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NYMBO Update - September - Masham Trailquest What a great way to finish the season. 108 riders took advantage of the recent dry weather to ride on great trails in another stunning aprt of Yorkshire on a well-planned course by David Day and Roz Bardon. Fearby village hall made an ecellent event centre and everyone seemed to enjoy their rides - despite the proliferation of gates. Andy Conn won for the second successive month ahead of Andrew Windrum and Rick Thompson with Anne Plant outscoring all of the other women. There was plenty of route choice at the start but I went for the northern loop then down the well-named Slipstone Crag track before passing the nearly empty Leighton Reservoir. It was a long slog up the road for only 15 points ( as David had planned) before getting onto the superb moorland tracks. Unfortunately I wasn't fit enough to get down to Wreaks Beck so came back through Ilton. There is always seems to be an 'unfortunately' but this time there are three. Firstly the farmer at Gollinglith Foot rightly complained that her gate had been left open so that her horse could (but didn't) get out onto the road. 2 other riders told me that they came across a number of gates that had been left open. This is unacceptable as it rightly annoys the farmers and does our reputation no good at all. Secondly, control 26 had been moved overnight and I found it on a lower track junction as I toiled up onto Witton Fell. As I was replacing it the next 6 riders to come past headed west along the edge of the forest. I suggested that they needed to check their maps and they all returned to head south down to Sowden Beck Farm. However there seems to have been a few other riders who made the same careless mistake later but who then either flogged across the moor or used the private track to get back on route. So now the gamekeepers are annoyed as well as the farmers.When you realise that you have gone wrong please retrace your route back to the last legal route! Finally, the start times for this event were clearly advertised as 10-11 so why do so many riders hang around and wait until after 11 to start. This causes the results (and prizegiving) to be delayed and means the controls can't be collected in until later. In future, anyone starting after the start period will be given the last official start time - and therefore lose competition time instead of wasting everyone else's time!! Most of the NYMBO league positions had already been decided but there were a few changes. Jenny Sutton beat Helen Smith in W21 but not by enough points. Andy Conn leapfrogged the other M40's by winning his sixth event. Mandy Faint had a disaster but had still score enough points to finish 6th overall - impressive!! John Galway took advantage of John Rawden's injury to overtake the other M50's with his sixth scoring ride. Zac Field did the same to Sam Wilson in the Youth category but Angus and Rory Wells couldn't catch Richard and James Martin despite outscoring them on the day. T-shirts and prizes (donated by Westbrook Cycles) were awarded to the leading riders in all categories so congratulations to the 2009 NYMBO LEAGUE CHAMPIONS M21 Andrew Windrum 600 points W21 Helen Smith 283 M40 Andy Conn 589 W40 Mandy Faint 502 X40 Dennis Jacques & Sheila Pearce 410 M50 John Galway 495 W50 Karen Clarke 377 X50 Ralph & Chris Defty 369 M60 David Day 427 W60 Karen Blackburn 375 Youth Zac Field 304 Generation Richard & James Martin 374 Thanks to all of the planners for their hard work and excellent courses again this year. Thanks also to all of the helpers especially the control collectors, Dave and Sue for looking after the entries and SI system, John Dixon for keeping the league table up to date and Jens Strain for drawing excellent maps. We intend to carry on again next year but probably with just 9 events - the 2 day events don't attract as many riders so we make a loss. If you have any suggestions for venues, course lengths, dates or want to volunteer as planners then please let me know. I will again leave the final words to Sammy Wilson who had a better event this month. The 2009 NYMBO league season drew to a close outside Fearby village hall with the customary presentation, complete with a posh new selection of blue t-shirts. I often prefer the four or five hour trailquests compared to two hour events, and chose a decent enough route for today's Masham ride, opting to head north of the River Burn, which perfectly divided the map into two distinct halves. Even though a considerable chunk of the bridleway over Slipstone Crags resembled a 10-foot crevasse - and I was momentarily petrified I had gone west over Caldbergh Moor on the wrong track when control no. 26 was not where it should have been - I reached East Witton and took a high-scoring loop between Ulshaw and High Ellington, passing almost through the front garden of Danby Hall. I now know the pleasant village of Ellingstring very well after riding through it about 7 times whilst trying to locate the track to controls no. 7 and no. 27, but unfortunately didn't have time to stop and feed the ducks at the crossroads. I then headed to the south of the map around Leighton and back into Fearby to form a rather absurd looking figure of 8. I blame the 25 seconds on my 6 minutes 25 seconds time penalty on the fact that the finish had been moved from outside the pub to the back of the village hall! 241 points was the final score of an eventful season, several events of which were ridden on my mother's bike due to technical issues with my own (now sadly as good as dead) which I hope to replace with a shiny new model very soon! It has been a hugely enjoyable season with some brilliant courses in fantastic locations (I even enjoyed the time trial!) and I can't actually remember riding in the rain at all. I consistently thrashed my Dad in every event and all in all had a very good time, thanks to everyone involved and bring on next year! Future events Saturday 14th November NYMBO Lanequest - Richmond Saturday 21st November CLOK Lanequest - Westerdale Full results and details of all our MBO events are on the 3 web pages Please let me know if there are any errors in the results, any links that don't work on the NYMBO page or you want your details removing from the mailing list. Hope to see you at one of our events in the near future Steve Willis PS Still some weeks available at our apartment in the Alps this winter |
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