posted Jan 14th, 2018 - The first scores of the new year came from the Czech Republic where 13 teams applied the January draw of the World Tunnel League.

It was the third meet of the Czech indoor winter season, and it featured a great start for HF Flying Circus. In fact, the January 2018 meet eventually turned out to become the first time that Flying Circus, with son Jakub Klapka in the lineup, finished ahead of the HF Bad Boys, with father Jan Klapka in the tail slot.

The Bad Boys, still the Czech 4-way indoor and outdoor champions, actually finished in 3rd place. However, it was not the first time that the HF Chicks, bronze medal winner in 4-way Women at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017, outscored the Bad Boys.

The HF Chicks were back with their top lineup last week, after 4-way junior and HF Cubs member Karolina Henkova had filled an open slot in December. The team's 22.4 average missed the highest team average (22.5) only by one single point.

Czech Tunnel League January 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	B,14,L,5	11,H,3	M,N,A,K,16	6,17,21	O,E,P,9	G,C,Q,18	15,22,1	8,F,19	D,7,4	12,10,2	Total	Avg
1	HF Chicks	22	21	29	20	33	24	14	22	24	15	224	22.4
2	HF Flying Circus	19	19	29	18	33	24	15	19	20	16	212	21.2
3	HF Bad Boys	22	18	25	19	30	21	15	18	22	15	205	20.5
4	Skydive University Slovakia	18	15	22	17	25	19	14	18	19	14	181	18.1
5	Accord	14	10	15	11	20	14	9	14	12	11	130	13.0

The HF Chicks had posted their 22.5 record average in Montreal last year, which was already too much for the Bad Boys by then. They had finished with 21.9 at the same event.

The Bad Boys are still missing inside center Vaclav Prokes, and HF Flying Circus member Martina Vavackova was once again helping out, this time at the 10-round meet. She had substituted for Vaclav Prokes at the December competition of the Indoor Cloud League, where her own team outscored the same Bad Boys lineup with the AAA/AA sequences.

The Bad Boys have a 23.3 average in the books after the last meet with Vaclav Prokes in November last year. They will still face ever toughening opposition with their own regular lineup, now that HF Flying Circus becomes comfortable at the 21+ average level.

Flying Circus had missed the 20-average benchmark with a 19.9 at the World Challenge 2017 and jumped up to 21.1 at the ISR Grand Prix 2017. Scoring higher is easier in Roosendaal though with a limited dive pool and only eight rounds.

Czech Tunnel League January 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	B,14,11	H,15,7	M,N,A,K	6,21	O,E,P,9	G,C,Q,18	22,1	8,F,19	D,13,4	2,20	Total	Avg
1	HF Cubs	18	20	31	16	25	17	13	15	12	13	180	18.0
2	Mimozemky	12	15	23	13	24	14	8	12	9	10	140	14.0
3	M Team	12	12	25	12	23	14	9	10	9	8	134	13.4
Rank	A Class	B,L,9	H,7	M,N,A	6,21	O,E,P	G,C,Q	K,2	8,F	D,4	J,19	Total	Avg
1	Ladies&Gentlemants	19	17	24	14	26	24	14	16	10	13	177	17.7
2	HF Flying Rebels	9	10	7	8	10	9	8	5	6	8	80	8.0
3	HF Chameleons	7	8	10	6	8	7	7	1	6	8	68	6.8
Rank	Rookie	A,G,K	H,L,F	M,N,D	B,J,A	O,E,P	C,Q,G	L,K,M	F,N,B	D,H,A	J,O,C	Total	Avg
1	High Five	12	16	15	14	11	9	11	9	12	13	122	12.2
2	HF DragonFlies	3	8	7	7	8	6	7	6	5	6	63	6.3

The team's 21.2 average last week is a much stronger statement. The ten rounds included all six slot-switching AAA Class blocks, even though two of them (Block 12 – Block 10) neutralized each other in Round 10.

It is probably not only Jan Klapka with his Bad Boys who has to watch out for the new-generation team and his son's 4-way challenge. HF Flying Circus seem to be ready to reach out for the AAA indoor and outdoor top spot in the Czech Republic.

Martina Vavackova was not the only Flying Circus member with double duties at the Hurricane Factory. Her team mate Jakub Klapka was substituting for the Skydive University team from Slovakia, while she competed together with his father in the rear piece for the Bad Boys.

Jan Klapka also happily announced a new Rookie Class team, which does not consist of 4-way juniors this time. High Five had posted two of the Rookie Class scores (RRR - RR) for the Hurricane Factory on the Indoor Cloud League December leaderboard and now followed up with the first 10-round competition. The Czech 4-way Junior teams are still the main opponents for the Rookie Class seniors.

Jan Klapka is coaching the 4-way juniors every Wednesday at the Hurricane Factory and works with senior teams (Accord, Flying Circus, Mimozemky, M team) on Thursdays. High Five will probably have to join the Thursday group...