, Freddie 137.97 and Sam L 340.94

Gloucester Celtic Cup (6)
* Podium places for: Emily 1st JN2 (first ever MSC racer to win a junior age category!), Jane 1st MAS, Harry 3rd overall and 3rd JN2, Mark 3rd SEN and Phil 3rd MAS (first podium and, rumour has it, will now be retiring from national racing whilst at the top of his game!)
* Best ever event points for: Emily 58.05, Olivia 135.78, Harry 24.05 (MSC's lowest ever points and achieved England squad selection criteria!), Jamie 107.70, Adam 137.32, Nick P 171.61, Karl 268.25 and Sam S 213.44

The latest seed points have been published on Britski. Whilst this shows lots of improvements, it doesn't include last weekend's results (which are, however, reflected in the Best 2008 column of the MSC race results spreadsheet). The 2008.5 seed list is due to be published on 3rd August - this will take in to account all results up to and including the Southampton CN and will be used for the national championships in September/October.

Well done to everyone - lots of outstanding performances which have certainly caught the attention of other clubs and their coaches!!

Guy

Gloucster Summer Race League - and Ipswich Club National and Grand Prix

5th-6th July 2008

Saturday saw the 3rd GSRL race of 2008. Midland Bears went into the race with 4 of the top 8 skiers for this year missing, so a tough task. Scores on the day were Slalom Plus A 252, Midland Bears 216, Western Counties 215, Gloucester A 212, so we did really well to come 2nd. Well done to every skier who contributed to these points. We now stand 2nd overall, behind a very strong Slalom Plus team.

Welcome to Matthew T, Lauren and Isabelle who made their debut, nice skiing all of you, plus some interesting gymnastics from Lauren. Most improved skiers were Matthew W and Scott, well done also to Owen with a brilliant day. There were improved performances from many of our older skiers particularly Jane, Paul, John and Peter. Well done to Mark - 1st overall and Jamie 4th.

Our stars of the day were the 3 contenders for the final Bears place, all deserved a place in the team but we had to pick only 1. Olivia raised her performance again finishing an excellent 26th overall, Dominic and Sam S battled all day for 34th and 35th overall with good skiing and even better teamwork, finally finishing their one-to-one together with a draw.

Top 30 overall:
Mark (1), Jamie (4), Roger (17), Adam (19), Olivia (26)

20+ morning points:
Roger, Mark (25), Jamie (23), Adam, Dominic (22), Marcus, Dave H, Gerry, Jane, Owen, Sam S (21)

9 afternoon points:
Gerry, Owen, James E, Matthew T, Maxine, Abbie

We're looking forward to August now. Midland Teddies are again missing a few key skiers, but it's quite a strong team, there's great strength in depth in the Moggies and a really experienced Budgies team, so we may get some great results. Full results are here.

Jane

Meanwhile at the other side of the country, a brace of MSC racers competed in the Ipswich Club National (Saturday) and Grand Prix (Sunday).

In the national, Oliver got MSC's best result coming first in the Mini boys - an excellent result in his first year racing - and Emily came third in the ladies. Chris, Alastair, Duncan and Harry all skied well against tough opposition but didn't get into the places. Vvideos from Saturday's CN are now available on YouTube.

Sunday saw a similar story, with everyone skiing well but no podium positions.

Pontypool Celtic Cup

14th-15th June 2008

There was a good turnout for the Celtic Cup races 3, 4 and 5 at Pontypool this past weekend, with 19 skiers racing for MSC on Saturday and 17 on Sunday: 21 different skiers overall.

This must have been the most successful weekend for MSC ever. 9 racers achieved 17 podium positions and 4 further skiers achieved 4th places and our coach Benn was fastest overall in Race 3. There were podium positions in every age group, from Minis up to Masters.

Race 3 Slalom
Freya Gold (Mini)
Mark Gold (SEN) in his first ever seeded race
Jane Silver (MAS)
Rachel Bronze (MAS)
Chris Bronze (JN1)

Race 4 Giant Slalom
Freya Gold (Mini)
Jane Silver (MAS)
Mark Bronze (SEN)
Rachel Bronze (MAS)
Dominic Bronze (Mini)
Adam - Bronze (CH2)

Race 5 Slalom
Ollie E Gold (CH1)
Jane Gold (MAS)
Rachel Silver (MAS)
Mark Silver (SEN)
Emily Silver (JN2)
Freya Bronze (Mini)

4th places - Emily(JN2), Sarah(SEN), Nick P(CH1), Nick M(JN1), Sam L(CH1), and Dominic(Mini).

Thumbs up, you might say!

On that subject best wishes to 3 skiers, Sam A who broke his thumb in 3 places in a fall, Jamie, last seen with a great bandage on his thumb and Mark whose thumb got in the way whilst putting a razor sharp edge on his skis.

There are videos of most of the races are available, and the full seed points will be out later, with quite a few improvements.

Jane

Gloucester Summer Race League

1st June 2008

June saw another good month at Gloucester. With many of our A team missing we achieved 2nd on the day. Slalom Plus have now overhauled us, their 6 and 7 yrs olds put in superb performances, leaving them with a surprised and delighted team manager. This is the top of the table:

Full results are here.

In a race dominated by the tinies ours raced well. Oliver Weeks again was the fastest tiny, pursued closely by Marcus Plevnalis with Owen and Scott close behind. We have more tinies lined up over the next months, the strength of the 4-9yr old boys within the club is amazing. The racing was strong consistently across age groups, there were few points thrown away, everyone prepared well and did their best. Ollie and Nick Phelps snatched wins at the last minute having raced hard when everything seemed lost, this now seems to be a lesson learned by everyone, never, never give up, it's not over till the flag is waved. 5 skiers made their debut, all enjoyed their day and raced well. Welcome back also to Phil Doherty and Peter, two adults who are working hard on their skiing.

Roger wins this months award for the best fall, sliding in front of his 11 yr old opponent who thankfully can change direction incredibly quickly, Scott was runner up with a crash in practice from which he came back to ski all afternoon races and Jane comes 3rd with a sitting down slide through the finish into the Gloucester puddle (right up to her middle). Highlights from the teams:

Midland Bears
Mark put in a good morning run to come 1st overall, Roger won his group dropping only 2 points in his suicide attempt in the duals, Nick Pr is finding his feet and reached 21st overall. Nick Ph produced a good run in the morning, his first 100+ bib then 9 dual points and Adam skied the race of his life, easily bettering Roger in the morning to come 12th overall and racing head-to-head against Chantelle in the afternoon, an ambition of many of our young racers.

Midland Cats
Olivia produced another strong performance coming 8th in age group, again 100+ in the afternoon and was backed up well by Dominic, 10th in a strong age group. Phil Deller achieved an impressive 10th in the new U50s 'group of death' and John, Tom and Edward made their debuts, the team hung on to 6th overall.

Midland Hawks and Xtras
Paul raced around poles for the first time and finished with a strong 18 points and a sub 15 second time, welcome to the team, don't think that you are going to escape easily. James raced like we know he can, putting him back into the strong sub 14 second group, Prashil made his debut, Sam Doherty made a great improvement on last month and Scott, still 4, put in a 17 second run to seriously challenge his brother.

Skiers with 20+ points: Roger(27), Adam, Nick Ph, Ollie, Mark(23), Marcus(22), Nick Pr(21), Olivia(20)

Skiers with 9 afternoon points: Dominic, Paul, Nick Ph

Skiers in top 30: Mark(1st), Adam(12th), Roger(18th), Nick Pr(21st)

Courtesy of Rob the following videos are available on YouTube:
Morning runs, up to bib#80
Morning runs, remaining numbers
Afternoon duals, up to bib#59
Afternoon duals, remining numbers

Thanks goes to the Pickard family for an excellent apres ski evening, superb food and good company. Thanks to Roger for the snowlife award presentations.

See you next month

Jane

Milton Keynes Club National

1st June 2008

Today saw the first event of it's kind, a Club National run on indoor snow and a very interesting day it was. Few of the Midland Ski racers had much snow racing experience so it was a chance to learn. The day was dominated by the local Xscape racers, more used to racing in these conditions.

Matthew Waller arrived at the Snowzone to find a big surprise for him, he was expecting dendix and clouds and instead found a wonderful dome full of snow. He made the best of this putting in two superb runs, finishing 9th of 16 in the boy minis on his second run with a time that looked really good against some of the older and more experienced racers. Well done also to Freya finishing 5th of 18 in her second run, again an excellent two runs.

The first run saw a simple course suitable for our first ever snow poles. Jamie skiing at bib number 3 put in a strong run to finish 18th overall, Ollie Eaton demonstrated his experience of training and racing on snow to put in a fast time, Jack also demonstrated that he has learned to race on snow, Freddie, Maxine, Olivia, Karl ,Sam and Jane produced good solid runs on snow and Adam and Nick finished with a determination to do better on the second run.

The second run was more challenging with more gates, more turns, more icy sections and bigger ruts. Again Ollie Eaton and Jack demonstrated their experience, Adam and Nick improved their times, Maxine also improved hers significantly despite the new knowledge that she just does not like racing on snow, Sam and Karl skied smoothly. Olivia lost a ski, Jamie lost a pole, Freddie lost the line due to the ruts, Jane lost the plot.

After Southampton where everyone reduced their seed points this was a change. No-one actually reduced their points despite two attempts as each run was seeded separately. Ollie and Jack came close but only Jamie (194.37) , Freddie (240.71) and Olivia (244.30) achieved under 250.

Jane

Rossendale Celtic Cup

24th/25th May 2008
The appeal of a double-header Celtic Cup up at wind-swept Rossendale saw the MSC racers once again out in force. And, on a slope with large sections of matting boasting less bristle than Duncan Goodhew and more undulations/bumps than a lunar landscape, the racing was always going to be tough and unforgiving. Solid technique, sharp edges and plenty of bottle were certainly the order of the day!

Special congratulations must go to Freya who came 1st in the Mini Girls on both Saturday and Sunday with a tremendous display of aggressive racing! Jane picked up a silver in her age group on Saturday and Emily a thoroughly deserved 3rd in JN2 Females on Sunday - nice one Emo!

Saturday
With Freya showing how its done in the Minis, our Females recorded a mixed bag of results with Emily a 2nd run DNF after posting a very good 1st run time and Elisabeth straddling an early gate on run 1. Sophia brought home the MSC ladies with 192.43 pts and, in so doing, shaved a touch more off her seed points - well done! Sarah battled away for 210.84 pts and an age group 5th place and Jane's 365.77 pts secured her podium position.

The Males fared little better with DNFs for Chris and Freddie (in his first race of the season). Harry booted a gate on the 2nd run and lost a ski (803.57 pts) whilst Adam posted two strong runs (185.31 pts) and will have lowered his seed points as a result! Ollie E (249.72 pts), Nick P (261.16 pts) and Sam L (462.66 pts) will have all benefited from their first Rossendale experiences.

Sunday
Freya once again demonstrated her class with a comprehensive win in the Mini Girls! Emily showed great 'bouncebackability' with 95.62 pts, an age group podium and 15th place overall. A fall on her 1st run saw Lucy's chances of a podium unfortunately blown away and Elisabeth also took a tumble on her 1st run and decided not to risk further possible injury by sensibly withdrawing from the 2nd run. Sarah (210.84 pts) started to show signs of her old form which, hopefully, will return quickly with regular training.

Harry produced a powerful 2nd run to record 70.82 pts and 14th place overall. Chris finally blew away his Rossendale demons with 2 successfully completed runs and 156.39 pts! Ollie E recorded his season's best points of 221.78 and, in so doing, will have taken a big chunk off his current seed points! Freddie was unfortunately a DNF but, with a return to regular training, his points will undoubtedly fall!

Benn (racing for Arrows) came 2nd overall and 2nd in JN2 Males on Saturday and 4th overall and 2nd in JN2 Males on Sunday. Many congratulations!

The updated results spreadsheet is here.

Guy

Southampton Club National

18th May 2008

What an interesting day. Southampton gave us sun and a most unusual course, starting with a steep ramp to a diagonal slalom, then a full right angle to another twisty, turny course and a challenging finish. Many found this too difficult on the first run and skied out, but then came back on run 2 and established respectable times in run 3. Of the 13 seeded racers only 1 failed to reduce their overall seed points, well done there was some good skiing and hard work here.

Dominic displayed his speed and consistency again in the minis, taking 2nd place and Ollie Weeks at just 6 years old really excelled himself with 3rd place and his first ever podium position, improving his time on every run. Marcus skied well finishing just 2.87 seconds over 2 runs behind Ollie, taking 11th place in an extremely competitive group.

Nick P mastered the course to achieve 220.85 points and Adam made a good start to the plastic season with 190.67 points. Alasdair with 226.22, Karl with 330.05, Maxine with 296.12 and Duncan with 416.11 all made significant best points improvements, Sophia reduced her list points with 207.89, while Jamie found the right angle bend just more than he could manage comfortably. There were excellent debuts for Sam S with 269.96 points, well done Sam this is an amazing achievement for a first race and Sam L with 416.67 points.

Lucy found the course difficult but completed the day with 227.25 points, 7th in the Ch1 group, beating Dad (Phil) who skied well with a great points improvement (344.72). This takes Lucy below 200 points on the seed list - well done. Finally a seed point improvement for Jane (307.88) and 1st place in the masters.

Videos are available on youtube: Minis, Ladies, Men.

It was a good day's skiing, with low seed points and high penalties, and although MSC reduced seed points generally this wasn't the case for many other clubs, there was improved skiing and preparation across the board, it was a great result everyone, well done.

Jane

Pendle Club National and Grand Prix

17th/18th May 2008

Blue Sky……Soaring Temperatures….and a Carnival Atmosphere……were just 3 of the things that were defiantly not at Pendle on Saturday. What Pendle did have was a bunch of hardy racers from Midland Bears including Matthew, Olivia, Elizabeth and Robbie supported by parents and girlfriends alike who braved the wind, rain and ever present threat of sheep attack to support the racers.

Saturday's course while challenging, with turns above steep drop offs at the start of the course, presented a greater challenge in how to carry speed over a relatively flat lower section. In the absence of Roger, Ben or Guy the duty of team mentor and coach fell to Robbie, although the racers apparently decided that coaching tips like “go faster” and “do it better” did not help all that much. Over 3 runs all skiers improved on their times and put on excellent displays which our real coaches would have been pleased with.

Matthew completed the course in 41.83 seconds and managed to carve his way down a course that many others were slipping down. Olivia completed the course in 32.26 seconds (gaining 158.70 seed points plus the penalty of 11.46 = 170.16 seed points) and managed to improve on her first run time by nearly a second. Elizabeth completed the course in 31.46 seconds (gaining 139.63 seed points plus the penalty of 11.46 = 151.09 seed points) and fought hard to win Bronze in the competitive Children 1 Category Robbie completed the course in 28.18 seconds (gaining 123.98 seed points plus the penalty of 16.13 = 140.11 seed points) and won Gold in the Masters Category

Despite the rain and cold our thanks go to the supporters who remained upbeat and cheered the racers on with great spirit.

Pictured Elizabeth and Robbie on Saturday. Thanks to Elizabeth for the clever editing of the photo.

Sunday brought a change in the weather and instead of wet and cold we experienced “Pendle Summer” dry and cold. Sunday also brought a change to the ski team too with Matthew and Olivia replaced by Ben Hall who joined Elizabeth and Robbie.

The team expected a more challenging course as this was a Grand Prix and they were right, tighter turns on steeper slopes and still the challenge of carrying speed onto the lower flat section. Thankfully Ben took us through course inspection and shared some excellent advice on how to tackle it.

Elizabeth was first off and attacked the steep section of the slope well, unfortunately a caught edge on a roller led to her claiming the fall of the morning, despite both skis coming off and Elizabeth sliding down the slope head first she was thankfully un-harmed. Robbie completed the course well and at the end of the first run was leading the masters and 25th overall. Ben in typically aggressive style charged the course and was sitting in 5th position at the end of the first run.

The second run, however brought a very different course. Perhaps inspired by some devilish desire to see skiers struggle or perhaps to prove to Dave Ryding (who was forerunning) that plastic courses could be just as difficult as snow courses, the course setter Craig Ruddick put up what several experienced skiers described as “one of the tightest courses they had seen on plastic”.

Elizabeth had bravely picked herself up after her big fall and once again attacked the course getting through the steep top section well before pulling off the biggest fall of the afternoon and despite landing face first managed to avoid serious injury and completed the course with a smile on her face. This set the tone for the females race with only 25 making it down the course and only 10 making it without stopping and running back to complete a missed gate.

Robbie perhaps sensing good seed points and overall placing was on offer unwisely attacked the top of the course progressively getting later and later until he too had to run back for a missed gate. He ended up scraping Silver in the Masters, thankfully he was not the only one to over shoot his run, but his seed points ended up at 244.27 plus the penalty of 5.

Just as in the girls race, male skiers were skiing out, stopping and generally fighting their way down a course that only the very best technical skiers could carve through. Ben took to the start gate with time to make up on the leaders and attacked the course in order to carry speed through the lower section but like many others straddled in the tight middle section. Just 29 of the 77 boys finished the course and only 17 made it down cleanly.

This concluded an excellent weekends skiing and despite the tricky second run on Sunday left a very exciting finish with the top 3 skiers putting in runs that were a second faster than 4th place.

Robbie

Bromley Club National

11th May 2008

The Bromley Club National took place on Sunday in hot and sticky conditions - and the racing was just as hot!

Many congratulations to Dominic for his 1st in the Minis - makes up for missing out at Welwyn! And to Nick M for his 3rd in JN1. A superb 1st run for Nick also saw him go under 100 event points for the first time (85.11 pts) and will see his BARTS points drop to 93.96!

We're now developing real strength and depth in the Minis with Ollie W (6th) and Marcus (7th) battling it out to catch up with Dominic - the youth policy seems to be working!

In addition to the podium places, the other real highlight was to see the tremendous progress being made in the Females. Lucy produced a superb pe rformance (169.23 pts) which will reduce her next BARTS points by nearly 150! Sophia (170.85 pts) will see her BARTS points come down below 200 - well done!

In the Males, Harry used every ounce of strength he had on such a sticky surface to record 5th overall (71.64 pts). Chris just missed out on breaking 100 event points (102.02 pts) but is showing tremendous consistency. James was race-rusty but showed signs of his sharpness returning (108.04 pts). Jamie continues to impress in each race (145.31 pts) and will see his BARTS points break the GSRL 160 point cut off - great work! Sam A is also starting to show real form (149.32 pts) and we know there's a lot more to come yet this season. And, Nick P also produced a cracking performance (218.98 pts) that will see his BARTS points go below 250 in only his 2nd seeded race - wow!

Maurice has produced a brilliant results spreadsheet that shows everyone's results and seed points, and Rob's videos of the races are available on YouTube: Minis, Ladies, and Males.

Many thanks to Benn for all his help with course inspection and getting everyone properly prepared in the start gate - it's making a big difference!

Guy

Gloucester Summer Race League

12th May 2008

Well done everyone, a good start to the season. Midland Bears are 1st in the summer race league after one month, Midland Cats 6th with brilliant afternoon points (2nd overall) and Hawks scoring an excellent 83 points.

The top of the table looks like this:

Bears stars - 29 points for Roger, Jamie 4th overall with an afternoon win against 2nd place, Oliver Weeks easily beating Dad and getting U9s 2nd place, Dave and Gerry, coming back after falls to win. Good examples - Jamie for helping out so much, Alastair who went for broke in run 1 and skied out then came back with a good time in run 2 and Adam who raced so well against Dave B of Slalom+ in the head-to-head. Both of these two prepared themselves well mentally for these important runs and so produced results that surprised even them.

Cats stars - Owen coming 11th in U9s on his first race, Sam Smith coming 31st overall, Sam, Jack and Olivia, Sarah for top 10 age group places, Nick Prior coming back after many years and taking 27 points. Good example - Olivia taking needed afternoon points from an opposition veteran racer, then generously allowing another skier in our team to make up points on the final run.

Hawks and Xtras stars - Karl for a great improvement since last year, Fiona for 9th in age group, Cahal for help with ski prep, every skier in this team worked so hard. Good example - tiny Scott with a poor start to his first h-to-h but then fighting right to the end to take advantage of a stumble by his opponent and storm through to win.

20 or more points - Roger(29), Mark, Nick(27), Jamie(24), Oliver W, Jane, Sarah(23), Alasdair(22), Adam(21), Dave, Gerry, Olivia(20)

9 afternoon points - Dave, Roger, Robyn, Sam D, James, Sarah, Rob, Nick P

Top 30 overall - Mark(3), Jamie(4), Roger(16), Adam(19), Alasdair(21), Nick(27), Sarah(30)

Watching yesterday it was easy to understand why Midland racers are becoming so successful. This was good teamwork, working together to encourage the skiers to race at their best. The Gloucester teamwork is beginning to run smoothly with most people taking a full part either organising or racing, some both. The help given by many to other racers allowed Roger to spend more time on intensive coaching, the assistance with ski prep ensured that skiers were better prepared, the recording of results ensures that we have the best information to pick the next winning team. Thanks to everyone for all this plus starting the race, waving flags, bib collection, managing racers, cheering the team, leaving a clean and tidy area after the race.

Finally thanks so much to the Allen family for the BBQ after the race, particularly as Sam is off to Bromley today to race. This aspect is a very important part of the team building, allowing coaches to talk to parents and skiers and creating friendships across skiers and supporters.

Full results are here. See you next month

Jane

Norwich Club National and Grand Prix

5th May 2008

Two dry and sunny days at Norwich saw not only a massive MSC turn out but also a number of superb results!

Club National - Saturday
Many congratulations to our 3 podium performers - Freya (2nd Mini), Sarah (3rd JN2) and Rachel (2nd MAS).

In the Mini Boys, Ollie W achieved another highly credible 7th with Matt not far behind in 10th.

The Females race saw good improvements for Elisabeth (217.64 pts) and Rachel (435.03 pts). Emily (who was obviously saving herself for the GP!) wasn't quite firing on all cylinders (132.89 pts) whilst Sarah (190.31 pts) and Sophia (226.29 pts) were competing in their first race of the season. Olivia, unfortunately, was a DNF on her 3rd run.

In the Males, Harry came 15th overall (70.19 pts) out of a 120-strong field. Nick just missed out (again!) on a sub-100 score (104.34 pts) with Chris just behind him (120.58 pts). Ollie E produced his best ever result (239.53 pts) and, Nick, in his first race as a CH scored a highly respectable 278.94 pts. Alasdair unfortunately made a slight error on his 3rd run that cost him a lot of time (302.34 pts) and Jack produced another promising score of 309.75 pts. Duncan continues to build experience (513.95 pts) and Jamie, with a good time from his 1st run, was a DSQ on his 3rd run - argh!!

Grand Prix - Sunday
The previous day's experience of the Norwich slope certainly paid dividends in the GP. No podiums, but in top-class fields, our racers produced the goods!

In the Females, Emily stormed to her best ever score of 77.28 pts and is now getting very close to the club's lowest female points holder, Nicky Millington. Sarah's return to racing saw another solid performance of 183.83 pts.

Harry recorded 49.10 pts with two cracking runs and became the first ever MSC male racer to score under 50! Chris also showed great form with his second sub-100 score of the season (97.04 pts) and Jamie, after his disappointment of the previous day, really went for it and scored his lowest ever points of 157.68.

Benn, racing for Arrows, produced a thrilling 2nd run to win JN2 and take 2nd overall - well done!

All in all, an excellent weekend's racing! I've now updated the MSC results spreadsheet.

Videos from Saturday's races are available on YouTube: Minis, Ladies, and Males

Guy

Anglo/Welsh Championships, Manchester

27th April 2008

The first ever Anglo/Welsh Championships took place this morning at the Chill Factore in Manchester. With both the male and female fields containing a high number of experienced alpine competitors the MSC racers still managed to do themselves proud!

Top honours go to Robbie who came 2nd in the Masters and scored 157.78 points. Well done Robbie - I'm sure this will be the first of many podiums this season!

In the females, Emily secured a top-10 age group position and recorded 138.71 points. Olivia took 18th place in her age group and scored 213.29 points.

Harry brought home the MSC males with 74.45 points - a positive recovery after so narrowly missing out last weekend. Chris maintained his good form with 123.20 points and Adam showed great spirit to record 243.76 points. Pre-race favourite, Benn, stormed out of the start gate on run 1 but unfortunately was a DNF.

It was noticeable (and hardly surprising) that the leading positions were principally taken by racers of clubs who train/compete regularly on snow - both indoor and outdoor. I think this was reflected in the points scored by our racers and it's certainly something that the MSC will have to think more about as the availability/quality of homologated plastic slopes diminishes and the number of seeded indoor races increases.

Full results can be found on britski.org.

Guy

Hemel@Welwyn Club National

21st April2008

Saturday saw the first Club National of the 2008 artificial surface season at Welwyn and it was great to see so many excellent MSC results!

Star performance goes to Elisabeth who came 2nd in CH2 and achieved her best ever event points of 201.49 which will see her seed points come down below 250 and allow her to now compete in GP events - great stuff!

In the Minis, Ollie came 6th in what was his first CN - his 1st run was so quick! Marcus was also making his debut but unfortunately was a DSQ - don't worry Marcus, it will all come together next time! Matt came 11th and Dominic, the leader going in to the final run after two superb runs, had a fall at the last gate which ruined his chances of victory. Bad luck Dominic, you're still going to have a great season!

Olivia came 27th in the Females (199.90 pts) with Elisabeth 28th and Maxine in her first seeded race coming 40th overall and 10th in CH1. After a making an error on her 1st run, Maxine came back strongly to score 299.57 pts - well done!

In the Males, Chris took the MSC honours with 11th overall and 4th in J1. More significantly, he scored 91.51 pts which will see his seed points come down below 100 - thoroughly deserved Chris! Nick was just behind Chris in 12th overall and 6th J1 with his lowest event points of 102.80. It's only a matter of time Nick before you too go under 100! Jamie put in a tremendous performance to record his best ever event points of 164.90 which will see his seed points tumble to around 200! Your target Jamie this season has to be to get under 160 points and eliminate yourself from the GSRL - you can do it! On his debut, Jack had 3 really good runs and scored 307.52 points - well done! Karl scored 358.33 points which was his best result by over 100 points! Duncan was also making his debut and raced with real determination to score 471.83 points.

That just leaves Harry, Sam and Alasdair. Harry went in to the final round 4th overall with a cracking 2nd run time and a sub-50 points score there for the taking but, in an all-or-nothing attempt to secure an overall podium place, he crashed out at the penultimate gate! Sam was competing fiercely for an age group podium position before he too fell victim to the sting in the course's tail. And Alasdair, after two excellent runs also crashed at the last gate but managed to pick himself up to cross the line with 505.40 points. Never mind guys, things like this are going to happen - but you're skiing really fast and the results will come!

So, all in all, a very good start to the season with loads of potential for tremendous personal improvement in terms of points and podium places. Let's go for it!

All the results can be found on BritSki.Org and I will be updating the MSC results spreadsheet as soon as I can find it!

Videos of the Minis, Ladies, and Males are available on YouTube.

Finally, can I thank Benn for all his help during course inspection and up in the start area. I know it was much appreciated by all racers!

Guy

February Snow Races

20th February 2008

Results for Midland Ski Club members competing in English Championships, Welsh Championships and the British Schoolboys are here.

Many congratulations to Robbie (1st Masters) and Benn (1st GBR J2) in the English Championships slalom. Well done to Emily on her first FIS races (against World Cup racers) and bad luck to Harry who was a DNF2 after a good 1st run in the slalom.

Guy

New Year Snow Races

10th January 2008

Many congratulations to all the MSC racers who competed for their respective alpine clubs in the British Alpine Racing Ski Clubs (BARSC) Championships in Les Menuires (3V France) over the New Year period!

MSC racers included Harry, Chris, Freddie, Nick M, Nick P, Sophia and Olivia - all of whom, apart from Harry, were competing on snow for the first time and achieved some really good results in tough conditions.

The results may need a little explanation.

Juniors (FIS - International Ski Federation)
Competitors must be aged 15 and over. Racers in FIS competitions represent their countries and not their clubs. Both runs in slalom and GS must be successfully completed to achieve an overall position, age group position and event points. Start number for the 1st run is determined by FIS points with the top 15 racers being drawn randomly. All racers with no FIS points start after those who do have points - the order being drawn randomly. Start number for the 2nd run is determined by 1st run times with the top 30 racers going first but in reverse order.

Children (BASS - British Alpine Seeding System)
Racers represent their clubs. Both runs in slalom and GS must be completed to achieve an overall position and age group position. However, each of the two runs count towards BASS points - it doesn't matter if a racer fails to successfully complete both runs to score points. Ist run start order is similar to FIS races - although CH1 racers go before CH2 racers (in FIS races the age groups are irrelevant). The 2nd run, however, is in reverse bib order irrespective of 1st run times. This is to give children racers a fairer start order and greater opportunity to score points.

Minis
Start order drawn randomly and no points awarded.

Guy