Report by  KENDO NAGASAKI

Course plotting is not as easy as it looks, Autumn sunshine was handy but the 94 entrants were even handier ,19 experts if you don't mind to challenge for the James Cup,

National runner Richard Allen 250 Mont made a Monkey out of me with a solitary dab on the deep off-set camber of section 10 after 3 laps of 16 subs,Scores of up to 61 were registered on this hard route.

It was close for the runner up spot with 3 boys on 4, Expert Steve Swanson 4RT showed no mercy with a controlled ride almost inch perfect on section 7 a Devil of a sub,Stricken boughs to negotiate with a steep drop to the streams edge and a fierce right hand climb, Many marks went astray on this beauty,

Young Chas Lee son of 1970/71 winner Jon took the inter class with a fine ride cleaning section 13 on all three visits,The wet stuff was about on this one, A nadgery twisting job with a 60 metre climb to the summit and of course the usual steep drop,

Leo Rochfort was good today in the Youth 'A' losing 18 marks on the hard route 11 of which went astray on number 10, Grasstrack tuning ledgend Jim Axford was on the pencil and comented " that's one of the best sections iv'e ever observered " Leo thought otherwise,

Todays event was a round of the South Midland Expert and 50/50 champs,

Rob Faulkner Scorpa had a narrow win in the latter with a most cleans verdict, Rob having problems with section 1 an easy approach to a big fallen tree , Once over it a tightish turn left and down, If you got it wrong head down and off to the next sub, On the standard route Scott Faulkner also Scorpa secured a Novice class win over cousin Mark with an 8 point tally, Nigel Tompkins Ex Western Centre champion in his younger days showed that no matter which bike you ride or what centre you ride in if you focus - push on the pegs and pull on the bars there is no reason to put your feet down,Best performance on the standard route ,End of story. Recent Ivan Davies cup winner Alan Taylor took the pre 65 class with a creditable 14 on the not so light BSA . Riders came from afar today and Lincoln youth 'B' rider Chris Alford rode brilliantly only to lose 4, Chris was unfortunate to have an early number and the loose turns of section nine took there toll on the first 50 or so bikes through. On the eased blue route youth  rider Tom Collett made it look easy dropping only 14 ,Although a fallen tree on sub 13 made life a little difficult . A couple of factory dabs for K P  McCullagh on a borrowed ( grandaughters ) 4RT was all it took to secure the eased route win.