ESSKIA

 BRITISH SCHOOLS’ ARTIFICIAL SLOPE CHAMPIONSHIPS

STOKE 7 NOVEMBER 2010

ESSKIA and the racing year;  Out going Race Secretary (Rob Robson)

 As the Race Secretary it all starts around January when you start confirming slopes for the qualifiers wondering as to whether the same people you spoke with the year before are still in management at the various places.  Once that is done and Area Organisers are happy the Bulletins start to go.

 As you are all no doubt in the picture ESSKIA have moved onto the e-mailing process of entries etc. Contrary to the beliefs of some schools it does work and is getting better on both sides.  Along with the entries we introduced the BACS way of payment; again this is working.  Who knows what we will do next?

 Anyway down to the races!  This year’s Qualifiers were a sell out with a 10% increase in entries across the board which in layman’s terms is around 100 more athletes which is superb and your Area Organisers need to be congratulated. 

 We had the British Finals this year in Stoke on, dare I say, a warm sunny November day. Again the day was fantastic and it ran very smoothly allowing both Scottish and Welsh teams to get home at a reasonable time.

The athletes overall were a credit to your schools and should be congratulated as such.  I would also like to thank you all (Head Masters/Mistresses, Teachers, Coaches, Parents and Committee members) as without you these races would not run as well.

 Sadly this is my last report as Race Secretary and I hope you give the same support to Mark Vernon (Reed’s School) as you have to me and I look forward to seeing our Athletes, Coaches, Teachers and parents at many more ESSKIA races.

BRITISH SCHOOLS’ INDOOR SNOW CHAMPIONSHIPS

The idea of this new venture was floated to the schools at the British Schools’ Artificial Slope Championships at Pontypool last November.  Much planning through the winter culminated in the inaugural competition, held at Chill Factore on Sunday 9 May 2010.

It was agreed that invitations to the Championships should be given to the first twelve Girls’ teams and the first twelve Boys’ teams in the races at Pontypool.  This would then form the peak of a school team racing pyramid which starts on the dry slopes in September each year.

The call of early examinations meant that no Scottish teams were able to accept the invitation; this was very sad but four teams from Wales and fifteen from England congregated in Manchester for this first international schools’ event on indoor snow.  We hope it will be the first of many.

The help given by Chill Factore was immense; it was especially good that the Head of Racing there (Dean Rawlings-Brown) is an ex- ESSKIA Squad member and his hard work did much to ensure the success of the event.  Thanks are also due to the teachers and parents who officiated, and to the racers for providing such high quality racing.  As well as the usual timed runs we were able to organise a knock-out team parallel slalom.  This was enjoyed by all and culminated in a challenge race between the girls of Surbiton High School and the boys of Reed’s School – no winner, both teams disqualified for false starts!

We look forward to future events . . . .