Club Messages

Races and other information will be posted here.

Email us at info@gileslandscapes.co.uk to give your support to a team, update us with any news and we’ll post it on our website in the EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS section.

Fen Skating now has it's own website www.fenskating.co.uk

For information about membership to the Fenland Skating Centre you can contact:

Alan White on 01354 680498 the centre's treasurer.

Alternatively you can drop us an email at the above address with the following details and we will add you to our spreadsheet and email mail you directly about skating updates and what's on during the season. The information sent will not be passed on to any other parties.

Please email the following details:

Name; Address; Experience of skating;

Please note that Welney skating club has free skate hire for all who would like to use them providing they are returned the same day. 

26-05-10 One of our regular skaters at Welney, Adam Giles has stored his skates away for the summer to follow the Globebusters (www.globebusters.com) a motorcycling expedition from the UK to Beijing. 15 motor bikes have now reached Kashgar, after having only just managed to get out of Krygystan and into China. The pass (4500m) they had to cross was almost impassable!

Eleven motorcycles fell 40 times, the snow was four feet high either side of the pass and if a bulldozer hadn't of been they would have had to camp out or return.

27-04-10 Below are some photos from the race at Bury Fen eariler this year, including Adam Giles racing Gary Evison (Gary is now a Silver medal British In Line Skater!) and Malcolm Robinson being interviewed by July Ranger.

"It  is  great  to  see  these  fen  traditions  being  handed  from  one  generation  to  another,  the  Pearsons an  old  farming  family from 100ft  bank  welney  had  several  generations  of  skaters on the ice pictured below." Roger Giles 

                             

24-02-10 For news about skating on aboard try http://www.speedskater-kriterium.de/en

RACE RESULTS FROM 9th/10th Jan 10

10-01-10 Fun Skating at Earith, unfortunately the snow had made the ice soft and had started to become slushly around the edges so the racing had to called off for safety reasons. We would like to say a big thank you to Malcolm Robinson and all those involved making this weekends fun and racing at Bury Fen possible.

Results from Whittlesey:

We had members of GB team down and although they were unable to take part in our local races they put on an exhibition race for a mile and a half mile.
Skaters included Nicky Gooch, Oliver Horsepool, Stuart Horsepool, Paul Worth and Sarah Lindsay.

Seniors

Fred Smith Cup (men's mile): 1 Mitch White (Newborough), 2 Jacob Gould (Peterborough), 3 Granville Raper (Peterborough).

Fisher Cup (men's half-mile): 1 Alan Butler (Thorney), 2 Granville Raper (Peterborough), 3 Paul Hurn (Thorney).

Butcher Cup (ladies' quarter-mile): 1 Sarah Henderson (Peterborough), 2 Suzi Sadler (Thorney), 3 Nicola Tasker (Thorney).

Whittome Cup (mixed pairs over quarter-mile): 1 Andrew Chillman/Belinda Hirsh (Guyhirn), 2 Ben Clarke/Sarah

Henderson (Peterborough), 3 Paul Hurn/Nicola Tasker (Thorney).

Veterans' quarter-mile (over 55s): 1 Phil Hall (Farcet), 2 Dave Parkinson, 3 Nick Lowe. 

Relay (over one mile): 1 Peterborough Phantoms Juniors, 2 Hill Farm Flyers, 3 Flying Fishers.

09-01-10 The Fenland Skating Centre had an exciting day of racing today in Earith, adjacent to the usual Bury Fen field.

 

 

08-01-10 Malcolm has informed me that The Fenland Skating Centre are planning to hold ice skating races on Saturday 9th, we are just waiting for the final i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed but are 95% sure that the racing will start at 11:00am on the field adjacent to Bury Fen.

07-01-10 Malcolm has informed me that we are hoping to have some local racing this weekend and if the weather holds will aim for the championship next weekend (16th/17th Jan 2010). This weekends racing to be confirmed.

06-01-10 Malcolm Robinson from Sutton came third out of 90 at a race this week in Holland making him 6th in the series, whilst fellow skater David Butteriss was unfortunately 'taken down' by another competitor.  Malcolm the secretary of Fenland Skating Centre has informed us that there is an outside chance of a championship this weekend at either Whittlesey, Lincolnshire and somewhere in Cambridge. To be confirmed on Friday.

04-01-10 Ice skates for sale. Speed and figures skates, new and used, a variety of sizes available. Call Keith Miller (Wimblington, Nr March) on 01354 740 666.

Pictures from the end of year skating on at Welney by Geoff Robinson.  www.geoffrobinsonphotography.co.uk

Chelsea Gold Medal winning garden designer Jane Besser takes to the ice in style!

 

 

Descendents of the great skater Mr Smart take to the ice.

 'This brief one week of skating has just underlined for me that all the inherited characteristics of the Fen culture are still as strong as ever. As Melton Morris from the fen club said:' 'There are more potential speed skaters in this area than ever before due to the inline roller bladers revolution'.

'Could it be that all those Fen genes of the great ice speed skaters of the last century are finding their way back to the ice through our children?

Lets hope last week was just a taster of more to come and that the cold weather makes a hasty return to the Fens so we can keep alive a true fen tradition!

In the meantime we will be regularly adding photos of this year's skating to the site - if you have any photos you would like us to include or any skating stories new or old, we would love to hear from you - please send them to us at the email address above.'

Roger Giles - Chairman of the Welney Skating Club.

 

"It was fantastic to see all the old faces on or at the ice last week. It was amazing how well they skated considering they had not had skates on for probably ten years. Hopefully its not the last skate we will get this winter, with the interest there has been in the skating we certainly need to maintain momentum."

Malcolm Robinson - Secretary of Fen Centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 The above photos are from Bury Fen - 10th January 2009

The Continued link Between Past and the Future

Demonstarting the game of 'Bandy' in 1899, commonly referred to as 'Ice Hockey' today.

 

Ice skates: 'Whittlesey Runners' and one of a pair of roller skates used by A. E. Tebbitt for road practise in the summer.  

Skating match on the river Nene at Wisbech, 1891.

Babs Horn (pictured below) many times British Champion - also with his brother Dennis, were the two principle cyclists in the country in the 20's and 30's.

Melton Morris (pictured below second from the right) trained by and skated with Babs Horn and is now Chairman of the Fen Centre Governing Body of Speed Skating. He has also contributed by building a private inline skating track where club members can train on inline skates either as a sport in its own right or to prepare for ice skating.

 

Adam Giles is a direct descendent of Babs Horn and was greatly influenced and inspired by Philip Doubleday and Melton Morris. The picture below shows Adam and Babs who presented him with his first cup in 1986 for racing at Welney on the River Bedford and Fen barrel course.

(From left to right: Babs, Adam, Babs' daughter Margaret and her husband Keith)

Adam went on to become Skating Development Officer arranging training for a new generation of speed skaters. He was also Publicity Officer for NISA and participated in TV shows such as Ice Warriors. This then led to a career in media.

 

Giles Landscapes employee, Gary Evison is another example of how speed skating has caught the imagination of the younger generations. Gary already has been seen on many national TV news programmes and one female reporter commented on what an accomplished skater he was - little did she know that it was only his third time skating on real ice. Usually Gary is to be found on inline skates and has started competing in national races - thanks in part to Melton Morris who has helped him train.

  

Gary's young daughters are now getting into inline skating themselves and so the link continues and with Adam's young daughter making her debut on the ice at 2 month's old, things are looking promising for the future generation of skaters!

 

 

Skating Launches New Career

Fen skating has even had a part in launching a new career! Local man Mark Bullimore turned professional photographer on the strength of the picture below. It was featured in The Guardian and now Mark is getting work published by the BBC and top newspapers!

  

Copyright Mark Bullimore - Adam Giles skating on Headings Farm wheat field between Manea and Welney 2003.

To see more of Mark's work, please visit www.markbullimore.co.uk and pa.photoshelter.com/c/eaps

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: Any Skating on the Fens is done at the skaters’ own risk. No company or persons can be held responsible for any injury or loss of life. Never skate on rivers, lakes or dykes where the water depth exceeds 4 inches.

 

Eleven motorcycles fell 40 times, the snow was four feet high either side of the pass and if a bulldozer hadn't of been there we would have had to camp out or return.