British and Irish Figure skating 2022-2023 | Page 5 | Golden Skate

British and Irish Figure skating 2022-2023

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Jean Westwood, who along with partner Lawrence Demmy, became the first ever World Ice Dance Champions in the 1950s, has died. An Obituary and photographs by BIS. RiP.

www.iceskating.org.uk

Jean Westwood Obituary

JEAN WESTWOOD 1931 - 2022 Jean Westwood MBE, with partner Lawrence Demmy MBE, was the World Champion for four consecutive years, 1952 – 1955 and European Champion in 1954 and 1955. With Lawrence, she was part of the very first team to win the World Figure Skating Championships in ice dancing at...
www.iceskating.org.uk www.iceskating.org.uk
 
La Rhumba said:
I'm disappointed only one Pair and Dancers have been named. Would've been nice for Harry & Lydia to skate too, and a 2nd Dance couple as we 're hosts.
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Ruthypegs said:
Yes, me too - it seems like a missed opportunity, especially when we have host picks available.
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Just saw over in The Edge that one of the Pairs partnerships that was due to compete in Sheffield, Evelyn Walsh / Trennt Michaud (CAN), have split.

Could this be an opportunity for Lydia Smart / Harry Mattick to get a slot? Or, would other partnerships that are higher on the World Standings list be given priority over them?

CaroLiza_fan
 
CaroLiza_fan said:
Just saw over in The Edge that one of the Pairs partnerships that was due to compete in Sheffield, Evelyn Walsh / Trennt Michaud (CAN), have split.

Could this be an opportunity for Lydia Smart / Harry Mattick to get a slot? Or, would other partnerships that are higher on the World Standings list be given priority over them?

CaroLiza_fan
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No, as they didn't (so far) reach the minimum Total event score required to be eligible for a non-host spot (132.65). (Unless the ISU lowers the minimum score)

Either way, the four newly free non-host spot entries will likely first be filled with pairs that have only one assignment and have reached the minimum score.
The next four pairs fulfilling those requirements in order of World Standing would be:
Roscher/Schuster (GER), Holichenko/Darenskyi (UKR), Caldara/Maglio (ITA) and Vaipan-Law/Digby (GBR).
It's also possible they'll prioritise returning skaters with new partners over the 4 couples mentioned here. That would be Piegad/Strekalin (FRA) (Hamon/Strekalin were 40th in World Standing last season) and Chernyshova/Windsor (AUS) (Alexandrovskaya/Windsor were 24th in World Standing in their last competitive season together).
 
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Jumping_Bean said:
No, as they didn't (so far) reach the minimum Total event score required to be eligible for a non-host spot (132.65). (Unless the ISU lowers the minimum score)
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Mmmm.

So, let me get this straight.

  • Countries are allowed up to 3 host picks in each category.
  • There are two British partnerships currently competing in Senior Pairs.
  • Only one of these partnerships was on the Provisional Entry List for the Sheffield GP.
  • There is now one slot available in Pairs for the Sheffield GP.

So, does this mean that because the Fed only filled one host pick slot initially, they can't now say that they want to fill a second slot, even though they are entitled to fill three slots?

And if any British skater / partnership wanted to be added after the Provisional Entry Lists were published, they would have to meet the same requirements as anybody else, rather than be fast-tracked as a host pick?

If this is a correct assessment, it shows yet again just how short-sighted and incompetent our Fed is.

Of course, there is the possiblity that Lydia and Harry didn't want to compete in the Sheffield GP. But, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. They may not get another chance to compete in a Senior GP. So I can't imagine that they would want to pass it up.

CaroLiza_fan
 
Jumping_Bean said:
No, as they didn't (so far) reach the minimum Total event score required to be eligible for a non-host spot (132.65). (Unless the ISU lowers the minimum score)

Either way, the four newly free non-host spot entries will likely first be filled with pairs that have only one assignment and have reached the minimum score.
The next four pairs fulfilling those requirements in order of World Standing would be:
Roscher/Schuster (GER), Holichenko/Darenskyi (UKR), Caldara/Maglio (ITA) and Vaipan-Law/Digby (GBR).
It's also possible they'll prioritise returning skaters with new partners over the 4 couples mentioned here. That would be Piegad/Strekalin (FRA) (Hamon/Strekalin were 40th in World Standing last season) and Chernyshova/Windsor (AUS) (Alexandrovskaya/Windsor were 24th in World Standing in their last competitive season together).
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The replacement list goes in order of SB, and normally teams can pick from the first 10 teams (though there aren't 10 eligible teams for pairs), they don't have to go in order. So for pairs, the list should go:

Roscher/Schuster
Holichenko/Darenski
Caldara/Maglio
Chernovskaya/Windsor
Crafoord/Crafoord

I'm assuming Sierova/Khobta are competing in juniors, otherwise they'd probably have gotten an initial spot. Vaipan-Law/Digby barely missed the required minimum for non-host picks, but I could see the ISU saying 'close enough' since there's a lack of pairs this season. In that case they'd be right after Crafoord/Crafoord.

Technically the only way to get added to the replacement list is to win a CS event in the fall. But again, I could see that being stretched for this season. And I wouldn't be surprised to see a team like Piegard/Strekalin who are new but got a GP spot be added to the replacement list. Or other new teams who do well in the fall.
 
CaroLiza_fan said:
Just saw over in The Edge that one of the Pairs partnerships that was due to compete in Sheffield, Evelyn Walsh / Trennt Michaud (CAN), have split.

Could this be an opportunity for Lydia Smart / Harry Mattick to get a slot? Or, would other partnerships that are higher on the World Standings list be given priority over them?

CaroLiza_fan
Click to expand...
CaroLiza_fan said:
Mmmm.

So, let me get this straight.

  • Countries are allowed up to 3 host picks in each category.
  • There are two British partnerships currently competing in Senior Pairs.
  • Only one of these partnerships was on the Provisional Entry List for the Sheffield GP.
  • There is now one slot available in Pairs for the Sheffield GP.

So, does this mean that because the Fed only filled one host pick slot initially, they can't now say that they want to fill a second slot, even though they are entitled to fill three slots?

And if any British skater / partnership wanted to be added after the Provisional Entry Lists were published, they would have to meet the same requirements as anybody else, rather than be fast-tracked as a host pick?

If this is a correct assessment, it shows yet again just how short-sighted and incompetent our Fed is.

Of course, there is the possiblity that Lydia and Harry didn't want to compete in the Sheffield GP. But, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. They may not get another chance to compete in a Senior GP. So I can't imagine that they would want to pass it up.

CaroLiza_fan
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I'd love to see Lydia and Harry take the now vacant pairs spot at Sheffield. I've perhaps misunderstood, but as hosts, wouldn't this be a viable option? I.e can the hosts "claw back" the non-host pick that they gave to a non-UK team, or is it too late to do that?
 
theblade said:
Cross-posting since applicable: Billy Wilson French is back on Ice Partner Search seeking a new partnership. He lists Carol Lane's group as his current training base.
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Well, that didn't last long! And after all the fuss, too...
 
Brutal! We've seen at least five other partnerships in dance start/stop within the past nine months (personally, at various levels).

And yes, a very curated social media presence. I wonder if it's not better to unleash the narrative after a few competitions under the belt, just to ensure that training and competing have "some legs" (ie. last at least one full season).

Social media really is hard to balance with actually staying together and getting time to ramp up. It might be better to have a personal website, which usually updates less frequently.
 
WednesdayMarch said:
Well, that didn't last long! And after all the fuss, too...
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Yeah, I mean, all the promotional Instagram posts, and the lovely professional photo shoots. What the heck didn't work out exactly??? We don't even get to see them compete after all the work they put in training together? 😐
 
theblade said:
Brutal! We've seen at least five other partnerships in dance start/stop within the past nine months (personally, at various levels).

And yes, a very curated social media presence. I wonder if it's not better to unleash the narrative after a few competitions under the belt, just to ensure that training and competing have "some legs" (ie. last at least one full season).

Social media really is hard to balance with actually staying together and getting time to ramp up. It might be better to have a personal website, which usually updates less frequently.
Click to expand...
Yes, in general Kat DelCamp has always had a very well-curated Instagram. She's well-read, very attractive, and a beautiful practitioner of yoga. She has flair and talent, but her ice dance skill level is still a work in progress. Although she looked very good with Ian Somerville, and they competed well in U.S. juniors, his talent level was clearly much higher. With Billy, I thought Kat had a good chance to improve with a younger partner for at least another year or so in juniors. They lost a year because they were still training and not yet ready. I wonder what ultimately pulled the plug for them though?

The Kat/ Billy photoshoots are fantastic, but that's modeling/ posing. Still, they certainly looked exciting together in those photos. I guess back to the drawing board. This business of finding the right partner is such a difficult obstacle course.
 
theblade said:
Social media really is hard to balance with actually staying together and getting time to ramp up. It might be better to have a personal website, which usually updates less frequently.
Click to expand...
I don't think it's necessarily a problem with Kat's Instagram postings. Although, she did end up editing down a lot of the posts with her previous partner b/c they had a personal relationship off-the-ice. The partnership with Billy wasn't over-posted. It's just that Kat made an official Instagram announcement, pictured with Billy, Dean, and Hanretty, which indicated that Sheffield would be their base.

Then, Dean and Hanretty had to concentrate on shows and other income-producing projects, so Billy and Kat came to the U.S. to train for the summer, with several different coaches. I suppose Carol Lane was added recently, and then the partnership split happened. It's strange, but in this case, aside from so many photoshoot pics, and the premature official announcement, I don't think Kat overdid anything on Instagram. A lot of her posts were related to her off-ice excursions in England. Billy was not featured in those. There were only a few brief training clips. And they apparently appeared in the Freeze documentary together.

Anyway, the photoshoot pics are fantastic, so I didn't mind seeing those. I guess she'll remove them eventually. I hope she's okay, and that she will find a new partner if she's determined to continue as an ice dancer.
 
I didn't mean to imply her specifically; skaters are free to post what they wish. My point is more that skaters in previous decades had more time to have extended partnership tryouts without much info getting out to the skating world/public. That is less the case now. It's a low-key to high-level amount of added pressure.

My thoughts were just that having a more traditional web site (with targeted updates within it) versus active social media of a faster pace might be a way for skaters to mitigate this hyper-schedule in a way that allows them to practice a higher level of emotional self-care.
 
BlissfulSynergy said:
Yes, in general Kat DelCamp has always had a very well-curated Instagram. She's well-read, very attractive, and a beautiful practitioner of yoga. She has flair and talent, but her ice dance skill level is still a work in progress. Although she looked very good with Ian Somerville, and they competed well in U.S. juniors, his talent level was clearly much higher. With Billy, I thought Kat had a good chance to improve with a younger partner for at least another year or so in juniors. They lost a year because they were still training and not yet ready. I wonder what ultimately pulled the plug for them though?

The Kat/ Billy photoshoots are fantastic, but that's modeling/ posing. Still, they certainly looked exciting together in those photos. I guess back to the drawing board. This business of finding the right partner is such a difficult obstacle course.
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Billy's Instagram, on the other hand...
 
WednesdayMarch said:
Billy's Instagram, on the other hand...
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Not sure what you mean. I've followed Kat longer. I've seen Billy's Instagram too. It's fine -- he seems to have a lot of flair and creativity, with a solid background in dance training academically, which is quite impressive. His mother certainly was excited about the pairing. And Dean & Hanretty were coming aboard, but I guess no longer if Billy is situated with Carol Lane. I hope Kat finds another partner soon if she's still passionate about continuing. Maybe she isn't.

Billy has posted some of the fantastic pics from their photoshoot too. I wonder the impetus behind the shoot right off the bat. And truly, why didn't things work out? It could be any number of reasons, as already mentioned.
 
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