posted Jun 24th, 2005 - Several local teams gathered to compete in the latest round of the NSL on the meet weekend of June 19 at the Royal Air Force dropzone, Weston on the Green, in the heart of lush green Oxfordshire countryside. The meet attracted nine teams in total. Four AAA Class teams, two AA Class teams and three Rookie Class teams competed for the honours. Out of all the teams, only AAA Class team South Parc and A Class teams Damn Zebra and Snurge Munkeys were formal teams with any team jumps to their name.

The UK weather was very hot and humid, and conditions were so good, the six rounds managed to complete in a day using a single Dornier G92, along with regular fun jumpers having a few loads out the competition aircraft, and a military course of static line squares using a Skyvan slotting into the gaps.

Damn Zebra, a local team, is looking good in the A Class this year. The team has been training in Perris with Pat McGowan, and now, in their second year, they are looking for a medal at the national championship. Consisting of Brian Gray, Nick Whiteley, Dru Spork, Mark Thomson and Dave Curtin on camera, team Damn Zebra finished second in this meet, behind South Parc. By way of a handicap system, the scores of all classes scores were directly compared to find an overall winner.

As well as medals, there were prizes for the podium finishers. Amongst the cases of beer to be had, top prize on offer was a voucher for 15 minutes of tunnel time at the new Bodyflight facility currently under renovation in Bedford, England. The tunnel is scheduled to open late summer, so this was a prize worth fighting for. As winners, South Parc won the voucher, but in a gesture of sportsmanship and to encourage progression they gave the prize to the silver medalists, Damn Zebra, who promptly handed the voucher over to top team in the Rookie Class, Fork. A very noble act and great to see established teams wanting to see other teams progress.

South Parc is spending the team's first year in the AAA Class. The team has been together, with different line-ups, for three years now, competing first in the Rookie Class, then at the UK Intermediate Classm which is similar to the A Class. In 2004, the team was the BPA Intermediate Class Grand Prix champion and hence won the chance to be part of the UK delegation for the World Cup in Eloy, October 2005. The team changed the line-up during the winter, with the new team members Phil Hartree and Josh Burrill taking over the centre roles, joining existing point and tail flyers, Tarnya Hollis and Chris Hollis.

The 2005 team has completed two training camps in Eloy under the guidance of Airspeed world champion Gary Beyer. For a team that was performing at a 10-point average level in the A Class last year, a 12.3 average in the first AAA Class meet with a new line-up has left everybody on the team pretty excited about the 2005 season. Training has been pretty intensive under Gary Beyer and has involved skydives in Eloy and tunnel time in Perris, taking along team videographer Jon Trevor to capture the action. Inside Centre, Phil commented, "I'm having a blast! But I think it might be difficult for us not to be complacent with our results. I think we'll need to get our heads together to muster an even better result for the Nationals in July."

The team is now looking forward to the national championship and indeed the World Cup where they will be competing for the United Kingdom alongside the Army 4-way team, 4-Motion, and Airkix representing the 4-way Female Class. South Parc member Chris Hollis said: "South Parc has been training hard and - thanks to Gary - achieved some great results. We have all committed a lot of time, money and effort into this season, so, as a self-funded, part-time team, it’s great to see things taking shape!"

The concept of the NSL is proving popular in the United Kingdom, with many Formation Skydiving jumpers voting to bring the UK classes in line with the NSL and the rest of Europe. Through an incentive organized by UK's Formation Skydiving council representative, Andy Scott, the classes are no longer subject to jump number restrictions, as was the case up until this season. The idea of being able to see your score up on the web-site against all the top teams from the USA and the rest of the world is a good motivator to train harder and get better. Watch out for more news from the UK, as the season progresses.

South Parc's round two of the meet in the United Kingdom can already be viewed on NSL-TV. The link can be found in the scoring table.

Meet story provided by Chris Hollis