SRL 4th July 2009 - Robyn, Bryony and Kieron keep Plus in the hunt

Mercifully, a sweltering week relented into a bright and breezy July weekend. Well nigh perfect conditions for Race League. But Team Slalom Plus could not afford to enjoy the sunny July Saturday - this fixture would be about damage limitation.

Even June’s weakened Team had lost stalwart racers to rival schools events, holidays and injury. It felt like August as a squad of 31 had dwindled to 16 by race week. So the ‘A’ Team did without Livvy and Fraser Mitchell, Tom Paine, Creagle Marment, Luke Henry, Emily Mills and Chris Gardner. But Robyn Marment was back and she was joined by 8 year old Jolly Jack Holdsworth making his ‘A’ Team debut. Big sister Lauren kept him company, wreaking of Stroud High sophistication, as did second debutant Terry Jeynes wreaking of his dairy herd. Phil Gardner had renounced his 5 year sabbatical and was back in racing trim too.

Otherwise, it was June’s starting line-up featuring Bryony Goddard-Jones bristling with competitive aggression, cool-hand Kieron Tyrrell, matinee idol Ollie Andrew, bendy Mike Stephens and Dave (the Beast) Brennan. A cast fit for Big Brother 2009.

That left Bulldog Ben McKinley leading the ‘B’s aided by calamity Alex Jeynes. Alex never lets a hair out of place and certainly does not smell of cows. Just wanted to make that clear. Oh yes, and equally well turned out on the runway were aspiring Angels Gabriella Anderson, Holly Becket, Mela Roberts and Shannon Tyrrell.

Harlequins ‘A’ enjoyed its second successive team of 10. Ethan Davies, Aaron Powell and Jordan Rigby formed the under 9s group. Joe Lawrence, James and Heather Askew tipped the sun-dial at under 12, 15 and 20. Tim Bradshaw, Gary Marsh and Wendy McNamee are the wrong side of 35 and Derek Jackson is so old he’s either stopped counting or can’t manage the exercise any more.

Saturdays course was brought to us by Gloucester’s Headley Beavis. A good fast one it was too, with decent turns at the top and short settings to finish

The morning timed runs went about as well as could be expected. Robyn is back in prime form and logged 14.1 seconds for 3rd in under 9s. She was matched by Kieron whose 13.46 took 3rd in under 12. Back amongst the eight year olds, Bryony zipped into 6th and Jack laughed in the warty face of pressure with 10th. Lauren is really back in the groove, and 13.04 seconds for 14th in the 40 strong under 15s was excellent racing.

Truly, July’s under 20s was this year’s group of death. It’s the highest quality Race League age group I can recall, with 2 racers notching the low ten seconds. Phil’s 11.59 and Mike’s 11.82 were great runs but 5th and 6th place in group, 8th and 11 overall showed the seriousness of the opposition. Nor was Ollie outgunned, his 12.77 blast taking 9th.

Dave Brennan is as reliable as a Swiss timepiece. 12.46 and 2nd in under 50s is what we’ve come to expect. And Terry raced like a vet to 9th in the same group.

Fastest improvers in the ‘B’ team this term are Ben and Alex. Sure enough, Ben pulled off 13th and Alex 16th. Shannon, Mela, Holly and Gabrielle strutted their stuff in that order.

Harlequins ‘A’ saw best results from those with most rings inside their trunks. Tim and Derek both won 6th in their age groups, Gary 10th. Jordan and Aaron will have been pleased with 12th and 15th, as would Heather with 14th.

By lunch, TSP ‘A’ had notched 143 points, 4th behind Gloucester ‘A’s 165, Midland Hawks on 173 and top placed Western Counties’ whacking 177.

At this juncture, I must record my thanks to all the racers’ sponsors for tendering the exact fare (as bus companies like to say). Even the anonymous Peter Crews. It has to be said that Peter is the evolving king of the ski-techies – you could shave with Kieron and Shannon’s race skis, though caution is urged around the Bikini line. It is to be hoped that Kieron shows more appreciation of this in future by not practising on his immaculately prepared race prepared skis nor riding them up the ski lift for the duals!

The duals started promisingly for the ‘A’s with 6 wins on the first round. But only 8 more were notched on the next 2. 55 points was a tad disappointing. Bryony was ruthless, easily the quickest of any racer to react to “go”. Ollie too was undefeated. Robyn, Lauren and Mike took 2 wins, Kieron and Phil one apiece. Dave was edged out 3 times and claimed it was Chris’ fault putting his skis in the gate on the wrong side. A foul slander. Terry twice bounced around the Dendix but reassembled his bits to finish, before triumphing to an uninterrupted third run in second place.

The ‘B’s six had a cracking time. Ben had a clean sweep including the scalp of Jack Holdsworth. (Jack, you might want to ask Phil Gardner why he waxed your opponent’s skis?). Alex won twice and had a dead heat, whilst Shannon and Holly also enjoyed two wins. Gabriella won once and also fought out a dead heat. 39 points from 6 racers was phenomenal – an equivalent of 65 from a full team. Well done guys!

Harlequins ‘A’ had a terrific set of duals amassing a mouth watering 62 points. Jordan led the way unbeaten, Joe won twice and dead heated once, Ethan, James and Gary won twice, Aaron and Wendy won once with one dead heat, and Heather and Tim also won once.

When the results were calculated, Midland Hawks finished first on 236 points, edging Western Counties into second place by just 2 points. Gloucester ‘A’ were third on 226, TSP ‘A’ 4th on 198. After 3 rounds, the half way point, Midlands Hawks remain top on 683, a mere 3 points ahead of Western Counties. Gloucester ‘A’ and TSP ‘A’ are 15 and 52 points off the pace.

Barring an amazing comeback, it looks like the Shield will be vacating Chantelle’s mantle piece for the first time in many years as the current top 3 battle it out

TSP ‘B’ ended with 61, dropping to 14th in the league, whilst a best ever 136 took Harlequins ‘A’ to an oxygen sapping 12th

Top honours for TSP in July went to Robyn 25, Bryony 24, Kieron and Dave 22, Ollie and Mike 21, Phil 20, Ben 17, Terry 15, Jack and Lauren 14, Alex 13 and Holly 10. For Harlequins, Tim had a nosebleed with 20, Jordan, Gary and Derek notched 18, Wendy 13, and Aaron and Heather 12.

A gap of 7 weeks now follows marking the Race league’s mid-summer recess. On August 22nd, TSP will be going in search of miracles!

Chris Gardner