Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
The first event of the day was the female individual ski slalom, with Kathryn Tracey, Steph Campbell-Woodward, Ieva Drulyte, Olivia French and club president Louise Cotrel-Gibbons entering. Campbell-Woodward managed the best finish out of the group with a respectable 12th, a result that sees her qualify for the BUISC national finals on the 9th of March, but unfortunately none of the other competitors managed to qualify.
The male individual ski slalom followed, with last year’s champion Dave Tee, Mike Perkins and Matt Cooke competing. Tee was unable to replicate his previous success at the event but managed to win the first medal of the day for York, finishing in third place. Perkins will join Tee in the BUiSC finals after finishing 13th but Cooke didn’t manage to qualify.
The best result of the day came in the next event, where Marlies Neuner improved on her second place finish in the female individual snowboard slalom last year by winning gold for York. Her winning time of 20.42 seconds was a massive 2.94 seconds ahead of second place. With any luck Neuner will be able to improve on her second place finish in BUISC finals last year and take home another gold.
York had no shortage of competitors in the male individual snowboard slalom, with Tom Farrow, Paul James Oates, Rhys Oakley, Ryan de Olivera, Sam Stonehouse and Sigurd Røed Scheistrøen all entering. Oates managed to qualify after finishing 12th but the best result was for snowboard race captain Farrow, who finished second, only three hundredths of a second behind first place.
There was a moment of controversy after Farrow’s run, as it appeared that he might have gone over, instead of around, a gate. It took two officials to look at his tracks in the snow before it was ruled that his run was legitimate, meaning he won silver in the event.
After the individual races the team dual races took centre stage. The ski seconds team, made up of Tracey, French, Cotrel-Gibbons, Emily Bird and Ross Morrison made it to the second round before being knocked out by a strong Durham first team. The ski first team (Tee, Perkins, Cooke, Campbell-Woodward and Drulyte) won their first race to set up a second round race against old rivals Lancaster. With pre-Roses bragging rights and a place in the national finals at stake, all was to play for. The white rose didn’t disappoint, scoring an easy victory.
The quarter-final race against Leeds firsts was an incident packed affair, with both teams having one skier fall down during the race, resulting in valuable time being lost. However Leeds proved too strong for the firsts and halted their progress.
The board team were lucky enough to have two medal winners in their ranks for their races, as joining Neuner and Farrow were Oates, Oakley and Scheistrøen. The boarders managed to go one better than their skiing counterparts, reaching the semi-finals before being knocked out by Manchester firsts. However, York’s boarders picked themselves up to win their 4th place play off against Newcastle firsts, winning yet another medal for York.
The racing then took a back seat as the slopestyle freestyle took over. Snowboard racers Farrow, Oates and Oakley also competed in this event and were joined by Morrison and Donald Van Eupen on skis. Only Farrow was able to impress the judges enough to progress to the next round. However the standard was too high for Farrow and he didn’t manage to qualify for a place in the finals.
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