Event: Regional Championships - Wilmington   Add this to my calendar (Outlook etc.)

Date: Sunday, 7 December 2008

Promoter: Team Darenth

Contact: Paul Warner 01322 613264 paul@warnerpaul.wanadoo.co.uk

Location: Wilmington Grammar School, Common Lane, Wilmington, Kent, DA2 7DA. Click here for a map. Click the grey arrows at the bottom right of the map to see a detailed version.

Photos: www.londoncyclesport.com

Report: Your trusty scribe travelled o’er high seas to bring you tales of bravery and fortitude – well, we went over the Dartford Crossing. On foreign shores Wilmington welcomed us with tables overloaded with cakes and tea. This boded well for an excellent day of cyclo-cross.

The day was cold and bright and the racing was lively (or it was so muddy that wheels kept slipping out from under you). The long lap contained some speedy descents and a cheeky little uphill just before the judging line. This was a sneaky way of spreading you all out and slowing you down so we could record the numbers.

The Youth race had some real high flyers. Max Sykes pipped Hugo Humphreys to the line. They were closely followed by Taylor Johnstone. Hugo Robinson, accustomed to lapping the field, had to settle for 5th place after succumbing to a tumble and mechanical issues. Josh Parkin led the Under 14s home – almost 2 minutes ahead of his nearest rival, Eliot Philips. Alan Trolove made the long journey well worthwhile for an excellent 3rd place. Quiet man Alan has shown excellent consistency this season and is stealthily climbing up the league table. Meantime, Lewis Parker, with regular confident performances, is now at the top spot in the Youth league.

Ellie Sykes showed the rest of the girls how it’s done. Sara Gent was close behind. Rhianna Wood won the Under 16 Girls prize.

Tom Franklin stormed round the Under 12’s course. Sam Titmarsh (2nd) and Anthony Anderson (3rd) had to chase his dust. In the Under 10’s Daniel Tulett had a convincing win over Freddie Argent and Toby Martin. Sophie Holmes was the 1st girl home.

David Nichols led the Vet/Women/Junior race from the start. When you look at the times, please remember that the Vets set off 1 minute after the Juniors, and the Women set off 3.5 minutes after the Juniors. Some time later, Luke Newby took 2nd place. Mick Bell was loving this course – Matt Seaton and Gavin Rumbles could only chase in his wake. Doug Fox, in the over 50’s category, had a great ride. Tim Butler was very happy with 2nd place, now he’s back on form after the carbon-monoxide episode that has marred his performance over the season. Philip Cooper (Snr) surprised Chris Gooch for the 60-to-death prize. Racy Rachel Moss made easy work in the Women’s race. She was followed by Katherine Mason and Nicky Hughes.

The Senior race was run by Darren Barclay, with Jamie Newell in 2nd and Matt Holmes in 3rd. The best placed Eastern League rider was Shaun Aldous who grabbed a safe 5th place ahead of Nathan Miller. Unfortunately I didn’t actually see any of this race because…

Life is always a bit more complicated at inter-league events as we settle into a hybrid of league customs. Do you remember the days before the results were computerised? The winners got their prizes, and everyone else had to wait till the next event to see their result. The “limitation” of the computerised system is that it can’t distinguish between riders wearing duplicate numbers. That is one reason it is so important to use the number you are given and to compete in the race you are registered for. The judges lived in interesting times: Lillian Martin, excited at competing in her first cross event, grabbed lucky number 1 rather than wait to be given her allotted number 90. So we had George Higgs correctly riding with number 1 – and Lillian! That was easy enough to untangle. Less so, were the two number 39s riding in the Veteran race. David West was the ‘real’ number 39. Kevin Attridge (probably), though of Veteran age, was not pre-entered, and so could only ride in the Senior race, because the Veteran race was full. He was allotted his Senior race number and proceeded to ride the Veteran race. This caused much head scratching and delayed our usual speedy results service while we worked out which scores belonged to David. So David, if you don’t think that your result is correct, please contact the webmaster. When we were finally all settling down to some more tea and cake (the most scientifically proven and effective restorative), the results service was met by a rather disappointed rider – she had been completely omitted from the results. After some searching and some inspired detective work, we realised that her friend had pinned her number 99 on upside-down and she was recorded as number 66! Sometimes, you know, it really isn’t our fault!

Results:

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