Report Ken O'Brien
A Sunny but cold day greeted 40 plus riders and officials for this 4th round 2025 Oxford Ixion Club Championship with four laps of ten to be ridden.
' Steeple Hill Corner ' Folly Farm Beckley was the venue a notoriously wet course although on this occasion dust would prevail on most sections as the winter rains had virtually no impact on the going.
Cambers Hills Ditches Gullies Roots and loose drops were about to be attempted by riders of different genre and ability.
In the Expert Class Jake Eadle just edged out brother Bruce by a couple of marks 20 to 22, both Beta mounted with section three a tester for the pair.
A soft loamy turn before lining up for the downhill rocky stream with a left handed tight turn then a six foot ditch crossing with eventual class winner Jake having a couple of steadying prods on laps two and three.
Jack Turner put in a superb performance on the Beta acing the 50/50 class with 13 marks lost from soon to be crowned 2025 class champion Jason Clifford Vertigo who parted with 21.
Neither rider could master number five a traditional old fashioned looking affair starting with a ditch crossing before a simple enough looking cambered greasy turn then a leap over an angled fallen tree with a fourth gear rooted blast through Gorse to the ends.
On a rich vein of form at the moment riding the Yellow middle route Alan Taylor TRS lost a miserly 5 marks in total to take the Clubman class ahead of Adrian Steele on 15.
Mud Maestro Alan had a very lax 2 on section two first visit, a pretty tricky hazard all the same starting with a three foot fallen Oak to tackle then a raft of branches and a second stricken tree before the muddy turns a plenty to the ends cards with John Quigg on the pencil keeping the section flowing.
A really good ride on this middle route was that of Peter Cooke piloting the ageing Fantic around for a very creditable 35 marks lost to take first spot in the Twinshock class.
The little Fantic could be hard from afar held flat-out and detonating on the Big Hills of sections eight nine and ten.
Jack Pettit Youth B was having a great day on the little Beta 125 posting a very respectable 49 putting him in the top half of the leader board overall.
The White eased route for Sportsman Moderns Twinshock Youth and Pre 65 machinery was as usual complimented with an array of talent young and old.
No clean sheets this time but Simon Dowling 250 Evo nearly done the business on 1 mark the offending dab was placed just at the right moment on section five to avoid a three or a max five.
This miserly score meant a hundred points in the championship bag for Simon and a Sportsman class win.
In-fact it was out of the Mick Andrews book of Trials quotes ' If you're going to have one make it worthwhile '.
Chris Aylott 250 DOT was nearly Devoid Of Trouble posting a score of seven making him Pre 65 champion elect with one round to go.
Chris was going great on section one barring a solitary dab last lap a very steep sandy descent turning over roots with an adverse cambered climb and drop to the field.
A fair sprinkling of Twinshocks were about today and Kenny Presly ran out a clear winner on the immaculately turned out Honda TLR 200 and 3 was his tally for the day and a class win.
After a dab first lap at section one nerves were soon settled with many clean rides in the sections ahead, Kenny's other 2 marks went astray at section four starting with a muddy slot turn with undulating wet banks where the water had been dragged around from all riders.
Joe Pusey 125 Beta done well to finish after being hampered by machine gremlins early on but pressed on for a class win in the Youth B.
Many Thanks to all who helped on the day.
Next Trial June 8th at the Farm Beckley.