The results from Saturday’s event are here and also a pdf version. Control map at the end of this post.

It was great to see 53 riders head out on Saturday and always good to see a few new faces too. I hope you all enjoyed your ride, thankfully the worst impending rain relented until everyone had finished!. Thank you for the many positive comments.

Following a few changes of venue, together with the very wet winter, it proved tricky to piece together a course with any decent bridleways, or even roads!, that weren’t axel deep in mud and water. We even had to move a couple of controls the night before the maps went to press!.

The two river crossing points were obviously key to route decisions and as it turned out, also responsible for quite a number of lateness penalties.

I tried to offer options for all once over the river. I think an anti-clockwise route from the start proved the safer option, this leaving a little more choice and leeway when turning for “home” rather than the committed return via Littlethorpe. That being said, decent scores were made in all starting directions. The winner chose an anti-clockwise start and even managed the north east loop of controls after clearing the majority in the south – impressive riding.

Scores, especially throughout the top 10, were very tightly packed. It was good to see Nuno Cerqueira over from Portugal and rewarded for his weekend trip with overall honours (459 points) followed by Martin Edwards in second. Impressive in 3rd & 4th were Y18 riders Isaac Pressly (409) & James Harrison (394) closely followed by top M21 Max Vesty (390). Jeffrey & Laura Barber took Gen honours (380) followed by top M50 David Cook (370) pipping top Mix Dave Cowgill & Claire Riley (360) who were very closely followed by a great ride from M70 victor David Day (358). First solo lady home was Sarah Slade (290) and Ebike honours went to Paul Collier (336).

Seamus from The BlackaMoor rang me to say he enjoyed hosting us, so a big thank you to him and his team. Also massive thanks must go to Tim Evans for his usual invaluable help and a great map, in addition to his organiser role, and also Dave Robertson for his website wizardry.

Lastly thanks to you all for making it another successful event.

Simon Coiley – Planner