2019-20 British & Irish Figure Skating

DSQ said:

Only 800 spectator capacity but this is exciting!

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Mmmm. 800 isn't a lot at all. I would have expected a development like this to have at least double that. Hey, Dundee has nearly triple the spectator capacity of this proposal, but it took 20 years just to get a Senior B!

So, even if the ISU specifically wants to hold something in London, I think planning to have a spectator capacity this small is ruling out the new Lee Valley as a venue.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. :disapp:

How does this 800 number compare with other rinks in London? I mean venues like Alexandra Palace that have year-round rinks, not venues like Wembley Arena that can lay down ice for specific events.

CaroLiza_fan

Looking forward to seeing what Teams GB and Ireland bring to the table this year. I'm hoping for another great year for Fear and Gibson and I really enjoyed Natasha Mackay and several of the men and Zoe Jones will always have a special place in my heart.

Has there been any word on fear/Gibson’s programs this year?

^

No not yet but they announced late last year as well. I don’t think we’ll hear anything until the IJS Sheffield.

djkaye said:

I’m excited for this lea Valley ice rink as I’m competing in lea valley open which is fairly soon ������

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Erm, just a small correction. Although the river and the valley it is in is spelt "Lea", the name of the park (along with it's ice rink) in the said valley is spelt "Lee".

Does anybody know the reason for this discrepency? Is it a clever double-reference to a person as well as the river?

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Yesterday, I was watching the British Superbike meeting from Knockhill (in Fife, Scotland), and something happened which reminded me of a question I wanted to ask after watching the livestream of the British Figure Skating Championships.

One of the races yesterday was won by a Scottish rider. And, since the meeting was being in Scotland, the organisers played "Flower Of Scotland" as a special treat instead of the usual "God Save The Queen". And it started me thinking again about something I have often wondered - why is it that in domestic British Championships, where everybody competing is from the UK, that the overall UK National Anthem is played for the winner during the podium ceremonies, rather than the National Anthem of the specific country that the winner is from?

Like, it would add a bit of variety if we heard "Jerusalem" for the English skaters; "Flower Of Scotland" for the Scottish skaters; "Old Land Of My Fathers" for the Welsh skaters; and "Danny Boy" for the Northern Irish skaters. Especially since the British Figure Skating Championships are one of those events that hold all the podium ceremonies back-to-back at the end of the day. (That is one thing I hate, keeping the ceremonies to the end of the day. They should be held straight after the corresponding competition, so that the skaters don't have to hang around in their costumes all day).

Of course, this could get complicated for partnerships where the skaters are from different places. But, "God Save The Queen" could be used for them.

The situation with the anthems is so confusing. Returning to motorbike racing for a moment, when I have been at the Ulster Grand Prix, I have noticed that the Scottish, Welsh and Manx riders get their own anthems played. But the English and Northern Irish riders don't - they both get "God Save The Queen". And from what I saw during the football matches that were played during and before the Women's World Cup, it was the same situation there. Yet, at the Commonwealth Games, all the competitors get their own anthems played.

I have never seen a podium ceremony from any sport where the winner is from the Channel Islands (sorry Andy Priaulx, but touring car racing is one of the forms of motorsport that I didn't get into). So, I don't know if they ever get their relevant anthem ("Ma Normandie" for Jersey; "Sarnia Cherie" for Guernsey) played or not.

For that matter, does anybody know if there has ever been any competitive figure skaters from the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man? After being in Jersey last week, I have got really curious.

CaroLiza_fan

DSQ said:

^

No not yet but they announced late last year as well. I don’t think we’ll hear anything until the IJS Sheffield.

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Thanks! Hope they get great programs to keep building momentum this year. Can’t wait to see them, they were such a breath of fresh air last season [emoji7]

i don't know if it was already posted somewhere, but i just came across this

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8920938/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1

elektra blue said:

i don't know if it was already posted somewhere, but i just came across this

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8920938/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1

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Yep, that was ITV's flagship Christmas Day programme.

Here is the GS thread about it (now archived):

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?78003

I still haven't got round to watching it...

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

I still haven't got round to watching it...

CaroLiza_fan

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I wouldn't waste your time... wanted to enjoy it but the storytelling was very slow and dragged out and I didn't think there was enough about their skating career - it was told a bit like it was zero to Olympic gold? I honestly was bored and wished I'd watched another Christmas special. Idk I think I'm maybe just very picky haha I'm sure lots of people enjoyed it!

Yeah if you haven’t watched it now don’t bother. With ad breaks it was like three hours!

litenkyckling said:

I wouldn't waste your time... wanted to enjoy it but the storytelling was very slow and dragged out and I didn't think there was enough about their skating career - it was told a bit like it was zero to Olympic gold? I honestly was bored and wished I'd watched another Christmas special. Idk I think I'm maybe just very picky haha I'm sure lots of people enjoyed it!

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DSQ said:

Yeah if you haven’t watched it now don’t bother. With ad breaks it was like three hours!

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I taped it at the time and edited the ads out, so what I have is only 1h 37m.

But, the priority at the moment is catching up on the Women's football. Being away that week and lots of motorbike races since coming home has meant I've got really far behind - I'm still in the group matches! (I'm writing this at half-time during the Netherlands v Cameroon match from 15[SUP]th[/SUP] June) The problem with the tournament being on the BBC this time is the matches get deleted after 30 days. At least when Eurosport showed it, you may have only had 7 days to download the matches to your Sky+ box, but once you did they were there to stay. Oh, and the other advantage of Eurosport is that you got to see the world feed coverage for the whole broadcast. With the BBC, they cut away as soon as possible so that they can have as much time as possible to talk about England... (cheap shot, I know. But, it is really annoying when they talk about England when other teams are playing. Especially when Scotland are playing).

And I want to get as much of the football watched as I can before the Netball World Cup starts on the 12[SUP]th[/SUP]. OK, so I only started watching netball a few years ago because a couple of friends that I went to school with were in the NI team, but I quickly fell in love with the sport. And even though neither of them are playing in this World Cup, I fully intend to watch the entire tournament - if not LIVE, then as close to LIVE as I can manage.

Anyway, it's hard to believe that it is only a few weeks until figure skating competitions start again. Any idea when the provisional entry lists for the Dundee Senior B will be released?

By the way, I was looking at La Rhumba's Twitter page there now, and this morning she posted that Josh Tarry and his Canadian partner Erin Gilles are switching to representing Great Britain this season.

This change was initially spotted in the IJS Sheffield Provisional Entry List, and it has now been confirmed.

Good to have him back! (Although I still miss him skating with Ellie O'Connell)

CaroLiza_fan

I’m so excited for our new skaters! I guess we won’t see them internationally until 2020?

DSQ said:

I’m so excited for our new skaters! I guess we won’t see them internationally until 2020?

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We might see them sooner. Apart from 2019 Canadian Nationals, the only competition I can find for Erin and Josh was the Skate Canada Challenge, which was at the start of December 2018. And I am not sure if it is classed as an international or a domestic competition.

If the Challenge is classed as a domestic competition and they don't have any other internationals that I can't find, then they are good to go straight away! Hey, they might even get doing a Junior GP!

Just out of curiosity, I have gone through the Announcement PDF's for each of the Junior GP's, and here are the British slot allocations according to them:


Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

Challenge is a domestic competition - it's the final qualifier for Canadian Nationals.

CaroLiza_fan said:

… I have gone through the Announcement PDF's for each of the Junior GP's, and here are the British slot allocations according to them: ...

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FYI, all of the slot allocations are available together in just one PDF: the General Announcement for the entire JGP series.
The charts start on p. 15 of this season's General Announcement.


Mentioning in case you want to save yourself some time/effort in future seasons.

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ETA:

SnowWhite said:

Challenge is a domestic competition - it's the final qualifier for Canadian Nationals.

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Thanks, SnowWhite. For some reason, I always thought that the CHallenge was an international, along the same lines as the Autumn Classic but without the status. And that the lack of skaters from other countries was just a by-product of people not wanting to travel just before Christmas!

I know that I should, but I don't really follow domestic competitions other than National Championships.

Plus, there are so many competitions nowadays that change their status from one year to the next (the same competition could be a Challenger event, a normal Senior B, or a Junior GP in different years!) that it is so hard to keep track of what they are!

So, thank you for this clarification.

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

The situation with the anthems is so confusing. Returning to motorbike racing for a moment, when I have been at the Ulster Grand Prix, I have noticed that the Scottish, Welsh and Manx riders get their own anthems played. But the English and Northern Irish riders don't - they both get "God Save The Queen". And from what I saw during the football matches that were played during and before the Women's World Cup, it was the same situation there. Yet, at the Commonwealth Games, all the competitors get their own anthems played.

CaroLiza_fan

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I'm not sure what the Northern Ireland situation is, but England doesn't actually have a national anthem.

There was a poll a couple of games back to decide what to use in the Commonwealth Games and Jerusalem won so they've used it ever since . A couple of other sports use different things (mostly Jerusalem or Land of Hope and Glory) but as there's nothing official it's all on a case by case basis.

ice coverage said:

FYI, all of the slot allocations are available together in just one PDF: the General Announcement for the entire JGP series.
The charts start on p. 15 of this season's General Announcement.

https://isu.org/figure-skating/events/junior-grand-prix-of-figure-skating

https://isu.org/docman-documents-li...unior-grand-prix-2019-20-general-announcement​

Mentioning in case you want to save yourself some time/effort in future seasons.

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Thank you so much, ice coverage.

I was going to the individual files from the threads in the Competition Forum on here, and kept losing track of where I had got to. So, it'll be a lot easier to keep track of where I am if scrolling through one file.

Admission - this was actually the second time I had done this, as I had also done it for another team last week. But, I haven't got round to posting that team's table yet, as there are a lot of question marks about how the slots will be used (or not, as the case may be).

But, if I do it again next season, this knowledge will be a great help! :agree:

CaroLiza_fan

madraykin said:

I'm not sure what the Northern Ireland situation is, but England doesn't actually have a national anthem.

There was a poll a couple of games back to decide what to use in the Commonwealth Games and Jerusalem won so they've used it ever since . A couple of other sports use different things (mostly Jerusalem or Land of Hope and Glory) but as there's nothing official it's all on a case by case basis.

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Officially, it's the same here (officially, we don't have a flag either! But, the flag officially in use until the 70's is still used by all sporting bodies).

But, the way I look at it is that if a piece of music is acceptable for and recognised by the people in charge of one Major Sporting Event, then it should be good enough for the people in charge of all others. It can get confusing if the same music is being played for multiple countries (hey, my favourite athlete in another sport is from Liechtenstein, and there are always a lot of looks of confusion whenever she wins and her anthem gets played).

Although, the fact that I like the tune of "Jerusalem" more than the tune of "God Save The Queen" might be playing a wee bit of a part in my opinions...

...I can't stand "Danny Boy", though! So, that's that theory out the window!

CaroLiza_fan

Our national anthem is pretty dire tbf. Especially when you compare it to a banger like the Italian one. What an anthem!

Flower of Scotland isn’t that bad (though my dad hates it) but still we definitely got the short end of the stick.