BRITISH SCHOOLBOYS RACES 2008
Report from Sam Shnaps.
Now in its ninth year, the British Schoolboys International Races found itself guests of the little known town of Meiringen. Set deep in the heart of the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps, the resort is actively encouraging ski racing and hopes that the championships will be run here for many years to come.
The annual ski racing competition has grown in size year on year and now boasts over 200 competitors from over 30 British schools, a formidable and most impressive achievement.
Over the years the race has visited Veysonnaz, Wengen and Les Menuires, and has been moved to Meiringen due to overwhelming demand from schools and individual competitors alike.
The event took place over a four day period at the end of January during which time three separate races were organised. A parallel “head to head” slalom race, a slalom race and a giant slalom. The racers, mostly British children between the ages of 8 and 18, performed well, competing against each other away from the muddy rugby fields of Britain, not only representing their schools but Britain as a whole in a foreign country.
Jack Breton and Alex Jeal each carried off two of the major trophies. The Andrew Bush Cup for Junior 1 slalom and The Chris Brasher Cup for Junior 1 giant slalom were both awarded to Jack Breton of Reed’s School.
Alex Jeal of Pate’s Grammar School carried off the Martini Rossi Cup for winning the Junior 2 slalom as well as the Viceroy Cup after coming first in the Junior 2 giant slalom.
Freddie Ruffell won the minis giant slalom race and was awarded the Berry Cup.
The Christophersen Cup went to the winner of Children 1 giant slalom Max Moss of Sir Joseph Williamson’s Math School. The Hewitt Cup for Children 2 slalom went to Thomas Kirton of King’s School Rochester and the Alice Elizabeth Cup for Children 2 giant slalom was awarded to Roy Steudle of Reed’s school.
The DHO training prize which is designed for the best racer in the children’s category who has not taken part in ski racing before and is not a member of a club, was awarded to Charlie Lickiss from Millfield.
The combined results in GS and slalom for British based unregistered racers were as follows:
CH1 Joshua Deru, King’s College Junior School
CH2 Charlie Lickiss, Millfield
JN1 Mark Tyley, Millfield
JN2 Max Treacy, Millfield
The Sunday Times Cup for best British based school team was won by the Reed’s 1 team, (Jack Breton, Jamie Reid, Daniel Absalom and Roy Steudle) with Cowbridge 1 in second place and Reed’s 2 in third.
Prizes for the British based school team of unregistered racers were as follows:
1 Eton College 2
2 Millfield 2
3 St. Paul’s 2
The SnOasis Cup for the best British based school team for children was won by Dulwich College 2 (Dominic Launder, George Dawkins, Maxwell Fry and Alex Guinibert). Joint Second were Hampton and Abby Gate College and third were Ludgrove.
In the parallel slalom the first school team was Millfield 1 and first in the scratch teams was The Ordinary Boys. The minis giant slalom was won by Freddie Ruffell from Beeston Hall and minis stubbies slalom was won by Harry Sutherland from Gayhurst School.
The Downhill Only Cup went to Jake Morgan of Bishop Rawstorne College as winner of the Children 1 slalom. It is interesting to note that 21 different schools won prizes.
The race, organised by retired FIS Technical Delegate Richard Berry and his team of miracle workers went extremely smoothly, which given the sheer number of competitors was quite a feat. Richard and Maureen Berry and everyone else in the team not only provide the organisation of the event with the requisite professionalism required, (Richard was a member of the British Ski Team and was manager of the British Olympic team in years gone by) but in expanding on the success of each year, have provided a platform to illustrate the desire of British children to be involved in skiing competitively.
Richard Berry: “We seem to have found the magic formula which has meant that the races have expanded year on year, and this year for the first time we have had to turn away competitors due to limited capacity.”
The races operate strictly in adherence with British Competition rules, and also count towards the British seed points system. The way that these races are run is no different to ski racing events for children in any Alpine nation.
The championships were sponsored for the first time this year as the headline sponsor by SnOasis and also by Base Camp Group, a UK based company specialising in ski instructor courses, performance camps as well as courses in multiple adventure sports.
The proposed SnOasis development would be the largest indoor ski resort development in the world taking three years to build should its planning permission be given the green light by the Minister in May of this year. Housing a “Winter Sports Academy” the development would be able to provide sufficient training facilities to allow Britain to compete on the international stage in all winter sport disciplines.
Godfrey Spanner, Managing Director of Onslow Suffolk the company behind the SnOasis development was in the resort and seemed to enjoy the races and the atmosphere of competition and team work. “Once again, it’s a great pleasure for me and the whole of the development team behind SnOasis to be involved with the races. It’s great to see such energy and team spirit from both the competitors and the organisers”.
Everyone is very much looking forward to a great event next year which will be the tenth anniversary of the race.
Alexander Barker
Stephen Edwards
Jeremy Reason
This year Schoolboys races returned to Switzerland but not before we had tried five other resorts in the Alps. It seems that the half term holiday in the Alpine countries moves with Easter and Easter being early this year meant that high season in the Alps had moved one week earlier into the last week in January and now conflicted with our chosen dates for the Schoolboys Races.
Despite opening discussions with two other areas in Switzerland, we finally visited Meiringen late in August. Fortunately we had checked out the race courses several years earlier and knew that Meiringen – Hasliberg has many attributes which are not apparent on initial consideration. Heinz Anderegger who had been training the Sandown club for several years, had recommended to the tourist office that Meiringen Hasliberg should open its door to ski racing events especially from the UK. We were delighted to find that the chairman of the tourist and hoteliers association Nils Glatthard was keen to meet us and it did not take long before we had the making of a new race venue. The biggest problem was going to be accommodation but little did we know that our main hotel, the Viktoria in Hasliberg, was to change hands on the first of January. With the resort almost full by the end of November we had to find an extra fifty beds. Fortunately the tourist office came up trumps and by the time we arrived in the resort we had filled every bed available and there were about 350 people coming to the event.
At first glance Meiringen would appear to be lacking in altitude and my greatest fear was to end up in a resort without any snow. Until you realise that there are four stages to the lift system before reaching the main ski area one may be forgiven in not realising the potential. In fact there are two race areas both of which are suitable for our events. Given the quantity of snow in the Alps this year we were spoilt for choice but the recommendation from the lift operators was to use the Hohbiel race piste which was well protected from the early morning sun as it faced westward.
The resort asked for a meeting with the Hasliberg mountain organisation three days before we were due to arrive, this was not a problem since we were taking a few days in Loetschental making final preparations and collecting some of the material needed for the event. However this was the day that a depression passed through Switzerland and closed most of the resorts in the Bernese Oberland but the meeting did take place and we spent all the time in the warmth of the Magisalp restaurant. So much to our surprise protection from the sun was our only consideration when the forecast promised three fine days of racing and not a day went by without the sun making the event one of the most enjoyable so far.
