Tallington ERSA 2011

Tallington Summer League Race – 3 July 2011
Following the 111 club members who turned out for the Hemel Summer League Race a week earlier, a mere four families made it to the scenic environs of Stamford, for the Tallington Summer League Race. One of the major challenges was negotiating the confusing road signs in Stamford without getting lost!
The younger club members weren’t too keen on the lift, which was tricky to negotiate. Neither was Marco when he had to escort one of his daughters up the slope three times sharing a tugger!
For those that haven’t been before, Tallington is a compact 120m slope, so it’s great for a confidence boost as you always get a good time (along with everyone else).
With a field of only 113 competitors (of which there were several DNSs), the three individual runs were all completed by 11.30am, so we were able to enjoy our picnic lunches in the midday sunshine – though most of the competitors were keen to find some shade after standing at the top of the slope wearing their ski kit in 26°C heat.
The course was set by Steve Saunders, and as there were so few of us everyone gets a mention:
Giulietta Bardetti 1st MINI
Romana Bardetti DSQ – happens to the best of us!
Siena Bardetti 6th BG2
Gianluca Bardetti 8th CH1
Marco Bardetti 1st MA1 (so double gold for the Bardetti family)
Nia Boty 2nd BG1
Harry Boty 7th CH2
Lydia Bradley 5th CH1
Steve Bradley 5th MA3
Josh Penning-Lambert 4th CH2
Matt Penning-Lambert 5th JN1

Marco deserves another medal for running up and down the slope countless times to get his three daughters and himself in the start gate for each run!

We didn’t have enough children or masters to enter those team events, so our four CH1/CH2 racers (Josh, Lydia, Harry, Gianluca) and one JN1 racer (Matt) made up a team for Open A, and managed a very respectable second behind a much older and more experienced Norfolk team which included Norfolk’s senior coach and the fastest female on the day. So well done!

All in all, a very enjoyable day’s racing – if a bit hot at times – but we really could do with a few more club members joining us next week at the Ipswich ERSA Race.