Ice skating enthusiasts in Cambridgeshire have been making the most of the frosty weather by using frozen flooded fields as rinks. Although the ice was thin and patchy in some places, the temperatures dropped low enough to allow for skating near the River Cam at Upware.
Among those who braved the icy conditions was Paul Jansen, 58, from Cambridge. “It’s just beautiful, you’ve got the nature around you especially if there’s a bit of sunshine,” said Mr Jansen, who runs a management consultancy. “If you manage to get a little bit of speed on the ice it’s glorious.
“It’s difficult to describe I’m afraid. It’s just lovely when you’re in a good stride, you almost go without any effort.”
He said the sun was shining and it was a still day but the “ice is a little bit on the thin side, so it was a bit tricky and you really have to stay on the side and don’t be too ambitious”. He added: “There was another chap who was skating here before me and he had gone through it in several places. Luckily here it’s very shallow so it’s not particularly dangerous, but obviously you don’t really want to get wet if you can avoid it.”
The area is known to freeze over early in the season, according to Mr Jansen. “I’ve skated from a very young age,” he said. “I grew up in Holland where of course outdoor skating is the national pastime if the weather allows.
The ice doesn’t always get thick enough for skating
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“I started skating probably when I was three years old. If you have weather like this in Holland, and the water would really freeze over throughout the country, then the whole country would pretty much take the day off and go out skating, it’s definitely a national thing.”
Engineer Ugo Sassi, 38, said the ice was thin. “If you spend too much time on the same spot you will basically drop,” he said.
The Italian, who used to skate on ice rinks in Rome, was introduced to fen skating after mingling with skaters at a Cambridge rink since making the city his home. After his first experience fen skating last year, he has been waiting for the mercury to plummet enough to enable him to enjoy the pursuit once again this winter.
Ugo Sassi from Cambridge
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“I like skating with the sun,” he said. “Fen skating is more about freedom, you know, you are there and you can skate all the time you want.”
“All the people are very friendly, you talk with total strangers and are having fun. People just sit there, they have hot tea, they share teas, it’s very nice – it’s like a small family.”
While competitive skating initiated in the Fens back in 1879, the Museum of Cambridge said that it has been more than a decade since the last championships were conducted in 2010. Not every winter in the past 200 years has been cold enough for the ice to freeze properly.
Rachel Sargent watches as her daughter, Jane Ison, laces up her skates
(Image: Joe Giddens/PA)