THE RAVEN SKI CLUB
HISTORY OF THE RAVEN SKI CLUB

LINK TO THE RAVENS ROLL OF HONOUR

RAVENS ROLL OF HONOUR

HISTORY OF THE RAVEN SKI CLUB

RAVENS IN THE
BEGINNING PART 1

  There has been ski racing in this region as far back as the early sixties within clubs. However , by the late seventies, many groups were coming together with the same idea that there was a need to organise something for youngsters who wanted to race.
 Snow ski clubs, clubs with small artificial slopes, South Tyneside  and North Tyneside schools  and NESA, the Regional body,  were all running races and the English Ski Council, the National Body, was encouraging people to get involved in racing. NESA was being asked  to send teams to various  competitions to represent our region and so there was discussion about bringing racers together to help get them there.  A meeting of parents  and racers was held  at the Post House Hotel, Washington, showed a lot of interest and support.
  Soon after, two racers, Caren Garfoot and Victor Gauger, were discussing the meeting over  a coffee in the Refectory at Newcastle University. They decided that it was time to act. The North East would have a racing ski club right now. In discussing ways and means, they recognised that keeping costs down for youngsters was a priority, so fund raising was certainly on the agenda.
  They brought everybody who had expressed an interest together at the Outdoor Centre in Sunderland and started planing the trips. Most of the adult members, but not all, were the parents of racers, but not all racers had  parental support or the means to travel but it was agreed that the priority was to get the racers onto snow and, to save expense, cars and vans would be filled with any racer in need of transport.
  Several families and other adults already travelled up to Cairngorm or Glenshee during the ski season  so people were asked to fill up their spare seats with children who otherwise would not be able to get to the snow. This happened during the 1977/78 season. Karen as organiser was prepared  to try and accommodate youngster up to 4 pm on a Friday afternoon and most cars were away by 6 pm. There were no motorways then and the journey used to take around 7 hours.  Members joined the YHA , being the cheapest accommodation, and places were booked at Kingussie  Youth Hostel.
  We were greatly assisted in this by the then warden, Johnnie  McIntosh. He would leave the door unlocked for us and a note regarding which dormitories were ours. There was always  a boiler full of water for those wanting a last hot drink. Adults took turns  at cooking breakfast, usually cereal  and bacon butties, and preparing soups in flasks for the lunchtime break. Supper usually came from the chippy down the road.
  Training and racing for those with licences took place on Saturday and Sunday  then it was everybody in for the 240 mile journey home, leaving about 4/5 pm. Once we couldn’t get through Drummochter without chains  and so we had to come home via Aberdeen. We had chains on our van, so we led our little convoy  until we got up the last tricky hill then we were clear to get home (a bit later than usual). Karen kept every one up to date with a regular newsletter (I think weekly)  and we met on Wednesdays.. By the end the 78 snow season the Raven Ski Club  was becoming a cohesive group,
  Members felt that contact should be maintained over the summer months and  artificial slope competitions were becoming significant. At the May 78 meeting membership cards were given out , enabling members to obtain discounts at local sports shops ,
  A mini bus was hired at weekends to get people away and  took us from the All England which was held at Gloucester to the Scottish Championships on Cairngorm and all ski locations between.
  Next month  how Ravens got its name.
                                                                         Margaret  Garfoot.

RAVENS IN THE
BEGINNING PART  2

  Continuing  the  history  of the Ravens  begun last week,  On behalf of NESA the Raven Ski Club ran club races at Glenshee and Cairngorm, They also ran a seeding race on Cairngorm when around eight members of the British Team entered. The first ESC snow race in Scotland was organised by NESA and most of the officials were Raven Ski Club members.
  Pre snow season the club travelled to Edinburgh ski slope for training,  although Sunderland had a ski slope at Seaburn it was only 25 meters long and  was made of a surface called Delta which looked and felt like a plastic hair brush. Eddie Oliver was the instructor and he worked out of a wooden cabin next to the slope. The slope was next to the Seaburn zoo. (all filled in now, there is a children's play area  where the slope once was ). Eddie was involved with the Ravens  instructing and helping out.
  When  Sunderland opened up Silksworth in the early 80’s it became the Ravens home slope. Silksworth slope now is far different slope to that  of twenty years ago. It was one of the first plastic slopes to have a button tow, the matting was Dendix as it is now but the design layout  at the time encouraged  bumps and hollows to give a feeling of moguls, however the top’s of these artificial moguls soon had all the bristles knocked off causing bare patches which ruined many skies. This also meant that repairs were always being carried out on the slope. The slope was a similar height and length as it is now with three  major ridges. The shape of the matting was similar  to today’s however it started at 3 mats wide at the top about a quarter of today’s width.
   There was no Ski Reception or changing area, the only building in the area of the slope was the tower  which doubled as a reception and ski store. The nearest building which housed the toilets  was the farm house beyond the Puma Centre (which of course was not there then). Changing into ski gear was a little tricky at the slope (and muddy) the nearest car park was also down at the farm house a good quarter mile away.
   I should have mentioned earlier how the Club got its name. Karen and her dad mulled over the question of a name for the new club. It had to be a name that was associated with the North East. The main skiing opposition of the time were the Jaguars and Dragons. The Jags were based in the Midland's. Being near the Borders, the name Reivers came to mind. The Border Reivers were  plunderers and  “to raven” meant to plunder. The Vikings who came to plunder were known as “the black ravens”. Their helmets sometimes had raven wings as ornaments and so there it was, the raven emblem for the Raven Ski Club.
  Soon there were drawings of black ravens in silhouette, some in flight, some standing, scattered about the living room.  The standing raven was adopted as the emblem for the Raven Ski Club hat in blue and white. The blue and white were regional colours and so there was a connection with NESA.
  There was discussion’s about the logo for publicity. Suggestions were a black raven on a red sun or possibly a raven in flight encircled with some form of motto. The outcome was a free flying, unhindered raven. This was intended to convey the openness  of the club.
  I hope these notes are of interest.             Margaret Garfoot. To be continued

 On behalf of the Club I would like to thank Margaret and Jack for providing the first of the Raven history articles.

RAVENS THE MIDDLE YEARS

PART 3

  As a young teacher in Northumberland in the 1970s, I was taught to ski by Joe Porthouse at Morpeth ski slope. Joe still works in the L.D. Mountain Centre in Newcastle and through him I also came into contact with Jack Garfoot, John Exall and Rick Hudson. They were the sort of people who would walk up Cross Fell on a Sunday just for the pleasure of siding on virgin snow. I also lived 2 doors away from Gordon Brown, the current Ravens trainer, who first showed me how to wax skis in his garage and with whom I recall skiing, on the hillock, on the Town Moor in Newcastle. These people all Knew Eddie Oliver and the Seaburn slope, where the Ravens started and although I never skied there, I did go to a couple of the NESA sessions at Hillend that Margaret mentioned in the last episode. It was there that I first came into contact with "racers". I understood that John Exall's son, Chris, raced, but the racer I knew most was Rick's son, Gary Hudson. The fact that Gary's ESC registration number was 141 shows how early this was in the days of dry slope racing. (Colin Garfoot was 140 and Finlay Garfoot 145, so I guess that the Ravens made a mass application.). In 1979 and 1980 I skied in Bardonecchia, Italy, with Joe and Rick. My young son, David, was 3 and then 4 years old on these trips. When he was not trying to ski, Gary carried him on his back in a rucksack, over jumps and on simple race courses. I think it had a lasting effect on David, along with the fact that although most racers were on Lange hoots at the time, Gary had the latest American technology; a pair of bright yellow Hanson race boots, with rigid fronts, apart from 3 "flex-slots" and 2 black buckles at that rear, through which it was just possible to lever your foot into the boot. WOW!

   In l98l just after Silksworth had opened, l paid my first visit. It was so much longer than Morpeth and, above all, it had a lift. By the Summer of 1983 Ian and David, aged 5 and 7, were regularly going to Silksworth on a Saturday morning, trying to collect British Alpine star awards. This was the equivalent of the Polar Bear club. They were helped by Carole. I cannot recall her surname.

   In the early 1980s the Ravens chairman was Tom Nelson. I believe that he and his wife Anne lived on Teesside. As today, the Ravens had a wide catchment area, from mid-Northumberland to North Yorkshire. In 1984 the Junior joining fee was £5.5O and family membership was £20, although after the first year this was reduced to £3 and £10. By this time, there was a core of seasoned racers. Apart from people already mentioned, they included Andrew Lockerbie, Lynne McGuffie, Alisdair Wills, Nicola Spaldin, Vicki Wilson, Paul Noble, Tim Patterson, Graham Richardson and Karl and Niall Whatmore. In 1984 they were joined by Simon and Peter Rawson and in 1985 by Anthony Rowell. I believe that Finlay Garfoot and Andrew Lockerbie both skied for British teams and Nicola Spaldin for the English Junior team. Between 1984 and 1986 the membership was stated to be as high as 67 although I have only seen 50 names written down and a fair proportion of these were parents, The regular number of racers per Wednesday was only between 10 and 15, largely comprising of the people I have mentioned, although on a race night this could rise to 30. In 1985 I read a report in the Evening Chronicle about a National ski race at Silksworth. Two years later, Terry and Anne Spaldin told me about driving Nicola back from a weekend's racing at Pontypool. Exhausted from the travelling they had resolved to persuade ESC to hold National races at Silkworth.

I do not know if that particular race, about which I read a report, was THE first National race at Silksworth, but its existence persuaded me to move David from Saturday morning to a Wednesday night at Silksworth. That was 9th October 1985.

A week later his brother Ian thought he would like to come also. In those days there was no possibility of the Ravens teaching people to ski. You were expected to be able to ski well before you came; the Ravens existed to show you how to race. As today, the Winter race series, on the last Wednesday of every month, was a central feature of the club, but activity was restricted in the Summer. Colin and Finlay Garfoot, as very experienced racers, would train themselves. The Juniors were trained by Andrew Lockerbie, who would often end a session with a fun formation short swing run involving, say, 15 skiers. The youngest racers were taken by Stephen Bell, who was at Newcastle University. The 1985-86 Winter Race series was won by Andrew Lockerbie with Lynne McGuffle taking the female prize. Junior 2 was won by Karl Whatmore. Junior 1 was won by Paul Noble with Niall Whatmore second. David and Ian won the youngest age categories. Paul Noble was invited to have England trials and subsequently was placed on the England Development Squad.

                    To Be Continued   Brian Morris

RAVENS THE MIDDLE YEARS

PART 4

  However there was a problem. Between September1985 and August 1987 the racers all grew old together Unlike today, when so many members seem to go to University, keep racing, to some standard, and consequently retain their links with the club, the Ravens, when I joined, seemed to lose its racers at the age of 16 or 18, when they left school. For a number of year after 1987 this seriously effected Ravens and NESA teams in the All England Championships, when we could rarely find enough Senior racers, to match those from other parts of the country. Most of the stalwart racers that had graced the club began to drift away because of work/career commitments. In February 1986 there were 4 racers one week and 9 the next. The June1986 newsletter said that due to a lack of skiers there would be no club night until September 10th. However, by the end of 1986 the Wednesday night races were including 2 names that were to be of significance in the near future, Roy Mosley and Pablo Ettinger, an experienced racer on both snow and artificial whose work brought him from London to the North-East. By May 1987 Pablo was asking in the news letter why very few Ravens, 4 I think, remained on the BASS snow list and not all of those were racing. In May also, ONLY Pablo and the Rawson brothers represented the Ravens in the Rossendale Qualifying race. At this point I registered both my children with ESC and got them into the All England ,at Gloucester.

   The All England had begun in 1976, around the time when the Ravens were formed. By 1987 it was regularly sponsored by Schools Abroad and always held at Gloucester, by far the longest slope in England. (It is still the Same Dendex there today I suspect). On Saturday there was a Boys' and Girls' race in which Ian competed. David was the youngest competitor in the "Seeding" race in the afternoon. He also took part in a NESA team. In 87 this was not a relay, but a series of age group races, 4 racers, each racing separately against a similarly aged racer, from a different region. The Junior Championship proper was held on the Sunday, with the "Senior" on the Monday. As the only parent going, Dick Henderson asked me to represent NESA at a team managers meeting. I remember being asked about the seedpoints of the team and not knowing what a seedpoint was. In June 1987 my eyes were further opened to racing when I was asked to take my children, together with Paul Noble and Anthony Rowell, to the Rossendale Summer League Paul finished 5th but I had the ignominy of being beaten by a 9 year old girl I recovered a few years later when I found that she was called Liz Roche. The individual final was between Richard Schofield and one Pierre Mahon. Having pulled out all the stops to get to the final, they raced against each other in slow snowploughs. Nobody minded in the least.

  However, Paul Noble was about to go to University and the only experienced racer left from those I had witnessed in 1985 was Niall, who was looking for a job. To make matters worse there was no trainer, Andrew Lockerbie having gone to the USA. At the AGM. on July 29th 1987, nobody wanted to stand as Chairman or Secretary. Mr. Dent and Karen Rawson, the incumbents, said they would stay, but only until replacements could be found and then Julie Noble, the Treasurer, said she was unlikely to be present very much as Paul was now away from home. On the 4th August 1987, two somewhat bemused figures accepted responsibility for the Ravens, myself as Treasurer and Roy Mosley's mother, Linda, as Secretary. Apart from club races, I had been to 1 National race and 1 Summer League. Linda, at that time, knew even less about artificial racing. Neither of us knew a thing about snow racing. The Ravens ski club was having to almost start from scratch again. That baptism explains why, subsequently, it has always been a Ravens maxim to get as many parents involved as possible. When the 1987-88 Winter series began, we still had no Trainer and no Chairman However Pablo Ettinger agreed to train the racers. Barry Eger, with a knowledge of skiing and racing in the Army and as manager at Runcorn ski slope, brought his young son, Justin, during that Winter Series and was asked to be Chairman almost as soon as he had introduced himself Linda, with enormous energy, set about organising the club and Ken Mosley's who’s work with the Oval Youth Club became a new major source of recruitment. The Ravens had lost all the experience of its first 10 years , but at least it was safe and building anew.

To Be Continued  Brian Morris

RAVENS  THE MIDDLE YEARS

PART 5

However there was a problem. Between September 1985 and August 1987 the racers all grew old together Unlike today, when so many members seem to go to University, keep racing, to some standard, and consequently retain their links with the club, the Ravens, when I joined, seemed to lose its racers at the age of 16 or 18, when they left school. For a number of year after 1987 this seriously effected Ravens and NESA teams in the All England Championships, when we could rarely find enough Senior racers, to match those from other parts of the country. Most of the stalwart racers that had graced the club began to drift away because of work/career commitments. In February 1986 there were 4 racers one week and 9 the next. The June 1986 newsletter said that due to a lack of skiers there would be no club night until September 10th. However, by the end of 1986 the Wednesday night races were including 2 names that were to be of significance in the near future, Roy Mosley and Pablo Ettinger, an experienced racer on both snow and artificial whose work brought him from London to the North-East. By May 1987 Pablo was asking in the news letter why very few Ravens, 4 I think, remained on the BASS snow list and not all of those were racing. In May also, ONLY Pablo and the Rawson brothers represented the Ravens in the Rossendale Qualifying race. At this point I registered both my children with ESC and got them into the All England ,at Gloucester.

TO BE CONTINED                   

I would like to thank Brian Morris for getting his brain in gear and writing parts 1,2 and 3 The Middle Years , Thanks!

RAVENS THE MIDDLE YEARS 

A HISTORY OF THE RAVEN SKI CLUB PART 6

As a family we had always enjoyed ski holidays and were members of Weardale Ski Club. My children Roy and Ruth learned to ski almost as soon as they could walk and we knew that eventually we would join the Ravens. I remember one of the inaugural meetings being held at the Outdoor Activities Association where I was working as a volunteer. Over those early years we knew they were flourishing and when we eventually got round to joining we were rather disappointed. There were very few members and even fewer who seemed to attend regularly, training seemed to be very haphazard, information was minimal and there was no club spirit. I think it was only the fact that my husband Ken wanted to encourage Roy in his ambitions to learn how to ski race. Roy had always been competitive. He had already been involved in judo and BMX racing completions. He was a very good skier for his age and so we persevered. When it looked as though the Ravens was going to fold I had no choice but to volunteer to be the secretary. I had never attended a ski race however I had served on committees before.

Club races had also been a feature before I took over. I remember Paul Noble's mother introducing me to the joys of gatekeeping one cold and rainy night at Silksworth. The old committee had rallied round and provided a course setter and some officials. It was obvious to me that this was enjoyed by the youngsters and needed to be part of club activities. We established what became the Winter Series. For the first year we struggled from one race to the next. Did we have a course setter? a starter? a timer? If we were really lucky we had someone to act as a gatekeeper. The slope looked different in those days. It was narrower, with bumps that created bald patches on the matting and had no sprinkler system. However we are still using the same timing system. We succeeded in establishing a routine of holding a race on the last Wednesday of most of the winter months. The only things that have really changed are that in those days there were two runs and in order to encourage the racers the results were based on the best time of the two runs. We awarded prizes at the end of the series to all racers who had completed enough races. For all racers this continues to be their first trophy and for those racers who for whatever reason do not go on to greater things it may be their only trophy. My daughter Ruth is very proud of her Winter Series trophies as she has a complete set - she has won every age group and overall female. The Winter Series continues to introduce youngsters and their parents to the ups and downs of ski racing!                                                                                           Linda Mosley

TO BE CONTINUED

RAVENS THE MIDDLE YEARS

HISTORY OF THE RAVEN SKI CLUB PART 7

Roy's first national race was the Bairns and Lasses at Hillend. We went on our own and it felt as though we were the only ones without any support. All the others seemed to be in a group with a trainer, parent or teacher who knew what they were doing. I remember watching with interest the young members of the Kendal Ski Club (the only other English people there) enthusiastically waxing their skis under the guidance of their trainer. This was a whole new world! It was also our first introduction to the art of course inspecting, Scots inspected from the bottom up in those days. I also appreciated its objective as the course was one of those where there was a slow line and a fast line. The goody bag Roy received on finishing made it all worthwhile. This was the start of a steep learning curve for me in the organisation of national ski races.

Terry and Ann Spaldin had been instrumental in introducing the organisation of the first national races at Silksworth. I had met Ann several years previously at an upholstery class at a time when her daughter Nicola was racing with the Ravens. Terry and Ann agreed to organise one more race on the understanding that I would take over in future. Ann was a very good teacher. She involved me in every stage of the planning and organisation. It was an Open Race as we had not been organised enough to get on the calendar - I did not even know there was a calendar and so we had to write to racers personally. Ann negotiated a good sponsorship deal with Thomas Cook who donated an airfare to Canada to see the Winter Olympics and teddy bears for all the Boys and Girls. Terry knew everyone who was anyone on the racing circuit and proved to be an excellent Chief of Race. I was introduced to the world of jury meetings and vorlaufers. Ravens have continued to host races every year. in order to race in this one Roy had to join the ESC. Again another door opened to me, now I had a new source of information. The Ravens could now get on the bandwagon of the race circuit.

Although the standard of racing in those days was not as high as it is today it was sufficiently high for me to realise that most of our Ravens racers needed a gentler introduction to national racing. Brian had been to the Rossendale Summer League and enthusiastically promoted it. We decided to run the Youth Club minibus. It was one of our best decisions. The kids loved it. It provided, as it still does, a series of races which are predominantly fun, a full days racing including a timed 2-run slalom followed by dual slalom. And all for £4. This was the way into ski racing, so much more fun than the deadly serious ESC races. And for that first season it did not rain at Rossendale.

As Rossendale is only two and a half hours away it was where we encouraged racers to go for their first qualifying race away from Silksworth. From there we progressed to qualifying races on other slopes, Grand Prix and the All England. In those days the all England was always held at Gloucester on the weekend of the May Bank holiday. The first year we went we traveled over night in the Youth Club minibus. We arrived far too early and absolutely exhausted. We stayed in a rather primitive youth hostel in Cheltenham. We did not win anything that year but we thoroughly enjoyed the excitement of the Regional dual slalom. In later years we did very well in this event We did not have any star racers at that time but we did have consistently good racers who performed well as a team. Eventually we were ready for snow races.

We first organised a training week during the Christmas holidays of 1988 to Chatel. We went with a company owned by a guy who I only remember as Stan, Stan the con man. We travelled by coach and stayed in self-catering apartments and Stan provided the training. In reality Barry and Brian skied the kids hard in the morning and Stan put a few bamboo canes up for them in the afternoon. We didn't use him again.                                                        Linda Mosley

TO BE CONTINUED

RAVENS THE MIDDLE YEARS

HISTORY OF THE RAVENS SKI CLUB PART 8

During the Easter holiday 1989 Ken and Roy went to our first English Alpine Series in Serre Chevalier. Ken did not know anyone and knew nothing about snow races. It was the end of the week before he found out he was supposed to go to a team managers' meeting the night before the race to collect Roy⁹s bib. It was quite a lonely week. The next year we joined forces with Yorkshire and Humberside and had a training week and race week in Serre Chevalier. The trainer was Andrew Lockerbie. It was a great fortnight. We now knew how it should be done. The next year, again with Yorkshire and Humberside, we tried the double, the first week at the British Championships in Orciere Merlette and the second at the English in Serre Chevalier. The trainer this time was a tall, enthusiastic, young man called Pierre Mahon! We also tried to organise trips to the Scottish races but somehow these never worked. The weekends we wanted to go were the ones when there was no snow. The Elliott family who had joined the Ravens by this time were keen Scottish skiers. They went every weekend to train and race with the Scottish Ski Club but the rest of us were just not wealthy or keen enough to brave the Scottish weather and snow conditions.

My major headache as Secretary was the organising of a suitable trainer. Pablo Ettinger, mentioned last month in Brian's episode, did not stay in the region long. We really wanted Andrew Lockerbie but he was rarely at home. However he was available to provide training during the Spring Bank Holiday week. It was a really successful week which was repeated the following year. He provided a rare combination of hard work and fun which we did not sec again for many years.

The Wednesday night trainers came and went. At first they worked voluntarily but to help us out the Oval Youth Club agreed to pay an ex-Raven racer called Erica She left the area to get married. She was succeeded by the Garfoot Brothers Colin and Finlay. When they left we recruited an older instructor, Steve Hankin who traveled up from near Leeds/Bradford airport. We had to find enough to pay him properly for his travelling expenses as well as his fee. This was done by increasing the Wednesday night subs. Steve had experience on snow and came with us to train in Serre Chevalier in 1991. The club membership was growing and there was a difference between the experienced older racers and the newer younger ones. We needed another trainer. This one was another ex-Raven Niaill Whatmore who stayed with us off and on for a number of years.

The first club strip happened by accident. At the time turquoise Spyder tops with padded sleeves were fashionable for racers. They could be bought in the shops for about £30 but John Exall was the Spyder agent at the time and he agreed to provide us with a bulk order for £12 each. Wilderness Ways, now Nevisports, heard about this and insisted that we buy them through them at the proper price. Eventually Ken negotiated a price of £20 and we bought 30. They were still good value and I still see racers wearing them. The next club strip was ordered because at a Qualifying Race at Swadlincote it rained all day and everyone got soaked to the skin. This time it was a black waterproof suit with Ravens across the back. These were popular with the racers not only on plastic but also on snow. It could be made warmer by adding layers underneath and the zipped trousers could be put on over ski boots. We still have a pair of the trousers which Ruth wears on very wet days at the Ski Slope.

In re-establishing the Ravens we concentrated very much on the racing side. The only social events we organised were the presentation "party" at the end of the winter series and a Christmas Dinner for parents only. The first four of these dinners coincided each year with the first snow of the season. This was just a dusting but for one of them it was quite heavy and the County Durham members, the Lewise’s, Wallace’s and the Heald,s had to leave early to make sure they did not get snowed up.

I continued as secretary for about 5 years. I passed over the job to Pauline Porteous. I felt I had done as much as I wanted. It was by then a healthy club with a large membership of young racers and just as importantly keen parents.

Linda Mosley.

On behalf of the club I would like to thank Linda for putting her memories  down on paper for us all to read.

TO BE CONTINUED

BARRY EGER EDITOR RAVEN NEWS

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