Welsh Open 2002

The sun shone, the pilots came, the wind occasionally graced us with its presence.

Saturday was NNW on the Ice Cream slope. The direction was always off the hill, sometimes so much so that reflys were awarded.
The lift was really quite light and variable, and it was an impressive effort to complete 4 rounds.

Saturday night involved much beer sampling and a splendid raffle for some awesome prizes donated by Soarhigh.

Spawny Pete Rundle won himself a Sting, Nigel Potter got a Mini Corrado (with 2 wings!), Jose Costa got a Cyclone and Alex McMeekin won a Zagi.
Thanks Soarhigh - long may you rule the world.

Sunday was a better direction, NE on the Wrecker, but the wind strength was always close to the minimum.
We only managed a single round in cyclic conditions.

Highlights included the incredibly high standard of flying - it's a real shame the conditions didn't allow pilots like Bennett, Cubbit and Woods (to name but a few) to make the impact they should.
Lowlights included a grumpy CD who forgot to take his evening primrose oil and the continuing rise of Ade Law as a flying force to be reckoned with :-))

The results are below (5 rounds, less one discard), followed by a few photos - as ever click to make them larger..

1	Pierre Rondel	3859.3
2	Espen Torp	3693.0
3	Olivier Bordes	3692.5
4	Mark Southall	3675.3
5	John Phillips	3603.5
6	Mike Evans	3541.0
7	John McCurdy	3527.1
8	Jose Costa	3439.7
9	Ade Law	3417.3
10	Greg Dakin	3414.5
11	Kevin Newton	3408.2
12	Jon Eddison	3348.0
13	Peter Rundle	3336.7
14	Alex McMeekin	3306.4
15	Dave Wright	3276.7
16	Julio Luz	3228.5
17	Alistair Sutherland	3205.9
18	John Bennett	3204.5
19	Mike Shellim	3185.5
20	Nigel Potter	3169.1
21	Joe Cubitt	3168.1
22	Paul Garnett	3093.7
23	Pete Bailey	3091.1
24	Edwin Jenkins	3079.3
25	Penaforte	2988.5
26	Dave Woods	2986.7
27	Vic Eldridge	2960.6
28	Ian Mason	2782.7
29	Terry Gravener	2727.7
30	Guy Taylor	2668.1
31	Gary Taylor	2287.9

	Mike Shellim's multi-coloured Acacia.
	Dave Woods gives his aerobatic Rumour a good talking to.
	John Bennett has grown to 11 feet tall, or is that a Mini Ellipse?
	Edwin launches Allistair's Ellipse 2. That's a tailboom repair that I would have been proud of.
	Espen's X21. Really effective colour scheme.
	Greg's vintage Masterpiece.
	John McCurdy displays his red bottom.
	Mike's Acacia 2 again.
	John Phillips tosses John McCurdy.
	Jose Costa - good bloke.
	Greg's Masterpiece again. If only the design was less than a decade old this would have made a good magazine covershot.
	Greg trying to pretend he was looking forward to chucking his collectors item off a 1000 ft cliff in 3 metre per second winds.
	Joe Cubbit's pretty Pike.
	John Phillips and Ade Law spent many hours on Launch Duty.
	Mantelpiece.
	X21
	Acacia and it's boss, Mike Shellim.
	Tragi 702.
	Alex launching Joe's Pike.
	John Phillips' Cito.
	X21
	HLGs off the Wrecker, never thought I'd see the day!