L a t e s t  n e w s ..... Rachel Adcock and Gerard Flahive win both races at Scottish Dry Slope Championships ...

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams' (Eleanor Roosevelt).

Sunday dawned and those that had been camping arrived with tales of the Cockrell that had woken them up at four in the morning.  With David Ryding knowing that he could secure the Overall Grand Prix Title if he won, there were a number of racers keen to try and deprive him of this accolade.  With the two courses set by Tom Ondrusz and Phil Brown, the racing was geared for some close racing.  In the end while Jayme Baggio took the fight to Jo Ryding, she was unable to pressurise Ryding into making another mistake.  The men's race however was were the fireworks really happened.

The women's first run saw Jo Ryding set the pace for the rest of the top 15 seeds to try and better.  Jayme Baggio just bettered her Hemel team mate, Shanna Prince in heading the rest of the field with Rachel Adcock, Harriet Steggles and Alice Thelwell trailing in after her.

The top 15 seeds going at the end of the run, as is customary in artificial racing, raised the tempo with each runner in the men's race. Dave Blackwell, starting as a late entry, set a time that stood fastest for a long time.  Martin Skedge, starting 32, was the first to better it emphasising that the young racers were not going to beat the experience of the older racers.  Jai Geyer took the mantle from Skedge and shortly afterwards Marc Telling lowered the time yet further.  The runner up from the Club National, Antony Heaversedge edged in front of Telling by 0.04 seconds.  Then came Adam Lee who edged 0.05 in front of Heaversedge and then came Ryding.  Ryding was the first to go under the 13 second mark.  Three years ago Georgie Hunt was almost unbeatable on the artificial slopes and with his first run bettering Ryding's, people began to think if he had got his form of yesteryear back.  Such was the closeness of the first run, Stuart Riches was just over a second behind the leader and yet stood in 18th place after the first run!

The second run saw thrills, spills and was a great advert for Artificial Ski racing!  Alice Thelwell was first of the last six to go and made a mess of things that allowed Charlotte Evans to stay on the top of the leader board after a better second run.  Next up was Harriet Steggles and while she eased herself in front of Evans, she did not stay there for long as Rachel Adcock did just enough to stay in front. Three to go.  Shanna Prince has been the Queen of Dry Slope racing but the new racers on the block are forcing her to attack more.  Trailing Baggio by 0.07 from the first run, Prince gave it her all to set a  target for Baggio (and Ryding) to beat.  Baggio, slower on the second run, had just enough ion reserve to take over at the top of the leader board and now had to wait for Ryding to come down.  Ryding did not make the same mistake as in Sunderland and was comfortably ahead of Baggio at the end.

With five to go on the second run, David Hatcher lead from an unusually quiet Dan Wyatt.  The threat from Jai Geyer had passed as he had crashed out nearing the bottom of the course.  With Marc Telling falling victim to the course as well, Antony Heaversedge put in a run that saw him put two good runs in for the first time in a while.  Three to go and with no space left for errors, it was a brave bet as to who would win.  Lee was first out and set a blistering time that was there to be beaten, it had the better of Heaversedge but would either of Ryding or Hunt be able to better it?  Ryding has gone second last on the final run in the last two races and it seems he thrives on the pressure.  In Sunderland his run pressurised Lee into making a mistake, could he do the same here to Hunt?  Ryding matched Lee's time and this left Hunt with it all to do.  In the end Hunt failed to raise to his normal standards and a slow, by his standards, run saw him drop to fourth overall.  Three wins out of three for Ryding and with the best three results counting, Thomson's Grand Prix Series winner for 2005 is David Ryding.

The age groups went like this: Children 1 girls was won by improving Alessia Thomas Jackson (9th overall) ahead of Sarah Ayling Bate and Emily Evans.  The boys was won by Thomas Kirton ahead of Dan Evans and David Askew.

In Children 2, Jayme Baggio took another age group victory ahead of Harriet Steggles and Charlotte Evans in the girls race.  In the boys race, Nick Robinson won ahead of Ed Gardner and Andrew Watson.

In Junior 1 it was Lauren Cadman that won ahead of Hannah Parker, winner of the most improved from the last Grand Prix, with Kathryn Barber in third.  Benn Hall finished tenth overall to take victory in the Junior 1 Males race with Lloyd Papantoniou second and Stuart Riches taking third on his home slope.

Junior 2 saw Jo Ryding win from Shanna Prince and Rachel Adcock.  David Ryding, Antony Heaversedge and Dan Wyatt were the one two three in the male race.

Lucy Newman won the Senior Females race ahead of Emma Yates.  The men's senior race was won by Adam Lee ahead of Georgie Hunt and David Hatcher.  17 senior male racers started this Grand Prix!

The Masters male event was won by Dave Blackwell who finished a very respectable 11th overall! Second was Martin Skedge ahead of Carl Ryding.

The racing was fast, furious and exciting yet for those not at the top of the tree there was the sad element of giving up too easily.  A number of racers exited the course after having made a small mistake or did not fight hard enough to get round the next gate.  On a longer snow course mistakes are made and you have to recover from them.  The young racers need to learn how to fight harder.  To come first you have to get down the course but first you have to complete the course!

For full results please click here

For thumbnails of your pictures from this race please click here.  Please not that the folder with pictures from past races will be at all the races.  If you wish to see the pictures in slightly larger format the folders are updated each week.