Round Two 2013

Saturday 27^th April at the Norfolk Game and Country Fair

Arena Boarding 

This was the first time that Arena Boarding had been performed in a show and it was situated in the main ring of the show ground, overlooked by what can only be described as a three story sound box, which could probably be used to land planes, opposite the mobile grand stand. The ground was good with loads of grip to be had in the long corners in the 80 meter by 80 meter arena. 

All eight teams felt pretty confident on the Saturday due to the size of the arena and good ground conditions. This was clear from the first three runners of course A. Starting with Ihorse who came into the arena like it was their last chance to do the course and not their first. The normal tactic of getting a steady time down on the first run and improving on it in during the second and third runs was seemingly thrown out like last night’s stable bedding. However, Ihorse got lost on the first run yet again by missing a gate and having to withdraw.

After that came Kauldren, flying in like they were trying to out run time itself! Down the straight like it was the drag strip and into the first bend like some sort of Nass car, before Tom Kilroy uncharacteristically got thrown over the front of his board as he tried to make the tighter turn into the diagonal straight. 

“Here come the Dead Pigeons!” the commentator screamed next, as the Pigeons barrelled in but followed in Kauldren’s hoof-prints and fell in exactly the same place. 

So was that it then? The three big names, the crowd pleasers, each containing members of current or previous championship winning teams, failed to complete even half the course! But luckily for us, there was still more action to come.

The first team to complete a run, to great applause from the spectators and relief to the officials, was Designated Drinkers. The Drinkers taking the tactic normally employed by all teams - get a time in first and then improve on it - clearly chose the right path.

 
The Saturday heat continued in much the same vein, with Tom Kilroy, who was racing with both Do or Die and Kauldren, repeatedly crashing out. One of these crashes occurred before he had even crossed the start line and particularly dramatic to say the least. There was apparently a misunderstanding in the pits to begin with, meaning that Bre launched off aiming for the start line, but in doing so, unbalanced Tom who rocked on his board from edge to edge changing through three two-wheel combinations before losing control altogether and was fired into the arena fencing at what must have been about 20MPH. He bounced along it before eventually getting half his torso jammed underneath it and needing the assistance of other boarders, officials and members of the public to get him out. I would say he has most likely won the best crash of the season after that performance and we are only at the second event. 

Reasonably unharmed, Tom continued to race before finally admitting that maybe the brand-new top-of-the-range board that Trampa had sponsored him with, needed a bit of working in. It rode completely different to his old one and he had not had time to practise on it. After four failed runs, he changed to his old board and won the heat with Kauldren having only recorded one time with that team. 

On day two, Norfolk ‘N’ Good pulled out leaving seven teams still in. During the day, Allen Hare also retired after a couple of falls and Daniel Fowler-Prime filled in as boarder with Bucks Fizz to give the rider-horse combination of Rachael Simington on Candy the much needed experience. The team showed an interesting bit of speed which surprised us all, including Dan who nearly got pulled off the front of the board when Rachael opened the throttle far more than was expected. Despite this, Daniel had the worst day’s boarding ever witnessed from the two-time champion, entering the ring five times with two teams but failing to finish a single run.

When asked what happened, Dan said “People don’t realise how important the team work element is to the sport. If you have no cohesion with the team, it just will not work.” The loss of Laura White from Ihorse clearly had an effect on any chances Ihorse might have had of success this year. Horseboader Magazine can reveal that talks between Ihorse and Laura have been taking place since the event in a bid to get her to ride for both teams in the Arena Boarding.

Meanwhile, Laura’s team Designated Drinkers were steadily increasing the pace. Do or die and Kauldren improved massively after Tom spent the night modifying his board. His crash on day one had bent part of the trucks – this being in no way an aspersion on Trampa but a statement on the severity of the crash. 

Dead Pigeons set a good time in their first two runs but were still trailing Kauldren in the heat and over-all time average. When it came to their third run, Nabo refused to race and only got as far as the start gate before refusing to go any further. So after the allotted time ran out he returned to the pits where the team went into emergency discussions with Nabo’s manager over the division of prize money.

Four teams had to run after Dead Pigeons before the heat would be closed and their chance to run the course for the third time would be lost. But just in the nick of time, as the commentator was wrapping the weekend up with all the results in the computer, Dead Pigeons resolved the issues with Nabo. Functioning as a single power house again, they flew into the arena and devastated the track and all previous times of the weekend by 3 seconds in a display of complete awesomeness. This was enough for them to win the heat but unfortunately not the competition as a whole which went to Kauldren, who had once again showed their prowess in the sport. 

So after an amazing weekend of racing, the current Heritage series Horseboarding Championship positions are:

1^st - Kauldren with 17 points 
2^nd - Dead Pigeon with 12 points
3^rd - Designated Drinkers with 11 points 
4^th - Do or Die with 9 points 
5^th – Ihorse with 7 points 
6^th - Ambush with 4 points 
7^th - Dead Pigeons (2) with 2 points 
8^th - Norfolk ‘N’Good with 0 points 
8^th - Bucks Fizz with 0 points