I learned to fly gliders at High Wycombe, and then imported a Supercub from Texas. Since then more than three thousand hours, quite a few competitions, never won but had lots of fun trying. The glider was seriously damaged by a subsequent owner, but the Supercub is still flying in luxury at White Waltham. I did a couple of flights at WW, but that runway was not very smooth compared to gliding fields!
The advantage of having a decent single seat glider to fly, lots of solo practice, you should then be ready for competition which is always like a 9 day big party, all participants suffering from the same weather conditions. I used GOFER to tow up gliders at Shenington on a regular basis, and at a number of gliding competitions.