On a weekend following a week of heavy rain and snow the sun shone on us for setting up on Saturday, but a night of heavy rain followed, meaning by the time we got to the 10.30 start everyone had complete their first challenge, getting their vehicles up the slippery drive into the site, at least the rain had cleared and we had a day of excellent weather

With a good size entry, for an event at Raydon we set out 12 sections to be covered 4 times giving a target of 240 marks to save

Kieran Tovey    Expert winner

Although being a sand pit venue the going was extremely slimy for first lap over which half the marks were lost, as the day progressed and the surface disturbed grip improved considerably.

We expected a series of fallen trees in section 2 to take marks from the experts, as it turned out they caused little problem but all the experts did drop a 5 at various other sections during the day

The slimy climbs meant all classes found marks easy to lose, As with the experts marks for all classes were taken over a variety of sections, particularly section 4 where a steep climb was followed by an equally difficult drop needing control to keep within the section limit. Inters also found a problem with section 1 it consisted of a drop down over a root followed by a large fallen tree root ball

With the exception of experts who seem unstoppable, scores were higher than planned but with changing weather, even with riders from all grades setting course out it is difficult to predict how it will ride.

ESB member, Andy Keeble

Trying to cater for lesser riders we did put in an extra route, easier than novice but almost all stuck with their normal white route obviously being up for the challenge it posed

Main class winners Expert Kieran Tovey 18. from Jack Stiles 24 Intermediate Stephan Bland 33 from Gary Gladwin 36 Novice Daniel Thompson 47 from Dale Johnston 52

It’s always nice to see youth riders and this event had 7 of them spread through the classes, I say well done to them for sticking with it in the difficult conditions

Click on the link below for full results