Waybackwhen

Picturethe scene:skierspoisedin

In this month's From the Archive we're focusing our attention on the race results of the Ski Club-hosted British Ski Race Week of 1960. The papers are a recent addition to the Club's 100-year-old skiing collection at De Montfort University. They originally belonged to a Ski Club Member called Miss Mary Cavenagh (later Mrs Hughes), and were donated by her sister, Doreen Beatty. "According to Doreen, Mary was a well-regarded member of the Ski Club," says Archives Assistant David Millns. "Mary began as a secretary in 1948, and by the end of her career at the Ski Club in 1969 she was well respected within the Club and was helping to organise events -most likely why she had these race results in the first place!"

Unfortunately, David was not able to find a record of the job title Mary held on her leaving the Ski Club, but she did get a mention in the committee minutes when she left, and received a payment from the Club towards her wedding, which would be held later the same year (1969).

As for the papers, by the 1960s, ski racing had become more formalised than the early races of the 1920s and 1930s. Growing participation up and down the age groups meant that more and more Brits were taking part.

The passion for skiing nurtured by the Ski Club's junior parties, as featured in Ski+board 219,is evident once again, as young racers take part in the races hosted by the Club during the 1960 St Moritz meet.

The Anglo-Swiss skiing connection is also evident. We discussed this in Ski+board 218,when, during the Second World War, allied internees were permitted to partake in events such as the Parsenn Derby in return for their help developing and repairing ski resorts. In 1960, this relationship remained as strong as ever, as the Swiss were deeply involved in helping the 1960 St Moritz races become a success.

The most telling sign of the strength of this Anglo-Swiss relationship was the Anglo-Swiss Universities Race. The 21 runners in the Duke of Kent Cup featured representatives from Cambridge, the University of London and the University of Zurich, with several participants also skiing on behalf of two university-based clubs, the British University Ski Club (BUSC)and the SAS (Swiss Academic Ski Club). Both organisations exist to this day with long and illustrious histories, and help to encourage students into competitive skiing.

The competition was clearly fierce back in 1960, and took place on a demanding course almost 3km long, featuring a vertical drop of 1,866ft -a challenge for competitors today, but Herculean for the skis and boots

Ski Sunday

~ae'tman r Me ..9%"°~ei:;z- of the 1960s. The athletes were in fine form, however, with the top four competitors all finishing within one second of each other. Palmer Tomkinson and Macintosh, both of the University of London's First Team, walked away with gold in a time of two minutes and 15seconds -more accurate timing not yet available to split the photo finish!

These fascinating papers were inherited by Doreen on her sister's death in 2005, and she donated them to the archives after she began clearing out some of Mary's belongings things this year. Which leads us to wonder what other Ski Club paraphernalia Members may have hidden around ...