With another superb entry and some half-decent weather, the 'grass-roots'
national championships at Peterborough Conington proved once again that to
maintain a front-running position in this sport you must combine a good
dose of disciplined flying with accuracy and style to bag a slot at the
front of the queue. In fact the weatherman had a pretty strong influence
on the amount of flying - only two sequences were completed at each level
rather than the expected three - and on the Saturday I simply lost count
of the number of times that the assembled company was forced to run for
shelter whilst an extremely sporting northerly wind drove heavy rain and
clag through the box in the 1,500-2,000 ft region. However we all
persevered, and a worthy result was achieved.
At Standard level millennium newcomer Gerald Cooper
headed-off his colleagues by a fair margin to win the Champion's crown,
although Paul Ambrose and Dave Hickson certainly gave him a good run for
his money whilst Lukas van Vuuren's early excellent form failed to keep pace. Gerald's
clear dominance however in both sequences left no room for doubt, so
here's one man at least who should be pretty pleased with his season and
who really ought to be setting his sights up at Intermediate next year.
In the Intermediate arena the battle was far closer, and
in the end only 4.1 points separated Steve Carver's Pitts from wily Nick
Bloom's venerable Stampe. Nick had in fact headed the list by all of five
points after the known, but Steve pulled back a whole nine back (in over
2,900!) in the
unknown to secure the lusty S2S Pitts in first place overall. Gary
Ferriman maintained his third spot throughout, despite a costly few
seconds liaising with a passing cloud late in the unknown. Running the
second sequence as the unknown instead of the advertised 'Free', in the strong likelihood
that there wouldn't be time for a third slot, certainly made for a more
challenging and therefore worthy result. Well done Steve - get that Pitts into advanced
next year then?
Steve Green's excellent judging line included Diana
Britten, Ben Ellis, Cadbury Dave, a certain Mrs Askew (AKA Christelle
Robineau), Alan Cassidy, Graham Hill, Bob Oliver and Patrick Margetson-Rushmore.
Jen Buckenham tinkled the keys to provide an impeccable results service,
and yours truly had a thoroughly enjoyable time engaged in Management by
Strutting About. Conington is a fine venue and great host for this event,
and long may it continue.
Nick Buckenham
Contest Director
|
