Young riders rule the Frank Jackson
It was youth to the fore on the first Sunday of February at the Barrow Club’s Frank Jackson trial where Cameron Brice and James Postlethwaite – the two youngest riders in the Hard Course class – finished first and second in this third round of the Northern Centre Championship which started from the Old Railway Line at Torver.
Having been soundly beaten by his dad the previous week, Brice was in great form over the 30 section, single lap course to lose just 15 marks which included one of only two cleans on the final section of the trial – the other was by Possy, the runner up, who was seven marks adrift of the winner.
In fact, Postlethwaite managed second place by virtue of having more cleans than the third placed rider, Tom Swindlehurst with Darren Brice, winner the previous week finishing fourth. There was a healthy entry of 15 riders prepared to tackle the Hard Course from the 97 strong entry whilst the Green Course, riders which rode a mix of the Hard Course and Clubman Course sections totalled 25.
Jamie Jackson
With a great ride, Jamie Jackson from the North West Centre lost just seven marks to beat one of the Northern Centre’s regular Green Course winners, Stuart Gaskell who finished on 12 with Mike Instance taking the third finishing position on 13 lost.
The trial had been set out by Jimmy Johnson, himself a decent centre expert and he managed to plot an excellent and very sensible course and judging by comments the trial was well received by the whole entry. And to make things even better, the club were able to bring back into use a great expanse of open moorland unused for the past 35 years which provided some great, new sections before the trial returned to the familiar Railway line wood and other regular groups just off the main Torver to Broughton road.
Simon Brice on five lost, Mark Barrow on seven and a tie between Peter Mawson and Jonathan Wren on 11 headed the very strong Clubman Class but Centre Chairman and trial secretary Angus Jenkinson rued the loss of three marks he took on the final section of the day which effectively cost him third place. The section a gently curving climb over loose rocks finishing in a gently sloping grass climb has been used many time previously but never fails to provide both a large number of cleans but also take loads of footing marks but rarely failures.
Full results can be viewed from the Results link on the Home page and Eric Kitchen available over the next day or so.