Thanks to David Day for planning our January event and everyone who turned up on the day to take part!

The consolidated results can be found here and the MapRun courses that everyone took are here  Control map below.

In 1319 the Battle of Myton took place when a horde of marauding Scots took on an English army of farmers & clergymen south of #23. The outcome was rather predictable with 4000 locals killed & 1000 drowned as they tried to escape.

Fast forward 700 years and a gang of brave cyclists fought their way through the mud from the recently renovated bridge over the River Swale to #23 & then picked up the straw lying on the BW, resulting in some bikes refusing to continue. What a good job that the course was not all like that. I am told that the ploughed field from #6 to #26 was rapid in comparison.

Many of the BWs did have solid bases & were quicker than expected for the time of year. A week’s hard frost only relented on Friday so it had been difficult to predict rideability of some off road routes but there was often a longer road option on many legs.

Thanks to Steve Willis for riding the course a week ago, he was due to be skiing on the day of the event [or maybe not as the temperature there was 12 degrees] & offering advice on the course. Every control was visited on the day with a wide variety of routes chosen. I tried to offer options between controls & clusters of controls – looking at the tracks on MapRun it seems that riders took every option that I anticipated & others too.

The event winner was M50 Andy Conn with 455, M40 Rik Thompson 405, M40 Kevin Goodwin 402; first lady was W40 Claire Riley 392 working well as a Mix50 team with David Cowgill. Best Generation team were Jeffrey & Laura Barber 360, best Youth was Isaac Pressley who had lots of penalties for a late return but still achieved 355. Second lady & also Mix60 with Steve was W60 Andrea Foster 283; 3rd lady was newcomer W50 Katie Gray 265 who enjoyed it so much that she is definitely coming again.

Looking at points scored per kilometre ridden, top of the list is Adrian Parker 8.82 pts/km, best lady Katie Gray 8.38 pts/km – look at their tracks for inspiration & learning.

We had an excellent turnout for a winter event, over 50 entries resulting in some last minute map printing by our nearby orienteering club Claro. Thanks to Dionne & Cameron for hosting us at The New Inn, an area that was new to many of us.
David Day – Planner

The MapRun download is available now at the usual location – here’s the QR code – don’t forget to download before you set off!

David has made some changes to the course map for this Saturday’s event, sadly there are no prizes for spotting the differences with the previous map. All other details as previous posts

Online entry open here (closes midnight Thursday 18th)

Date – Saturday 20th January Venue – New Inn, Tholthorpe YO61 1SL registration – 0915 – 1015| start – 0930 – 1030

Here’s the course map for the next event at Tholthorpe on Saturday 20th January

Online entry open here (closes midnight Thursday 18th)

Date – Saturday 20th January
Venue – New Inn, Tholthorpe YO61 1SL
registration – 0915 – 1015| start – 0930 – 1030

When David checked out the course last year it was mostly ridable; the record rainfall will have softened some BWs but most of them do have firm surfaces except where highlighted. Note the ploughed field which can be avoided or walked.
No hills in this area except for the railway bridges! All river & stream crossings have bridges so conditions should be different to Scorton Lakes.
Parking is at the New Inn, Tholthorpe, YO61 1SL – use the car park until it is full then tidily in the village. Food will be available after the event, please pre-order food before you set off on your ride.

Note that the start finish locations are as shown in the photo and not as on the blank course map

David Day has been out riding snorkelling his way around the bridleways and lanes north of York to plan our next event at Tholthorpe.

The Venue is the New Inn, Tholthorpe, which has exactly the sort of pub lunch menu you’ll want after a couple of hours riding in January!

• Parking will be in the pub car park until that’s full and then tidily in the village.
• Please order food at registration before you start.
• Beware if intending to use Aldwark Toll Bridge – it is closed until ‘early 2024’.

Tholthorpe is another flat area, the only hills are bridges over the railway line! Hopefully, we’ll have some drier weather over the next couple of weeks to let the tracks dry out a bit, but there are no main roads to negotiate & most of the BWs are hard except where marked.

The course map will be published here in the next couple of days when Tim has had a chance to finalise.

Online entry (closes midnight Thursday 18th)

Don’t forget that it’s that time of year when you’ll need to renew you BMBO membership too