Race News
All the latest MSC Ski Racing News.
Gloucester Summer Race
9th August 2010
Well done team, another great race at Gloucester showing the enormous strength in depth that we have at Midland Ski Club. Only 10 of the July team were available for August, but we still had enough skiers to fill all 3 teams. The A team had many new faces, but nothing new in the way of results, a good score of 214 points to come 3rd on the day, one point behind Gloucester A in 2nd, easily retaining second place overall. After 4 races 63 skiers have represented MSC with 23 skiers in the A team so far, our teams are 2nd, 7th and 11th of 15 in the table.
Particularly good skiing was seen by some of the very experienced MSC skiers – Roger, Lucy , Ollie, Duncan and Sam L. Great performances by two of last years new racers Liam and James S, major improvements by Helena, James H and Ben in their first season, finally improvements were made during the day by racers in their first ever GSRL race, particularly JJ and Adam McC.
Stars of the day were the B team, with 75 points in the afternoon, a new club record for the head-to-head races. Duncan worked on improving his starts and his final start was superb, Sam L worked on pushing hard and really doing his best to win a very impressive final run, 5 racers picked up 9 points, only 3 points over the 30 races were dropped to non-MSC teams, an almost perfect maximum score.
Top 30 places: Roger (10), Lucy (12), Liam (13), Ben (18), Ollie (23)
20+ points: Roger (28),Ollie (25), Liam, Ben(22), Lucy, James D, Rob (21), Karl (20)
9 afternoon points: Aled, Joey, Max, Amy, Rob, James D, JJ, Laura
Finally thanks to all those who helped throughout the day. Everything went smoothly with enough people to manage the all the work to be done.
The October race has been rescheduled to 2nd October.
Full Gloucester results are here.
Jane
Southampton Club National
2nd August 2010
This weekend was the Southampton Club National, and as mentioned in my previous post the final race in the Club National Series.
Going into the final race of the series, MSC took a lead over Telford by the narrowest of margins, a single point seperated us. With no Telford racers on the acceptance list just a few days prior to the race, victory seemed certain. However, when the start list was published, a different story was told, with 11 Telford racers having entered. Fortunately, MSC had not taken things for granted, 14 of our own racers had also entered and were due to make the trip to the south coast.
And so, to the race. A number of our racers produced spirited season best placings to give us every chance, however with us missing a couple of key racers and Telford bringing their strongest possible team, we missed out on the overall series title. That said, all the racers who have taken part and contributed to the club's success in the series this year can be proud of our final position of second, (our best finish by a long way), and I hope that next year we can push on and make the final step to take the title next year.
The latest results spreadsheet shows the latest seed points (2010.4), and estimations for 2010.5 following this weekend.
Adam
SSE Race Update
19th July 2010
It's been a while since the last racing update, and I thought it might be good for people to know how everyone is getting on.
There have been 10 races in total in the past 5 weeks, probably the busiest period of the racing year. 4 Celtic Cup races, 3 Club Nationals, 2 Grand Prix and the Inter-Regional Championships.
Not only has the calendar been busy though, so have our racers. Attendance at the events has been extremely high, just a glance at the results spreadsheet will show a colourful display, indicating a huge number of age group and overall podiums that have been achieved in this period. During this period there has been the club's first female overall podium, with Emily Dawes winning the 5th Celtic Cup at Gloucester, definitely deserving of a special mention. Yesterday's Grand Prix completed the set if you like, we have now had age group podiums in every category in 2010.
There is also the inter-club competition tied into the club national series of races, which in previous years we have not been in competition for. The competition works by taking the lowest sum of the times of 4 racers while fulfilling the criteria of at least one child racer, one racer of each sex, and a maximum of 2 seniors and/or masters. Going into the race at Sunderland this weekend we were just 4 points behind the leaders Telford. With a number of impressive performances under pressure we managed to win this weekend, taking the lead by a single point going into the final club national of the year at Southampton on 1st August. We will need a good turnout at Southampton to maximise our chances of winning this years competition! The results prior to Sunderland can be found here.
The inter-regional competition took place on 27th June. CESA entered 3 teams, with 9 MSC racers selected to compete. All three teams enjoyed a lot of success, with CESA A placing second, CESA B placing 4th, and CESA C reaching the knockout stages. With a number of other region's A teams not making the knockouts, all three teams really performed well. With slightly better luck it could easily have ended up a CESA A vs. CESA B final, and I think all those who competed can be very proud.
Finally, applications for the England Artificial Surface Squad are now open. The criteria for selection are outlined here, and an application form can be found here. I would strongly recommend anyone who meets the criteria to make an application, the closing date for applications is 2nd August, but please try to get them in before this.
Adam
Gloucester Summer Race
3rd July 2010
Well done teams, Saturday was a great performance with the A team winning the day, the B team coming 4th, well ahead of a number of A teams and Team Arrows 11th, finishing ahead of the other B teams. A team are now second placed overall with a clear margin of 42 points over 3rd place. Midland B are just 5 points off 5th place overall and Team Arrows well clear of the chasing teams.
Skier of the day goes to all seven skiers who achieved top 20 places, James H with 2 solid runs, Dan with a great 2nd run, Jack R close on their heels and continuing to get faster, Roger with the best 2 runs seen from him in years, Sam S putting in the performance needed after being unable to train much since mid May, Liam with a precise and speedy second run showing promise of more to come and finally Ollie Weeks with a magnificent 17th place overall, winning the U9 age group, and with a time that would have been top 3 in U12s and 6th in the U15 age group.
Other skiers to mention, Duncan 37th overall, Jordan 3rd in U12s, Tom 47th overall, Will in his first race and 21st in U9s, Jack B 55th overall, James C 15th in U9s, James D a great improvement, Ethan showing that concentration in training is improving his times, Seamus with 5 good runs despite being unwell all week, really everyone skied well, everyone did their best.
Top 30 places: Dan(2), James H(3), Jack R(5), Roger (8), Sam S(14), Liam (15), Ollie (17), Karl (26), Dave H(28)
20+points: James H (29), Ollie (27), Jordan (25), Dan, Sam S, Jack R (24), Dave , Roger(22), Gerry , John(21), Seamus, Liam, James D(20)
9 afternoon points: James H, Rachel, Libby, Chloe
Gloucester results are here.
Jane
Gloucester Summer Race
6th June 2010
Well done team, another 2nd place for Midland A in June, putting us 2nd place overall. This is a great performance, 16 skiers have raced so far in the A team, showing great strength in depth. There was some excellent skiing across all teams, well done to Seamus, Jack R, Ben, Helena, James H, Matthew T, Jessica, Hannah and Sam L for some particularly good skiing. The afternoon saw some confident results in the head-to-heads, particularly well done to the A team with 26 dual points in the first run.
Welcome to the new skiers this month - James D, Sophie B, Jack and Toby, James H, Jayde and finally Helena who filled in at the last minute after a football injury to Sophie S and skied so well. Well done to all of you, and please do come back and race again. Thanks to Colm and Derek from Western Counties making up numbers so well. Improvers of the month were Guy, Jayde and Molly, with Molly winning not just one afternoon race, but two, with bib number 6, well done. Race of the day was Toby (4) v Anya (5), two firm friends, great determination from both and a very close finish with Toby just edging ahead at the end.
Top 30 – this month I’m listing the top 50 – which shows just how good the A team result was with so many absentees:
Jack R (10th), Ben (13th), Liam (33rd), Jordan (39th), Seamus (47th), Sam L (48th)
20+ points:
Jack R (27), Ben (25), Jordan (24), Seamus (23), James D, John, Liam (21), Ethan, Matthew T (20)
9 afternoon points:
Jordan, Liam, Matthew T, Jack R, Libby A, James S, Hannah, James H
Thanks to everyone who helped, it was a new experience to so many to collect and distribute bibs, record results and to keep the top of the slope running smoothly with skiers getting to the top on time with all their equipment. Finally well done to Ed Brotherton who had to pull out on Thursday as he had won through to the finals of both the U16 and U18s in his tennis tournament in Cornwall.
Gloucester results are here.
Jane
June races and recent points
1st June 2010
Quite a few good opportunities this month...
The Ipswich Club National is on Sunday, and entries have been held open until tomorrow, so anyone interested should get that sorted quickly.
Next weekend is the 3rd and 4th Celtic Cup races at Pontypool. These races are an excellent series, presenting a good challenge to racers without having a maximum points cutoff, so any registered racer can enter. The first two races at Rossendale unfortunately had a lower turnout than usual, however they did give a number of racers a great oppurtunity to lower their points as well as ski more challenging courses. There is also a Giant Slalom non seeded race on the Saturday which is always good fun. These races are definitely worth entering for those who may be undecided about them.
Following that there is a weekend at Chill Factore in Manchester, with the Telford Club National on Saturday, and the WMSA Grand Prix on Sunday. If you are interested in skiing some indoor races this is one of the best facilities in the country, and you will be supporting a local club by entering.
On the 25th June there is the Gloucester Club National. Always a well attended race, and on a slope familiar to many of you, this is an excellent race to enter if you are looking for some further experience of registered racing.
Finally, congratulations are in order again for a number of racers who have further lowered their points in the Pendle Club National and Grand Prix. Fiona Jones, Rachel Bill, Alasdair Thorley, Adam Lee, Jack Rigby, and Duncan Thorley all achieved points improvements this weekend.
Congratulations to all the racers on their performances, full results in the BARTS spreadsheet for the 2010 season for you to browse at your leisure - this will be the last issue prior to the new points list that will come out on the 8th June.
Adam
SSE Race Update
24th May 2010
The past couple of weeks have been very busy on the racing front. Last Saturday was the Stoke Club National, which saw good MSC attendance, and this weekend has seen the beginning of the 2010 Celtic Cup series, the first two races of which were held at Rossendale.
Last Sunday saw us run our second ever club national race, playing host to over 140 racers from around the country at Stoke Ski Centre.
Forty-five of our racers were competing at the event, which also had excellent support from club members who volunteered their time to ensure the smooth running of the race. There were a number of great performances from our racers, a significant number of whom will now see point reductions in the next seeding list as their reward.
Overall the club has made a very strong start to the season, with many skiers already improving their level of performance from last year I am confident that we will have a successful race season ahead of us.
I am going to put below the racers here who have either improved their seed points or achieved podiums since my last update, you will have to excuse the lengthy list, but i think this illustrates perfectly the level at which racers are competing already at this early stage of the race season.
Seed Point Improvements:
Emily Dawes, Elisabeth Thomas, Lucy Deller, Olivia Waller, Fiona Jones, Maxine Hancock, Gerry Elgy, Rachel Bill, Hannah Shakeshaft, Chloe Care, Harry Hornsby, Adam Beardmore, Nick Miller, Alasdair Thorley, Adam Lee, Nick Phelps, Jack Rigby, James Elgy, Sam Smith, Duncan Thorley, Sam Doherty, Sam Lee, John Elgy, Ed Brotherton, Matthew Waller, Thomas Lawrence, Ben Hall.
Age Group Podiums:
Oliver Weeks, Emily Dawes, Elisabeth Thomas, Gerry Elgy, Rachel Bill, Harry Hornsby, Mark Hawkins, Adam Beardmore, Adam Lee.
Overall Podiums:
Harry Hornsby (2nd Stoke CN, MSC CN, CC2)
Emily Dawes (2nd CC1)
Congratulations to all the racers above on their performances, full results in the BARTS spreadsheet for the 2010 season for you to browse at your leisure.
Adam
SSE Race Update
11th May 2010
So, the race season has started in earnest and well done to all those racers already competing.
Worth particular mention for their performances already in the few races we have had are Lucy Deller, Elisabeth Thomas, Alasdair Thorley, Sam Doherty and Jack Rigby, who have already dropped their BARTS points in this short time.
Also worth mention are our racers who have been getting podium places already:
Harry Hornsby - 2nd Overall and in JN2 at Norwich Club National
Elisabeth Thomas - 3rd in CH2 at both Norwich Club National and Grand Prix
Jordan Rigby - 3rd in Minis at Bromley Club National
Edward Guy - 3rd in Minis at Norwich Club National
Full results in the BARTS spreadsheet for the 2010 season for you to browse at your leisure, and I hope to see many of you turn out to support the club's second Club National at Stoke on Sunday!
Adam
Gloucester Summer Race
8th May 2010
Well done team, some great skiing and some great results on a very cold day at Gloucester. 14 teams took part and Midland teams came 2nd, 5th and 12th. This shows such great strength in depth, it is brilliant.
Welcome first to those taking part in their first GSRL race – Jack and Stef, Rachel B, Ben, Guy, Anya, Jake, Seamus – well done to all of you.
Worthy of a mention this month – teamwork – well done everyone and thanks to everyone who helped everywhere. Tom, John and Jess all showed some very good skiing, Roger, James S, Matthew T and Chloe really improved their racing, Jordan, Sam D, Liam and Jack L achieved bib numbers in the 90s in the afternoon, Sam L, Matthew W, Rachel M and Nathan worked hard to do their best on every race, finally Karl, Ben and Maxine all with top 30 places for the first time.
Top 30 – Roger (6), Sam S (15), Karl (19), Ben (22), Maxine(30)
20+ points – Roger (28), Seamus, Sam S (23), Sam D , Ben, Jack L, John, Gerry (22), Matthew T, Karl (20)
9 afternoon points – Lauren, Tom, Chloe, Duncan, Jack L, Gerry
Improvers of the month – Roger and Matthew T
The next race is Saturday 5th June – half term - so we need all the help we can get, both racers and volunteers, so please do your best to get there. Ex-GSRL racers and parents will be especially welcome to help to manage the teams and new racers.
Gloucester results are here.
Jane
Racenews from 2009
Racenews from 2008
Racenews from 2007
Racenews from 2006