New report of Chris Jubb from UK. Thank you very much for your effort ;-)
"Fish Meadow, always a nice venue kindly lent to us for the day by The Malvern Club.
L1 was the first event to be held combining both A and B leagues into one league. This was due to the low numbers of B pilots entering during 2008.
It did work well, although the CD Clive confessed to not liking the one league system because of difficulties with administration and manning of the bases. It does need a lot of understanding and help from all of the pilots putting of the tinkering and gossiping to man the bases and help expedite the competition.
Only new face this year was Neil Harrison flying his now very dusty Instinct home brew machine.
Ken Woodhouse was the B league pilot promoted to the A league for 2009.
All pilots flew the same planes that appeared at the speed comp so no new toys to report. The weather was great sun almost all day. 14 pilots took part.
Round 1 Slot 1 Duration
Split into 3 groups.
Lift was marked by circling birds and all took advantage
Mark Passingham (Ceres) 9:58 +100 landing bonus took the first slot narrowly pipping Bill Haley 1st place on Ascot and Dave Worrall (Crossfire+). Both falling short with 95 landing bonuses.
Round 1 Slot 2 Duration.
Ken Woodhouse (Radical) took the second slot from Norman Quirk (Europhia) and Mike Challinor (Precious) with Steve Haley( Radical) in 4th, again scores were within a couple of seconds but only Ken managed 100 landing bonus.
Round 1 Slot 3 Duration.
Neil Harrison managed to out point this group with Clive Needham (Tragi) and Chris Jubb (Tragi) following 2.5 minutes adrift.
Round 1 Slot 1 Distance.
Steve Haley managed to pip Paul Carrington (Needle 124) by one leg 24 to 23 with some masterly flying from both pilots. Dave Worrall had a bad start to his Distance season with i think 3 refly attempts that allowed him only time for 9 legs.
Round 1 Slot 2 Distance.
Ken Woodhouse and Bill Haley fought tooth and nail to gain dominance in this slot but to no avail as they both ended with 17 legs against Norman Quirk, just 1 leg adrift.
Round 1 Slot 3 Distance.
Mark Passingham won this slot easily with 20l with Alan Jones 18l and Chris Jubb 15 following on.
Mark did suffer a bad de-lamination of one of his Ceres wings at mid span maybe after a heavy landing. It was thought that this would put an end to his R1 hopes. He was however able to effect a good repair that allowed him to continue in R1.
Round 1 Slot 4 Distance.
Neil Harrison showing that there is life in the old Instict and Bob Dickinson (Crossfire+) took top placings with 16l
Round 1 Slot 5 Distance.
John Stewart (Estrella) managed 21 blistering legs against Mike Challinor after Mike had a troubled time with three attempts at launching.
R1 Speed.
Steve Haley (Who will challenge him) was a good 4 seconds faster than the rest of the field. Mark Passingham found the attraction of the safety flag to great and received a zero point.
R2 Speed.
Steve Haley again showed his skills to advantage bettering Paul Carrington and Mike Challinor by a good 2 seconds.
R2 Slot1 Duration.
Ken Woodhouse and Steve Haley both with a full house took this slot.
Round 1 Slot 2 Duration
Clive Needham and Alan Jones battled it out for this slot with Clive just edging in with the landing bonus.
Round 1 Slot 3 Duration
Dave Worrall 10:01/95 took the 2nd slot with Bill Haley 10:03/90closely following.
Round 2 Slot 1 Distance.
Pul Carrington took this slot with 20 l against Norman Quirk.
Round 2 Slot 2 Distance.
John Stewart won this slot with 11l. Chris Jubb retired with a broken flap servo.
Round 2 Slot 3 Distance.
A very closely fought slot with all pilots in much the same air. All flying some way out from the field boundaries. Dave Worrall 26l managed to gain 1 leg over Mike Challinor 25l.
Round 2 Slot 4 Distance.
Bill Haley comfortably managed to complete 5 legs over his nearest competitor Clive Needham to take this slot.
Round 2 Slot 5 Distance.
Steve Haley 17l just pipped Mark Passingham 16l by one leg to take this slot."