These took place up in Sunderland last weekend. So a wonderful trip up on Friday afternoon on the sloooooow A1 which took nearly 6 hours to get to the TravelInn. It was a bit of a pain as I had a conference call to listen in on as well.

Most of the competitors were there Friday evening for the open practice which went well. Saturday was a wonderfully bright day and two excellent courses were set. For the day I was finish ref which was quite straight forward even though I was kept busy at times.

Had a few issues with racers saying or doing the wrong thing, but a quick quiet word with them should hopefully get the message across. Over the season there have been times when some racers have pushed the limit on sportsmanship behaviour. On Saturday one racer went too far and received a reprimand from the TD.

The afternoon saw a trial dual slalom for the top 32 males and top 16 females, which went very well. The dual slalom gear worked perfectly and it was a lot of fun up there at the top.

Saturday evening there were quite a few of us at the same TravelInn and we ended up with a late night after quite a few drinks.

Sunday the weather was completely different. Was up early and out as was officiating at the minis race. This time at the top as start ref and wow how different it was up there, cold cold and cold, very windy. Straight after that we got on with the team dual slalom. About half way through the clouds opened and it rained loads and the wind really did bite into you. Apart from that the race was excellent and there was a lot of good racing taking place. As starter managed to have a good time with the teams and seeing who could anticipate me.

After the race headed home with a clear journey and was back by 9pm pretty knackered. The British champs next, a bit closer at Norwich.