Balmain Cup 2002
Pitchford flies in from USA to compete in 2002 Balmain Cup – by Serena Beresford-Wylie - Coutesy of CAC's 'Frozen Acres'
Well, nearly! Rohan Pitchford, former club champion ad back from a sabbatical in the USA , did compete for the Club in this year’s Balmain Cup in a return to the glory days of the early 1990’s although we may be stretching it a bit to say h flew back from the US specifically to compete. But he would have, I’m sure, if he had known how much the club needed his contribution.
In fact, a return to the days of the past was a bit of a feature of some elements of our team this year, particularly our cross country competitors since the Balmain Cup, unfortunately clashed with the Hoppet, thus depriving us of many of our cross country stars. It is a tribute to the depth of talent in the Club that we could still field a cross country team filled with talent, albeit that the team was virtually identical to one we fielded seven years ago!
CAC finished fourth in this year’s close competition with Guthega taking out the Cup from Brindabella and Cooma. Tate finished fifth with a gallant Jagungal rounding the field.
In glorious conditions on Mother in Law (such a contrast to the blizzard last year) the competition began with the slalom and the field was strengthened considerably with the presence of former national team member and Salt Lake City Olympian Jeanette Korten skiing for Brindabella.
Brindabella, led by first place getter Jeanette, won the section from Guthega with Tate just edging out CAC for third. Sterling performances from our gun skiers (Emma Wilson and Nick Beresford-Wylie, who finished fourth and fifth overall in the slalom) gave in a great platform on which to build and strong performances from Emily Frain and Stephen Peel put us in a handy position after an unfortunate fall on the first run by Andrew Frain and a missed gate by Rohan Pitchford (jet lag? Or the fact that Rohan had to compete on a set of GS skis?).
The giant slalom followed shortly thereafter with Guthega edging out Brindabella and CAC. Again our young skiers put together a great set of times, illustrating the depth of the talent of the club.
Unfortunately we lost a little ground in the snowboard event finishing fifth with Brindabella taking out the section ahead of Guthega and Cooma. Special mention however to Mark Mylek, who finished seventh in the field, and Emma Wilson who was our individual entrant for all four events. Well done also to our champions of the future Sam Murphy, Laura Peel and Melinda Mylek.
Finally on to the cross country where we retrieved some ground on the leaders but unfortunately not enough. Still, there were great performances from Tim Greville (a brilliant 2nd place), Rohan Pitchford (7th). Nevin Agnew (14th), Simon Tilley (18th), Sally Moten (19th) and Emma Wilson (24th).
It was a wonderful team effort overall this year and Emma Wilson was narrowly pipped by Wendy Pinkerton of Tate in the Ladies overall individual results.
| CLUB | GS | SL | SB | XC | TOTAL |
| Guthega | 100.00% | 99.82% | 96.24% | 99.84% | 395.90% |
| Brindabella | 96.37% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 89.06% | 385.43% |
| Cooma | 90.66% | 89.74% | 94.47% | 100.00% | 374.87% |
| CAC | 94.41% | 91.91% | 78.70% | 91.36% | 356.38% |
| Tate | 92.45% | 94.02% | 94.00% | 46.36% | 326.83% |
| Jagungal | 66.87% | 29.04% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 95.91% |
| Slalom | Jeanette Korten (Brindabella) |
| Giant Slalom | Rupert Winkler (Guthega) |
| Snowboard | Jamie Pinkerton (Tate) |
| Cross Country | Peter Fitzpatrick (Cooma) |
| Dudzinski Trophy | Jamie Pinkerton (Tate) |
| Dudzinski Trophy - Female | Wendy Pinkerton (Tate) |