On Sunday 15th November, the British ESSKIA Finals took place in Pontypool in wet and windy weather. There were 200 racers, 100 boys and 100 girls from England, Wales and Scotland. Pontypool is one of the longest slopes in the UK, and has a bend in it: for some racers this makes for a good race, for others it's terrifying!

James Grant (Y11 Cox's) had an excellent first run, coming in 4th overall, Thomas Grant (Y9 Cox's) came in 9th, closely followed by Chris Debonnaire (Y12 St George's) 13th, and with Richard Morton (Y10 Loxwood) also putting in a strong performance. This gave the boys an excellent placing of second overall after the first run.

On the second run, there was yet more rain, James was skiing really well, until the 4th from last gate, where he slipped and then had to climb back up for the gate, Thomas and Chris, both skied well but not as quickly as their first run, and Richard did a sterling job skiing well, before skidding at the same gate as James!

The boys were very disappointed after doing so well in the first run, but we were very pleased to see even with James' slip, the team came in 6th overall from a field of 25 boys' teams. Thomas also came 2nd in his age group.

All four boys have been selected to train with ESSKIA in Norway next year. James and Chris have also been selected for the ISF (International School Sport Federation) World Schools' Skiing Championships in Folgaria Italy to ski for the England Schools Team. Thomas has been selected as a reserve.

Considering that there are only five in each age group team, this is a great reward for the boys and very good for Berkhamsted School.