Date: 16-10-2011

Report written by Paul Davies

Nene Valley MCC held their annual October Cup Trial at Irthlingborough on Sunday. This was the Ninth and penultimate round of the club championship with 51 riders attending for what was to be a great day for everyone. The weather report for the day looked good and 5 laps of 8 sections was the decided option by the crew setting out on Saturday.

As we only use this piece of ground once a year, some cracking variations of the limited available sections were cut out, these sections proved to be quite testing for riders in all classes

Sections one to three was in the “Bomb Hole”, section one took marks from all classes except the easy route riders. There were only two riders recording five cleans outside of the easy route, these were Steve Bird riding the expert route and Tim Watts riding the clubman route.

The final five sections were located around the lake area with new areas cut out on Saturday to make interesting variations of previously used sections. Section 8 was one of the newly modified sections but was untouchable for the 50/50 and intermediate riders, with only the best expert riders getting through for less than a five. The only rider to obtain a clean on the last lap outside of the easy route was Chris Aylott riding the Clubman class.

The expert class was won by Steve Bird who lost 30 marks; second place went to Chas Lee dropping 40 marks. Sam Gent finished in third place dropping 42 marks on his new 300 Beta.

The 50/50 class was won by James Philo who dropped 55 marks; second place went to Joe “Feet-Up” Collins with 66.

The Intermediate class was won by Paul Baldwin who dropped 56 marks; second place went to Jamie “Brucie” Howe who dropped 62 marks, followed in third place by Paul “CTC” Davies who dropped 73 marks.

The Clubman class was won by Paul Robinson who dropped 20 marks; second place went to Chris Aylott who also dropped 20 marks, but was forced into second place on the basis of attaining less cleans than Paul Robinson. Third place went to Tim Watts who dropped 21 marks.

The novice class was won by Colin Ridgeway who lost 34 marks; second place went to Mark Kenyon-Bell who lost 40 marks. Third place went to Richard Carpenter who dropped 43 marks.

The easy route saw Brian Ayres topping the class on his newly finished BSA with 16 marks lost, he was followed in second place by Graham Bishop who dropped 26 marks. Third place went to Graham Watts who lost 28 marks.

The Youth B Class was won by Callum Wilkinson who dropped 49 marks.

There were two riders riding the Youth C Class but they both rode out of class. Tom Bishop won this class with 103 marks dropped, followed in second place by Lewis Freestone who lost 163 marks.

The E-Class conducted route was set out and run by Dean Deveroux. This class was won by Alfie Ray-Turner who rode the 40 sections for 15 marks lost; second place went to Penny Deveroux who dropped 98 marks.

We hope everyone enjoyed themselves and look forward to seeing you all at Duck End, Nr Cranford on the 6th of November for the final round of the club championship.

A very BIG thank you to the land owner and all of the observers for manning the sections.

Also a big thank you to all of the people who helped in the preparation and setting out of the trial.