Report Ken O'Brien
Cox's farm Beckley was the venue for Oxford Ixion's Trial where a fine gathering of riders quietly waited in anticipation for the start of the first round 2026 club championship.
Much rain on the preceding weeks meant for a shortened course as waterlogged areas of the farm were swamped out.
Four laps of ten sections were ridden with a variety of roots gullies cambers and a few Big Hill Climbs.
The burning sun was low in the sky and the temperature never rose much above zero and to these elements add four laps of 10 sections with slick cambers,hills and turns through mud the scene was set for a good days sport.
In the Expert Class Vinny Branch 300 Gasser made short work of the opposition losing 5 marks with section five proving the tough one for all classes.
Much inspecting was taking part here as there was little or no room for the wrong choice of line of which there were many, it started with a simple short cambered drop though a marsh then a slick left handed drop before the leap of faith over a drainage culvert, the spectators enjoyed it at least.
Vinny lost 3 of his 5 marks here on the last lap when getting a tad off-line before the fallen tree exit.
Samuel Le Fevre riding the John Lee Gasser of the youth B class also tackled the hard route today with great effect as he posted a score of 24 marks lost.
Sam made light work of section eight, starting in the field with a really steep left then right camber to the Big Oak then a drop down over a lattice of roots to the ends, four splendid cleans were recorded.
John Cowley TRS chose the 50/50 Hard-Middle route today and posted a perfect score of zero although it wasn't as easy as it looked with Jack Turner Beta Evo losing 2 marks in second spot.
Jack took a 3 on section three first lap, around eighty yards of a muddy ditch crossing then a rocky gully before turning out over roots.
A new class for this year by popular demand was the 50/50 Middle-Easy route for any rider on any machine.
Triumphant at this inaugural round was Stratford Club Raider Marty Rye on the Honda TLR200 dropping 12 marks with section four relieving him of a 3 on his first visit.
The infamous hundred yard rooted gully with varying hazards along the way including hard-bottomed slots and deeper of the same although impossible to read until man with machine are in the section itself.
Chris Aylott came home second on the immaculate DOT WR250 with a creditable 22 mark deficit with section 3 taking the marks a plenty, albeit Chris is the championship leader after the first round as an Ixion member.
On the Yellow middle route Justin Heavens Honda 4RT had his prayers answered with a Holier-Than-Thou ride to take the Clubman class on 6 marks lost 1 point in front of Adrian Steele who could never recover from a soft 5 on section two last lap, the Beta getting off-line on the cambered ditch of section two.
Twinshock Yellow middle riders were seen to be having a whale of a time with Paul Hadingham actually posting the best route score of 3 on ' Triggers Broom ' Bultaco Sherpa ahead of Paul Millhouse 7 ml on the 350 Magical Merlin with Peter Cook taking third on 10 marks lost on the more modern Frantic 200.
The White eased route was well populated with many differing machine Marques but it was recent Ixion Norton Trophy winner Rob Bremner Ariel HT3 posting the best score of 5 acing the the Pre65 class at the same time.
Best Sportsman any rider on any machine went to 2025 champ Simon Dowling powering the 250 Beta around for an 8 mark tally with section four once again taking it's toll.
Grant Perrin was 1 mark adrift of Simon on the 300 Beta and the extra power made for an easy time on the 120 yard hills of sections nine and ten.
Joe Pusey Youth A chose the Eased route today but machine gremlins plagued him all day and as a consequence ended up with a higher score than expected.
The Middlehurst boys were going well in their respective youth classes on all sections.
Many thanks for all your help on the day and our next trial is on Jan 25th at the farm.