Here’s the map for Saturday’s event in Ripon. Register 0915 – 1015; starts 0930 – 1030. The course looks like a really interesting challenge, and you’ll need an offroad bike for at least 6 of the controls.

2014 Ripon TH Working Drawing without Controls 7th December

Here are the suggested fixtures for next year so that you can plan your holidays around them.

Provisional events 2015

Thanks to the planners who have volunteered to do all of the hard work next year.  I will confirm these dates and venues once I have heard from the landowners and agencies.

Here are the results so please let me know if there are any mistakes. Thanks to Dave Robertson for an excellent course which was very enjoyable despite the fog and muddy conditions. Thanks also to the Malt Shovel in Hovingham for opening early and welcoming 47 grubby riders afterwards! Roz Bardon won the spot prize for guessing the location of the photo which was near #15.  Next event at Ripon on December 13th. Hope to see you there.

Hovingham Results

Here is the map if you couldn’t make it. 2 class winners have replied with their routes. I did get the highest score on the day but had seen the map beforehand and made a few suggestions. I also know the area really well but chuffed to get more points than Andy Conn for the first time ever.

My route was 8 22 16 25 7 1 6 26 21 2 11 12 4 10 14 24 29 15 19 23 28 9

Andy’s route was very similar except that he went to 17 after 7, 28 after 4 and left out 24!

2014 Hovingham TH 40000 Working Drawing with Controls 9th November

Results and Steve’s comments to follow soon.

My challenge for this treasure hunt was to reduce the size of the area, find some interesting questions beyond the standard “number on pole” and make it an enjoyable point scoring ride for everyone who came along.

I was a little anxious that the torrential rain on Friday would make it more challenging for riders than I’d hoped. But despite everyone returning in a wet and muddy condition everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Despite attempts to make it straightforward, and remove a couple of the questions that had previously been a problem, there were still a couple of things that could have been better, sorry if they caused you an issue.

#2 – the name of the pump maker at Scackleton caused a few people a problem, although others found it correctly. The description could have been better.

#16 – I incorrectly labelled the question – east of gate, south of forest – although the control marking was in the right place. It should have been north of forest.

#23 – most found this, but adding next to bench could have helped!

#28 – should have said “markers on gate post” rather than “markers on gate”

#29 – this was a red tag on a tree in Thurtle wood – this was reported as missing by early riders, found on the ground by another rider and put back on the tree! (sorry don’t recall who it was but thanks). So others then found ok.

I tried to mark the soft ground on the map and tell people about the worst bits at the start. Today was always going to be soft going but hopefully there were enough decent bits to make up for that. The worst bit was along Slingsby Bank – especially the bit from #19 going east to the road or south. Unfortunately, quite a few riders got lost by going into Wath Wood (the bit marked out of bounds) rather than following the track along the edge of the wood. Going into Wath Wood quickly becomes a dead end – but given the number of people who did it, probably easier than I thought and one to have pointed out at the start. Hopefully my strategy of making the 30 pointers the properly off-road ones, but the 25 pointers all accessible from lanes was considered reasonable.

It’s a different experience planning a treasure hunt as the spread of controls relies on there being a suitable question, and it can be tough to make them a bit different. Anyone wondering why I relied on the “colour of tape” for #13 will be interested to know that I put that tape the about two and half years ago when planning the Terrington MBO (and we never used that location so it’s never been removed!). So I figured it would be low risk for it to disappear in the last two weeks.

I was really pleased that people seemed to enjoy their ride. I dropped a couple of locations that I felt were just making the course difficult for the sake of it, but tried to provide a good mix of conditions. Nevertheless, I think I expected higher scores, but I think the mud put paid to that.

As a little incentive for those of us never destined to win (like me), I conceived the idea of the “where’s my bike” photo spot prize. Like guessing the number of sweets in a jar, I wanted it to be hard enough not to be obvious but still guessable. I think I may have made it slightly too hard. Comments afterwards suggested it was a good idea and maybe we can do it again for other treasure hunts. Other ideas welcome.

Hope you enjoyed your ride wherever you went!

Here’s the area map for Saturday’s treasure hunt – 40 riders entered but there will be 10 spare maps for entries on the day. Forecast looks overcast with some early mist. Plenty of lane based treasure hunt questions, but the course makes use of most of the available bridleways – so expect patches of soft ground in places!

Hovingham Black 15 November 2014

Finger crossed that the 15th of November will be as sunny and unseasonably warm as the start of November has been, but whatever that the weather has in store I hope you’ll be able to come along to the first Winter Series Treasure Hunt.

Start & Finish at The Malt Shovel, Hovingham

The last treasure hunt to start at the Malt Shovel was in February 2013, but I’ve made a few changes. The area is smaller, there are more off-road controls, and I’ve changed some of the clues based on feedback. I’ve ridden all of the off-road tracks, and most are ok but as you’d expect there are patches of soft ground. There will still be plenty of controls that are accessible from the lanes and tracks though if the weather makes riding conditions difficult.

As an added bonus, I’m going to do a spot “where’s by bike” prize… I’ve taken a photograph of my bike  somewhere on the course and the rider who works out where it is (or is closest) will win something too.  So no matter what your treasure hunt score is, there’s still an opportunity to win something!

Full winter series details here and printable flier here; use the email form or enter at BMBO

This is the fourth year we’ve asked you to vote on your favourite league event – for the last two years it’s been Dalby Forest, with Swaledale taking the top spot in 2011. Which will be favourite this year? Poll will stay open until the 9th November.

Treasure hunt MBO dates and locations:

SAT 15th NOVEMBER 2014 Malt Shovel, Hovingham YO62 4LF

SAT 13th DECEMBER 2014 South Lodge, Ripon HG4 1ST

SAT 24th JANUARY 2015 York/Malton area – to be confirmed

SAT 21st FEBRUARY 2015 Harrogate/Knaresborough area – to be confirmed

Full details and entry here

Nidderdale Organiser’s Comments

Thanks to David Day for yet another excellent course which used the intricate lane and bridleway network south and east of Grewlthorpe and the cracking moorland bridleways to the west. It was only 2C when I left home which brought back memories of our last visit to Grewelthorpe so I was glad when the sun broke through the fog to give a perfect calm autumn day – although the mist seemed to linger longer around North Stainley.

Thanks to Grewelthorpe Village Hall for an excellent event centre including refreshments and thanks to Jens for yet another excellent map.

Thanks to the helpers I was able to enjoy my ride after I got over my annoyance caused by #60 having been stolen. At least it was in an obvious place and replaced quickly by David with a punch but if you went there and haven’t got the points please let me know. A few riders decided to use the road between 60 and 59 but I preferred to head back through Ilton and over the moors before the superb ride across Fountains Earth Moor to Swetton.

Congratulations to Graham Fielding and Al Powell – joint leaders in M40 with 464 points – with John Houlihan only 2 points behind in M50. Ray Morriss won M60 comfortably as did Rik Thompson in M21. Jill Ellison was the highest scoring woman and Nathan Parker won Y18.

John Dixon sorted out the results very quickly so that the prizegiving took place promptly at 3.30. Prizes had been kindly donated by the Yorkshire Dales Brewing Company and Richardsons with engraving by Keith James Jewellery of Richmond.

Extra prizes and t-shirts came from the surplus money in the NYMBO account.

Congratulations to the category winners

M21 Rik Thompson W21 Jenny Sutton X21 Kelly & Dave Wilby

M40 Andrew Windrum W40 Sheila Pearce X40 Ruth Greenwood & Graham Murray

M50 Graham Fielding W50 Charlotte Somers-Cocks X50 Andrea & Steve Foster

M60 Ray Morris W60 Karen Blackburn X60 Karen Clark & Steve Roberts

Final thanks to the control collectors everything was in before it started to rain at 5.00.

The 2015 league will start again in March with a mixture of 3 and 4 hour events. Please let me know if you would like to offer to plan one.

Our winter events start on Saturday 15^th November in the Howardian Hills – details on the web site.

Hope to see you there.

Steve

Late PS Someone left a pair of cycling shoes at the village hall. I have got them at home so please let me know if they are yours.

Here is the map so you can check riders routes if you couldn’t make it.

Full report tomorrow but 4 quick points

What a great day to finish the season – cool but dry in sunny and stunning countryside looking down on the fog banks beyond Ripon

We were disappointed that #60 was stolen so please let me know if you went there and didn’t let us know at Download so that I can give you the points.

Someone left a pair of cycling shoes. Please let me know if they are yours

2 riders didn’t download so I have emailed them. Reminder to everyone that if you start you must download so that we know you are back safely – and don’t just rely on seeing an empty car park!!

If you check my route on Strava you may notice that I forgot to turn if off at Grewelthorpe so I have got some remarkable times on my drive home to Richmond. I’ll check my bike computer in the morning!