The Loughborough club rounded off its 2013 season with a sun drenched trial on Sunday at a very moist Riley's Railway after the last few days of wet weather. Fortunately the hard working section plotters had predicted the conditions and set out a trial that was slightly on the easy side to normal but still took marks on all routes and had nothing to hurt if things did go wrong! The only person to suffer from this was Pete Jones as he counted up cleans, ones, threes and fives to split riders on some of the routes.
Once again it was good to see both Adam Brown and Sam Gent supporting the club and battling out a very tense low scoring ride on the hard route with Sam coming out on top after Adam lost concentration on section ones slippy rocks being watched over by Howard Jones giving Sam the initiative and the result. Overall it did not matter as Sam had missed to many rounds to pull back the clear lead Adam had built up to become the first Hard Route Club Champion. Matt Dixon was a non-starter but despite Danny Catlins best efforts on the day to close the gap Matt still took the Best Youth award for the year. A bit further down the results but great to see back in the saddle was Mick Brotherhood, not been around much for the last couple of years but showing he could still handle a bike . The 50/50 route was dominated by visitors Tony Jones and Ali Haigh who came in within a couple of dabs of each other, section one again being the tester along with the slippy bank of 4 being observed by Mick McDaid, the tight turns of 9 watched over by Phil Bradley and the tight turn and step of 10 which Max Clarke was keeping everyone honest on. Guy Bradley managed to grab the championship from non-starting Pete Jones courtesy of his 9 points while Kieran McDaid secured best youth although Ryan Lawson pushed him hard in the second half of the season.
The well supported middle route was very tight with low scores the order of the day and it was only on furthest cleans that Edward Jones got the nod over Paul Davies of Cambridge Trials Centre. Most cleans were also needed to sort 3rd place between Phil Roe and Don Snaith but the people most tense were Nigel Wilson who lost a position and a championship point on most cleans and Jim York who also lost out on the day on most cleans but did just enough to take the Championship by 2 points with Nigel left to rue some early season no shows. Michael John-Lefevre had a good ride on the day to fully cement his best Youth Championship award.
The easy route was also tight with Robert Wright easing out Michael Smalley for the win but lady rider Shannon Butler had a tense wait for cleans, 1, 2, 3's and 5's to be counted before she took the final podium spot on furthest clean. This also helped secure Shannon the best Youth Championship award, while JLR Trials Legends rider Mike Massey took enough points to pick up the Senior award.
A great day to finish a busy year for this small enthusiastic club who would like to thank everyone who has helped out in anyway this year including the observers who have helped ensure the club could run fully manned all year, looking forward to 2014 already!