Race News Archive - 2010
All the latest MSC Ski Racing News.
National Championships 2010
Each year late August through to early October sees the hosting of the most competitive and hard fought races of the season as the home nations run their national artificial slope championships. This year at these championships the attendance and performances of our racers has been higher than ever and has lead to an exciting close to the season.
Kicking off this string of races was the Scottish Championships on 28th August, with 5 MSC racers, Emily Dawes, Sophia Phelps, Nick Phelps, Alisdair Thorley and Duncan Thorley, making the long trip up to Edinburgh to compete at one of the most daunting challenges on the dryslope circuit. With courses of nearly 30 gates, there is plenty of time for things that to wrong on the descent. Despite this Alisdair picked up his first age group podium of the season, and at one of the more hotly contested races so many congratulations to him for his performance.
A week later, the venue was Norwich for the All England Championships. Nineteen of our racers made the journey across the country to compete at what is probably the best maintained and designed facility in the country for both spectators and competitors alike. While the first course was negotiated by most without much problem, Sally Bartlett's second course caused a lot of trouble for many racers. With an exceptionally strong field present, (50 seed points would net you a starting bib of 49), it was telling that only 4 of the top 15 racers at the start finished above 75th place, if at all. Despite the tricky course, there were age group podiums for Mark Hawkins and Rachel Bill, as well as a number of good overall results especially when the strength of the field is considered.
Another week, another race, and this time is was the Welsh National Championships and the Welsh Open Championships, again enjoying a strong MSC turnout. Eighteen racers represented the club at Pontypool across the two days. On the opening day of racing there were 4 age group podiums, with Oliver Weeks winning the Minis category, and podiums for Elisabeth Thomas, Mark Hawkins, and Sam Doherty. While I say "another week, another race", this clearly was not the attitude of Harry Hornsby come Sunday. Sitting in second place overall after his first run, he came down with superb composure to overcome a tricky final combination of gates and clocking a time that was sure to heap pressure on the race leader from the first run. The final racer down looked to be skiing strongly, but ultimately lacked Harry's coolness under pressure, pushed too hard and was forced to ski out of the course a couple of gates from home. This left Harry sitting at the top of the standings, and the winner of the 2010 Welsh Open Championships. Many congratulations to him on his achievement, a video of his second run is available here. Also worthy of mention for their performance at the Welsh Open, are the 4 other racers who achieved age group podiums, Elisabeth Thomas, Chloe Care, Adam Beardmore, and Mark Hawkins.
Then a break of a week, and it was time for the British Championships at Hillend in Edinburgh on the 25th September. There were three racers from MSC competing over the weekend, Emily Dawes, Alisdair Thorley and Adam Beardmore. Skiing at Hillend certainly requires a technique a little different from that employed at most dry slopes, and so it was to prove a challenging weekend for some of us. However, Alisdair Thorley seems to have the measure of Hillend's nuances, and while he ran in to trouble on his second run, his first run had him in the mix for the top spots in his age. Emily Dawes came away with an age group podium for her efforts on Saturday. On the Sunday a GS race was run, with mixed fortunes for our racers. Alisdair had the most notable result, finishing 13th overall and 4th in age, an excellent result. I personally had a disagreement with my skis about which way up I wanted to be while half way down my first run, and as a result ended up with a few fractures, so many thanks to Louise and Nigel Dawes for helping me get back to Birmingham.
Finally to close the season's proceedings was the Irish and European Championships at Kilternan just south of Dublin. Emily Dawes made the trip across for both days racing alone. She finished 7th overall in the Irish, and 4th in age. Unfortunately she ran into trouble on her first run at the European Championships, and so did not finish strongly. It would be great next year to organise a way for more of our racers to take part at this race, which I hear is one of the best on the calendar.
Adam
Gloucester Summer Race League
2nd October 2010
Well done everyone. A team finished 2nd on the day and 2nd overall over the 6 summer races, B team 7th on the day and overall and Arrows 11th on the day and overall. These were excellent performances. It’s worth mentioning that over 60 skiers represented the club during the season with 26 skiers skiing for the A team.
The course was difficult for some, so there was some great determination displayed to get good times in the morning. There were improvements from Amy, John, J J, Lauren, Jack R, Jordan, Ed G, Guy J, Anya and Matt W, an interesting battle between the two little James (C and S), narrowly won by James S and another good showing by the U15s with 9 finishing in the top 16 of 35 skiers. John used his new skis to advantage, finishing 3rd= in the O50s age group, a career best performance.
For the 5th time this year there was an afternoon head-to-head between Ethan and Matthew T, honours were shared this month with Matthew taking the morning and Ethan the afternoon. After Matthew’s experiment last month of missing 4 gates in a bid to win he tried to improve his start, just going a little too early and handing Ethan the race.
Thanks to Adam and James, our two guests this month. Thanks also to Lucy and Olivia for racing, both easily achieving top 30 places, their last race as they are now too fast, congratulations also to Sam S, Jack R and Rachel who have also joined those too fast to race. Welcome to Carys in her first ever race.
Top 30 skiers: Adam (3), Jack R (4), James E (13), Liam (14) , Sam S (18), Lucy (23), Ollie (26), Olivia (27)
20+ points: Jack R, Dave (25), Adam, Ollie, John (24), Jordan, Liam, Sam S (23), Ed G, James E (22), Gerry (21)
9 afternoon points: Libby, Duncan, Amy, Dave
Thanks to everyone who raced, thanks even more to everyone who helped.
Jane
Gloucester Summer Race League
20th September 2010
The day started badly with 3 missing skiers due to breakdowns in communications and vehicles, leaving us one short in the A team. By the end of run one it was worse, only 6 skiers in the A team had completed with adequate times. It got better from here, although improvement was still patchy in places. Liam and Jack put in good 2nd run times after blowing out on the first run. This was well done by both, they showed courage by going all out for good times on a very difficult course on their first run and then working hard on tactics to achieve fast 2nd runs times, showing a good example to all to follow. The A team scored a dismal low of 138 points in the morning, improving by 49 to give a final score of 187, not brilliant compared to 238 in July and 155 for the B team. At least the day finished well, despite the low points we were 4th overall, only 3 points behind 2nd, easily retaining our 2nd place overall. B team came 5th and Arrows 11th of 15 teams.
Improvers of the day – the U15 age group with 5 skiers in the top 10 – Jack and Liam plus spectacular improvements from Duncan, Sam L and Joey to come 30th, 34th and 35th overall. Other great improvers Anya, Ethan and Matthew T and good performances also from Seamus, Chloe, James H, Guy J and Libby A. These are showing the power of training, they have trained hard and well in the last 2 months and the results really show it so well.
Stars of the day – the Arrows team with a maximum possible 28 points in the final head-to-head run. Commiserations to Rob who was dsq on his final head-to-head after leaving his opponent standing in the start gate, it wasn’t him that was early starting but Chloe who was late. Congratulations to Maxine who has finally beaten her Dad after many years of trying, it wasn’t Dave’s day, despite his good points haul. Well done Ollie, not only winning the U9s age group but beating the winner of the U12s in the head-to-head.
Skiers in the top 30: Jack (7), Liam (14), Ollie (19), Ben (25), Duncan (30)
Skiers with 20+ points: Ollie(27), Dave H (25), Jack R(24), Liam (23), Duncan (22), Gerry (21) ,Ed G (20)
Skiers with 9 afternoon points: Ed G, J.J., Dave H
I have sent my mobile number to all skiers, it’s in the ‘Welcome to GSRL document’. If you need a reminder then please let me know. I would appreciate a call or text if you are not able to get to Gloucester or if you have any doubt on whether there is a place in the team for you. I will issue the October team soon. Apologies but I must change the previous team list as I discovered that a number of mails had gone missing and I had not received availability details from many who had asked for places. It may be that some skiers who raced in September will not have a place in October, but don’t despair, the fun race on 15th October and the Lockwoods Cup on 14th November, both at Ackers will fill the gap. These are both races for all, you can bring your friends to the fun race, the Lockwoods Cup is MSC members only.
Jane
Scottish Championships, Hillend, Edinburgh
28th August 2010
Not a drop of rain, but it was certainly ‘fresh’ at the Scottish Championships at Hillend. Midland Ski Club had 5 racers taking part: Emily Dawes, Sophia Phelps, Nick Phelps, Alasdair Thorley and Duncan Thorley. All went to the Friday night practice, which is strongly recommended,particularly if you haven’t been before. It is £9.30 for a junior for three hours recreational skiing (3 hours for the price of 2, at any time).
Saturday’s two slalom courses were 28 and 29 gates long and slip gel was scarce at the top of the 400m plus slope! At the end of Saturday afternoon, dual slalom ‘fun’ races were run on the lower part of the main slope. On Sunday two GS courses were set. The wind was stronger and it did play a part in skiers’ times, particularly on run 1; it was reminiscent of this year’s Grand Prix at Pendle! Dave Ryding was on hand to present the medals and Alasdair came 2nd in Junior 1 boys on both Saturday and Sunday.
Experience of Hillend is good to have under your belt and all our skiers benefited. A rescue package has been agreed so the slope will be staying open. Make the most of it!
Carron
Gloucester Summer Race League
7th 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, moving from 16th October to 2nd October.
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 2011
Racenews from 2010
Racenews from 2009
Racenews from 2008
Racenews from 2007
Racenews from 2006