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 7th
place and out of the race for Round Two.
With Heat One all wound up, the leader board showed Do or
Die in 1st place, Ihorse in 2nd and Mad I’Atters in 3rd.
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:
1st – Icandy
2nd – Mad ’Atters
3rd – Do or Die
4th – Ihorse
5th – Designated Drinkers
6th – Norfolk ‘n’ Good
7th – 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
4th and 5th May. Be there to see it all live in action
and check back here for a blow-by-blow account of the highlights.
