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).

And then the rain came down! And how did it come down! Pendle is not the longest slope, even though it has been lengthened this year, yet the clouds came in and at one stage from the start you could not see beyond the fifth gate (see picture)!  While the natural sprinkling system prevailed, the racing was as fast and furious as ever!

Alice Thelwell won the girls race, edging out Emily Goddard and Rachel Adcock, while Georgie Hunt convincingly won the men's race ahead of Lloyd Papantoniou and Andy Roose.  The deteriorating weather conditions as the day wore on unusually saw times get slower rather than faster on the final run.  Getting two consistent runs in was the problem for many of the racers, many racers struggled on the third run as the rain and wind lashed down across the slope.

Pendle Ski Club and their members have done a great job in lengthening the slope and yet it was sad that the bottom of the slope tapers of to be very flat.  They have lost the last bump and this too means the slope loses some of the speed at the bottom.  With the improvements to the club house, the slope and its facilities have gained in stature amongst the racing fraternity.

In the age groups Sarah Ayling Bate comfortably took the children 1 girls victory ahead of Olivia Parker and Alice Chew.  In the boys race, Dan Evans finished ahead of Ashley Richards with David Freeman and Max Wheatman sharing third place.

Children 2 saw a great result for Hannah Knowles as she stormed into fourth place overall. Kirsty Hatcher and Heidi Parker took the other places on the podium.  Knowles has, on her day, great technique, yet like many of this age group is almost scared to show her ability.  Confidence going quickly takes time to develop yet once a racer has this confidence, harnessing it and cultivating it so that they use the speed at every race is vital.  Knowles has regularly been starting in the top 15 starters yet this performance showed she was worth her starting position! In the boys race in this age group, one of the most improved young racers of this season, Marcus Orrell, took a well deserved victory ahead of fast improving Hemel racer, Gerard Flahive and Bradley Morgan.  Orrell started 33 and ended up comfortably inside the top 20 finishers.  Orrell's third run time was among the top ten on that run (8th fastest) and this was not his fastest run!  Flahive let slip a promising result with a poor final run.

Junior 1 was taken by Abby Clifford.  Clifford came out on the second run yet her two runs either side were steady but not to the level she showed at Wycombe earlier in the summer.  Kathryn Barber and Lauren Cadman took the remaining places on the podium.  Barber has slowly been edging closer to the top of the leader board and this result is testament to the training that she has been putting in over the summer.  Lloyd Papantoniou edged out Andy Roose and Callum Henderson in the age group as the three Junior 1 boys all made the top 10 overall. Papantoniou's second run was the quickest run of the day apart from those put down by race winner Georgie Hunt.

The Junior two girls podium was taken by the overall race winners, Alice Thelwell ahead of Emily Goddard and Rachel Adcock.  Thelwell put in the quickest run by a female on each of the three runs, though Emily Goddard was not far behind her on each run.  Local racer, Dan Wyatt, took the age group spoils in the men's race with fifth overall and the only one of the Junior 2 boys to make it into the top 10 overall!  Luke Potts, in his first club national since recovering from a broken back sustained in April, and Colin Armstrong took 11th and 12th overall in taking the age group podium places.

Michelle Stirk and Janet Earnshaw Hamilton won the Senior and Master female categories, Michelle taking ninth place overall!  The men's senior group packed the top ten overall with no less than 6 seniors making the top ten! Who said that racing was over after you went into the senior age group?  Chris Pyle followed Georgie Hunt home with Tom Francis in third.  No less than 11 seniors finished with a further 8 masters also finishing.  Andrew Hjortt took the Masters victory with James Roberts and Chris Anderson sharing second place in the masters.

In the mini's race, Steph Davies took the spoils ahead of Alexandra Bullock and Nia Jenkins.  Mickey Knowles won the boys race ahead of Paul Henderson and Daniel Poth.

Oh where is the sun?

For full results click here

To see the thumbnails taken at Pendle please click here. Please mention the name of the racer!