SKIING ON EGMONT

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 8

SKIING ON EGMONT

TARANAKI CLUB EVENTS A bitterly cold wind sweeping across the valley in sharp gusts combined with a mist that allowed only brief glimpses of the full length of the courses and often reduced visibility to little more than a hundred yards, made ski-ing difficult at North Egmont yesterday afternoon when the Taranaki Alpine Club held its open championship. The trophy, a cup Pr®" sented earlier this season by Mr. W. H. Moyes, president of the club, was won by W. Dorflinger, with A. Draper runnerup. The competition was decided on two events — a down hill run with two controls necessitating left and right-hand tums at the top, and a slalom. The slalom course was difficult, as a short stretch of close zigzagging lead to a narrow corridor which was tricky to enter and sent the competitors almost straight down hill with little opportunity for braking their speed, straight into the wind and driving mist and across a valley to a right-angle turn, which, though it did not appear difficult to the onlookers, proved a nasty pitfall, probably because of the poor visibility. Despite the mist many of the competitors took the down hall run straight, and some fast times were recorded. Dorflinger covered the course, which was estimated at more than a quarter of a mile, in 26 seconds, and Draper, Kemp and Hoben all passed the flags in under a minute. Very few of the competitors completed the course without mishap but there were no serious spills. The wind and mist were much worse for the slalom later in the aftemoon but the ski-ing was good. Not many got home without a few minor spills but none of the flags were carried away and only one man was disqualified in his first run when he lost a flag in the mist and turned short. There were eleven competitions and the best times were, in the down hill, W. Dorflinger 26s., A. Draper 49s., K. Hoben 57s. and A. Kemp 58s., and in the slalom Dorflinger 49 l-5s., and D. Rawson and A. Hood 8m. The first five in the championship, with the points expressed as percentages of thc winner's score, were Dorflinger T00, Draper 55.9, Rawson 55, Hoben 53.7, and Hood 50.4. The cup was presented by Mr. Moyes who congratulated the competitors on their good performance under trying conditions. He hoped that the club would continue to give the young members coming on every opportunity and remain as active as possible even though many of the keenest members had gone overseas. Mr. D. Rawson, who received the cup on behalf of Mr. Dorflinger, thanked Mr. Moyes for giving the trophy to the club and said that he thought it would do a great deal to encourage ski-ing on the mountain. Mr. F. Amoore, chairman of the North Egmont Park Committee, was also present and congratulated the competitors.