Spring2013


by further drinks, Prize Giving and Dinner in Les Crets Hotel. Tables were arranged by Livery Company but, after invitations from three of them, I found myself sitting on the Stationers table next to a lady solicitor, ex Slaughter and May, who apart from being a Stationer is also in the Guild of Air Pilots with an eye on the Ladies Team prize next year so persuading her to join us was a non runner.


Prizes were awarded liberally. Companies tended to award prizes which they are most likely to win. The Vintners won their own trophy for the best team as did the Stationers for a team of three with a combined age of over 200 years but, horror of horrors, the Leathersellers had won the Shipwrights trophy for the best team comprised entirely of Court members. As for your Past Master, the Master Pewterer still beat me by 0.6 of a second and the Master Needlemaker crept in with a time that was 0.4 of a


Past Master David Biddle in action


second better than that so I was fourth out of about a dozen.


Following dinner there was a succession of “taking wine” including one by the Vintner ski instructor with the Dyers Clerk and one by the Barber Surgeon with quite a number who professed the same overnight problems as his. There was a poem about companies taking part including a line about Solicitors and their fees and knees, plus a joke so awful that everyone laughed or may be they were just plain drunk by then.


The Stationers, like jockeys, have their own helmet covers complete with the Company colours and crest and the Ironmongers have their own sweatshirts with the Company coat of arms front and back. Team photos were taken after the Saturday race – the Stationers with a beautiful view down the valley and the Ironmongers with a backdrop of an industrial


snow-making machine – only the Ironmongers would do that.


The event is a fun event. The French Ski School supervise the technical side very expertly with courses which are unlikely to produce serious accidents. The races are won by those with the skill to get round the poles quickly and maintain their speed on the slower bits rather than a Ski Sunday suicide bid. Entrants were aged between 17 and 72 who are there to enjoy themselves. It is a unique opportunity for amateur skiers to enjoy a bit of racing and pit their skills against others. Could we perhaps raise a team for next year (24 – 25 January 2014)? It is open both to Freemen and Liverymen. There is no reason why at no extra cost an interested person from one of our 15,000 CLLS Corporate members should not join CLSC as a Freeman particularly if he/she has spent a gap year working in a ski resort.


City Solicitor • Issue 81 • 13


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