uk nationals 96

�Jeanine Mathews

Short Program

The music starts off with Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White, moves into what sounds like Dancing Fool from Copacabana, then back into Cherry Pink again. Most places just refer to this routine as Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White, or a selection of Latin rhythms from Perez Prado. Whatever the music is, it suits him brilliantly. He really sells the routine, and it certainly gets the crowd going.

He started off badly, with a fall on the triple axel. It was a bad fall, he couldn't tack the combination on at the end of it. He recovered nicely enough, with a good camel spin with a change of foot. Very well centred. The triple flip was good, but he seemed to travel a little on the combination spin, and it also looked slow. He didn't get much height on the double axel and he looked very tight in the air, but he landed it well.

Then the music changed back to Cherry Pink and he started on his step sequence down the rink beside the boards when the unthinkable happened. He brought his left leg back to do a step, caught the back heel of the blade in his right trouser leg and went sprawling. The audience were shocked, and so was Steven although he got himself back together for the flying sit at the end.At the end of the short, Steven was in first place with John Martin in second and Neil Wilson in third.
 
 
Long Program

(After a great skate from Neil Wilson, Steve had it all to do . . . )

It was all up to Steven, and his rock and roll free program started out pretty much like the short, wiping out on a triple axel to Guns n'Roses November Rain. He landed the triple salchow, but doubled the lutz, landing very heavily over the toe rake.  His step sequence in time with the drum solo (by Led Zepplin - possibly Bonzo's Montreaux, used by Kurt Browning in the short a few years ago)was really good, and the crowd, who just love  him,were clapping right along. The footwork was quite tricky and tied in with the beat of the music very well. He pulled off a triple flip-double toe combination and the spin which followed was well centred. The movement  to the slower guitar piece by Pink Floyd which followed was moving, expressive and perfectly timed with the music.

The butterfly into the sit spin was great - a simple enough move, but well executed. It's true that a simple move can be just as expressive as a complex one, if it's tied in with the music and done well. Unfortunately, the complex moves were the ones Steven was having problems with. He doubled a planned triple axel, and then a loop, which he really telegraphs. The combination spin was ok, good speed and position, and going into his final piece of music, Get Over It by The Eagles, I was struck by the speed he was going at. He pulled himself   together and nailed a triple flip and a triple toe, with a flying sit to finish. However anyone watching was in no doubt how he felt. As the music faded, he quite clearly said "Damn" The crowd in Basingstoke gave him a  warm reception, but it was a subdued Steven who sat in Kiss and Cry. The marks were 5.2-5.6 technical with one 5.3 for artistic, with a 5.8, 5.6 and the rest 5.7s.

My thanks to Jeanine for these reviews!