MEADOWHALL ON ICE
barely making it halfway before Emily was celebrating an easy win. I eventually crossed (stumbled) over the finish line and the times were in. Emily had recorded a rapid time of 24 seconds whilst my time came in at double that – 48 seconds. An absolute spanking in the first round, but I was genuinely just pleased I hadn’t fallen over yet. First point to Meadowhall. We’re on very thin ice here, lads.
Round 2 – Filling Santa’s Sack
At this point, two “proper” skaters entered the rink and immediately began showing us up: skating backwards, twirling around effortlessly and laughing at the elf holding onto the sides in the corner. Anyhoo, our next challenge was to deliver presents from one side of the rink and deposit them in Santa’s big ol’ sack (f’naar, f’naar) laid out at the other end, all whilst avoiding the two other skaters. Piece of Christmas cake, right? My uselessness mercifully acknowledged, I was only given two presents to deliver whilst Emily had four. The pressure was on; I had to win to avoid the VS becoming a whitewash. It was time to grow a pair of Christmas baubles and go for it. I readied myself and started off with speed and determination. I fell over almost instantly. Picking myself up I saw Emily already on her second present delivery. I was able to drop off the first present with Emily well on the way to delivering her second, I eventually made the decision to cheat
(soz, Santa). Due to my advantage, I still could win as long as I made sure I didn’t get lapped. As I saw Emily edging ever closer over my shoulder, I decided to bend the rules ever so slightly and cut a couple of corners. I managed to make it to the big man’s sack and deposited my load with glee. Uhn! Point to Exposed!
Round 3 – Present Balancing The final round was a bit more up my street as skating ability was not really involved. The task was to see who could balance a present on their head the longest, and the only rule was that you couldn’t stop moving at any point (so there went my plan of standing on the spot). I skated off making the most of my trusted shuffling technique, which actually seemed to assist me in keeping balance. Emily, on the other hand, was
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having serious trouble keeping her head still and the present was wobbling all over the place before finally falling onto the ice. It was a classic case of slow and steady wins the race. Somehow, against all odds, Exposed had won! The ice rink will be in place until January 5th and joins a whole host of festive activities that have been taking over Meadowhall recently, including the Christmas Concert which took place on November 4th (check out our review online!) and Santa’s Parade which marched through the shopping centre on the 12th. They’re certainly offering something different for the Christmas shoppers and I’ll admit getting your skates on is fun no matter what level you’re at. Even I was enjoying it by the end despite my trips and stumbles.
VERDICT Well we thought we were going to get a right ol’ Christmas stuffing, but our Sam’s a good elf and brought the win home. A jolly Christmas indeed for the Exposed team!
The scores so far: Exposed 26 Challengers 32 Draws 3
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