Gloucester Summer Race, and ESSKIA Final

10th/17th October 2009

The year is finished, we’ve had 6 tough rounds of Gloucester Summer race league and we’ve come 3rd in a great top of the table race. Top 3 teams were:
Gloucester A 1356
Western Counties 1355
Midland Hawks 1344

Everyone tried really hard, most skiers raced well, we achieved a 3 year high in the afternoon with 66 points but couldn’t quite make up for losing so many top skiers in September. Well done to all of you. Midland Bears, Cats and Harlequins all gave their best and there were superb performances across the board, with 39 skiers racing. It was good to see how much improvement could be made in the afternoon when so much was at stake, well done and please take the lessons learned away and come back next year with some more storming afternoon races. Well done to all 23 skiers who represented Hawks during the year, I think that this is the most significant achievement of our 3rd place, the depth of top skiers available, very impressive.

The morning started with a reminder, if you lock skis in your roofbox then it’s worth taking the roofbox key in the car with you. Thanks to Nigel who collected the key from Solihull and brought it towards Gloucester, thanks to Guy who provided us all with an amusing start to the day, well done Lucy for recovering so well after you finally got your skis.

Improver of the month was James S, followed by John, Lewis, Libby and Liam. Congratulations to Lewis and Rachel for a great first GSRL each. Thanks to Alasdair who helped skiers to focus on starts in the afternoon and thanks to our guests Adam L and Harry. There were so many team players out there willing to help others, well done to Ed for looking after the U9s, Jordan for encouraging the younger skiers, Karl, Max and Duncan for always being happy to help, Sophia for enjoying the day so much and sharing her enjoyment, Adam B, Adam L , Mark, Guy for help and advice. Thanks very much to Kim, Carron, Karen, Karen, Heidi , Dave and all the others for looking after us all. Congratulations to Sophia for breaking into the male dominated top 30.

There are some exciting names here for next year who will be ready for the Hawks team for the first time. Sam D scored 21 points today, Jack R has improved greatly over the last month, Jordan is consistently improving, there are a number more who are skiing well. The outlook is good for next year.

Top 30 skiers:
Harry (2), Adam B(3), James H(4), Dan (7), Adam L (15), Nick P(20), Roger (21), Sophia (22), Sam (24) plus Lucy and Jack R(31=)

20+ points:
Roger(29), Harry, James H (26) Adam B (25), Ed, Max, Nick P, Rob(22), Sam, John(21)

9 afternoon points:
Lewis, Jordan, Nick P, Duncan, Hannah, Roger

I will provide an end of year summary and statistics in a couple of weeks, enough statistics to make anyone yawn. Sarah is looking forward to these as she thinks that she may have won the most afternoon points in the year, however she will just have to wait and see. We also need to say goodbye to Adam B, Alasdair, Nick P, James E, Dominic, Sophia, Lucy, Elisabeth and Olivia who join the ranks of those too fast for Gloucester, well done and thanks for all the effort that you have given in the past many years.

The previous weekend saw the English Schools final at Rossendale with teams from Princethorpe, Crackley Hall, Balsall Common and Droitwich Spa High qualifying. Princethorpe Girls were hit by swine flu and had to withdraw, Droitwich tried hard but the course was just too tough for a new skier, they should do well next year with more experience. Balsall Common came 3rd in the U12s mixed and Crackley Hall won this age group. The stars of the weekend were Princethorpe boys who came 3rd in the U16s and qualified for the British final at Pontypool next month – good luck and good skiing.

Gloucester results are here.

Jane

National Championships Round-Up

September/October 2009

All England Championships

The season’s ‘blue riband’ event, the All England Championships, took place up in Sunderland on one of the best race slopes in the country! Two testing courses making full use of the slope’s pronounced rollers resulted in the usual high number of ‘casualties’ with around half the men’s field failing to trouble the time-keepers.

With Chris and Alasdair unfortunately blowing out on the first course, the remaining MSC males were determined to attack the second course in their quest for honours. Nick P, Jamie, Adam B and Mark soon came to grief, leaving Harry and Benn (who was in 2nd place overall after run 1) to go for glory. With four gates to go and Benn absolutely motoring, he made a small, but ultimately critical, error that ended his run much to the disbelief of the crowd. This just left Harry to keep his cool and dissect the acute twists and turns of the course which he did to come 6th overall and 4th in the mega-competitive Junior 2 age group.

In the females, both Emily and Sophia (our sole two lady representatives) battled really hard and showed plenty of determination to achieve overall positions of 21st and 33rd respectively. They both certainly did themselves proud and should be really pleased with their efforts.

The minis event (on a different course set by Benn) also resulted in a very exciting race with Ollie just missing out on a podium with 4th place – next year Ollie!

Inter-Club Championships

With country’s leading race clubs all fighting it out to become recognised as the best in the land, this was a testosterone-fuelled event that gave no quarter to anyone! Midland A (Benn, Mark, Harry and Emily) won all four of their league races and this saw them drawn against local rivals, Telford, in the quarter finals. A powerful performance kept us in the lead from start to finish and this resulted in a semi-final clash with favourites, Norfolk A. Despite giving it our best shot, it just wasn’t to be and, in the 3rd/4th position play-off we finished behind Pendle B by the narrowest of margins. I know our racers were disappointed to have not taken 3rd place but it was still a great team effort!

Our B team (Adam B, Jamie, Chris and Elisabeth) found themselves in a tough league and, despite Adam testing to the very limits the durability of the team’s designer t-shirts (thanks Emily!), they couldn’t progress to the quarter-finals. But a brave attempt none the less.

Scottish and European Championships

A great weekend’s racing on the infamous Hillend (Edinburgh) slope saw Alasdair achieve an excellent 3rd place in his age group! For a full report please see the earlier article.

Welsh National Championships

A return to Pontypool – another tough but favourite slope of many MSC racers – produced a fantastic list of age group podiums and gutsy performances (and, no, I’m not referring to the size of my bacon-roll breakfast)!

In the minis, Marcus took 2nd place with two strong runs and, just behind him in 3rd, was Ollie. Jane and Emily came 2nd and 3rd in their respective age groups and, in the males, Mark romped home in 2nd place in the masters and Dominic secured 3rd in the children 1 age group. Great work! Congratulations must also go to Adam L and Sam L who also achieved age group awards as Welsh nationals (well done boyos!).

Welsh Open Championships

The main Welsh championship event took the MSC to the heady heights of success that could only have been dreamed about a few years ago! Age group winners in Ollie, Harry and Mark plus podiums for Edward (2nd) and Sam S (3rd). And, a ripper of a run down the second course took Harry up to 3rd place overall – and he’s not even Welsh!

Welsh Cup

Yes, you’ve guessed it, back to Pontypool! Excellent performances from Sophia and Elisabeth didn’t quite result in age group podiums but they massacred their seed points – awesome! A fair splattering of DNFs and DSQs resulted in early baths for Emily, Adam B, Nick M and Harry so it was left to Mark to bring home the bacon (I’ve got those wonderful rolls on my mind again!) with top spot in the masters.

British Championships

When the going gets tough, the tough get going (Billy Ocean for you pop-pickers)! The last big event of the season for the MSC’s racers and thrills/spills aplenty with, unfortunately, several serious injuries incurred (including a broken back and a broken leg). Fortunately, our racers came away pretty much unscathed, apart from Adam B who’s thumb/wrist is now in a temporary plaster-cast but should be out of it by the GSRL final in two week’s time (even if he has to hack-saw it off himself!). Talking of plaster-casts, I’m delighted to be able to report that Alasdair is mending well having re-arranged his thumb at a recent training session. Sport hurts!

As for the racing, Sophia produced another top performance and so did Sam S. Harry produced another championship top-10 overall performance with 7th and Nick M showed a very welcome return to form on his new skis! Unfortunately, errors (forced and unforced) and mishaps resulted in a mixed bag of performances and the end of very long and hard, but extremely enjoyable, season!

Many congratulations to every racer who’s represented the MSC this year – you’ve done yourselves and the club mighty proud!

And last but certainly by no means least ...

England Squad Selection and Team Representation

We were delighted to see Benn, Harry and Mark selected to the full England squad in recognition of their fantastic performances! It was also great that Emily and Chris were selected to represent England in the international event at the Welsh championships.

International Event – Welsh Championships
England A (males): Harry
England B (males): Mark
England C (males): Chris
England B (females) Emily

International Event – British Championships
England A (males): Harry
England B (males): Mark

Guy

Gloucester Summer Race

19th September2009

Saturday saw a very hard working day at Gloucester. With so many missing skiers we were challenged seriously and didn?t quite succeed, coming 4th on the day, taking us down to 2nd overall. Gloucester scored 176 points in the morning and 70 in the afternoon, while we managed 145 and 63 - a massive difference of 38 points over the day. The afternoon was better than the morning, pulling back 9 points against both Western Counties and Slalom Plus after being comprehensively outclassed by both in the morning. We have to work seriously hard now just to keep 2nd place in October, Western Counties are only 7 points behind, we can still win in October, but it needs a full team and some really effective skiing.

There were some really good improvements this month, best improver was Nathan, followed by Chloe, John, James S, Jordan, James C, Sarah, Liam, Sam D, Peter, Tom and Adam B.

Top 30 skiers:
Adam B(1), Alasdair(8), Dominic(19), Sam S (21), James E (24), Sophia (31)

20+ points:
Adam B(27), John (22), James E, Dave , Dominic (21), Ed, Sam S, Alasdair, Rob (20)

9 afternoon points:
Rob, Sarah, Jack R, Tom

There was some great teamwork on Saturday, thanks to Sam L, Duncan, Jordan, Jack, James E who all won ice creams. Well done especially to Alasdair, now with a well plastered thumb from a fall on Friday, x-rayed only after another great race on Sunday at the ESSKIA first round. It was impressive to see 18 MSC skiers representing their schools. I have a copy of the first run times, if anyone has the 2nd run then I will put them together and publish as an internal MSC results sheet.

There was a silver lining ? the weather was hot all weekend, not a drop of mud in sight, a welcome change after a few disgusting September races in the past, particularly 2006 and 2007.

See you next month on Saturday 17th October.

Results are here.

Jane

Championships update

21st September 2009

There have been some fantastic performances over the past few weeks and the various English and Welsh Championships. Roll on this weekend's Brits!

Full results of MSC racers in seeded racers are here.

Guy

Scottish and European Championships 2009, Hillend, Edinburgh

29th August 2009

Bank holiday weekend saw three Midland Ski Club Members, Alasdair Thorley, Duncan Thorley and Nick Phelps take part in the Scottish and European Championships at Hillend. This slope is the longest in the UK and one of the most daunting. It is not only long but very steep with one section referred to as ‘the wall’! We all met up on Friday evening for the practice session where the boys faced and conquered their fears, leaving the slope full of anticipation for the following two days of racing.

As the slope is so long and course setting is quite time consuming (an average of 27 gates), the skiers are only allowed to warm up on the nursery slopes on Saturday so attending the Friday night practice session is essential if you want to race at the Championships.

Saturday’s (Scottish Championships) programme consisted of two Grand Prix standard slalom courses followed by a GS race. Duncan skied well but missed a gate on his first run. Alasdair completed an excellent first run but straddled a gate on his second run. Nick completed both runs and ended the first race of the weekend in fifth position, with 23 child 1 racers in his age group this was an excellent result. The GS race was again fast and furious and the more experienced local racers certainly reaped the benefits. Our racers completed the course Alasdair 9th, Nick 10th and Duncan 20th in their age groups.

On Sunday (European Championships), our racers took part in another Grand Prix standard slalom race. Alasdair produced an excellent first and second run which resulted in him coming 3rd in junior 1 and getting his first podium. Nick was disappointed with his first run but stormed back with an excellent second run and came 8th in his age group. Duncan produced two good runs and came 16th, an excellent result with such a difficult course and strong competition.

To finish the day a dual slalom took place with teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Belgium. It was exciting to watch; Wales fought well and took the top prize.

Medals and cups were presented by Alain Baxter and it was great to see one of the Midland Ski Club members receiving his medal alongside so many worthy competitors.

Well done Alasdair who certainly showed that Midland Ski Club are really making their mark in the national dry slope competitions.

Carron & Sally

Gloucester Summer Race

22nd August 2009

Good news, we have kept our 1st place overall, and are now 9 points in the lead from Gloucester A. Midland Bears came 5th, a magnificent performance, Midland Cats were 10th, and Midland Harlequins 13th of 14 teams. Well done to everyone, some great team performances here.

The top of the table stands at
Midland Hawks 913
Gloucester A 904
Western Counties 892
Slalom Plus A 858

There were some very impressive individual performances. Worth noting were Fiona, Lucy and Sophia with great morning run times, Liam and Karl with good improvements, Sam S with yet another better time, James C with a good afternoon, Sam D with a great day overall despite not being well, and our wonderful top of the table group of Adam, James H, Dan and Alasdair, chased hard by James E. We have some very strong skiers this year, no less than 20 different skiers have represented Midland in the first placed Hawks team so far, and a further few are pressing for selection in the last 2 months.

Skiers in the top 30:
Adam B(1), James H(3), Dan(5), Alasdair(10), James E(17), Roger (19), Nicholas (25), Sam S (27), Ollie (29)

20+ Points:
Dan(27), Adam B(26), James H, Dave H(25), Roger, Ollie, Alasdair(23), Sam D(22), Sam S, Rob(21), Nicholas, Phil, John (20)

9 afternoon points:
Dan, Sam D, Sarah, John, Duncan

Star of the day is a young man who is 7 this month. He raced first two years ago and has worked hard to improve his performance each month. This month he achieved a target for the year of 2 morning runs both under 20 seconds, he also won his first 2 head-to-head races, he?s ready now to make some great further improvements, well done Nathan.

I still haven?t received the full results, but these are almost complete. I am keen to see how our girls did and will let you know, Fiona, Lucy and Sophia were 32nd, 33rd and 37th overall, there won?t have been many faster girls ? another great achievement. Well done. Meanwhile 3 of our team couldn ?t race as they supported the Ed Drake benefit Club national where Marcus won the mini category and Dominic came 3rd in CH1 and disqualified himself for next year so he will join Elisabeth on a final race in September.

Results are here.

Jane

Grand Prix - Hemel (Indoor)

26th July 2009

This was the first national event to be held at the recently-opened indoor snow centre at Hemel which has great snow and facilities - if only the slope could have been a bit longer! This event saw Robbie compete in his first race of the season and stride away with 3rd place in the Masters.

MSC Club National and Grand Prix, Rossendale

18th/19th July 2009

Saturday saw the MSC organising our first ever Club National and a great MSC showing! Emily stormed to 2nd JN2 and Gerry and Jane (once again!) came home with 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Masters. Nick M maintained his fine form with 2nd JN1 and so did Mark with 2nd Masters. Adam B sealed his very impressive first season on the national circuit with 3rd place in the seniors! And, Nick P was just a fraction away from an age group podium with 4th CH1.

On Sunday, 4th place in age group for Maxine represented a tremendous achievement in her first Grand Prix! Mark took top honours in the Masters and the two Nicks (P and M) secured excllent 2nd and 3rd places in their respective age groups! Whilst Benn claimed 4th overall and 4th JN2.

Celtic Cup 5 & 6, Gloucester

11th/12th July 2009

Saturday: Another bumper MSC turn-out and plenty more podiums! Ollie took 3rd place in the Minis to add to his already-bulging trophy cabinet. Maxine and Sarah just missed out on age group podiums in the Females, but honours went to Gerry (2nd Masters) and to Jane (3rd Masters) - well done! Benn and Harry claimed 2nd and 3rd respectively in JN2 males with Benn also taking 2nd place overall and Harry 4th. Nick M came 3rd in JN1 and John took 3rd place in the Masters - there's still plenty of life in those legs John!.

Ollie turned up the gas and came 1st in the Minis with Edward just behind him in 2nd place. There were narrow age group misses for Emily and Sarah and Jane, this time, took 1st place in the Masters. Harry recorded another 3rd JN2 and 4th place overall. Nick M just missed out on an age group podium, but Mark claimed top honours in the Masters with two fine runs!

Guy

Ipswich Club National and Grand Prix

4th/5th July 2009

A gloriously sunny weekend saw a small (because of the GSRL) group of MSC racers head east to Ipswich for the Club National and Grand Prix.

In the Club National, Ollie took top honours in the Minis - his third 1st place and 8th podium so far this season! And Jamie scored his lowest ever event points of 91.05 - well done!

The Grand Prix saw Harry maintain his impressive form with 4th overall, 2nd in JN2 and his best ever event points of 18.23. Jamie set another personal best with 84.22 event points and two top-class runs! And Lucy will have gained much experience from her two gutsy runs down a (long, bumpy and rolling) slope on which she's never before skied - let alone at GP level.

The updated race results spreadsheet contains my own calculations of the 2009.3 and provisional 2009.4 BARTS points. The official (and accurate) 2009.3 list is due out this week.

Finally, don't forget to make your entry in to our first Club National at Rossendale in two weeks time - places are filling up fast!

Guy

Gloucester Summer Race

4th July 2009

Well done team, we won. Not just did we win on the day but we increased our lead at the top of the table over Western Counties from 1 point in June to 3 points in July (683 v 680), increasing the lead on 3rd and 4th placed teams Gloucester and Slalom Plus. Well done to Midland Cats, winning most points in the afternoon session - purrfect!

Two of our younger skiers really contributed well this month to the Hawks total, using entirely different ways to get there. Edward put in a storming morning time to come 2nd in the U9s, leaving him with a tough task in the afternoon, Max achieved solid morning times, coming 7th in U12s, and then skied even better winning all 3 afternoon races, well done both of you.

There was good skiing across the board, it's difficult to pick out the really best improvers. Edward moved up to 58th overall, Karl reached 35th overall and met Dad in the head-to-head, Tom improved his skiing, Jessica worked so hard, Libby came 19th (of 40) in age group, Nathan and Molly both moved up groups in the afternoon, Hannah had a great last run, Jordan had a good day overall, Sam S is back on form. My choice for improver of the month didn't improve his overall position, didn't move up a group in the afternoon, didn't improve his age group position, he remained 1st in age group, 1st overall. Adam B put in two great runs to finish with a dazzling time of 10.75. This means that everyone else has seen their MSC points rise for this race, so harder work is needed now to improve these points at Gloucester.

Welcome to newcomers Liam and Oliver D, good debut performances from both, with Liam putting in a good 2nd run time and good afternoon teamwork, Oliver learned in the morning and skied well in the afternoon. Welcome back to Dan with 3rd overall on his return.

Skiers in top 30 overall:
Adam(1), Dan(3), James H(5), Alasdair(7), Roger(16), James E(18), Sam S(30) Well done also to Dave H(34) and Karl(35) for career best results

20+ morning points:
Dan(28), Adam B, Roger(27), Gerry(25) , Max, Jane(23), Edward, James H, Dave H, Alasdair(22)

9 afternoon points:
Max, Dan, Gerry, James S, Nathan, Jane

Finally thanks very much to all those who helped, there are so many jobs to be done to support these races. Congratulations to Adam L who went on after a full day on the slope to his swimming club championships, getting a best ever personal performance with 6 tough races in breastroke and butterfly, taking gold and bronze respectively in the junior championship.

Results are here.

Jane

Stoke & Gloucester Club Nationals

27th/28th June 2009

Last weekend saw 29 (yes, 29!) MSC racers taking part in the Stoke Club National and Gloucester Club National - I think this is a record turn-out for the club. And, we produced a multitude of outstanding performances!

With so many successes it's difficult to know where to start but I think, firstly, many congratulations must go to Harry for winning the Stoke Club National on Saturday. We've had many age group podiums and a handful of overall position podiums over the years but this is the first time he (and our club - if records serve me correct) have taken top honours! And, joining Harry on the podium, was Mark with a superb 3rd place overall and thoroughly deserved reward for all the hard work and commitment he's displayed over many moons with the MSC. There's a big message here to all of our up-and-coming racers!

Also at Stoke, our lads did us proud with age group wins in JN2 (Harry), Seniors (Adam B) and Masters (Mark) and further podiums for Nick M (2nd in JN1) and Chris (3rd in JN2). Plus, a near miss for Nick P with 4th in CH1. Our girls (sorry, ladies) also got in on the act with Gery taking 2nd in Masters and Sarah one place away from the honours with 4th in Seniors.

The next day at Gloucester produced (as it always tends to do for MSC racers) a barrage of podiums and points reductions! No overall position honours but age group podiums for Mark (1st in Masters), Nick M (2nd in JN1), Sarah (2nd in Seniors), Gery (2nd in Masters), Jane (3rd in Masters), Ollie (3rd in Minis) and Adam B (3rd in Seniors). Once again, Nick P unfortunately missed out on a podium by one place.

From my initial calculations, I believe that 23 of our racers will have lowered their BARTS points (when the next list is published on 6th July) as a result of their weekend's endeavours - wow! There are simply too many for me to list in this note but there are several that deserve special mention. Lucy, Adam B, Nick P and James E have all gone below the GSRL cut-off. Mark's now sub-50 and Adam B and Jamie have both gone sub-100. And, notable BIG points reductions include Adam B (448.00 to 55.01!), Maxine (266.15 to 189.04), James E (257.41 to 157.69) and Karl (296.12 to 214.82).

Many congratulations and my apologies to anyone who I've inadvertently failed to mention.

As a result of our exploits we've gained a lot of points in the Club National series. However, our numbers are looking pretty thin on the ground for this weekend's Ipswich Club National (with the Grand Prix on Sunday). Right now, we won't have sufficient racers in the Club National (no female or CH) to achieve any points and that would be a real shame. So, it would be good to see more MSC racers turning out if at all possible (entry is still open at the normal price). Ipswich is a cracking slope and one that I'd thoroughly recommend!

The updated results spreadsheet is here.

Guy

Gloucester Summer Race

6th June 2009

Well done team. We were 2nd on Saturday behind Gloucester. Last month we were 3rd, behind both Western Counties and Slalom Plus, and the top of the table looks like this - with Midland right there at the top - 1st place.

Midland Hawks 447
Western Counties 446
Gloucester A 442
Slalom Plus A 433

On a day with 30-90mm of rain forecast we were extremely fortunate, the rain stopped soon after we arrived and stayed away until we packed up to leave. This meant that the course dried out and second run times were considerably slower than the first, so most skiers starting with a 'safe' run and hoping to improve on the second were in for a disappointment - moral of this story - always go for your best time on the first run.

There were a very high number of good performances, particularly some excellent times from the newer skiers, however the group that stood out as outstanding this month were some of our more experienced team. Maxine really showed what she can do, pushing Dad all the way, James E was brilliant, meeting Roger in the head to head, Sam S built on last week's excellent result and Jessica M showed her potential as an improving young racer. In the adults Gerry and Peter both showed good improvements. Finally Sam L, Duncan and Matthew W all worked hard and skied well, all worth watching if they can keep up this level of commitment.

20+ points: Dave H,Roger,Alasdair,Adam B(27), James H(25) Ollie W,James E(21), Edward(20)

9 afternoon points: Matthew W, Sarah E, Alasdair, Dave H

Top 30: Adam B (1), James H (2), Alasdair(5), James E(11) , Roger (12), Sam S(27), Jack W/Y(29)

Improver of the month - James E

Put the date in your diary for next month - Saturday 4th July. We really need ten 20+ points scorers for the Hawks team plus another 20 skiers for the development teams.

Results are here.

Jane

SASA Club National

31st May 2009

A very hot day and more podiums

Ollie Weeks - 2nd in the Minis
Nick Phelps - 3rd in CH1
Gerry Elgy - 1st in Masters
Jane Lee - 2nd in Masters
John Elgy - 3rd in Masters

A special mention should go to Sam Smith and Jamie Conde who skied really well and just missed the podium in 4th place in CH1 and JN2.

Good luck to everyone at the next race....

Sally

Celtic Cup 1&2 - Rossendale

23rd/24th May 2009

Podiums galore! MSC members have been training really hard and produced a fantastic results at the first Celtic Cup of the season at Rossendale.

CELTIC CUP1 - 10 podiums

Minis - Edward Guy 2nd and Sam Doherty 3rd
CH1 girls - Freya Eaton 2nd
CH1 boys - Nick Phelps 2nd and Sam Smith 3rd
Junior 1 boys - Nick Miller 3rd
Junior 1 girls - Olivia Waller 3rd
Senior girls - Sarah Dawes - 1st
Senior boys - Adam Beardsmore 3rd
Masters male - Mark Hawkins 2nd
Harry Hornsby just missed the podium - he came 4th in Junior 2 and 4th overall !!!

CELTIC CUP 2 - saw more podiums

Minis - Ollie Weeks 2nd
CH1 girls - Freya Eaton 2nd
Junior 1 girls - Olivia Waller 3rd
Masters male - Mark Hawkins 1st

Good luck to everyone at the next race....

Sally

Artificial Slope Racing April & May 2009

The results spreadsheet has been updated and this includes all (BARTS) races so far this season. Everyone's performances are detailed in the spreadsheet so here are just a few of the highlights!

Bromley Club National

The first race of the season saw Ollie W take a much-deserved 3rd place in the Minis and Sam D, on his debut, a really good 6th place! Freya recorded her first points (having just moved up from the Minis) with an excellent 156.61 and Fiona scored 234.52 in her first Club National - well done! Nick M just missed out on an age group podium (4th) but recorded lower points with 78.86 and Alasdair made a big improvement with 136.40 (his best ever!). There were also points improvements for Elisabeth (160.64), Lucy (157.39) and Duncan (291.06).

Telford Club National (Chill Factore)

A different surface and a different race format saw two separately seeded runs and really good points for Freya (154.75 and 140.43) and Sam A (91.46 and 109.75) - congratulations Sam on your first sub-100 points! Dominic, who's also moved up from the Minis, recorded his first points (194.33 and 191.14) and immediately qualifies for GPs and National Championships!

British Indoor Championships (Chill Factore)

Many congratulations to Freya who achieved 3rd place in her age group! Benn came 7th overall and was unlucky to miss out on an age group podium with 4th place.

Pendle Club National

A dry but windy day (what, no rain at Pendle?!) and really good results for Emily (4th in her age group) and Harry (5th overall and 4th in his age group). Fiona, in only her second race, scored a highly-credible 197.80 points.

Pendle Grand Prix

Top honours go to Emily with a 3rd place age group podium (her first in a GP!) and a really good performance from Sophia secured 4th place in her age group.

Welwyn Club National

Ollie continued his fine form by winning the Minis with some excellent racing! Harry again just missed out on age group podium with 4th place in the mega-competitive JN2 males category. Alasdair made another improvement with 134.55 points and is now ruled out of the GSRL - you're just too fast Alasdair! Commiserations have to go to Nick M who had a fantastic final run and would have won his age group but for a last-gate straddle - argh!!

Norwich Club National

At (in my opinion) the best slope/facilities in the country, Ollie took his 3rd consecutive podium with 2nd place in the Minis (this has to be a club record!) and Nick P recorded a really good 3rd place in his age group - well done lads! Chris, in his first race of the season, skied fast on all three runs and scored 60.19 points.

Norwich Grand Prix

Nick P produced another excellent performance to take 3rd place in his age group - wow! And, whilst Harry once again secured an age group 4th place, he produced two cracking runs to claim 4th place overall and score 33.11 points.

Good luck to everyone racing up at Rossendale this weekend!

Guy

Gloucester Summer Race

2nd May 2009

Well done team, a great result. We are 3rd, but only 6 points behind the leaders, and this was superb considering how many eligible skiers were not available. Next month some of the best come back (Roger, are you free?).

Well done to all the new skiers - Hannah, Sophie and James, James and Chloe, Libby, Susie, Sarah, there was some excellent skiing, very good debut appearances. Welcome to the team, we hope to see you again. Thanks also to all parents coming for the first time and for your wholehearted support.

Stars of the day were numerous. Congratulations to Adam B, back after a few years with a maximum 29 points and 2nd overall. Well done Alasdair, 4th overall, excellent afternoon racing as well. Robyn - well done on a great afternoon, 3 really impressive runs and good teamwork. Well done all the U9s, this was a very tough group, so three in the top 10 was great. Well done Nathan, still only 6, under 20 seconds for the first time.

Some of the groups produced unexpected results, the U15s was fantastically strong, 40 skiers with some amazingly fast times, getting a top 20 place was an achievement. The U12s were strong this year as well, well done to Matthew W with improved points. The under 50s 'group of death' from last year has, well, died a bit, so we got some good results there, especially Phil Deller with 23 points and Rob with 21.

Teamwork - it was a great team. Thanks to our race managers, our new junior team managers, Karen as starter, Dave with his new flags, everyone else who helped. Thanks to Mark for coming to support, thanks to everyone who helped the new skiers.

Improver of the month - Libby. Good improvements also by both Jacks and Edward.

Top 30: Adam B(2), Alasdair(4), Jake (15), Jack Y(21), Dominic(27)

20+: Adam B(29), Alasdair, Jake (25), Ollie W, Dominic(24), Phil, Jane(23), Marcus, Rob(21)

9 afternoon points: Robyn, Phil, Rob, Sarah, Sam S

Results are here.

Jane

Alpine Racing 2008-9

10th February 2009

The alpine race season is now well under way and MSC members have already competed (for their snow clubs) in several events. The results are here and these show excellent performances from Elisabeth Thomas, Freya Eaton, Sam Allen, Victoria Bell and Florence Bell.

The inter-services championships have just taken place and, whilst I haven't seen the detailed results, I believe that Benn Hall achieved a podium place (or two) - many congratulations!

The English Championships take place next week in Bormio and MSC members competing include Matthew Waller, Olivia Waller, Elisabeth Thomas, Florence Bell, Victoria Bell, Jack Yates, Sam Allen, Emily Dawes, Harry Hornsby and Benn Hall. Good luck to all!

Guy