posted May 4th, 2005 - Round six of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005 continued with the same pattern of the previous rounds. The top teams were still waiting for DeLand Fire to slip for the first time, and it did not happen. Golden Knights team captain John Hoover acknowledged this situation after the meet: "Some people expected them to stumble on at least one of the jumps, but they kept fighting and posting the good scores."

However, round six still included special events. It was the first round where DeLand Majik's new line-up with Solly Williams, Doug Park, David van Greuningen and Robert Healy posted the highest score for a round. In fact, DeLand Majik had not even tied the highest score for any of the earlier five rounds until then.

Things went much better from here on for the two current 4-way world champions, Williams and Park, and the two new members, van Greuningen and Healy. The new team had obviously warmed up enough throughout the first five rounds to finally show which performance level will be waiting for the competition later this year.

Majik ended up in fourth place with a 19.3 average after the ten rounds of the Shamrock Showdown. However, the Majik story of rounds six through ten was significantly different compared to rounds one through five. Only DeLand Fire was able to beat Majik in the second half of the meet by three points. The Golden Knights and Majik were tied through rounds six to ten, and the DeLand team gained five points on Italy's Sinapsi PD in these last five rounds.

DeLand Majik's highscore of round six might have given the new line-up more confidence and energy for the remainder of the meet. The team needed this energy booster badly since the team members were involved with coaching, running the drop zone's operation and big-way preparations at the same time.

The Majik highscore of round six was still supported partially by the judge's stop watch. Majik was lucky that the team's 21st scoring point was counted within working time. DeLand Majik and DeLand Fire both completed the Turf ob Block 3 (Side Flake Opal - Turf) almost at exactly the same time, and Majik was obviously just a small fraction of a second faster for a score of 21 points, while Fire ended up with 20 points on the scoreboard. Team Fastrax was also right on the edge of the working time and received the 19th scoring point.

Round six was also another great round for Spa Hayabusa. The national 4-way team of Belgium tied the other top teams with its score of 20 points and was on the way to match DeLand Majik's 21 points. In fact, Spa Hayabusa was exactly on the same pace as Majik at the end of the third page and 18 points (30.60 seconds - 30.57 seconds). The Belgian team missed the highscore of this round when its Meeker at the beginning of the fourth page almost funneled and needed to be re-built and shaped up. However, the score of 20 points was still an impressive result for Hayabusa.

The Golden Knights were actually the fastest team after three pages (29.88 seconds). However, the Army team got stuck exactly at the same point where Spa Hayabusa had problems. Two glitches at the transitions from the second Monopod of Block 4 to the Meeker and then to the top of Block 3 did not leave enough time for the Golden Knights to complete the last block move. The scoring stopped at 20 points within working time.

Italy Sinapsi PD completed 20 points within working time, as well. However, the official score was 18 points due to the deduction of two points. The NSL News was able to find one infringement easily with a false start of Block 3 (Side Flake Opal - Turf). The search for the second infringement was more challenging. The event judge might not have accepted the completion of the subterminal Block 3, which was also the situation where Sinapsi PD already lost a lot of time. The NSL-TV audience can help with the judging. Where are the infringements?

The prizes for round six of the Shamrock Skins Game were provided by SkyVenture Orlando (30 tunnel minutes), Larsen & Brusgaard (one free ProTrack) and Island Grove (sample collection). The Swedish team "42" had already won the prizes for round five and used the momentum for round six. Sweden's 42 delivered the team's best performance of the meet in round six and tied the scores of Norway Arcteryx and both German teams, EADS and Remscheid, for a score of 16 points. It was the only round of the whole meet where Sweden kept up with Norway and Germany, and it was rewarded with the winning score after handicap.

The complete round six can still be viewed on NSL-TV. The first round of the last meet of the Southwest Skydiving League in April will be posted next. Stay tuned.