Saturday was scrubbed at 12.00, with the slow moving front producing a steady drizzle on and off throughout the day. Lionel kept us entertained with his well presented and informative talk on judging. In spite of the weather the barbeque went ahead inside the marquee with Maz and Rachel working hard to feed everyone. British team members Chris Cain and Graham Saw came along to join us and a good time was had by all.

Sunday’s forecast was better, but when it arrived, another front had appeared and the kettle was put to good use again. The sky was overcast with more low cloud. With the two Beginners sequences scheduled we potentially had 13 sequences to fly so things looked worrying if the promised clearance didn’t arrive soon. Lionel was glued to his lap top and the tuggies kept us updated on the steadily rising cloud-base.

By lunchtime we were off again. Dick and Judi arrived just as the first glider ran in. With everyone working hard we got through all the planned sequences. The Beginners flew their sequence twice and the Inters and Sports flew a third sequence each. The Fox was also out with Maz and Alex taking the opportunity to practice their Advanced sequences in between competition flights under (should that be over?) the gaze of Dick and Judi who had joined the judging line. So the weekend was a mixture of sitting about interspersed with periods of intense activity. Much like an aerobatic competition I suppose…

The standard at Beginners was excellent with all pilots achieving overall scores close to or above 75%. The winner by a whisker was Czech pilot Paul Macha, but Gem Robertson won the second sequence and narrowly missed snatching victory. Lots of promise all across that class for future comps. At Sports we had veteran Richard "Charlie" Chapman holding off the opposition to win in the B4. Inters was won by Charles Baker, with some consistent and high quality flying, but Dan Smith winner, Dave Morgan did incredibly well in his first competition at that level by pushing Charles all the way.

Thanks go to: Lionel for making the epic journey from Aberdeen to run the judging and give me invaluable help in my first comp as CD. Windrushers Gliding Club for inviting us to stage the competition, providing us with such accurate tows, and allowing us to use their excellent facilities. Oxford University GC for kindly allowing us to use their K21. Jen and Sarah for scoring. Mike Newman and Nigel Arthur for judging along with Colin Short and Leonie who travelled up from Lasham to help out on Friday. The biggest thanks though must go to the pilots for working so hard to keep the launches going, helping with the scribing and most importantly flying safely. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a great team effort at a gliding competition. Next year should be very interesting.