Bracknell Open

[dippytrout27]

Have just returned from Bracknell where I went as a spectator only (due not to poorly ankle however, but inability to do most of the elements!). Had a fab time, all the skaters were great. Well done to any of you who may have been there :bow:

[sceptique]

Thanks for coming today! It was really nice to see you there - and remember, next year we are expecting to see you on the ice! ;)

As far as my skating today goes, I achieve my goal which was not to finish last this time, improved my score a bit, landed all jumps and didn't mess it up too badly overall (just a bit). I'd say presentation was somewhat dry and the posture on the video looked as if someone pushed an ice cube down my cleavage. :lol: Nevertheless, I'm happy.
Now, back on ice - BAC is only 3 months away!

[samba]

Thanks for coming today! It was really nice to see you there - and remember, next year we are expecting to see you on the ice! ;)
Absolutely!!


As far as my skating today goes, I achieve my goal which was not to finish last this time, improved my score a bit, landed all jumps and didn't mess it up too badly overall (just a bit).

I on the other hand lost my nerve in the free and it just didnt happen, came last out of 3, probably due to lack of practice and having to take a year out of competition.


I'd say presentation was somewhat dry and the posture on the video looked as if someone pushed an ice cube down my cleavage. :lol: Nevertheless, I'm happy.

So that's what I had down my not to wholesome cleavage! these ice cubes get everywhere!! Sorry I didnt see you but well done anyway.

After skating so bad in the free I was determined to redeem myself and gave it all in the artistic and came 3rd out of 8, which for me is a result, especially as I had only slapped it together at the last minute so I left feeling a lot better than I did in the morning.

It was lovely to see Mr and Mrs Redboots, NickiT and Kateskate all of whom skated very well but I will let them report on that, although I must say Mr Redboots skated a blinder and easily beat me.



Now, back on ice - BAC is only 3 months away!

May see you there, the jury is out on that one at the moment.

[NickiT]

I competed in both free and small group artistic. I moved up to the intermediate class for free and so had no expectations to finish anywhere but last. I didn't have a good skate - been skating my programme clean for weeks but yesterday I had to abort the loop on my lutz-loop due to being too close to the barrier, I then fell on my change-foot sit spin (never done that before!) and finished with a badly held flip. It was disappointing but nonetheless I didn't end up in last place and even with a clean skate I'd have not placed any higher I don't think.

Our small group artistic went really well though - we had an absolute blast performing it and took the gold.

Have two competitions left in the next week for my daughter then we chill out for a bit while we get our ice re-done, so no ice for a week. Think I'm going to be rinked out by Tuesday anyway!

Nicki

[airyfairy76]

Great to hear about your experiences at Bracknell, and well done to everyone.

Hopefully, this could be my first attempt at competition in a years time. I am hoping to come along to the BAN's in September though to watch, to see what I am letting myself in for! I look forward to finally seeing forum members in the flesh and on the ice :D

[samba]

Good to see that we have at least 2 more new recruits.

Good luck to all the dancers to-day!!

[sk8_4fun]

I just wanted to say Well done to everyone who skated yesterday. It was so nice to finally meet some of you esp. NickiT, Tiggerwoos, Sonic, Mr and Mrs Redboots, Batikat and Kateskate, not metion the zillion other people whos names I'm not sure of! I thoroughly enjoyed watching you all and you've inspired me to join you next year (fingers crossed!)
:bow: :bow: :bow:

[chantelly]

Well what a couple of days! Thursday was fab, my artistic went fine, and we came 4th. My compulsories were awful, really, really hideous, just had a bad patch ice in the morning and never quite got over it (came 7th) till my free dance where thankfully my legs belonged to me again and I came 1st!! I'm really tired now and well and truly ready for bed! I noticed that the standard on most of the classes had risen this year by quite a bit and everyone did really well, glad its over now but unfortunatly I have my level 5 test on the 11th so back to the grindstone! :lol: xx

[kateskate]

Just got back from 2 days of competition! Was a lot of fun and I think I am right in saying more entries in all classes and a lot of new people. And a high standard throughout.

Thursday was free skating day. I looked at my list of competitors and once again , as usual managed to convince myself that I was going to come last (I talk myself into coming last A LOT! - not smart) in the intermediate free skating! argh, They were all good! Anyways, we decided to remove the axel from the programme and substitute with a solo flip and go for a clean programme. Smart move. I skated 3rd of 8. I skated what felt like a good programme. Not as fast as I could be but I did all the jumps and I think all my spins had the correct number of revs - even the back sit. Was a bit tired by the final lutz but I made it. And ended up a surprisingly third. Was v v happy.

Friday was dance day. Didn't skate a particularly good 14 step and was very cross with myself and cross seems to work for me and I skated a much better foxtrot and won the level 6 and under compulsories. Free dance went better than I expected. I fluffed a few steps but kept going and ended up 3rd (looking at the competitor list I thought I could hope for 4th only at the very best!). Very happy considering we only made up the routine last Monday.

Was good to see other skatingforums members here. And Sonic and Mintypoppet also both won golds in their free and dance comps respectively! Yay! Well done both of you! :bow: :bow:

[kateskate]

Well what a couple of days! Thursday was fab, my artistic went fine, and we came 4th. My compulsories were awful, really, really hideous, just had a bad patch ice in the morning and never quite got over it (came 7th) till my free dance where thankfully my legs belonged to me again and I came 1st!! I'm really tired now and well and truly ready for bed! I noticed that the standard on most of the classes had risen this year by quite a bit and everyone did really well, glad its over now but unfortunatly I have my level 5 test on the 11th so back to the grindstone! :lol: xx

You skated a very lovely free dance! Well done!

[BatikatII]

Well either my skating is getting worse or everyone else is just getting so much better! 8O :lol:

Not a good competition for me. Really did not skate my best in the free. Not helped by being told by gate steward and comp sec that there'd be an extra ice cut before our group, only to find when I'd walked up the rink that they'd changed their minds and I was watching my group go skating past in the warm up. Sprinting back down in blade guards and missing most of the warm up was not a good way to start! Felt very shaky and didn't do anything very well except my loop which I was pleased with. Ah well - can't win em all! (or any of them !!!!).

Consolation prize was getting the cup in the under level 2 Improvisation. Pity there was no competition though! There was about 8 people doing it last year so where was everyone? I did feel I earned it, as the music was not the easiest to skate to - very marchy - and as usual all my plans vanished from my brain once the music started, so I really do make it up on the spot. Got really good marks from the judges for it - much better than for my free. Obviously I am better at instant choreography than anything I've practised!:lol:

Dance day started off abysmally. I had skated both dances pretty well in practices but was marked very low. I'm really not a compulsories person though and perhaps it shows. Still I've been second in that level previously so to end up 6th of 9 was very disappointing. Have to believe the standard was a lot higher than before. Also I've only really come back to dance the last few months and spent a lot of time on field moves and free dance rather than compulsories which I don't enjoy.

Things improved in the free dance - although I found myself skating in a higher group than I expected since the rules changed while I was away from dance (gave it up two years ago when my original dance coach moved away)so instead of counting just compulsory level (I have level 2), they now count the free dance ( I have level 3). This would make sense, except that many people seem to have high level compulsories but haven't taken many free dance tests. The winner of our group was a 19 year old who has level 7 CD's. Funnily enough she and I started on the same learn to skate course but of course as a kid she has done a lot more skating than me and competed at the solo dance championships. She's a nice kid and shares my (current) dance coach and hopefully won't bother doing the low level dance next time! However I was pleased to end up 4th, above skaters I hadn't expected to be able to beat - especially with my slightly risky choice of music! 8-) And I did enjoy wearing the new dress I made specially for this dance. Will have to find more star-related music to skate to, so I can wear it again!

Day ended with drawn partners in which I got further than ever before by dint of getting a bye to the second round and then to my surprise actually winning the next one - thanks to my partner Will who was very easy to dance with, rather than any great skill on my part I suspect. Sadly I blew it on the next round by messing up my steps but probably would not have won that one anyway.

It was nice to put some new names and faces together and meet friends old and new especially those from this board.

[TashaKat]

Day ended with drawn partners in which I got further than ever before by dint of getting a bye to the second round and then to my surprise actually winning the next one - thanks to my partner Will who was very easy to dance with, rather than any great skill on my part I suspect. Sadly I blew it on the next round by messing up my steps but probably would not have won that one anyway.


I obviously taught him well ;) (assuming that it's Will Will and not another Will :D ) though I suspect it's more to do with Viv and Shirelle than me :D


Well done to everyone :) I'm really, really wishing that I could get back to skating again. I keep looking at my beautiful purple boots ...... maybe one day :bow:

[dbny]

Congratulations to you all! I'm looking forward to reading more reports.

[chantelly]

Friday was dance day. Didn't skate a particularly good 14 step and was very cross with myself and cross seems to work for me and I skated a much better foxtrot and won the level 6 and under compulsories.

Your foxtrot was lovely, even my coach commented which is very rare! Maybe that is what happened with my free dance, I was really frustrated with myself for nearly tripping on both my compulsories so I just got on, on my free dance in a right mood!
xx

[BatikatII]

I obviously taught him well ;) (assuming that it's Will Will and not another Will :D ) though I suspect it's more to do with Viv and Shirelle than me :D




Yes it was that Will - he was so nice about being drawn with me who never gets to skate with a partner and who has trouble remembering steps to dances at the best of times.

Somebody has indeed trained him well so thanks!:lol:

Hope you will be able to get back to skating someday soon.

[chantelly]

Anyone know anything about the photographer on the day? How do we get our photos? I have an email address for him but thats it. :?:

[Mrs Redboots]

Was there a photographer? I didn't realise!

We had a good time; Husband came second (just ahead of Samba) in his free - neither of them could have touched the winner this year - she's very definitely back after a rotten time of things last year. In the couples' artistic we had enormous fun, and were very gratified to come 9th out of 11, considering it had been thrown together at the last minute. The coaches, apparently, want to Do Things to it tomorrow morning and put in some jumps and so on, and I want to include Husband's fall and skate over the top of him, so we should have a bit of fun.

On Friday he skated atrociously badly in his solo compulsories (I know he didn't want to do that class, he wanted to go against kateskate and frbskate63 in the level up), and finished 6th out of 7, just ahead of the skater who beat him in the free. In the afternoon we did our couples' compulsories, not expecting anything much, given our opposition. We didn't skate at all well, I didn't think, but managed to skate better than another couple in the Fiesta Tango and so finished 4th out of 5.

In the Free Dance, as expected, we came last, but I was pleased as the lift worked (I had an ENORMOUS panic attack just before we went on in case we had a repeat of last year's crash!). Our step sequence went terribly ahead of schedule - I know we missed out a slide chassé earlier on (we no longer need it - it had been put in as a "slowing-down" move into a Mohawk, and somehow it's not necessary any more and we don't do it in our artistic, so forgot in the dance), but retrieved that and still finished way too early! Rechoreograph time, I think!

Anyway, we came off the ice very pleased with ourselves, and as we had expected to finish last, we weren't disappointed.

What was disappointing, though (at least to Husband) was that we missed signing ourselves up for the Drawn Partners as they closed the lists with no warning. I didn't actually mind, as I was exhausted, but I know he would have liked to have done it. Ah well, another time....

I am exhausted today, and we have to gear ourselves up for the club competition tomorrow. Sigh.

[mintypoppet]

I had a great time spectating on both days, and won my class on Friday, which I absolutely hadn't expected. Now I'm inspired to pester my coach for a free dance for next year!

[BatikatII]

Anyone know anything about the photographer on the day? How do we get our photos? I have an email address for him but thats it. :?:


The photographer is one of the Bracknell skaters, John Bailey (he did the intermediate pairs with his wife). He has done photos of our panto and club competitions and they are usually pretty good.

I am assuming he will put the photos up on a website somewhere but haven't seen him since the comp and we have no ice this week.

If you email him I am sure he will let you know where you can see the photos, how to order and costs etc

There might also be info up on the club website www.bracknell-ice-skating-club.co.uk but I havent' checked it yet so not sure.

[Sonic]

I had a great time spectating on both days, and won my class on Friday, which I absolutely hadn't expected. Now I'm inspired to pester my coach for a free dance for next year!

Lol! My coach is already being pestered, hehe!

There was some great skating - good to see lots of Oxford skaters on the podium yesterday. Kateskate skated brilliantly in all her classes, Mr + Mrs Redboots' artistic was hilarious, as was NickT and co's nun artistic - had everyone in stitches.

I was overjoyed to win my free skate, and Tiggerwoos got third. It was quite a big class and we felt the standard was high, so not a hollow victory.

PS What are you going to do with all these gold medals, Mintypoppet? :-)

S xxx

[mintypoppet]

PS What are you going to do with all these gold medals, Mintypoppet? :-)

Dunno. Still trying to work out how to get the chocolate out of them... :halo: