Ben Clatworthy's Blog

Mid season and it’s here, there and everywhere on the British Ski Racing circuit; last week Ben Clatworthy was in Italy this weekend he was in Scotland.

Tired, worn out and holding a shiny Bronze medal from Scotland, it’s been quite a fortnight; plus, when I’ve not been on skis I’ve been watching it, reading it, and enjoying it – It could only be the Olympics.

Over Half Term it was a trip to Bormio in Italy for the English Alpine Ski Championships; the third consecutive year in Bormio for the races. The resort underwent substantial upgrades in the summer of 2004 in order to host the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 2005. Its one of the best resorts for racing and continues to host the World Cup and previously the World Cup finals. What a resort. The town itself is lovely too with old Italian arcitecture, and no purpose built appartments in sight.

Finish area in Bormio

For the first time this year the race orginisers had managed to cram 5 races into 5 days. The ski cross was canceled due to lack of interest from happy injury free racers. I must admit I was happy enough without it. Slalom started the week, followed by Giant Slalom before the Senior competition started on Tuesday with Super-G, then GS and Slalom to end.

Bormio is one of the highlights on my race calendar, along with the British Championships; however unlike the Brits, Bormio features purely from a resort perspective, not a race one (although that is the main and ulitmatly best event) but from the atmosphere in such a picturesqe resort. Bliss.

Back to rainy England, and back to school for a week. Lessons by day, Olympic skiing by night as stuck cocktail sticks between my eyelids to stay awake in a constant struggle with the 8 hour time difference to PST. It won’t be much better for Sochi in 2014, being 3 hours ahead of us, the Men’s downhill is likely to start at 7am – breakfast time!

Bormio welcomes the English.

The week past as quickly as ever and it was back to Bristol Airport and on a plane to Edinburgh. My first time in Scotland, and my first ever time skiing there. The plan was to race on the Saturday and Sunday, but mass snowfall left us in Pertshire for the night and driving to the resort of Glenshee the next morning. With talk of ‘Snow Gates’ and record snowfall, even too much snow in places we were expecting to see the Alps. It was too good to be true. Once we were in the resort, just shy of midday, the runs turned out to be rather short, icy and extremely windy. It was easy to go uphill than down.

The first Scottish FIS Alpine Ski race since 2002 got underway at 3pm and ended as the sun was setting over the highlands at 5.30pm. Welcome to British ski racing. Unpredictable to say the least. Taking bronze in my category of race really made the trip worthwhile. Back in the car and off to the hotel.

Racing passed without issues on Sunday; I fell in the first run leaving me cafe bound and ready to head back to Bristol. What a couple of weeks, 7 different FIS ski races, many different countries and in need of an early night. Welcome to the world of ski racing.

It’s no doubt that the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will go down in history for having a fair few problems, controversies and of course successes. It tends to be the same with most major sporting events, but Vancouver hasn’t half had it’s fair share.

Times were hard from the start of the season with unseasonably warm temperatures for Cypress Mountain leading to a distinct lack of snow (and again today the Helicopters a flying in new snow), and the treat of the resort of Whilster being auctioned off by Intrawest. Hundreds of tickets have been canceled too as spectator areas on Cypress are turned to mud.

The tragic death of 21 year old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili just one day before the start of the games highlighted the dangers of the Whilster Sliding Center track with training postponed for the 2nd time in the run up to the games.

Bad weather and heavy snow put hold on both the male and female Downhill competitions and also messed up the entire Alpine Schedule; again a common occurrence at many FIS Alpine Ski Races.

But let’s not forget the successes; most notably so far for Great Britain, Amy Williams who won gold on Friday evening in the Skeleton event. Amy had led the field from the start of the competition. Didier Defago won the delayed Men’s Downhill and just yesterday Bode Miller won Gold in the Super Combined event meaning he takes home one of every kind of Medal from the games.

Britain’s Ed Drake has done very well too, he finished 29th in the Super Combined yesterday, 32nd in the Super-G and Chemmy Alcott finished a very creditable 13th in the Women’s Downhill last week.

It’s hard to summarize an Olympic Games in such a short blog, but I hope this have given you a taster of whats going on over the pond. I am helping to cover the games extensively for PlanetSKI.eu, where I act as their Racing and Sports Correspondent so do keep an eye there for all the latest from Vancouver.

See our special Olympic Section on PlanetSKI; as well as the latest news it is has some in-depth features and a few stories that you wont see elsewhere.

You can find all my Olympic Games Articles on Benclatworthy.com too.

Amy Williams from Bath has won a Gold Medal in Vancouver competing in the Skeleton event.

For more information on her Gold Medal see this article by Ben Clatworthy for PlanetSKI.eu

Last week Ben Clatworthy blogged about a rather novel way of raising money for Haiti at a school in Bristol.

Clifton College made a 640 foot line of coins consisting of over 15 different currencies, which stretched from the schools Memorial Arch to the Chapel and back again.

In total the event raised £530, however this sum does not include the foreign currency yet.

The event was covered by local media including Bristol Evening Post and also in an article by Ben Clatworthy for Bristol-27.com.

Following one of the world’s greatest recent disasters, fund-raising efforts for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal have been endless. Ben Clatworthy reports from a rather novel way of raising money in Bristol.

There is no doubt that the Haiti earthquake which shock the country on 12 January 2010 is one of the worst disasters to strike in recent history. An estimated 150,000 people have died with scores more left homeless and injured. Haiti, with a $380 million debt to the International Monetary Fund, and just two fire stations on the entire island is in no position to provide care and support for the injured.

That’s where the rest of us come into the picture. Every penny raised for the Disasters Emergency

Pennies on the Parapet

Committee (DEC) helps to provide aid and vital support for those in need. Schools, companies, local societies and many more people have been holding fund raising events up and down the country. Many schools will have opted for a home clothes day, and companies a ‘dress down’ day, but is that really the most effective way of raising money?

Clifton College Upper School in Bristol, where I am a pupil, came up with a rather novel way of raising vital money for the appeal. A 640 foot line of coins was made by donations from pupils, teachers, support staff, porters, catering staff, cleaners and many more people.  The line 3 coins wide in places, stretched from the schools Memorial Arch up the parapet to the Chapel and then back again. The word ‘Haiti’ was also made out of coins in the ‘Quadrant’ next to the Chapel.

The event was the brainchild of Fiona Hallworth, Director of Charities at the school, who told me, “The event has been an undoubted success with everyone giving some money to help make the line. It’s a much better way of raising money compared to a home clothes day or cake sale as everyone is getting involved and wanting to give more to help extend the line.”

Clifton College pupils show their support for Haiti

The majority of the 720 pupils at school donated along with countless members of staff and even members of the public who were intrigued by the idea as they walked past the school.

Heather Williams, Head of Marketing told me, “We have an estimated total of around £600 – £800 but it will take a while to count all the money. Over 15 different currencies were laid down and every single last penny will be counted and go directly to the DEC. With pupils from over 32 different countries at the school we expect lots of foreign currency.”

The school are always looking for new ways to raise money and yesterday’s event is yet another success story for the Charities Committee, who meet every Monday. A second ‘Fashion and Music Show’ is planned for Commemoration weekend this May, with more details expected soon, but I’ve been told to it’s going to be X-Factor meets fashion.

I will make sure I let you know the final total raised from the event in the coming week or so. It was quite an event!

Every little helps...

In a society where life never stops Ben Clatworthy looks at the advantages of taking a moment to reflect.

It’s seldom that any week goes by without us hearing of some unpleasant news story or other. Take last week or so, the Togo national football team were shot at on their way to the African Cup of Nations; Sunday Mirror journalist Rupert Hamer was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb and on Tuesday catastrophe struck the island of Haiti when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 destroyed towns and cities. It is reported that the current casualty rate stands at an estimated 200,000 people.

Quickly the world’s attention turned to this small country as one of the largest ever aid operations got underway in the latter stages of the week. This time last week the small country with it’s population of just over 10 million was unheard of by many people, today, I doubt there is a single person in the UK who doesn’t know about the country.

Everyone needs a rest from time to time!

It really isn’t the most uplifting set of news stories by anyone’s measure. Reading the Telegraph this morning I then went on to learn that Monday 18 January 2010 is in fact the “most depressing day of the year”. Nicknamed ‘Blue Monday’, the day was inspired by a British psychologist who worked out that using a pseudo-mathematical formula involving the weather, debt, motivational levels and time elapsed since Christmas that the third Monday in January is destined for doom and gloom. Friday June 18 2010 will apparently be the happiest day of the year.

Regardless, in a day and age when ones phone vibrates 20 times a day, the television is always on, the internet powers life and Facebook is a child’s pastime, do we really take enough time to pause for a little thought and reflection? Be it a moment of quietness each day, or a prayer before bed it seems that these days we rarely ever disconnect from the bustle of day to day life enough.

The other day I found myself sitting next to a businessman on an EasyJet flight, from the moment he sat down out came his BlackBerry and up popped his email. Just before take-off the cabin crew lady exclaimed to him, “that needs to be fully switched off now, sir”, immediately he snapped back, “it’s on flight mode”. I don’t want to speculate over flight safety guidelines for one moment but last time I checked ‘flight mode’ was not fully switched off; never mind. The process was then repeated the moment the seatbelt sign faded out, right through until it was time to land.

I on the other hand had enjoyed a cup of tea, read the in-flight magazine, listened my iPod and even had a quick nap; let me wonder who felt most relaxed getting off that plane.

So, maybe next time you feel a little down, or even just tired, take a moment to reflect on life, and the bigger picture. It might just help blow away those Monday morning blues.

This article was first written by Ben Clatworthy for Clifton College in January 2010.

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As the UK starts to recover from the recent snowy weather Ben Clatworthy takes at look at the British reaction to snow.

Snow, neige, nevar, sneeuw, or however you say it is very much a factor of winter weather. In fact, each year 1.27 million Britons up-sticks and head to the mountains all in a quest to find snow.

In the past week the UK has been brought to a standstill as people battle with freezing temperatures, heavy snow and treacherous ice. More than 8,000 schools were closed across the country, including the whole of Clifton College, as a result of the extreme weather. The closures meant that around 230,000 pupils were given the day off school and the perfect opportunity to head out and play in the snow.

The snow really went to the heads of newspaper and television companies as pages and pages, or hours and hours of coverage were given to the snow. On Wednesday night the BBC were left with hours of blank schedule after the League Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Manchester City was called off. How did they fill it? Well half an hour was given to a ‘BBC News Special: The Big Freeze’ – anyone would have thought we were in for an ice age. Many would say they were trying just that bit too hard.

If you watched the BBC at all that day, I would totally forgive you if you were left, stranded indoors, scared, shaking and fearing for your life; they made out snow was the most dangerous, horrible, life-threatening thing that the UK had ever seen.

Supermarkets went without deliveries, thousands of pints of milk were reported to have gone to waste as milkmen and lorries were unable to provide houses and shops and there is no doubt about it that people went panic buying. On Saturday Waitrose was completely out of normal milk with dwindling supplies of bread and vegetables.

Fun for some

Snowy road in Bristol

Oblivious to the state of emergency scores of children happily played on every green-space with snowmen dotted across the Downs in Bristol and in front gardens everywhere. It’s been a very fun time for children and grown-ups alike who were unable to make it to work. 14% of the UK workforce was reported to have stayed at home on Wednesday 7 January costing the economy £0.5 billion per day.

But questions are being provoked as people ask whether schools were right or wrong to close and if they should have made more effort to stay open. An unnamed primary school teacher in Bristol told me over the weekend, “Bristol Local Authority wouldn’t execute a ‘blanket closure’ of schools and instead just gave schools a single-lined telephone number to call and give details of closure.”

With more snow expected in the coming days these unanswered questions could lead to further disruption.

Ben used information from the BBC, The Evening Standard, The Guardian and the Ski Club of Great Britain to compile this article

For the first time ever I headed to the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show on Wednesday for Press Day with PlanetSKI.eu. What a day it was!

Its a fantastic event, but time and time again I heard people saying, “Its a day I love to hate” and by the end of the very long, tiring day I kind of see where they are coming from. I’m quite glad I didn’t have to get up and do it all again the next day like the exhibitors.

I wrote an article for PlanetSKI.eu about what it’s like to be a newbie at the show. It was quite the experience.

We had two PlanetSKI reporters at the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show. Here’s a view from 16-year old Ben Clatworthy who’s never been before.

Standing on the platform at Earls Court I felt as if I had just stepped out of the UK and into a ski resort. To my right were two young lads wearing baggy hoodies and knitted beanie hats with the little bubble on the top and to my left was a middle aged woman and her husband, the kind of people you might find in Meribel or Val d’Isere, talking to one and other about the brilliant snow at the end of last season.

As I walked though the main doors the atmosphere and excitement hit me; one massive building, one massive ski show, hundreds of exhibitors and loads to do.

Within two minutes I had already bumped into three people I knew.

Avoid eye contect if you don’t want one of theseAs a strolled up the aisles it didn’t take long to learn that if I stopped walking for more than a couple of seconds I would be asked if I would be interested in skiing in Japan or entering some competition or other to win a free rental car.

Not making eye contect with people on the stands who were trying to sell, sell, sell was a trick I leant quickly.

I told quite a few people I knew that I had never been to a ski show before and they all said they were surprised that someone like me had never been.  Being an avid ski racer it would seem the sort of place I would reside. Not so, but why? Well the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show has always been in my half term and I am usually away training in Saas Fee then.

I wandered for over an hour, meeting the odd person, having a quick chat and then back to gazing at the various stands and shops. Time went so quickly; the hour only seemed like 20 minutes. There was quite a buzz to say the least.

In the middle of it all was a 50 foot kicker that was used for The Trespass Big Air competition and demonstration.

Extraordinary sightI had never seen anything like it before.

On the other side of the room was a 100m2 ice rink where children and adults alike were happily skating away.  It may have been Christmas!

Ready for a rest I headed to the ‘3 Valleys Resort Bar’ to meet up with a few people I knew for a chat and quickly found myself chatting to some of the big people from the British ski world as it was a drinks for the movers and shakers in ski industry.

The CEO’s of the major companies were there, officilas from the resorts in the Alps had flwn in specially and various website editors, journalists who write features for papers such as The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent. It quickly became apparent that everyone knew everyone, and that they were all very happy to see one another after the summer break.  It was lovely to have a chat with the people whose articles I read in the papers each weekend and who run the web sites I love.

After more talk and networking I headed off to see more and take a look at some of the wired and wonderful things that one can buy at the show.

We will have a look at some of those on PlanetSKI in the next few days. I had a long conversation with Raef Bjayou who some of you may remember from the 2008 series of the BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’. He is now the face of a new motorized bag that is apparently ‘perfect’ for skiing.

I then headed for the BASI stand where I met up with Duncan Freshwater, who was the Head Coach of my ski team for several years, and he persuaded me to have a go in a sit ski playing on the new Vancouver 2010 Wii game. They had very cleverly mounted the sit-ski onto a Wii Fit board and with lots of skill apparently it was possible to ski down the course.

Sean Rose, who is the UK number 1 disabled ski racer managed to complete the whole course in 1 minute 40 seconds. Could I beat that? Well the honest answer is no. In fact I ended up on the floor with the sit-ski on top of me – much to the amusement of Duncan and about 100 people who were sitting in the café.

There was so much going on; so much so there is just too much to write. I really had to pick out some of the best bits, but the whole day was wonderful. There’s no way I could fully sum up such a good day in 800 words, but I think its needless to say that I will be back next year for more, and hopefully for years to come after that. People are happy, there is optimistic talk of the coming season and I think it is safe to say in that corner of London people will definitely be heading to the slopes this season.

It may only just be November but I’ve been in the Swiss Alps skiing for the past week with the Kandahar Ski Club race training for the coming ski season.

Each evening I wrote a daily blog post from the resort of Saas Fee which is a glacier resort in the Saas Valley. The blog focused on everything from race training at 3800 meters, lift queue fist fights and even a lady walking a pet goat.

I had a brilliant week and it’s always great to get back on the snow for a new season, even if its just for a week. Race training is tough and not a holiday!

The blog was written for PlanetSKI.eu, a mountain based ski website. Follow the links below to view the blog:

Day 1 – Monday 26 October

Day 2 – Tuesday 27 October

Day 3 – Wednesday 28 October

Day 4 – Thursday 29 October

Day 5 – Friday 30 / Saturday 31 October

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