Narrative
BCC 2024 Round One – Saturday 11 May 2024 – Blorenge
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to confirm that all with all of the flights now in, I’ve been able to ask the website to do its magic (thank you Tim Bishop) and generate the scores from the first round of the 2024 BCC, and what a round it was!
Up front let me express my sincere thanks to Dennis Trussler and Jonathon Price of SE Wales for generously hosting us once again. In addition, I am most grateful to Bob Mepham of UKAF for stepping up as Round Coord on the day.
In pleasant Spring sunshine, 75 pilots (and a healthy number of supporters) gathered at the Fox Hunter car park at the back of Blorenge for the mandatory round briefing which included a warm welcome to our first time BCCers and also lots of positivity for those looking to go XC for the first time (which absolutely worked – more on that later!). That done, the teams made the stroll over the moor to the SE take off of Blorenge and by midday the launch window was open. By that time is was also possible to see the first of the 58 pilots competing in the Dragon Hike and Fly Race make their way towards their turnpoint at the Skirrid.
Just after 1230 the first pilot (Richard Barber) got airborne followed at 1300 by Greg Burgess and thereafter the first gaggles began to form up and half an hour after that the first big gaggle left the hill in arguably the best conditions of the day. That group included Jonathan Stockley of SkySurfers Low Expectations team who defied said expectations to log the furthest flight of the day with an impressive 76.6km to a landing in the mid Wales wilderness. Also in that crowd was Marcus Collings of Thames Valley (or TV) Stars (see what they did there?) whose 68.8km flight was also to the middle of nowhere was also a notable. For both pilots, these flights, against the general run of the conditions were notable Personal Bests (PBs); a huge congratulations to both.
Thereafter as the inversion became very apparent and the haze layer built up, it became more difficult to get away and achieve significant distance, once again highlighting that timing is everything in our sport. The last pilots to escape the hill around 1600 had to accept weak climbs to do so but by then, a superb 52 of 75 pilots had been able to cross the 5km turnpoint flight threshold to log scores. However, with the conditions on the hill still usable, BCCers continued to enjoy the pleasant late afternoon (albeit hazy) sunshine and soared the Blorenge until around 1800, so there was very much something for everyone throughout the day.
Rewardingly, the day also saw a total of 14 Pilot Development prizes being earned. So, many congratulations to Charles Black and Charlie Paterson for Overall PBs (in addition to those mentioned above); Ben Davidson, Christopher Begley, Dave Harper and Deigo Chiarot for UK PBs; and Tarquin Cooper, Chris Hanks and Mark Fish for 1st XCs in the UK. Special congratulations go to Alex Lioubine, Robert Burgess, Micky Rodas for their First Ever XCs, a fantastic milestone which the BCC is always delighted to be able to facilitate.
Note. If any pilot has inadvertently not claimed a PD prize, or claimed the wrong PD prize (that does happen), please let me know and I can make amendments as required.
And so on to the team scores. Led by Jonathan’s excellent PB flight, the 1,000 points went to Skysurfers Low Expectations. In second place with 801 points, powered by Marcus’ PB are the TV Extras and hot on their heels to earn 801 points, with a solid team effort were the Skysurfers High Achievers, whose gaggle flying led by Russ Winters made the best of the late afternoon weaker climbs. A whole slew of teams were not that behind the top three with 10 of the 15 scoring over 500 points and most pleasingly all 15 teams putting scores on the board.
You will find the full list of scores here:
Results British Club Challenge (advance-bcc.uk)
And for your visual delectation, the SportsTrackLive scene for the round can be found here:
SportsTrackLive | Paragliding - BCC 2024 Round One – Sat 11 May 24 – Blorenge | Matthew Tandy (created on 16/05/2024)
That’s all for now. Many thanks once again to Bob and UKAF for coording the round. Every club is expected to offer their services to coord a round during the season, liaising with other clubs as required to host. It’s takes a bit of effort, but it’s as easy as it’s ever been and there are lots of people who will help you conduct the brief and the necessary admin; it’s also quite rewarding to see a round come together (count them all out, and count them all back etc), so please drop me a line if you’d like to give it a go and aren’t quite sure how. The only question now is when the next round will be; ideally not in three months’ time as we had to suffer in 2023 between rounds one and two. Keep an eye on the weather BCCers and if you see a weekend window, give your club coords a nudge!
Until next time.
Fly safe, have fun and keep learning,
Matt, BCC Coord