Actually I have been member of this forum for 6 years, and gym parent for 11 years through club grades, compulsories, Challenge Cups, English Champs, British Teams, regional squad, and England squad. I just generally prefer to read/listen rather than assume I know better than everyone else...
Marvellous. The usual 'shut up and stop moaning' shutdown when anyone makes a criticism of the Challenge Cup setup. No wonder no-one comments much on this forum.
I strongly disagree with "if you can't make a 42 you really shouldn't be going".
Why not? For nearly all of the gymnasts competing at Challenge, this is the biggest, highest level competition they do. It makes me really cross when people treat it as 'merely' a stepping stone for elites on...
The 2016 WAG Competition Handbook is on the BG website - look under Technical Information > Competition Handbooks > WAG. All the 2016 dates for British, British Teams, NDP finals, Compulsory finals, Challenge etc. are in this document. English Champs info is on English Gymnastics page - 18-20...
The qualifying score from Challenge to British is actually pretty high for all 3 age groups... That's an all around score from 4 pieces, without any R&C, on FIG rules, remember.
To give you some perspective, only 40% of seniors at this year's British Champs (10 out of 25 competing) scored over...