British and Irish Figure skating 2021-2022

[DSQ]

Are we allowed to talk about the Junior RD yet? Because I have some thoughts on Bekker & Hernandez’s deduction.

 

[litenkyckling]

Are we allowed to talk about the Junior RD yet? Because I have some thoughts on Bekker & Hernandez’s deduction.

Yes - I’m so confused? At no point did they have any loss of balance (in my opinion at least).

Very pleased they grabbed 2 spots for next year though! And the highest finish in junior ice dance for GB since Smart/Buckland in 2014

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

Yes - I’m so confused? At no point did they have any loss of balance (in my opinion at least).

I wonder if they got the fall deduction for their spin/slide move (where Phebe swings across the ice holding on to James' hand) at the very end of their RD? It doesn't look like a "loss of control" to me, but maybe the panel were being picky? I can't spot anything else that could really be counted as a fall.
Video here: https://youtu.be/oblskEqMaDE?t=6198

 

[litenkyckling]

I wonder if they got the fall deduction for their spin/slide move (where Phebe swings across the ice holding on to James' hand) at the very end of their RD? It doesn't look like a "loss of control" to me, but maybe the panel were being picky? I can't spot anything else that could really be counted as a fall.
Video here: https://youtu.be/oblskEqMaDE?t=6198

Not to be that person - but I felt that this panel was very picky unless your name was Wolfkostin/Chen

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

Not to be that person - but I felt that this panel was very picky unless your name was Wolfkostin/Chen

I agree, I think they really wanted W/C on the podium and tried very hard to get them there (and very nearly succeeded).
But I'm glad that, despite the strange deduction, Phebe and James hung on to a top-10 spot!

 

[NanaPat]

I agree, I think they really wanted W/C on the podium and tried very hard to get them there (and very nearly succeeded).
But I'm glad that, despite the strange deduction, Phebe and James hung on to a top-10 spot!

But that wouldn't have affected scoring for Phebe/James. When they skated/were scored, the judges didn't know what was going to happen to W/C. If anything, they expected them to skate fabulously and go into first. Also, with IJS Phebe/James score/positition only affects W/C's chance to medal if they themselves are medal contenders.

 

[litenkyckling]

But that wouldn't have affected scoring for Phebe/James. When they skated/were scored, the judges didn't know what was going to happen to W/C. If anything, they expected them to skate fabulously and go into first. Also, with IJS Phebe/James score/positition only affects W/C's chance to medal if they themselves are medal contenders.

I don’t think that was the point being made though? I think the general conversation was that the tech panel made some harsh calls (eg Phebe and James’ fall deduction in the RD) for all of the teams, but W/C had some calls that were generous in a bid to get them on the podium after their mistake.

 

[Lilybee]

FREEZE S2 BBC THREE BBC IPLAYER SKATING DOCU SERIES

I finally watched all 4 episodes of series two and have to say it's not as gripping as series one, mainly because of the characters featured with lower down skaters, and the fact there was no ice dance included. I'm extremely disappointed they didn't include scenes from the first Torvill & Dean ice dance Camp at Sheffield even though I know they filmed it. The highlights were seeing clips from livestreams that I watched during the season, ie Cup of Austria in Graz and Tayside Trophy in Dundee. But again minimal coverage and no mention Natasha McKay won that event with a good performance. At least they finally mentioned her name and that Kristen and Nina would have to beat her! Considering she had won the British Championships at that point 4 times, now 5, and been chosen for European and Worlds consistently, it's a mystery why they didn't at least mention her name and record in series one? Casual viewers who thought Kristen and Nina were fighting it out for an Olympic spot would be shocked to find out the woman who actually gained that spot was up in Scotland and the undisputed British No.1.

However we know now thanks to Simon Briggs, Tash's Coach, he wanted her to concentrate on her main goal of the Olmpics and not be distracted by a documentary so she only took part minimally.
What sets Natasha apart from the other two is she delivers at the British Championships and mostly, not always, when it counts internationally, and she has good Spins, Steps and PCS . The other 2 may produce the more difficult jumps on occasion in a Senior B International abroad, but when the British rolls around, they falter.

I wonder if PJ was distracted by the cameras or was just running on empty ready to quit? I guess we'll never know. But Graham Newberry now has a new lease of life and let's hope he can progress next season.

@CaroLiza_fan mentioned the huge gap in Emily Hayward's career and she explains why that was and what happened to her and it's very distressing to listen to. She seems a person in turmoil and rather than ploughing on through, I feel she should take a break, have some therapy and come back refreshed, free from pressure. It's very sad to watch her. But not a unique story in Skating by any means.

It was great to see Rene the Advanced Novice boy I became a fan of when he won the British Championships last December with a fantastic groovy Michael Jackson Free Program. My heart broke when his coach at Altrincham said he only had 2 half hour lessons a week but worked hard on his own the rest of the time. His lovely Mum probably can't afford any more, making his costumes and sharpening his blades herself. He is precisely the kind of talented youngster who needs financial help now if he's to get to Olympics in 8 years time. But those idiots at UK Sport couldn't care less. It's the public's Lottery Money! We should have a say who gets it and currently Skating gets nowt!

The Final episode featured the British Championships 2021 though irritatingly none of the skaters original music was played, pop ballads played over their skates in slow motion, and again only one Program. If this series was to educate viewers about competitive Skating having a Short and Free Program it hasn't done a good job.

No ice dancers were shown in episode 4 completing the British Championships which is absurd as LilahandLewis are our most successful skaters at major international Championships. They also didn't show Rene winning the Advanced Novice title. Why not when you featured him qualifying in the previous episode?
So it ended with the same core of Sheffield Singles skaters saying how much they loved the sport.

That's all folks! Overall it was an excellent look into a minority sport in the UK.
I remember the days when the Telegraph, Times, Guardian used to have a Skating Correspondent who covered events and wrote articles, when we had a monthly magazine published in Britain and competitive skating was recognised as a sport. Now it gets nothing in the press apart from in Dundee local papers.
So this docu series and the one before it on CBBC, ICE STARS, are much appreciated by me and all fans, I'm sure.

Bless you, thank you for this account of the series, and on a more personal level, thank you for your kind words about Rene, we really appreciate your attention, including to the issue of financing without which Rene has no chance of achieving his full potential and getting anywhere.

 

[Ruthypegs]

British Advanced Novice Champion Rene Bektashi-Brown who trains at Altrincham featured on BBC Skating Docu Series Freeze. A Profile of Rene, his lovely Mum Leyli, and training with his Coach Sam. He skated a really fantastic groovy Michael Jackson Free Program at the British Championships that's why he wanted more bling on his costume! A future star!

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.

youtu.be

Definitely a future star! I will be sure to look out for him at the next British Championships - he has loads of charisma and talent.

I hope that "Freeze" does future episodes, with updates on how the skaters are faring.

 

[La Rhumba]

Bless you, thank you for this account of the series, and on a more personal level, thank you for your kind words about Rene, we really appreciate your attention, including to the issue of financing without which Rene has no chance of achieving his full potential and getting anywhere.

Hello @Lilybee I'm so delighted to hear from you, and thank you so much for your kind words. I'm thrilled you found the video clip of Rene & his Coach too, and I hope he can receive some sponsorship soon, as I really couldn't bear more British talented youngsters not fulfilling their potential due to lack of financial support. We all know how expensive the sport can be, and now is the time to share out UK Sport Lottery funding in a much fairer way to those who really need it.
I did try tweeting UK Sport several times before and after Olympics, and sent them the Freeze clip of Nina Povey saying she may have to retire due to not being able to afford to continue. But sadly there was no response from the organisation which controls millions of pounds and has sports people's futures in their hands.

I wish yourself & Rene all the best for next season and I shall certainly be following his progress.

Just for you, I thought I'd post my tweets about Rene during my reporting of the British Championships 2021, where I first saw him skate on the livestream. And if the BIS TV system allowed me to record his Free Skate, I'd have uploaded that to my YouTube channel too, but everytime I tried there was so sound.

I hope you'll enjoy these tweets and please know that Rene has fans who are supporting him! All the best.

 

[Dreamer57]

Sheffield has a bid to host the 2026 European championships!!

A nice surprise to see this weekend, why didn't we bid for every season
(Obviously I can see the appeal of pre-olympic euros + I do think we could have 3 ice dance couples by then)

https://twitter.com/AnythingGOE/status/1517469000577560576?s=20&t=pi3FyR8KyALrm226kA9EEQ

 

[Ruthypegs]

Sheffield has a bid to host the 2026 European championships!!

A nice surprise to see this weekend, why didn't we bid for every season
(Obviously I can see the appeal of pre-olympic euros + I do think we could have 3 ice dance couples by then)

https://twitter.com/AnythingGOE/status/1517469000577560576?s=20&t=pi3FyR8KyALrm226kA9EEQ

This is great news! So many great skaters based in Sheffield.

 

[Lilybee]

Hello @Lilybee I'm so delighted to hear from you, and thank you so much for your kind words. I'm thrilled you found the video clip of Rene & his Coach too, and I hope he can receive some sponsorship soon, as I really couldn't bear more British talented youngsters not fulfilling their potential due to lack of financial support. We all know how expensive the sport can be, and now is the time to share out UK Sport Lottery funding in a much fairer way to those who really need it.
I did try tweeting UK Sport several times before and after Olympics, and sent them the Freeze clip of Nina Povey saying she may have to retire due to not being able to afford to continue. But sadly there was no response from the organisation which controls millions of pounds and has sports people's futures in their hands.

I wish yourself & Rene all the best for next season and I shall certainly be following his progress.

Just for you, I thought I'd post my tweets about Rene during my reporting of the British Championships 2021, where I first saw him skate on the livestream. And if the BIS TV system allowed me to record his Free Skate, I'd have uploaded that to my YouTube channel too, but everytime I tried there was so sound.

I hope you'll enjoy these tweets and please know that Rene has fans who are supporting him! All the best.

Aww, that’s so kind, I can’t be thankful enough for all your efforts! Yes, our skaters do need support, and UK Sport should have a decency to provide it - or stop calling themselves UK Sport! But thanks for posting the tweets here - none of us is on twitter so wouldn’t know!

Speaking of Rene’s performances, it so happens that I do have both programmes, and even managed to upload one of them onto his youtube channel, but haven’t had a chance to upload the second one. If you know how I could forward them to you so that you can post them on your channel, I’d be more than happy to share them with you! The only thing I can think of is Wetransfer.

And once again, on behalf of all our skaters, thank you for your support, it’s invaluable! Xx

 

[La Rhumba]

Aww, that’s so kind, I can’t be thankful enough for all your efforts! Yes, our skaters do need support, and UK Sport should have a decency to provide it - or stop calling themselves UK Sport! But thanks for posting the tweets here - none of us is on twitter so wouldn’t know!

Speaking of Rene’s performances, it so happens that I do have both programmes, and even managed to upload one of them onto his youtube channel, but haven’t had a chance to upload the second one. If you know how I could forward them to you so that you can post them on your channel, I’d be more than happy to share them with you! The only thing I can think of is Wetransfer.

And once again, on behalf of all our skaters, thank you for your support, it’s invaluable! Xx

You are most welcome, @Lilybee supporting young, talented British Skaters is my passion, and it gives me a lot of pleasure!

I shall contact you on private message with my email. Wetransfer is perfect, and thank you for allowing me to upload Rene's performances, I'd be delighted to share them and put the links on twitter.

 

[La Rhumba]

Very sad news that Sasha & George have ended their ice dance partnership announced by Sasha here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcyrxkWrG2j/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

They had a wonderfully successful career as Juniors & Seniors and will be much missed.⛸

 

[La Rhumba]

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.

youtu.be

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.

youtu.be

Enjoy!

 

[ladyjane]

Rene is a fabulous performer. I don't follow kids to a great extent but this was just great! The musicality and those moves!

 

[La Rhumba]

I was just rewarching some of the Novice icedance Pattern Dances at the British Championships 2021 which are still archived by BISTV, so if you bought a subscription you can still watch, which is great news.

However I plead with BIS to treat the fans watching with respect and not foist on us a non Skating fan who's only comment is "they looked like they really enjoyed it". She had no clue about the format of the competitions, what Rhythms the RD were being skated to, nothing. This is someone who turns up each year for a paid gig yet does no research.

Jenny Bill is more than capable and doesn't need anyone else, and would jump at the chance. Infact there were 3 Commentators on Dance, far too many! So they ended up chatting to eachother and disregarding the viewers which is deeply irritating to listen to. A man from Liverpool, who I know not, he sounds like an Adult Skater, why was he there? Presumably invited when BIS thought they would just have the know nothing woman, so called professional Commentator, to help her out? But by then, due to complaints, they'd already had to belatedly draft Jenny Bill in to save us from the other woman's blethering nonsense. So they didn't need the man who was very annoying making silly jokes, and didn’t seem to know the competition format either.

I have come to really appreciate Ted Barton's style of saying nothing during the performance and commenting during the slow mos, in the K&C etc.

I'm willing to pay for a livestream next season for the British Championships 2022, but please BIS, sort the Commentary out and don't insult the viewers. Most folk paying to watch are either a) relatives or friends of the skaters, or b) Skating uber fans. We are not newbies who need constant chatter or the very basics explaining. You may not know but we do!

Glad to get that off my chest for the umpteenth time! I need a "Bee in my Bonnet" emoji.

 

[DSQ]

Very sad news that Sasha & George have ended their ice dance partnership announced by Sasha here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcyrxkWrG2j/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

They had a wonderfully successful career as Juniors & Seniors and will be much missed.⛸

I wonder why? Sasha implied she’d look for a new partner so I hope to see her soon. It’s a real shame.

 

[La Rhumba]

I wonder why? Sasha implied she’d look for a new partner so I hope to see her soon. It’s a real shame.

I agree, hope to see Sasha back soon with a new partner. It's not easy to find a good match as she's a tall girl, but hopefully someone is out there with the required skills who is qualified or wants to skate for Britain!

I read that Yorkshire's Peter Beaumont & Ukraine's Nadiia Bashynska will stay in Juniors for one more year after winning their wonderful Bronze medals for Canada at Junior Worlds.

Looking at the GB Junior icedancers, I know Kat & Billy will skate in Junior and I think Phebe & James will stay one more season too before James ages out. They had a fantastic debut season together and can only go on to better things without any Russian couples taking part.

Ashlie & Atl, who are attending the Dance Camp at Oberstdorf, will be moving up to Junior. I'm looking forward to seeing the Junior couples skating the Argentine Tango, one of my favourite Pattern Dances, as part of a Spanish themed Rhythm Dance.

The fact there is no Pattern Dance for the Senior RD is very sad for us lovers of the old Compulsory Dances. I have video tapes full of Waltzes, Tangos, Yankee Polkas, which one day I will put on YouTube but the ISU Dance Committee is making a mistake in my view.
.