With the Mid Wales Centre entrusted with the running of the Inter Centre as part of their Diamond jubilee celebration nearly 250 riders turned up representing their various centres at Green Hall just outside the small Powys town of Llanfyllin.
Saturday’s event was the youth competition with seventeen teams and a further two girls teams entered were flagged away by the major of Llanfyllin for two laps of 20 sections spread around a five mile lap. The course featured some tricky climbs and turns over various rock outcrops and gullies, best of the A route was Southern rider Bradley Cox with 15 marks lost , while the B class had two riders finish on just two marks; Yorkshire’s James Stone and home centre’s Iwan Roberts and the C’s did even better with three riders finishing on just a dab each; Midlander Sam Yeomans and Cornish pair Toby Martin and Oliver Lawer. Once the scores were totted up the results were an identical podium to last year with Yorkshire finishing on 15 points from East Yorks on 24 and East Midland on 31.
The two girls teams fought a titanic battle with East Yorks taking the narrowest of wins over neighbours and rivals Yorkshire, East Yorks Nikita Smith leading the way with a totally mark free score card.
After an enjoyable first day where even the club riders drafted into their teams had a great day the focus turned to Sundays adult competition which had the like of Dabill, Brown, Challoner turning out for their centres. The course based on the A class from the day before with a few minor tweaks was cited by many as too easy but the organisers kept their nerve and stuck to their principle of a course for the masses not the elite and so it was no surprise that four riders cleaned the course, however the surprise was Dabill and Challoner weren’t one of them. The clean men were East Yorks’ Michael Brown, Yorkie Jonathon Richardson, South Eastern’s James Fry and Alexz Wigg of the South Midland Centre.
The Yorkshire squads combined total of 7 however proved sufficient to see off last year’s victors South East by 7 marks with the East Yorks team a further 4 marks adrift on 18.
The sidecar team event was an even tighter affair with no less than nine riders still clean at the half way point making it a battle of nerves among the leading three teams of South East, Wessex and Midland/East Midland squads and it was the South East team who held their nerve beat with three crews remaining unpenalised backed up by fourth member on just a dab a fantastic performance by any standard with Wessex squad finishing on a total of eight in second.
At the end of the day everyone had had a cracking weekend’s sport with many centres’s having their faith restored in the event.
Full results can be found on the Mid Wales Centre Website
http://www.midwalescentreacu.co.uk/