Briefing was delayed until 12 and the day finally cancelled at 2pm. Brian Spreckly gave us a talk on the IGC pilot ranking list at the briefing. At 4pm Gill van den Broek, a member of the international Jury, gave a talk on the history of Womens' championships. It was interesting to see photos of Sue Martin and Janet Hider-Smith competing.
At 6:30pm the Poms invited everyone to a Welly Wanging Contest. You can read about it here
It was in this contest that Australia won the first day prize that we've had to date! Congratulations to Mitchell Turner for Wanging a Welly further than anyone else. He puts his performance down to cricket training. (But at the moment we daren't mention the cricket around the Poms)
The Germans didn't quite hear properly and asked where the "Welly Wanking" Contest was being held. We had to explain (after falling about laughing for a suitable period of time). Apparently this can be translated to something that sounds like Vixen/Vixa depending on whether you are talking about the performer or the action.
After Wanging, the crew enjoyed a lovely BBQ tea at the Trotters place, put on by Lisa and Lisa. This was really appreciated. We had an open fire and BBQ meats and vegies. We cooked some damper on the coals of the fire after dinner and finished up with tea and a selection of German and Swiss chocolate.
Today Peter found a frog and gave it to Uwe the weatherman. Every day he has had a slide about his little helper friend -- a frog. Peter went up at the start of the weather briefing and gave him the frog in the jar and said he'd found his little helper. Uwe said we would therefore have good weather -- and we did!
Also at briefing were the French organisers of the next contest at Bailleau, near Paris. They gave each pilot a little backpack with information about the contest and area, and a DVD showing previous flying at the site.
Even though it was total overcast when we woke up, the skies cleared to cumulus cloud and we had a racing task to finish the comp.
Lisa Turner did very well, starting 7 minutes before Lisa Trotter (it was reported to be tricky to get to cloudbase before the start). She flew around with the English team, beating Gill Spreckly and finishing 6th just behind Sarah.
Lisa Trotter had a more difficult run and was home later but still finished in good time. An excellent end to the competition for us.
Then we turned our attention to Swaantje. She needed to be home within 12 minutes of CX from Czech to be the World Champion. Unfortunately, although she beat her on the day, she didn't come home quite quickly enough. But we think a silver medal and missing out by only 22 points is pretty good.
Tonight they are roasting a large, dead bovine on a spit (which is rumoured to have been lit by flamethrower). About 20 mins ago they were putting it out because it was attempting to cremate itself. Tomorrow is the closing ceremony. Hopefully it won't start too early, if the party tonight is any good!