Details for the First SSS Winter Series Race

The first of this Winter's Snowsport South winter series races will be held at the Southampton slope on Sunday 16th January. The event starts at 10:00 and runs until 12:00. If you want to take part please let me know by 18:00 on Wednesday 12th January.

Tri-Region Event on the 16th October

Over the summer we will be sorting out the Snowsport South teams for the Tri-Region event at Brentwood Park on the 16^th October. The teams will be selected from racers from all eligible Snowsport South clubs and in all there will be 40 places (8 teams of 5). If you would like to be considered for selection please let me know as soon as possible and at the same time please let me know the size of shirt you will need.

All England Club Team Race

I need to enter the teams for this years All England Club Competition so therefore need to know how many people are keen on staying on in Norwich for the Sunday races. We will almost certainly enter two club teams so the only question is how many Open Teams we try to enter. Can you please let me know if you would like to take part in either of the events.

 

July Monthly Race on Sunday 11th July

On Sunday the 11th July we will be running the July monthly race.

Snowsport South Race at Christchurch 29th May

Before Saturday I could not remember a wet race at Christchurch but I can now! The rain fell in varying degrees for nearly all the individual slalom runs and for a fair amount of the head to heads. The timed course was set to take account of the extra speed caused by the rain and as a result it was very straight and some very quick times were recorded. Aldershot had a slightly smaller attendance than normal for a Snowsport South race but nevertheless we had some great results including 7 gold medals. The first of these came in the girls 7 to 8 group which was won by Sarah Woodward. In the boys equivalent Toby Case won the bronze medal as did Katie Standen in the girls 9 to 10 group. The boys 9 to 10 group gold medal was won by Toby Deighton and in the girls 11 to 12 group Bella Hathway won the silver medal. We had a lot of success in the 13 to 14 age groups where in the girls race Chelsea Hardaway won the gold medal and Jenny Davies the silver medal while in the boys race Chris Evans won the silver medal and James Sieber the bronze. Up to the next age group and the success continued with Ellen Hathway winning the girls race and Peter Davies winning the boys race with Will Reader winning the bronze medal. In her first race back on plastic Ella Slater won the girls 17 to 19 group and in the boys equivalent Mark Weller won the bronze medal. The successes continued through the older age groups with Nicola Cunningham winning the silver medal in the 21 to 30 ladies group, as did Avelline Deighton in the 31 to 49 ladies. In the final age group Graham Nayler not only won the gold medal but also managed to maintain his reputation by smashing a pole with his head and drawing blood.

On to the team races and for the first time all three teams made the final of the competition. The 11 and under team of Harry Deighton, Craig Speed and Toby Deighton were unlucky to end up in the blue course where the finish flag had a bit of a lag on it and despite increasing levels of anticipation of the flag dropping were narrowly beaten. The same fate befell the open team. This race was tight right to the end but again the team of Chelsea Hardaway, Will Reader, Graham Nayler and Mark Weller were just pipped at the line. The 16 and under team race was just as tight but in this case the team of Peter Davies, Chris Evans, Ellen Hathway and James Sieber held on to take the win. The fun team competition was won by the team including Graham Nayler and Will Reader.

Alpha Race Camps - Castleford Snozone

Alpha Race Camps are running a 3 day indoor snow slope training camp at Xscape Snozone, Castleford 16th - 18th August 2010. Brief info about the camp is: Dates: 16th - 18th August (Mon, Tues, Weds) 10am - 4pm each day Coaches: Jo Ryding, Benn Hall & Dave Tee Cost: £225.00 for 3 days (Slope & coaching fees) If you are interested, here are the contact details. Alpha Race Camps 07729 091077 gillianmhall@hotmail.com bennhall45@hotmail.com

Snowsport South Race Saturday the 29th May

Please remember that if you want to take part in the Snowsport South race on Saturday the 24th May entries will close this Wednesday evening. If you have any problems registering please let me know but if you miss the deadline we may not be able to sort anything out for this race.

 

Norfolk Grand Prix Weekend 1st and 2nd May

Norfolk Club National

For the first race report catch up we have to go all the way back to the first weekend in May when a small number of club members took the opportunity to race at the Norwich slope in advance of September's All England championships. The two best Aldershot performances came in the Children 2 category where both races were won by Aldershot racers, Hannah Bosier in the female race and James Sieber in the males race.

Norfolk Grand Prix

The next day an even smaller number of Aldershot racers competed in the Grand Prix. This time it was Bella Hathway who upheld club honours by finishing second in the female children 2 race.

LSERSA Race 2 - Bowles

It is very rare that a race comes up at a slope that no-one from the club has skiied at before let alone raced at and this was the case last Sunday when the Bowles club played host to the 2nd race in the LSERSA summer series. The slope is small but is in a lovely setting and overall the event went really well. The number of racers was disappointing but on the other hand with the very small area at the top of the slope it was probably not too bad a thing. The Aldershot racers faired very well in both the individual slalom and in the team races. We were particularly successful in the first 4 girls groups. In 1F Sarah Woodward won the silver medal and in the 2F group Alicj Krahelski also won the silver medal with Katie Standen winning the bronze medal. In the next group Lucy Woodward won the gold medal and it was the same result for Jenny  Davies in the 4F group. The boys also delivered the goods with Euan Chapman winning the silver medal in the 3M group, James Sieber winning the large 4M group and Peter Davies winning the silver medal in the 5M group. Moving up the age groups Avelline Deighton won the silver medal in the 8F group and there were further successes in the 9M group. Now dubbed the supervets - a reference to ability rather than age - the lead in the race swapped several times before Graham Nayler secured victory with a storming third run.

 

Onto the team races and there were more successes for the Aldershot racers. The Aldershot club team of Peter Davies, James Sieber, Euan Chapman, Graham Nayler and Hannah Bozier finished third in their competition. In the fun team event Brian Davies' team finished third, Ben Militec's team finished second and Jenny Davies' team finished third.

 

Arrangements for Sunday Training

Firstly, my apologies for the recent lack of communication from me and especially the lack of newsletters – I hope to address the latter at the weekend. For now though I need to let you all know that as of this Sunday we will be joining the two groups together for the rest of the summer and running just one session. This session will run from 08:00 to 10:00 although please bear in mind that we actually have the slope from 07:45 so there is the opportunity for those who want to warm up properly to do so.

Looking at the race calendar, nearly every Sunday from now until July there is a race which is likely to take a large number of one of the groups away from training. Through July and August we will see reduced attendances due to holidays etc and then in September we will again have races most Sundays including 1 at Aldershot and 1 morning after the day before following the Snowsport South end of series party. This all means that for the majority of sessions between now and October we will be able to significantly reduce our outgoings without major compromise of training quality hence the decision to go to one session. As ever, if any of you have any questions please feel free to email me or catch me at training.

Race Entries for The Coming Weekend

Dont forget the entries for the LSERSA race at Welwyn this Saturday and the Snowsport South race at Aldershot this Sunday close on Wednesday. If you have any problems entering either race please let me know.

Summer Training Times

Please note that as of next Wednesday we will be moving over to summer training times for the evening sessions. Training will start at 18:30 and go on until 20:00. At the moment there are no plans to split the group but if numbers are too large we will be considering a number of options including priority to weekend racers, alternating weeks and alternate fitness / technique sessions. Any reasonable suggestions welcomed!

May Half Term training days. Aldershot / Hemel snowcentre

Olly and Nick have planned some more training days for the upcoming Half Term holidays. There will be 2 training days at Aldershot on Tuesday the 1^st June and Wednesday the 2^nd June. These days will run as the last ones at Easter. From 10 - 3, with a lot of skiing and some video feedback in the afternoon. The cost is £45 per day and please let Olly know as soon as possible if you would like to book on to these days.

Olly has also arranged some training at Hemel Snow Centre, again with Nick and Phil Brown. Phil is a very experienced coach and was the Head Coach of the British Children"s Team 2 years ago. The day will consist of about 2 hours training in the morning, lunch, and then 2 hours of training in the afternoon, followed by some fitness/games. The training is arranged for Thursday the 3^rd June and Friday the 4^th June and will £70 per day. Again, please let Olly know as soon as possible if you are interested.

Breaking News on the LSERSA Race at Welwyn

I have just received an email with some more details on the LSERSA race at Welwyn. Sandy Telling writes “May 8th at Welwyn Garden City Ski Centre will see the first of our Aosta Valley promotions.

The race will based around the standard regional race and details of all the events can be found on the LSERSA website.

www.lsersa.org

James Gambrill representing the Aosta Valley will be there to hand out special cups and Bartletts will be adding to the prizes, along with Sage Physio, Bodyfactor and Snow & Rock.

Spot prizes awarded during the day will be provided by the Aosta Valley (and maybe Citroen Cars)

Prizes will be presented by Ed Drake (provided he is back from training) plus a special guest (who used to be a super racer).

All day BBQ will be available.

Hopefully we will also be offering the possibility of a holiday in the Aosta Valley for those who get the most points over the summer series in all competitions.

Do spread the word as all are welcome on what we hope will be the first of several fantastic races.

Club National Day Entries

If you are thinking about doing a Club National to see what they are like you can enter on a day licence. You can only do this for one race and in the past it was quite a costly option as along with the late entry fee you also had to pay for insurance for the day. Snowsport England are now waiving this insurance cost for racers who are members of registered clubs. If this applies then please let me know as I have a form which one of the committee will need to sign.

Equipment survey

Another survey, this time about equipment used. Different focus on the information as knowledge of what people are using can be used to identify possible avenues for sponsorship and other funding. The survey can be found at http://www.skizog.co.uk/equipment_used.

Snowsport South and LSERSA First Races

On Saturday the 8^th May we have the first LSERSA race of 2010 at Welwyn. Registration for the event is by post and the forms can be found at http://www.lsersa.org.

The following day we have the first Snowsport South race at Aldershot. This of course means there will be no training in the morning. On line registration can be done at http://www.srsa.org.uk. These events are run by the host club which is of course us so we will be looking for volunteers on the day to help out with start marshalling, finish marshalling, gate judging, lift marshalling and a few other things. As ever, the more people step forward the less time we will need from each person. Nearly all of the roles we can sort out on the morning but we would like to know that we will have a commentator so if you are a budding Murray Walker please let me know. Again, if more than one person volunteers we can spread the load.

Snowsport South Freestyle Competition on Saturday the 8th May

Saturday 8th May sees the first ever Snowsports South Freestyle competition. The event is being held at the Bracknell slope and if you are interested you can register at http://www.southernfreestyle.co.uk. There are £1000s of pounds worth of prizes and computers to be won in the individual events and the three event series.

Snowsport England Survey

For the second year Sport England are working with Ipsos MORI to undertake a survey about people’s experience of taking part in sport.  Last year’s survey helped Snowsport England identify areas that require work to improve the experience of taking part in snowsports and the decision has been taken to run it again.  The survey is now live and SSE would like as many members as possible to take part. 

 

The process is fairly straightforward, all you need to do is go to click on the link below.

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Snowsportclub

The survey is open until the 17^th May.

 

Race Report - Bromley Club National

On Saturday the 2010 plastic season started with the Bromley Club National. More than 20 Aldershot racers took part in the event which is a great start to the year. Watching course setting is always of value but this time around it was also entertaining. The course was looking "interesting" and was almost finished when an overzealous official decided to take over, get confused and then carry on regardless of the bizarre course that was left behind.

Bizarre or not, it did not phase the majority of the Aldershot racers and we set the tone for the year with some superb results. Star performers were Ellen Hathway and Hannah Bozier who dominated the females race and took first and second overall respectively. Toby Deighton also deserves a special mention as he skiied really well and won the children one group in his first club national out of the minis.

Talking about the minis, Harry Deighton won the second place trophy in the mini boys and after Toby picked up his first place children one trophy, it was time for the girls children 2 which is where Aldershot really are the power team! With at least one racer missing we still finished first, second, third and fourth! In order the successful girls were Hannah Bozier, Annie Usher, Jenny Davies and Bella Hathway. Still on a winning roll, in the junior one girls race Ellen Hathway took first place but then we have to go through a few age groups for the final Aldershot podium as Graham Nayler won second place in the Masters race.

The prizegiving concluded with Ellen Hathway being awarded the females race overall first place and Hannah Bozier second place. In all a great days racing made much more enjoyable by all the Aldershot success!

April Monthly Race Result

With several members away on holiday we had a smaller than usual turn out for the April monthly race but the racing was as close as ever. Fastest racer on the day was Peter Davies, fastest girl was Ellen Hathway and Craig Speed was the fastest newcomer.

Snowsport England Level 1 Instructors Course

Snowsport South have organised a level 1 instructor course at Aldershot Ski Slope on the 1st and 2nd May. Places are limited and going fast so if you are interested please let me know ASAP.

 

Race information Session 18th April

We will be holding an information session on the 18th April which will focus on answering any questions you may have about the upcoming race season. As it is primarily for the new racers we will be running it from 09:00 until 09:30 in the hut at the top of slope 3. All are welcome and I might even be persuaded to explain how seed points work!

Contact Details Refresh

On Sunday the 18^th April I will take my PC to training and will set up camp in the café area. At some point in the morning if you could come along to see me and confirm the contact details and medical conditions we have on record are correct it would be appreciated.

April Monthly Race This Sunday

Please remember that this Sunday (the 11th April) is the monthly race and that the session will start at 07:45 for everyone.

Freestyle Update

For the freestylers among you there is a Grom Camp being held at Bracknell on Sunday the 4th April in the afternoon. If you are interested go to http://www.salomongromcamps.co.uk/

Looking further forward the region is running its first competition series for freestyle this year. The first round is on the 8th May at Bracknell, the second is at Chatham on the 22nd May and the final round is at Warmwell on the 12th June. If you are interested I have a copy of the race poster with more details so please let me know.

Olly and Nick's Easter Training Days

Olly and Nick will be running some training days in the Easter Holidays, on the following dates;

7th and 8th of April

14th and 15th April

Racers of all levels are welcome and the days will run from 10:00 until 15:00 with a break in the middle for lunch. The mornings will focus on technical skiing and in the afternoon the intention is to use the gates in the afternoon and ski as many courses as possible.

The cost is £45 per day and if you would like to take part please let Olly know as soon as you can.

Level 2 Performance Course at Aldershot?

Snowsport South are looking to organise a level 2 performance course at Aldershot in the coming months. Before we look at dates we are keen to know how many people are interested in taking part. To attend you need to be over 18 and at least a level 1 instructor or have less than 80 seed points. Please let me know if you are interested in taking part. As with the freestyle course the intention is that the region will fund the course itself although it will be necessary to pay for the slope time.

Southampton Winter Series Race New Date

For those who did not know the Southampton winter series race which was scheduled for last Sunday had to be cancelled at the last minute due to a break in at the slope. The Southampton club have now arranged to hold the race on Sunday the 21st March with doors opening at 08:00 and racing starting around 09:00. Refreshments will be available and entry will be £8. If you would like to take part then please let me know by 18:30 on Wednesday the 17th March.

Ski Top Box Looking for a Good Home

Dave Fetherston has a Thule Alpine 700 Top Box clogging up his garage and has offered to give it to anyone who can make good use of it. It is in "pretty good order" and is complete and ready to fit to roof bars. If you are interested either let me know or contact Dave directly.

Freestyle Coaches Course, Bracknell

Snowsports South have organised a freestyle coaching course at Bracknell on the 10th and 11th April. The cost of the course will be met by the region but attendees will have to pay the slope costs of £60 for the two days.

Participants must be 16 years old and the freestyle course is one of the modules that must be completed for those wishing to become freestyle coaches. The other modules are first aid, level 1 instructor or similar and a judges course. To pass the module the participant will need to be able to do a 180 and ride the box rail.

If you are interested please let me know and I will put your name forward.

English Championships in Bormio

13 Aldershot racers (11 racing + 2 on reconnaissance) and their families made the long and eventful trip out to Bormio, Italy for the 2010 English Alpine Champs.

It seems that all possible travel & accommodation variations were explored some with more success than others, but all with interesting, frustrating & mostly amusing tales to tell. Whether you picked the short(!) driving route down through Switzerland, the long route through the Mont Blanc tunnel & up via Milan or the flying option with taxi from Milan, we were all met with good Italian hospitality, good snow & very good racing. Even Brian Long (Phoebe’s dad) was smiling after realising he had booked his flight for the wrong month, the Deighton’s kept smiling after having to pay 2 Euros an hour for heating in their apartment and we were all smiling at the prospect of Will Usher’s wallet becoming much lighter in the future after Annie’s excellent first foray into snow racing.

The racers; Euan Chapman, Oliver Deighton, Toby Deighton, Harry Deighton, Phoebe Long, Annie Usher, Will Wheeler, Jack Honey, James Sieber, Oliver Krahelski, Alicja Krahelski & with Chris & Will Reader supporting, recorded some excellent results proving that with some good training and a little talent our little plastic slope can still produce excellent skiers.

Results: (podiums in red)

Girls Slalom – Annie Usher 6^th Children 1 (21^st overall)

Phoebe Long 20^th Children 1 (41^st overall)

Boys Slalom - Will Wheeler 3^rd Children 1 (10^th Overall)

Oliver Krahelski 9^th Children 2 (13^th overall)

James Sieber 12^th Children 2 (18^th overall)

Euan Chapman 23^rd Children 1 (48^th overall)

Jack Honey 29^th Children 2 (58^th overall)

Girls Giant Slalom Annie Usher 10^th Children 1 (25^th overall)

Phoebe Long 20^th Children 1 (40^th overall)

Boys Giant Slalom Will Wheeler 10^th Children 1 (21^st Overall)

James Sieber 24^th Children 2 (44^th overall)

Oliver Krahelski 32^nd Children 2 (57^th overall)

Euan Chapman 37^th Children 1 (78^th overall)

Jack Honey 43^rd Children 2 (81^st overall)

Minis Girls GS

Race 1 Alicja Krahelski 1^st

Race 2 Alicja Krahelski 1^st

Minis Boys GS

Race 1 Toby Deighton 7^th

Harry Deighton 9^th

Race 2 Toby Deighton 3^rd

Harry Deighton 11^th

Girls SuperG Annie Usher 7^th Children 1 (20^th overall)

Boys SuperG Oliver Krahelski 12^th Children 2 (13^th overall)

James Sieber 16^th Children 2 (21^st overall)

The full results can be found at http://www.englishalpinechamps.org.uk/entry

Last but not least; Will Reader deserves a medal for persevering & mastering the art of snowboarding in such a short time…. a welcome new recruit to the dark-side!

Tri-Region Race

The date for the tri-region has changed since the publication of the race calendar. It will now be held on the 16th October at Brentwood Park.

Snowsports South Freestyle Series

In addition to the Summer Race series Snowsports South are for the first time running a freestyle competition series. Each event will be run on a jam session format basis so competitors can do as much or as little as they like. The first event is at Bracknell on the 8th May, the second at Chatham on the 22nd May and the finale at Warmwell on the 12th June. There will be overall winners for the whole series as well as prizes for each event. Posters and more information will be available soon.

Welcome to Our Latest Members

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the probationary period for this year's new intake of racers has come to an end and all have been fully accepted into the club. Congratulations and welcome to Adam Bannister, Toby Case, Lucy Kahve, Alicj Krahelski, Oliver Krahelski, Josh McCusker, Victoria Servaes, James Sieber and Craig Speed.

Monthly Race on Sunday 10th January

Just a gentle reminder that this coming Sunday we will have the first monthly race of the new year.