Hot on the heels of Turn & Burn came Summer Swine Stomp and once again saw us returning to Hog Hill. With the ever present treat of rain hanging over us no time was wasted in setting up. However it appeared that the forecasters had got it all wrong and soon the sun shone through.
We were honoured to have former British Slalom Champion Martin Pavey in our midst who was over visiting from Australia. He was reunited with old slalom buddies Alan Featherstone and Jim Slater as well as a few of the old Guildford SkateStar crew after many years.
As usual we started with the dual Hybrid and qualifying began around 2pm in the warm afternoon sun. The top 8 would form the A Group and the remaining racers would make up the B Group.
There was some close racing in the A Group round of 4 which also saw yet another friendly grudge match between Mmedo and Chris Charalambous, with the Pig City boy coming out on top. The round of 4 saw Louis up against Sam and Mmedo would race Van Dem hotshot, Harry Phelps.
Harry vs Louis – Hybrid Final (Photo by John Nicholas)
Despite a valiant second run effort by Sam, Louis despatched him into the consolation round to face the ever improving Mmedo. The final would once again pit Louis against Harry. It was incredibly close Louis taking the first run by just 0.22 in the second run Louis took a cone out giving Harry a glimmer of hope but even though he gave it his all and crossed the line ahead of Louis the margin of 0.08 wasn’t enough to deny the Pavel rider the top spot – the margin just 0.14.
In the B Group it was getting very competitive a round of 16 was run with a few “byes” to get down to the round of 8. Martin Pavey was thoroughly enjoying his racing and still oozing plenty of OG style. Again there was some great entertaining close racing, one of the closest being Rob against Trevor Baker, Rob edging into the next round by a margin of just 0.09 after Trevor took just one cone out. Rob made it into the consolation round only to be pushed into 4th spot by his good friend Jim “Nutsac” Parry Jones. In his first slalom final in the UK for many a year Martin Pavey would face Dread City old boy John Nicholas. Martin blazed though the first round but disaster struck on his second run and he DQ’d leaving John to take the top spot.
During the afternoon Trevor Hickey produced a very battered yellow Turner Fullnose – Martin instantly recognised it as the board he won the 1978 British Championships on. There were a few other classic boards on display too, Alan Featherstone had bought a couple of his Santa Cruz slalom boards along and soon there was talk of “proper English Tight courses” from messers Slater, Featherstone and Pavey.
Sunday saw us host the man who showed us the way when it came to slalom and downhill back in the 70’s – Alan’s father Derek Featherstone, now 80, it was a delight to see him enjoying our interpretation of what he began at Brands Hatch all those years ago.
While Mmedo and Louis set the GS course on the big hill “The Old Guard” busied themselves setting up a Tight course with 5 foot centres; Martin, Jim and Alan all showing how it should be done – with speed and style to boot!
Jim Slater – a picture of style and colour co-ordination!
With the Giant course set and the “Top Gear” times-board ready the GS got underway. The course was tricky enough that if you got you line wrong you would have taken a cone or two out but not so much that it was impossible to make. In fact all racers recorded good times with very few DQ’s. The same top four riders from the A Group Hybrid were battling it out for the podium places this time it was Harry in front with a clean run time of 20.540 with Louis in second place with 20.840, then Lycra clad Sam in 3rd on 20.910 plus one cone penalty and Mmedo also picking up a cone penalty with his raw time of 21.230.
Whilst the GS was running the 5ft course was attracting a fair amount of attention too. In fact most of those racing GS came and had a go in between throwing themselves down the hill.
After the GS a 50 cone course was set up on the hybrid hill – just for fun. Harry was the first to set the clean time to beat; which it was next run when Martin Pavey blitzed through half a second faster! We made the most of having the weather on our side and courses were skated long into the afternoon.
One of the highlights of Sunday apart from having Derek in our midst was when Trevor Hickey presented a delighted Martin with his old Turner that he had showed him the previous day. Martin was stoked to be reunited with it again and I’m sure it will be taking pride of place back home in Australia.
Martin Pavey with his old Turner that he won the 1978 British Championships on returned to him by Trevor Hickey pictured with him here.
As the day drew to a close the clouds gathered and rain began to fall just after we had finished break down – the timing was almost perfect! The Prize giving ceremony was moved into the café where everyone huddled round the tables creaking with schwag.
Slalom Schwag
Big thanks as ever to Michael Stride and Octane Sport for providing the ramps, timing and logistical support. Thank you also to Kryptonics for their continued support of the UK slalom scene. Big props to Sam Gordon for all of his unseen work leading up to the event and over the weekend, Timmy Peters and DAS industries for taking care of the registration and running the Longboard and Downhill side and sorting out some very snazzy mugs for prizes, thanks to Jorge Higgins for sorting out the slide jam and shouting lots. Thanks to Newtons Shred for their support and schwag for the Downhill and Freeriding.
Thanks also to St Johns Ambulance for patching up those that came a cropper and to those of you that helped out and came along to race and support another great event at Hog Hill. As ever we are grateful to Ian Coles and his team at Redbridge Cycle Centre for having us back yet again.
Last and by no means least a HUGE thank you for the man that started all this back in the 70’s the man himself Derek Featherstone – it was a great honour to have you present at this event, I hope you like what we’ve done with what you started all those years ago at Brands Hatch? Thank you Derek you contribution to the UK scene was immense.
A motley crew with Derek Featherstone (with tape measure)
Slalom Results
Hybrid A Group
1 Louis Selby
2 Harry Phelps
3 Mmedo Duffort
4 Sam Gordon
5 Ben Williams
6 Chris Charalambous
7 Paul Taylor-Crush
8 Tiago Fanha
Hybrid B Group
1 John Nicholas
2 Martin Pavey
3 Jim Parry-Jones
4 Rob Ashby
5 Andy Turner
6 Trevor Baker
7 Richard Searle
8 Andrea Paro
9 Nigel Allgood
10 Alec Brown
11 Trevor Hickey
GS Raw time Cones Final Time
1. Harry Phelps 20.540 20.540
2. Louis Selby 20.840 20.840
3. Sam Gordon 20.910 1 21.110
4. Mmedo Duffort 21.230 1 21.430
5. John Nicholas 22.620 22.620
6. Ben Williams 22.620 1 22.820
7. Tiago Fanha 22.680 2 23.080
8. Richard Searle 23.160 1 23.360
9. Paul Taylor-Crush 23.280 1 23.480
10. Andy Turner 23.520 23.520
11. Alex Ireton 23.640 1 23.840
12. Gavin Palfrey 24.110 24.110
13. Andrea Paro 23.900 2 24.300
14. Jim Parry-Jones 24.570 1 24.770
15. Alfie Osborne 24.980 2 25.380
16. Trevor Hickey 25.640 25.640
17. Nigel Allgood 25.430 5 26.430
18. Alec Brown 30.330 4 31.130