2018-19 British figure skating

CaroLiza_fan said:

Personally, I like the idea. Because I have been struggling to find somewhere to talk about the skaters representing Ireland. And there are not enough of them to warrant their own thread.

But, other people may object to grouping the two countries together. Especially if next season's thread has a flag icon like this season's does. (That is actually why I am not offering to change the title of the current thread, in case somebody gets offended. You have to be so careful when it comes to flags on this island).

In the case of Sam's Irish Senior Men's title, it seemed appropriate to post about it in this thread because he used to skate for Team GB, and because the Irish Championships are being held in conjuction with an IJS competition.

CaroLiza_fan

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Indeed, and some of them train in Britain, so I would have no objection, and as for the flags, couldn't we have more than one?

One of the skaters that I have adopted made her Junior GP debut this season. When I was adding the video links to the Fan Fest, I noticed a comment written in Cyrillic on one of the videos. So, out of curiosity, I put it into a translator to see what they were saying. It was VERY nasty towards the skater herself. So I sent an e-mail to Ted Barton, and he replied saying he would pass it onto the appropriate person to investigate.

The last time I checked a few months ago, the comment was still there. But I just checked again there now, and discovered that comments are now disabled on ALL the Junior GP videos.

Good move, but it shouldn't have to be done. I just don't understand people that post comments like this.

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Just after the JGP season started the ISU stopped the live chat on YouTube during the stream as some of the comments were absolutely vile about teenage girls on the Ladies thread which seemed to attract the most nastiness. I'm not surprised they've disabled the comments.

DSQ said:

He’s so funny in the K&C! I wish them both the best of luck!

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Mauri has been doing that hand sign since he competed with Barbara!! I still don't know what it means! :think:

They’ve sent you a long reply as well. Went I see what poor Hanyu, Chen, Zhou, Medvedeva and Zagitova have to put up with (have you seen the bomb site that is the Men’s FS thread?) sometimes I think it’s better to be a little unknown...

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I couldn't agree more! I asked a French Twitter friend to translate for me and the comments were basically just personal abuse about F&G, so I've deleted them both. She recognized this person as being a regular in leaving nasty comments on people's videos, even Gaby & Guillaume's, so she's just an internet crazy, which is all I needed today with the stormy weather in London and state of the country! :sad21:

CaroLiza_fan said:

Personally, I like the idea. Because I have been struggling to find somewhere to talk about the skaters representing Ireland. And there are not enough of them to warrant their own thread.

But, other people may object to grouping the two countries together. Especially if next season's thread has a flag icon like this season's does. (That is actually why I am not offering to change the title of the current thread, in case somebody gets offended. You have to be so careful when it comes to flags on this island).

In the case of Sam's Irish Senior Men's title, it seemed appropriate to post about it in this thread because he used to skate for Team GB, and because the Irish Championships are being held in conjuction with an IJS competition.

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Perhaps “Team GBR And IRL 2019-20” as the title and leave a flag off the icon? I always view the forum in mobile mode so I don’t see the icon and I’d rather us all have a place to post news. Especially since, as LaRhumba said, there is a lot of crossover in affiliations with Britain and Ireland.

That said I do take it seriously that people can be upset about these things. Being from Scotland I get that perhaps news about the Irish skaters might get dominated by Britain or grouped like they’re the same country and I wouldn’t want that. However if we make it clear in the first page that it’s a thread for two separate countries and have the flag in the title rather than the icon I think everyone could be happy. Are there other Irish posters here who can share their opinion?

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, it’s not next season yet!

team biritish isles?team irish sea isles? clovers and union jacks?

DSQ said:

Perhaps “Team GBR And IRL 2019-20” as the title and leave a flag off the icon? I always view the forum in mobile mode so I don’t see the icon and I’d rather us all have a place to post news. Especially since, as LaRhumba said, there is a lot of crossover in affiliations with Britain and Ireland.

That said I do take it seriously that people can be upset about these things. Being from Scotland I get that perhaps news about the Irish skaters might get dominated by Britain or grouped like they’re the same country and I wouldn’t want that. However if we make it clear in the first page that it’s a thread for two separate countries and have the flag in the title rather than the icon I think everyone could be happy. Are there other Irish posters here who can share their opinion?

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, it’s not next season yet!

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that’s the Ivory Coast flag, but yes, that thread title sounds good!

hi! im new to this thread (i often just lurk gs because many of the edge threads scare me) but hi! im from ni thank you for including the Irish skaters in this thread because nobody else talks about them

but yes!! im fairly comfortable with having the two in the one thread as long as we’re clear w: who’s an Irish skater / who’s a british skater, but i don’t really see the point in opening a separate thread for the Irish skaters when there are so little of them - there’s a high chance the thread would end up drying up or being buried anyway

Whoops, they are very similar. Sorry.
I had no idea, I always thought the Ivory Coast’s flag was blue for some reason...

Welcome to GS lilsailor!

DSQ said:

Perhaps “Team GBR ���� And IRL ���� 2019-20” as the title and leave a flag off the icon? I always view the forum in mobile mode so I don’t see the icon and I’d rather us all have a place to post news. Especially since, as LaRhumba said, there is a lot of crossover in affiliations with Britain and Ireland.

That said I do take it seriously that people can be upset about these things. Being from Scotland I get that perhaps news about the Irish skaters might get dominated by Britain or grouped like they’re the same country and I wouldn’t want that. However if we make it clear in the first page that it’s a thread for two separate countries and have the flag in the title rather than the icon I think everyone could be happy. Are there other Irish posters here who can share their opinion?

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, it’s not next season yet!

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Sound like a good idea to me.

As you may have gathered from posts I have made elsewhere on the forum, I love flags. BUT, when it comes to these islands, I tend to avoid the national flags of the two countries like the plague for fear of upsetting anybody. Hence why I use the specific NI flag for my nationality.

So, if it was me, I would be inclined to leave flags out of the title completely. Like, it was only this season that flags were introduced to the country threads. We managed alright without them before that.

On the other hand, looking at your mock-up of a title, even I have to admit that they are a good way of visually showing that there are 2 teams being discussed, and for separating them out.

Just one thing, though. I am not sure if unicode flags actually work in thread titles. So, we may be debating over something that is irrelevant.

As for your question about Irish posters, there are 3 members that I definitely know live in the South. However, one of them isn't actually Irish, and the other two don't post anywhere near as regularly as they used to.

lilsailor said:

that’s the Ivory Coast flag, but yes, that thread title sounds good!

hi! im new to this thread (i often just lurk gs because many of the edge threads scare me) but hi! im from ni ���� thank you for including the Irish skaters in this thread because nobody else talks about them��

but yes!! im fairly comfortable with having the two in the one thread as long as we’re clear w: who’s an Irish skater / who’s a british skater, but i don’t really see the point in opening a separate thread for the Irish skaters when there are so little of them �� - there’s a high chance the thread would end up drying up or being buried anyway

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Glad to see that I'm not the only one that is too scared to go into many of the threads! A lot of them (especially the team threads) can get very heated because of the fans being so attached to their particular favourite skaters.

But, that is what I like about this thread - we are not like that because we are chatting about a small group of skaters. And we just want to support them.

CaroLiza_fan

Great result for Sam! Hope we see lots more of him in the future.
I really wish they would open another rink in Northern Ireland. I’d love my little boy to skate but dundonald is just too far from us with school etc.

I can’t wait to see what fear/Gibson come up with next season. They really came out of nowhere for me this season. [emoji7]

Copenhagen Dance Cup

No British couples taking part this year, but plenty of GBR Solo Ice Dancers competing at the Copenhagen Dance Cup, April 12-14 (including Mollie Rainey from Dundonald in the Juvenile category).

Entries: http://copenhagendancecups.dk/onewebmedia/Participants-CDC19-finale1.pdf

If you've never watched this event before, it's one of my highlights of the season. Always a friendly atmosphere from the Danish organizers, it's all livestreamed beautifully on YouTube, and if you don't know much about Solo Dance it's a great discipline to watch, as some of the more advanced competitors are really talented (Ashley Mitchell in Senior Ladies). It's also exciting, as Lilah said in an interview this season, GB has a developed Solo Dance competitive structure, so our skaters usually do well and win medals, so a good opportunity to see skaters you may've only read about. Jonathan Davies is returning as a previous silver medal winner for the Senior Men, who is also in the Royal Navy!

Pity no couples going over this year, as it's been a great stepping stone for both Ash & Atl and Vassilisa & Alessio in past seasons. :luv17:

website http://copenhagendancecups.dk/index.html

Wow you weren’t kidding, there are so many British skaters! Especially from Blackpool!

La Rhumba said:

No British couples taking part this year, but plenty of GBR Solo Ice Dancers competing at the Copenhagen Dance Cup, April 12-14 (including Mollie Rainey from Dundonald in the Juvenile category).

Entries: http://copenhagendancecups.dk/onewebmedia/Participants-CDC19-finale1.pdf

If you've never watched this event before, it's one of my highlights of the season. Always a friendly atmosphere from the Danish organizers, it's all livestreamed beautifully on YouTube, and if you don't know much about Solo Dance it's a great discipline to watch, as some of the more advanced competitors are really talented (Ashley Mitchell in Senior Ladies). It's also exciting, as Lilah said in an interview this season, GB has a developed Solo Dance competitive structure, so our skaters usually do well and win medals, so a good opportunity to see skaters you may've only read about. Jonathan Davies is returning as a previous silver medal winner for the Senior Men, who is also in the Royal Navy!

Pity no couples going over this year, as it's been a great stepping stone for both Ash & Atl and Vassilisa & Alessio in past seasons. :luv17:

website http://copenhagendancecups.dk/index.html

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I have to admit that the Copenhagen Cup hadn’t come up on my radar before, but I am looking forward to being able to follow it properly. Because I am very interested in finding out more about Solo Dance. (You may have seen the conversation I was involved in one time about how the ISU / IOC used the time freed up by getting rid of the Compulsory Dance, and concluding that adding Solo Dance to the roster would have been a better option than the Team Event).

Looking through the entries, I see there are 3 girls from NI competing. As well as Mollie, Claudia McCully is representing Dundonald in pre-novice. And although she doesn't have a club listed, Adult skater Donna Stobie is one of our's as well.

Hey, maybe we will see Maria with them!

By the way, the guy from the Junior Ice Dance partnership representing Spain at the top of the Entry page - Linus Colmor Jepsen. Did you know that his former partner / sister is representing Denmark in this year's Eurovision song contest?

Haven't heard her song yet (I deliberately avoid them like the plague until they are performed in the competition), but I will be supporting her.

CaroLiza_fan

Penny Coomes, 30 today

Happy Birthday to Penny Coomes born on this day in 1989, 3 x Winter Olympian, 5 x British Ice Dance Champion, European Bronze Medalist (with partner Nick).

Have a lovely day Penny!

CaroLiza_fan said:

(You may have seen the conversation I was involved in one time about how the ISU / IOC used the time freed up by getting rid of the Compulsory Dance, and concluding that adding Solo Dance to the roster would have been a better option than the Team Event).
CaroLiza_fan

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No, I didn't see that conversation, but would agree that it's a great idea! I really am not a fan of the Team Event, and Solo Dancers will always reach a certain level before tackling the issue that it is not an International Championship event, so if they wish to win medals beyond the British and Club comps like Copehangen, they have to start looking for a partner, which is a very difficult thing. We have plenty of very talented Solo Dancers who have been technically good skaters, but have given up at the age of 15/16, which is such a shame. We have Alex Snowden who was a lovely Solo Dancer, won a medal at Basic Novice couples, then her partnership split up, and she is now a champion Speed Skater, Long & Short Track. Yes, you could say she found her sport, but also the impetus was that it's an Olympic event, which is where these kids dream of reaching.

Looking through the entries, I see there are 3 girls from NI competing. As well as Mollie, Claudia McCully is representing Dundonald in pre-novice. And although she doesn't have a club listed, Adult skater Donna Stobie is one of our's as well.

Hey, maybe we will see Maria with them!

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Haha! Yes, and this time I'll know it's definitely Maria Filipov from Dancing on Ice, now Coaching in Dundonald. I spotted Liz Coates, sat in the K&C once with one of the Solo Dancers in Copenhagen, that's former British medalist and Euro & World Competitor with Alan Abretti (coach of the Fears at Ally Pally) and Liz Coates was also the Compulsory Dance specialist in Detroit, coaching in partnership with Igor Shpillband, who started the US Ice Dance renaissance about 20 years ago. She worked with Tanith & Ben, and all the other couples of the time before returning to England.

By the way, the guy from the Junior Ice Dance partnership representing Spain at the top of the Entry page - Linus Colmor Jepsen. Did you know that his former partner / sister is representing Denmark in this year's Eurovision song contest?

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No, I didn't know that! But shall look out for her (as our entry is absolute rubbish, how was it chosen? What were the GBP thinking? :disapp: ) I'm afraid you've hit a raw nerve with me there CaroLiza_fan. I saw this boy skate the RD at Junior Worlds and was hugely impressed with his talent, though annoyed that yet again, Spain have recruited another non national talented skater for their team. He is 18, the girl only 14, they teamed up only in October last year and train in Lyon, and currently he looks far more mature than her, so I wondered aloud why another talented dancer hadn't snapped him up, and surmised that Spain must give very tempting packages to attract these skaters, but maybe I'm bitter?

Dundee Skate Camp taking place with Pairs Coach from Canada Bruno Marcotte, so hopefully we'll have some more Pairs representation next season.

Pic from Simon Briggs here: https://twitter.com/s1briggs/status/1115218595355791360

Here’s something I didn’t think I’d be saying: Natasha McKay is training the 4S! The Salchow is one of her better jumps so all I can say is good luck! I’m very excited!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwCgBRRHRAz

The Brits smashed the Blues PD at Copenhagen Dance Cup!!

Alana Pang, Blackpool in 1st, Lily Bakhtiari, Deeside in 2nd in Advanced Novice. Though Alana missed her key points, she had lovely deep edges and Blues slinky style.

Basic Novice Couples PD next (No GB couple in this) but events all day today and tomorrow till the prize giving, everyone gets a goody bag!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaGrZrC3O48

From Sasha Fear's ig story, she's been spending time on (and off) the ice at Ally Pally with Tessa Virtue... choreo? coaching? i don't think i even care, i'm just very excited by it!!

fzztsimmons said:

From Sasha Fear's ig story, she's been spending time on (and off) the ice at Ally Pally with Tessa Virtue... choreo? coaching? i don't think i even care, i'm just very excited by it!!

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I think Tessa is in London on Holiday.

The UK bid for the 2022 European Championships! I’ll let you guys guess where in England they choose... xD

DSQ said:

I think Tessa is in London on Holiday.

The UK bid for the 2022 European Championships! I’ll let you guys guess where in England they choose... xD

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Come on, we don't even need to guess - we already know the answer.

Next year's Junior Synchro Worlds is in Nottingham, so the next event the UK gets after that, it'll be Sheffield's turn.

Regular as clockwork...

By the way, have you seen the Predictions Game Hall Of Fame post for the WTT yet? Let's just say you might like the look of it...

CaroLiza_fan

DSQ said:

I think Tessa is in London on Holiday.

The UK bid for the 2022 European Championships! I’ll let you guys guess where in England they choose... xD

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Surely out of all of the countries bidding it's our turn? 10 years is a long gap between hosting championships? Basically I'm trying to talk this into existence because yay for minimal travel! Although I see that it's only Europe who has bid for World's that year which is handy