Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Berghutte Podiums Again at 2009 Thredbo Interclubs

Preamble

You've got to hand it to the stalwart Team Berg racers who come down each year, some for the past 25 years, to run in the (senior) Thredbo Interclub race - the biggest club event of the calendar year.

There is a deep-seated loyalty towards the club exhibited by our club members who take time off to represent Berg in Thredbo's Race Week activities. The reality of their contribution to the fellowship within our club and beyond is not always recognised by some nor understood. It's not all beer and skittles as many drive down overnight from their busy work day midweek to help out. Some sleep in their car as they leave Sydney straight from the office at all hours of the night to drive alone, literally turning up for the race itself, then to return home in the same fashion.

This year, Michael Hiscock (Hoose) did just that. On a promise to stop and rest when he left his office after work, he slept in the car at Cooma. And not a restful sleep either as he was always wondering if some twit would try and break in; this coupled with temperatures below freezing - a great night! Hoose arrived at breakfast time to then head up the hill and race in the Berghutte v Silver Brumby Challenge, somewhat bleary-eyed. The snow conditions were nothing short of "crap". Hoose did his duty over the next 3 days, culminating in his two solid runs down the Rossi Race Course on Saturday as part of Team Berg in the Interclubs and then he jumped back in the car and drove to Sydney. No rest, no presentation, and no thanks required! Strong stuff I say!

This is just one example of the characters who put the club first and foremost during this week at Thredbo. There are other like stories of course.

I know most of the competitors had serious work on back in Sydney on this occasion, yet nearly all the "usuals" made the trip - no invites required. Most of the racers were thrown into the bunk rooms together, enduring a cacophony of exuberant snoring with many other strange sounds of the night piercing through the tightly pressed pillows to one's head. Couple this with age-weary joints and the odd hangover, it made for a rather mind-numbing and memory scarred experience for some of the core players.

Berg is full of skiers, not racers; keen, competent and the majority not that young anymore, at least the ones that represent the club. A solid group of good skiers, not particularly great, but loyal to the club. With over 180 runner in the Interclub event, most of us race back in the "nose-bleed" section, enduring multiple ruts, holes, blood and guts, left by the "licorice all-sorts" running before them. They race amongst Olympians, national team members, octogenarians, beginners, virtually anyone who wants to enter over 18 years old. They race in all and any conditions, both physiologically and climatically speaking. They race as a team. Go the Berg!

Everybody plays a part, contributing to the whole. Marg Keith has for 20 years stood up at the start on each Interclub Race day, in all weather conditions, herding the runners from all clubs into the start gate. It would not be the same without her - most probably a bit of a disorganised shambles perhaps without her contribution. By the way, it was about -6deg this year with a slight breeze so not at all a comfortable situation to have to stand around and stave off hypothermia.

Even the Friday "day-off" programme is full of member's contribution and team work.

The Friday Night get-together with the Ski Club of Australia was a great success this year. It has been since it's inception for the past 4 years. It was a success because everybody pitched in to help re-arrange the dinning area furniture, purchase, deliver to Thredbo and carry all the supplies in from the car-park, source and collect supplies from the village, clean and dress the lodge to present as best as it does. This actually takes up the majority of the day, not leaving much time if any for skiing. After it all finishes, all the cleaning up and the return of the furniture takes place until dawn, ready for normal breakfast time prior to the big race. It makes for a long day........

The contributions to this night are split between the two clubs - a fact that many may not be aware of. The SCA provide their chefs, waiters, food and drink in combination with the work from our wonderful chef Caro and on this occasion Caz (ex-Kiama) who worked her butt off. Jen's tireless work managing and preparing the whole enchilada was faultless and Jude of course was her usual "whirlwind" about the place as well.

Our guests were most impressed by our club's hospitality and we all thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the unique bond we share together between our two clubs.

The Race

Conditions overnight cooled off from the rather balmy days preceding the weekend, so the expectation was for a "bullet-proof" race track, with clear and sunny skies.

Most of the expectation became a reality - but not all. Disappointingly, the fresh snow falls of Friday produced an uneven freeze down the Rossi Race Course, resulting in a pited combination of ice and soft holes scattered over the fall line. Even the very front runners found the surface uneven and inconsistent, making hard work of a perfect line down the course. Subsequently, the course deteriorated early.
Team Berg 2009 numbered 16 - Judy Lenne, Bruce Wallis, myself, Michael Horton, Paul Manka, Andrew Blomfield, Merran Wallis, John Shuttleworth, Nick Reader, Laurie Moore, Michael Hiscock, David Kieth, Greg Hutton, Steve Brady, Kristiane Price and Lyn Kearney.

Although a number of our A Team could not be there this year - Jono out with a femur rammed through his knee joint, Jenny McFadyen with a late call nursing her dog after an op, and various other obstacled competitors unable to attend, there were some commendable performances requiring some mention here.





Judy with two horribly corrupted knees toughened-up triumphing with a 3rd place in the Crackenback Cup (overall handicap category), with Brucie batting above his weight coming in at 8th place and 10th overall fastest time.

Michael Horton had a PB with two solid runs scoring a 33rd place in Christiania Cup (mens scratch event) and making the first page of the overall results in 41st place.

Nick was a welcome returnee for Team Berg, being first skier on page 2 of the overall results, and a strong finish with 35th place in the Christiania Cup.

Moving on to the team categories, the Sir Herbert Schlink Cup for the fastest team of 5 from each club, Team Berg's Bruce, myself, Michael Horton, Judy and Nick managed to bring it home on speed with a 5th place; a solid effort from the "mature" skiers from Berg against some very fast young skiers from the other clubs.

The next category is where Team Berg shows the rest of the Thredbo community just what 'weight for age" skiing is all about. The Silver Brumby Cup competition represents the fastest team of 5 on handicap, no matter how many members a club has on their books. It's a little lop-sided when you consider SASC and SCA have membership in the thousands to draw from, and clubs like Berg possess less than 400 members, but the category coupled with all the others, fits well into the whole scheme of things making the Thredbo Interclubs a true representation of all skiing talent, young and old, our speed team of 5 also represented Berg in the handicap fastest team of 5 event becoming the runner ups to Ski Club of Australia.

The fastest minimum team of a club is based on the number of members within the club. Team Berg's minimum team consists of 7 skiers, whose time are added together to establish the club result in these categories. Again, Team Berg showed they were no slouches in the scratch category - the Berghutte Ski Club Trophy for fastest minimum team on total time. With our minimum team of Bruce, myself, Michael Horton, Judy, Nick, Andrew and Paul, we scored a 3rd place behind the SASC and the SCA. Without a number of our top speedsters in this year's team, this was a very competent result.

This left only the final category's results and hence points up for grabs to be revealed, the KAC Cup for the fastest minimum team on handicap, an event Team Berg has won on numerous occasions in the past. Our weight for age standing amongst the rest of the Thredbo clubs is obviously second to none, with Team Berg claiming 1st place with a representation of Judy, Bruce, myself, Michael Horton, Nick, Laurie and Paul delivering the goods.There was a new perpetual trophy introduced this year, donated by the Roslyn Ski Club, named the Allsop Trophy to be awarded to the best performing small Thredbo club - with 400 members or less. With the strength that Berg manages to represent each year, it was nicknamed the Berghutte Trophy, and as expected, Team Berg became the inaugural winners of this fine piece of silverware.

After a tally of points from all the 6 categories of the Thredbo Interclub Race representing the Nekvapil Shield, Team Berg 2009 claimed bronze once again, with the SCA just being pipped by 2 points from SASC who returned to the winners spot on the podium.

As it was in keeping with tradition, we returned to the club for the celebratory dinner and then proceeded to the Ski Club of Australia to attend the final presentations of the week, the SCA v Berghutte Trophy - a set of pioneer wooden skis duly engraved and plaqued. There were many fine stories told of the day's achievements amongst the two clubs, but Justin Punch (SCA's Club Captain) stole the limelight with his cheeky accusation the the only reason they (SCA) had not won the Thredbo Interclubs this year was because Team Berg had not blocked some of the points awarded to SASC on this occasion, as had happened over the past 2 years. Berg of course told the gathering of around 60 people that Justin was unable to come to terms with his own inadequacies in regard to loosing to one of his own Nemesis's - James "fish" Fisher once again.

Lots of laughs, memories and a great night of dancing and other like activities ensued.

Thanks to everyone who took the time off. A great result once again for the Berg in the senior Interclubs, and a fine backing up to the Junior Team Berg 2009 champions' achievements earlier on in the season.

Berghutte is now endowed with all the Junior Thredbo Interclub perpetual trophies, the Val Parcell Memorial Trophy from the Silver Brumby v Berghutte Challenge, and the Allsop Cup and the KAC Cup from the senior Interclubs.

I congratulate all our ski team members on their fantastic successes over the season, you have done Berghutte proud and I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was a privilege for me to be a part of Thredbo history with you all.

I look forward to seeing you all next year when we shall reclaim the shield with a bit of luck and some of our secret weapons back in tow perhaps.

Pricey

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The Berghutte v Silver Brumby Challenge 2009

The Berghutte v Silver Brumby Challenge
Thursday 6th August 2009-08-11

By David Price – Berghutte Club Captain

We managed to bring home more silverware for the trophy cabinet at Berghutte Ski Club after enduring fairly lacklustre snow conditions for the 2009 Berghutte versus Silver Brumby Challenge.

The extra warm weather had turned the great snow conditions of the previous few weeks into absolute slush – resembling the very end of the season’s conditions. By the 1pm start of the three run event, the race course looked more like a melting glacier, causing havoc for any poor sole that had some knee injury to carry.

As per usual, the first two runs were to try and get an exact replica in time, with the minimum differential going to establish the winners of the Val Parcel Memorial Trophy, and the third run being allocated to the fasties as a scratch race to claim the fastest man and fastest woman title for the year between our two clubs.

Our 2009 Berg Team were:

Lynn Kearney, Greg Hutton, Laurie Moore, Michael Horton, Michael Hiscock Paul Manka, Andrew Blomfield, Merran Wallis, Dave Kieth and Bruce Wallis. I had piked out due to the knee trauma I derived from skiing earlier on in the day with Olivia P who had just returned from Europe sailing – hence the real reason I was even on the hill in such extraordinary conditions.

Berg out-did the Silver Brumbies this year by turning up early and being the first at the start hut; Berg traditionally being rather disorganised and perennially late on each preceding occasion. There were no real surprises amongst the Team Berg competitors, although Brucey was skiing on some free-rider skis this year, and obviously felt compelled to do a few royal Christies down the course, followed by a face-plant for his third “speed” run resulting in a DSQ result.

After the event, we all returned to the private bar function room at Berntie’s where the presentation and some re-bonding amongst the two old clubs of Thredbo took place.

The top 5 competitors from each club who had the lowest differential times were tallied up to determine who would win the Val Parcel Memorial Trophy – a wooden ski with engraving and yearly plaques allotted down the face to represent each year’s winning team of 5 competitors. The winner for the past two years since its inception - Silver Brumby, was hoping to get the gong once again with a tally of only 1.62 second differential from their best 5 skiers.

But Team Berg 2009 with Bruce’s 0.30, David’s 0.28, Merran’s 0.26, michael Hiscock’s 0.17 and Andrew’s 0.16 second differentials, tallying 1.17 seconds in total took hold of the coveted trophy – the first time for Berghutte.

In the 3rd run scratch event between the two clubs, Silver Brumby overwhelmed us taking the top 4 places, Berghutte’s racing stalwart Paul Manka edging in to claim the 5th fastest time. In our Berg Cup Trophy competition for fastest times in the 3rd run, Paul was of course the fastest runner for Berg, with Merran earning 1st placed Berg female once again. Merran has now plastered her name over all our own club trophies, sharing the Joe Manka Memorial Trophy for best of Team Berg’s competitors over first two runs with the smallest margins between first and second run.

Another great competition with the Silver Brumby members, and we have already found a new prominent location for the Val Parcell memorial Trophy pride and place in our club’s dinning room.

Pricey