In 1319 the Battle of Myton took place when a horde of marauding Scots took on an English army of farmers & clergymen south of #23. The outcome was rather predictable with 4000 locals killed & 1000 drowned as they tried to escape. Fast forward 700 years and a gang of brave cyclists fought their way through the mud from the recently renovated bridge over the River Swale to #23 & then picked up the straw lying on the BW, resulting in some bikes refusing to continue. What a good job that the course was not all like that. I am told that the ploughed field from #6 to #26 was rapid in comparison.
Many of the BWs did have solid bases & were quicker than expected for the time of year. A week’s hard frost only relented on Friday so it had been difficult to predict rideability of some off road routes but there was often a longer road option on many legs.
Thanks to Steve Willis for riding the course a week ago, he was due to be skiing on the day of the event [or maybe not as the temperature there was 12 degrees] & offering advice on the course. Every control was visited on the day with a wide variety of routes chosen. I tried to offer options between controls & clusters of controls – looking at the tracks on MapRun it seems that riders took every option that I anticipated & others too.
The event winner was M50 Andy Conn with 455, M40 Rik Thompson 405, M40 Kevin Goodwin 402; first lady was W40 Claire Riley 392 working well as a Mix50 team with David Cowgill. Best Generation team were Jeffrey & Laura Barber 360, best Youth was Isaac Pressley who had lots of penalties for a late return but still achieved 355. Second lady & also Mix60 with Steve was W60 Andrea Foster 283; 3rd lady was newcomer W50 Katie Gray 265 who enjoyed it so much that she is definitely coming again.
Looking at points scored per kilometre ridden, top of the list is Adrian Parker 8.82 pts/km, best lady Katie Gray 8.38 pts/km – look at their tracks for inspiration & learning.
We had an excellent turnout for a winter event, over 50 entries resulting in some last minute map printing by our nearby orienteering club Claro. Thanks to Dionne & Cameron for hosting us at The New Inn, an area that was new to many of us.
David Day Planner