Slip sliiding around Lindale for youth contenders
“I’ve been hopeless, but it’s been a brilliant day” – so said a rider in Easter Monday’s Westmorland Club trial at Lindale, a rider who requested anonymity. Perhaps he was wise to make such a request, as his score was certainly not reflective of a result one would normally expect from the person in question.
His anonymity is respected but perhaps he was wise to make such a request as the day was pretty poor, with a bitter wind, persistent rain and land that was wetter than ever previously experienced at this excellent venue. Quite simply the place was saturated, and the sections which would normally have been seen as a bit easy for such an event, proved to be just right. “There’s just no grip” said another, as he throttled up to climb a gentle rock face no more than a few centimeters high, with no question of getting a clean as his feet went down to leg his way through a gentle jumble of rocks and slabs that in summer would have not even been considered for a section.
Connor Anderson. Tom Joel. Cameron Batty
With the cancellation of the planned first round of the Northern Centre Youth Championship, this trial became round one and attracted 11 youth entries over the two courses and three classes, Youth A, B and C. The results show who scored well with Connor Anderson the stand out rider in Youth A with Cameron Batty, riding up a class in Youth B top of his category with Tom Joel the best of Youth C over the easier course.
Easier course winner was Neil Buckley (lead picture) on his 185 Bantam from Carl Atkinson and Nigel Furness who both lost the same number of marks whilst over the harder course Sam Metcalfe had it much his own way from Connor Anderson with Stuart Gaskell, on a twinshock in third.
Considering the weather, there was a decent entry of 48 riders with a full house of observers and even Phil Haygarth managed to produce a decent video of the trial as he combined filming with riding his 340 Bultaco, the video being on You Tube of course.
The full results are linked from the Home page and there are some early Kitch pictures in the Gallery as well as in this report.