2014 Barningham 50000 Working Drawing with Controls 23rd February Congratulations to Ben Martin on his first overall win when the event was dominated by a strong westerly wind.

It was great to see 80 riders travel north for what would have been a NEMBOS event last year. I thoroughly enjoyed checking out these rarely visited bridleways north of Swaledale. I knew that some of them didn’t exist on the ground so I was very pleased when 3 gamekeepers allowed us to use the private estate tracks across Barningham, Hurst and Scargill Moors. The wind made riding west very difficult so not many riders opted for the long route up the Pennine Way.
Thanks as ever to Jens for another excellent map and the helpers who made everything run smoothly as well as Barningham Village Hall for an excellent event centre.
Scores were lower than usual due to the strong wind so congratulations to the category winners especially Ben Martin (M21) who won overall for the first time with 367 points, Phil Webster (M50) 353, Phil Upton (M40) 336, Ray Morriss (M60) 331, James Martin (M18) 280, Sheila Pearce (W40) 280, James Annan & Julia Hargreaves (X50) 230 on a tandem, Alan & Ben Botham (Gen) for the second event in a row with 175. You can follow their splits and check out the map on the NYMBO web site.
Andrew Windrum wasn’t well enough to ride so retired after an hour and Andy Conn had a mechanical so everyone will be scoring more league points than usual this month!!
I wasn’t particularly looking forward to collecting controls having listened to your comments about the wind as you finished. Fortunately, the sun came out and the wind dropped so I had a great ride above Barningham collecting 41 57 (taped route) 52 and 38. Andy & Chris Parson had a long but enjoyable off-road drive across Hurst Moor and the Pennine Way. Thanks also to Jenny Sutton, John Dixon, Graham Townsend and Phill & Sarah Collings who collected the other 16 controls. Everything was collected in by 6.15 and I was home by 7.
The next NYMBO event is a 3 hour MBO Score event at Ingleby Greenhow on Saturday 17th May.
Don’t forget that the OMM Bike is in Kielder Forest on 26th & 27th April so more great riding in Kielder, Kershope & Wark Forest using maps drawn by Jens Strain. I’ve planned the courses with a lot of help from Jim Imber and we’re looking forward to putting out the 60 controls next Friday.There will be an exellent event centre at Hawkhope just beneath the dam and 100 riders have already entered. You can still enter online and full details are available on http://www.theomm.com/events/OMM_Bike_Spring/
You can also enter on the BMBO site.
Hope to see you at another event soon
Steve