Membership forms and fee are now due. Please complete the 2008/2009 Membership Form and pass it to Carol/Cathy/Malcolm with your £1 renewal fee before the competition on the 31st August at the very latest.

The first competition of the season will be at the Magnum on Sunday August 31^st during the Club's normal session times (noon to 13:15). Amongst other things this will allow an early opportunity for skaters to achieve Star Class qualification times. Please ensure all entries are with Stuart Miller by Sunday 24^st.

The successful cycling group continues this Saturday with a trip starting from Chez (Fenton) Walker in Irvine at 10am and lasting a couple of hours. Everyone is welcome (including parents wanting to help out as marshalls). Please bring the usual standard cycling kit (helmet, puncture kit, phone, etc). A map would be handy but will be ignored as is traditional. Please see Stewart for details.

Flyers had a fabulous trip to Arran - thanks Stewart and Lainy for organising it - weather was brill, campsite great and entertainment competitive. Lainy's porridge and filled rolls for breakfast fuelled us all up for the day. Needless to say we all had a lot of fun.

See the Photo Gallery for more photos.

Well done to Stewart, Jenny and Murray who set off first on Sunday morning to conquer the whole island - a mere 57 miles of undulating, twisting roads, which they completed in record time reaching speeds of 48 miles an hour plus in some downhill stretches. Next out were Shannon and Benny (Billy joined them half way after getting a shot on the Bongo Bus!) to conquer the lower half of the island and The String Road - by far the toughest route they say - 36 miles and climbing to 235metres. The third group of campers Jim, Crawford and Fraser tackled the Lamlash to Glen Sannox stretch and all did really well cycling there and back to meet the ferry at Brodick again. Once the tents were all packed up Billy, Stuart and Carol cycled Lamlash to Brodick, Carol and Stuart going on to enjoy the coastal route to Glen Sannox then the challenge of the climb up the 200m Boguille to Lochranza and back to meet the ferry (unfortunately another trip on the Bongo Bus rescue vehicle was required as Stuart's puncture ended cycling for him for the day - thanks Lainy and Fiona).

The Sunday morning ferry from Ardrossan brought Paul, Craig and Duncan who also conquered the whole island circuit of 57 miles while trying to catch up with Ros, Rachel and Alison who tackled and finished The String Road and the Northern Island Circuit before the boys caught them up just outside Brodick.

Carol

We are delighted to receive £1000 from Sportsmatch thanks to sponsorship from two local companies - Dalriada Scaffolding Ltd and Stewart Property Services. Pictured are Margaret Harkins of Dalriada Scaffolding Ltd and Stewart Logan of Stewart Property Services with some of our young skaters.

Thanks to this sponsorship and Sportsmatch funding for Ayrshire Flyers Enhancing Safety Project, the club will be able to purchase additional barrier crash mats - essential for this fast & furious sport.

Sportsmatch is a sportscotland funded scheme set up to encourage the business community to sponsor sport at grass-roots level. The scheme acts as an incentive by offering to match the sponsorship on a pound-for-pound basis and supports sponsored projects which demonstrate clear sports development objectives e.g. where the project encourages participation at community level, especially youth groups.

At our recent Awards Ceremony, North Beach Hotel, Prestwick presented the Ayrshire Flyers with a sponsorship cheque. This money has been used to purchase a new Safety Mat for the rink (see left). The skaters are delighted that we are getting close to covering most of the barrier with mats, although we still have a few gaps to fill.

We would like to thank John and Hardip Singh for their generosity and Maggie Green for her help in arranging this support for the flyers.

Notice is hereby given that the 2008 Sk8Scotland AGM will take place on Saturday 23rd of August at 2pm in the Inverness Ice Rink.

Not content with providing the location and hospitalty for our awards evening, the staff of the North Beach Hotel took the time to present a sponsorship cheque to the Ayrshire Flyers. Their generosity is greatly appreciated and will be used to buy much needed safety equipment for the growing club.

We would like to thank John and Hardip Singh and their staff, Margaret Green, Shaun Coull and Laura Burns for a fantastic evening.

Just in case there is any doubt ...
The Fathers Won the Quiz

There were lots of other results and stories from a fabulous evening at the North Beach Hotel.

A full report with photos is available here.

Some highlights ...
 

Club Championships 1st Craig M. 2nd Euan T. 3rd Rhys B.

Handicap Championships 1st Euan C. 2nd Eve B. 3rd Lorna B.

Novice 1st Scott N. 2nd Kirsty H. 3rd Kristopher N.

Fall of the Year Stewart L.

Coach's Skater of the Year Samantha I. Skaters' Skater of the Year Rosslyn W.

Most Improved Man Roy W. Most Improved Lady Rosslyn W.

As I was somewhat occupied on Sunday, we have a race report as supplied by an impartial observer. As someone reknown for his tact and personal skills, Kev has provided a balanced, sensitive (and very long) write up. I take no responsibility for this, what-so-ever.

Club Championship and Parents Race 2008 as submitted by K. Waite.

This is one person's view of the racing. Can you do better? If so email it in and we will put it up.

Photos now available, and PBs have now also been updated.

[Do you get the feeling things are winding down for the end of the season?]

The Scottish Championships at Dundee this weekend was another success for Ayrshire Flyers in what has been the clubs best ever season.

In the PeeWee category Roy produced his top performance of the season to take his first Scottish title. Kathryn, also in the PeeWee category took second place.

The result of the Juniors was only decided in the last race, the 1000m super final, where Euan and Rhys were narrowly beaten into second and third place respectively.

In the seniors, Craig took the title to make it a clean sweep of all the major domestic trophies for Craig this season. This was reflected in the results of the Fitzroy Smith Trophy, which is awarded to the top Scottish skater. The Scottish Championships was the final event to be taken into consideration for this trophy, with the result that Craig won it for the second year in succession, this time with the maximum number of points possible. Ayrshire Flyers skaters took 6 of the top 10 rankings in this trophy, a full listing is available here.

Megan had a strong competition in the Novices, with PBs in every distance she raced in, resulting in 3rd place. The new boots were obviously worth the wait!

The relay competition provided a fitting end to the Scottish Championships for the Ayrshire Flyers. The Flyers A Team, consisting of Craig, Rhys, Euan and Samantha held off the very experienced Stirling team to take 1st place.

Full results are available in the Protocol.

• Podium Photos are now available on the British Short Track 2008 site.
• Action photos ... with more to come.

The long anticipated British Championships in Dundee were a great success. 18 flyers entered, ranging from PeeWees to Masters, which must be our largest entry to date. Between them, the flyers achieved 5 medals: 1 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. The medalists are:

Kathryn took a very decisive silver medal in the PeeWee Girls competition, coming 2nd in every final. Other than requiring to make use of her excellent figure skating skills in the first race, she encountered no major obstacles on her way to her first British medal. Eve was also in close running for a bronze medal in the Pee Wee Girls and missed out by only 3 points.

While there many excellent competitions in the championships, the Juvenile Girls must have been one of the most closely competed. None of the podium positions were decided until the very last moments of the very last race, with Shannon and Jennifer also fighting for a place on the podium. In the final results, Samantha retained her British title, with Alison a close runner-up, taking the Silver and Rosslyn taking the Bronze.

In contrast to the drama in the Juvenile Girls, Craig quietly and coolly applied himself to the task at hand and worked his way up from his initial 4th place seeding, to take the Bronze Medal in the Junior Boys.

In the championships there were Scottish records for Euan (Junior C – 333m) and the Flyers Junior C Ladies (Jennifer, Samantha, Alison, Rosslyn) in the 3000m Relay.

Thanks to all (and there are many) who spent months preparing for this event and spent the best part of three days running the event. Thanks also to coach Archie for preparing our skaters and for his support throughout the competition.

Full results are available on Short Track Online, and more general report can be found in the Sk8Scotland News.

If anyone has any photos, could they please send them in, thanks.

• Titles and Records
• Media Reports

Jnr Club Captain: Rhys

Jnr Vice-Captain: Kathryn

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