Round Two - Elite Class

Heat One

Like before in Round One, Round Two was set to be on a very wet and gloomy bank holiday weekend at the Thame showground. But the weather had yet again to defeat the spirit of all the teams competing in the National Horsebaording Championships 2014, and seven Elite teams strode out onto the ground ready to battle it out.

As beautiful as the Thame showground was, it also came with some problems. The long grass that covered it caused the boarders some difficulty as it increased the friction between the board and the ground which inevitably slowed them down. The ground itself was also hard for the horses, but at the same time the long grass made it slippery, so most teams opted for studs to ensure a firmer grip on the ground.

As the morning session of Heat One commenced, all teams seemed to have the same idea in their heads and wanted to set the fastest time possible as quickly as possible. We at Horseboarder Magazine can only speculate, but we presume flashbacks of Round One’s terribly muddy ground continued to stay fresh in everyone’s minds! As fun as it was rolling around in the mud, it seemed no one wanted to wait until the ground got that bad again.

Do or Die were first out and set a great time of 85.84s, but Icandy, clearly making use of the path carved out by Do or Die in the grass, managed to set an even faster time of 83.11s. Then, for the rest of the morning, no other team seemed able to match it, not even Icandy themselves. Mad ’Atters weren’t too far behind though; their fastest time being 85.80s, beating Do or Die. Ihorse came trotting in behind them with 90.72s. And our reigning National Champs, Dead Pigeon, failed to even complete a run.

There were two teams, Norfolk ‘n’ Good and Designated Drinkers, who faced a change to their line up and both teams seemed to be finding it difficult to gel at first. Norfolk ‘n’ Good, in the absence of their usual boarder Allen Hare, used stand-in boarder Aiden Beamish and although the team set times for each run, they weren’t as fast as normal. Their fastest came in at 107.59s. Designated Drinkers, however, were a little faster with their boarder Luca Grillo who had never entered a competition before and who had never raced the Elite course before. Hats off to you, Luca, for your valiant effort! Designated Drinkers managed to score a time of 101.66s.

So at the end of the morning session of Heat One, the rankings were as follows: Icandy, Mad ’Atters, Do or Die, Ihorse, Designated Drinkers, Norfolk ‘n’ Good and Dead Pigeon.

Onto the afternoon session of Heat One and the long grass had been flattened over the duration of the morning session, so our teams were fired up and determined to beat their set times. Unfortunately there had been some light drizzle, making the ground slicker to race on. Would this hinder or help our teams? Let’s find out.

Do or Die raced first again and, going for glory, they smashed Icandy’s morning time and set a new fastest time of 81.46s. Then Icandy, perhaps a little too unsettled by Do or Die’s new time, unfortunately failed to set a time in the afternoon session and were unable to beat Do or Die. The majority of the other teams, however, managed to improve on their times. The most successful at beating their own time was Norfolk ‘n’ Good, who were clearly beginning to gel quite well now and managed to shave 9.59s by scoring a new time of 98.00s. Still, this wasn’t enough to come in the top three. Ihorse also improved greatly on their morning session by 7.9s and getting a score of 82.82s. Designated Drinkers kept up their pace they had set before and scored a respectable 91.75s but Mad ’Atters were still way out ahead of them with 83.50s.

The last team to race, with no completed runs in the morning session, were Dead Pigeons. When they loaded themselves up in the pits, most thought they would have a conservative run, because if they had no score for Heat One, they would not be able to gain an average score for the Round (as it is made from the best score on Heat One and best score of Heat Two). However, no conservative run came from the pigeons as they rocketed out of the starting pits, not holding anything back. As they made it through the cross over section of the course, they past the commentary box with a split time of 70.03 seconds - exactly the same as Do or Die.

Charlie Buss let the throttle out on Nabo as they flew round the last corner and as they turned on to the straight, only 30 meters away from the finish line, Ross got taken on to his toes. The crowd let out a gasp of horror as Ross was thrown to the floor and Charlie and Nabo crossed the finish line with no boarder and no recorded time. This left Dead Pigeon in 7^th place and out of the race for Round Two.

With Heat One all wound up, the leader board showed Do or Die in 1^st place, Ihorse in 2^nd and Mad I’Atters in 3^rd. But with another Heat left in Round Two, and only 2 seconds between the top three positions, it could all change. So let’s see what happened.

Heat Two

The morning session didn’t start off too well for our current leaders, Do or Die, as they missed a gate and only manage to register 110.38s. Icandy took full advantage of this, gaining 82.29s and once again taking the top spot whereas Mad ’Atters and Ihorse, who had both done so well in Heat One, didn’t register a time at all for their morning session. Designated Drinkers, however, continued at a steady pace and got 94.50s with their new boarder Luca looking extremely comfortable on his board. But Norfolk ‘n’ Good seemed to be having troubles once again and only managed 107.83. Dead Pigeon appeared to be back on form again and registered one of the fastest times of the weekend at 81.36s but it still couldn’t put them in the running. It just goes to show, though, what a formidable force they still can be.

In the afternoon session, neither Dead Pigeon nor Norfolk ‘n’ Good nor Icandy managed to secure a time. Ihorse managed to put in a time of 85.06s this time, but it still wasn’t enough to match Icandy’s morning time. Designated Drinkers built steadily on their times and managed 93.45s but it still wasn’t enough for the top three. Do or Die registered a time on their last run of 85.53s which placed them in second but, at the last minute, Mad ’Atters gained a 82.56s run, knocking Do or Die into third.

So, at the end of Heats One and Two, and to sum up the weekend, the positions were as follows:

1^st – Icandy

2^nd – Mad ’Atters

3^rd – Do or Die

4^th – Ihorse

5^th – Designated Drinkers

6^th – Norfolk ‘n’ Good

7^th – Dead Pigeon

With less than 4 seconds between the top three teams, there’s still everything to play for in the coming Rounds. Who have you got your bets on?

Round Four is on its way to the Hampshire County Fair on the 4^th and 5^th May. Be there to see it all live in action and check back here for a blow-by-blow account of the highlights.