News
National Score Championships
Posted: 03/09/13
National Championships MBO Score 2 day event Tweed Valley Scottish Borders
This weekend saw the 2013 National Championships MBO Score 2 day event based at Cardrona Village Hall in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders. A big thank you to SMBO & in particular Andy & Rebecca McLennan for taking on the event at short notice & also to Walt & Antonia Brydon for course planning & mapping. A word of thanks to the small band of volunteers who put out & collected some 60 controls over the duration of the weekend.
Saturday dawned reasonably bright with light winds & the temperature was in the mid teens by the time the first competitors set out around midday. A huge mapped area had the event centre placed in the top left corner with the controls scattered about the forests & hills of Cardrona, Innerleithen, Traquair & as far as Yair Forest & the Three Bretheren in the East & the Yarrow Valley to the South.
With bone dry trails under the wheels the riding was fast. However, the route planning was going to be crucial as once committed over the ridge into the Yarrow Valley the climb out was brutal whichever route was chosen. Also, then it was a long way back to base with several riders incurring large time penalties. At the end of 5 hard hours the leader boards for Day 1 were announced:
Men: Women:
1 Mark Higginbottom M40 399 points Angela Brand-Barker 315
2 Graham Fielding M50 395 points Alison Gillies 275
3 David Frame M50 360 points Rachel Gillies 260
4 Ewan Good M21 354 points Clare Faye 235
Pairs:
1 Mick Farrell/Paula Keoghan 305 points
2 Andrea Foster/Geoff Moorhouse 245 points
3 Davie Robb/Nina Saunders 220 points
So to Sunday morning & earlier start times. The blue skies had been replaced with full cloud cover & the light Westerly breeze had picked up overnight to give significant buffeting on exposed ridges. The temperature had also dropped somewhat.
4 hours duration was the time limit on Day 2 & the controls had been thoughtfully placed from Cardona Forest & the summit of Kirkhope Law in the South to the Upper reaches of Glentress Forest & its plethora of one way man-made trails to the North. Also to add into the mix there were only 3 crossing places of the busy A72 allowed in bounds.
So, with it all to play for the early riders set out. With Mark Higginbottom opting not to ride on the second day it gave Graham Fielding an overnight lead of 35 points, despite two separate broken chain incidents near Broadmeadows Youth Hostel. In the Ladies competition Angela took a lead of 40 points with her when she set off into Cardrona Forest.
The weather lived up to its forecast & the wind really was fierce on the exposed summit of Kirkhope Law at 537m above sea level. The following descent into Peebles was in excellent condition & the miles flew by.
The competitors then entered the navigational nightmare that is Glentress Forest. With tired legs & minds the myriad of forest road, man-made singletrack, footpaths & 'rabbit runs' almost reduced at least one fully grown man to tears! With everyone suffering some sort of route disaster the scoring was always going to be on the low side & after a total of 9 hours riding the overall results were announced by commissar Andy:
Men: Women:
1 Graham Fielding 661 points 1 Angela Brand-Barker 435 points
2 John Rawden 615 points 2 Ailsa Curtis 400 points
3 David Blair 580 points 3 Rachel Henderson 360 points
Pairs:
1 Mick Farrell/Paula Keoghan 500 points
2 Andrea Foster/Geoff Moorhouse 415 points
3 Davie Robb/Nina Saunders 375 points
The overall MBO Score Champions for 2013 are:
Men Graham Fielding
Women Angela Brand-Barker
Pairs Mick Farrell/Paula Keoghan
Well done to everyone who entered and again many thanks to Andy, Rebecca & team for a very well run event.