Balmain Cup 2005
Brindabella hosts Balmain Cup by Georgina Dudzinski - Courtesy of Brindabella's 'Christie'
Friday night was a bit eclectic at Tiobunga. The Performance Coach, Freck (Simon Jeffries), was finding it hard to whip up Brindabella Balmain Cup Team spirit as there were few team members to be found. Dave Magill, the Club Captain, made a comment about, “herding cats.” Georgina Dudzinski seemed to be on her knees in the ski room begging competitors to wax their skis and boards and mumbling incoherently about camera equipment and missing cords. She had just come back from Guthega Ski Club and had nearly choked on the wax in the air emanating from (no less than) 5 tuning benches.
Georgina gave up on the waxes and started explaining the game plan to Geoffrey Carroll who knew something about cameras. “You see 10 years ago during the Guthega Snow Fest, the organizers said that ‘If Thredbo can do it, Guthega can have a flair run too’ and they did it. Albeit the lack of grooming on Mt Tate meant it was a little rougher than on Crackenback. Anyway, I reckon that if Thredbo Inter-club can show a fantastic film of the day’s racing at the presentation, Guthega can do it too.” So, after that extensive explanation of how it was to be done, Geoff was given the locations that the racers would be at, and asked to record the gist of it.
Saturday was just the weather that Brindabella had ordered – still and sunny – perfect for filming. The challenge of running a Balmain Cup is that 4 different events: slalom, giant slalom, snowboard and cross-country are all run on the same day with the host club putting on a pre-dinner party, organizing dinner at a restaurant and a presentation that night. This year there was the added challenge of two locations, the cross-country had to be at Perisher, whilst the downhill events were held on the Mother-in-Law at Guthega. Even prior to all that, Dave Magill had to find the Brindabella Team.
Six runners start and four times are counted for each team. It was a tough slalom with a third of the field crashing or missing gates. Steve Fitzhenry blitzed them with his armchair style, Gray McLaren’s smooth technique pulled in a counting time, Karl Knapp came in close behind but Tim Azzopardi was thinking of the bright lights of Hollywood and put on a spectacular crash in front of the camera. Our four counting times were in the top half of the field and we came 2nd in that event after Cooma Hut who had Australian Team members.
Guthega Ski Club knew they had a chance of winning this year with a good team. They had to do well in the slalom as that was their best event. No less than three of their racers stuffed up. Their fourth time included Heimo Thaurer spending time looking for his lost ski and putting it back on. At least he finished – the Golden Rule for a team event – you must finish. GSC came last in the slalom and they were not happy campers.
The Giant Slalom was almost as tough with a tight course. Kerrin Bleicher got fantastic times for Brindabella, the fastest female and 5th overall. Brindabella came 3rd after GSC and Cooma Hut. Tom Landon-Smith from Cooma Hut turned up in his retro gear. He is a cross-country racer but in the down-hill event he sports one-buckle, rear-entry boots and straight 205cm skis and comes about mid-field.
Snowboarding (could someone who was there please fill in the blanks – I was asleep). We came 2nd – times were Dave, Steve, Rob, Eve, Graeme and Conrad.
Cross-country (could someone who was there please fill in the blanks – as above).
We came 4th – times were Sue, Peter (very close), Kerrin, Cameron and Gray. Gray was suffering from the flu.
Tiobunga hosted a pre-dinner party presenting guests with a peach snaps on arrival, the hostesses in elegant dresses with a special mention to Kylie Grimwood who wore a very elegant pair of high heals. There may have been 80 people in the loungeroom. I heard praise from one GSC member who said that Brindabella had raised the social bar for Balmain Cup. And this coming from a club that warned guests that BSC does ‘not do a good spread’. Karen Watson and Margaret Grist saw to dispel old rumours. Amongst all this Geoff and Jed Buffier were converting the day’s filming onto a laptop. It all worked just in time and the atmosphere was hightened as people could see the crashes and variety of techniques displayed at the races that day.
The crowd then moved to the Snow Pub for dinner. The teams were all well primed by the time our Club Captain and President got up to present the results. Heather did very well controlling the crowd which annoted much of her words. Dave Magill muttered something about herding ferrals. The overall individual trophy went to Rupert Winkler of GSC which lessened the impact of the disastrous slalom of the morning. Canberra Alpine Club was announced as 5th, Tate as 4th, Brindabella as 3rd, then the room erupted as Cooma was announced 2nd which meant that GSC had won.
An emotional GSC club captain announced that as Karl Gunther (who had a skiing accident) could not come to the Balmain Cup, the Balmain Cup would have to be brought to him in hospital. GSC had not expected to win but they had pulled out three good cross country times and the Cooma snowboarders had got a little lost around the delay gate. Cooma Hut were looking disappointed and skied back to Perisher at about midnight. Their selector, Klaus Pinkas, decided to stay back for a few more drinks to drown his sorrows.
The video of the day was played again on the large screen and the teams placed their orders for a copy of Geoff’s work. Gray and I walked down the hill after the party subsided and found Tim asleep on one of the wooden benches at Tiobunga. It had been a great night, in fact, it was the best Balmain Cup ever…well…except maybe 1964 when we won.
| CLUB | GS | SL | SB | XC | TOTAL |
| Guthega | 88.70% | 100% | 100% | 91.80% | 380.50% |
| Cooma | 100% | 92.53% | 85.09% | 100% | 377.62% |
| Brindabella | 96.05% | 92.47% | 96.95% | 72.53% | 358.00% |
| Tate | 94.26% | 84.26% | 94.29% | 62.86% | 335.67% |
| CAC | 94.41% | 90.16% | 62.27% | 79.17% | 326.01% |
| Slalom | Andrew Macdonald (Cooma) |
| Giant Slalom | Andrew Macdonald (Cooma) |
| Snowboard | Jamie Pinkerton (Tate) |
| Cross Country | Peter Fitzpatrick (Cooma) |
| Dudzinski Trophy | Rupert Winkler (Guthega) |
| Dudzinski Trophy - Female | Wendy Pinkerton (Tate) |