The champions!

Up early this morning, had typical Holiday Inn breakfast and then we were at the Norwich ski centre by 8am. It was crowded and we just managed to get a spot to 'set up camp'. The school had entered two teams, a U12 team consisting of four 10 year olds and and U14 team consisting of two 12 year olds and two 11 year olds. (Thomas was in the U14 team). The boys went off to do course inspection and there was much waiting around for the racing to begin. The parents managed to get coffees from the bar in the club house and some parents were on gate marshalling duty - Gavin was on 'gloop' duty - applying gloop to the underside of the skis after each run to lubricate them and make them faster. I was team photographer!

We knew the U14 did not have a chance of winning, as there was some strong competition in that age category - coincidentally many were ex- our school. There were 17 boys racing today from our school, 8 being present pupils and 9 being past pupils. However, the U12 team had a good chance...

The racing began and we held our breath as each team member came down for their first runs - no one crashed or was disqualified. Then the second runs started and we knew that the U12 team was leading. Thankfully, again no one crashed or was disqualified, though a few from other teams did crash and one team was disqualified (you need 3 runs out of 4 to qualify). The U12 team went on to be crowned the ESSKIA (English Schools Ski Association) national champions in first place and received a lovely cup. The school last won this cup in 2002 so the coach was delighted.

Despite taking many team and individual photos, they were not really ideal to be blipped so here we have the teams doing course inspection before the racing began. Thomas is in the yellow skin top, number 112. I quite liked all the racers set against the pale matting of the course. You can see the mist of the water being sprayed to make the course faster.

Oh, and I never got to see the Norwich cathedral. We were a good few miles out of the city and we only finished at 1.30pm and I wanted to get home in time to collect Murdoch from the kennels by 5pm. Besides, I was worried about extra traffic with the Chelsea v Norwich City match that was on today. I wonder if Delia made the players some delicious chocolate cake?

Here is yesterday's back blip