Sean McCullagh	Bret Harbud
Adrian Steele	Paul Heron
Steve McHugh	Chris Hurworth

2016 Club Champs Round 3

Report Ken O'Brien

Pictures by Gary Dowzall, others can be found at sliders.photography

The heavy overnight rain and cold winds had ceased and so the the sun shone once again on the righteous for Oxford's Good Friday Trial at Folly Farm Beckley this was the venue for Ixions 3rd club champs where a good entry of riders set off to tackle 10 sections four times and a mix of mud roots climbs ditches and rocks sorted an outright winner in each class.
 With the entry split first up at section 10 was eventual Expert class winner Sean McCullagh who made short work of this starter a steep drop to a ditch then a sharp slick climb before attempting a very tough sandy camber over roots a clean here set the precedent for his rivals.
Sean went on to lose 18 marks 11 ahead of Brett Harbud who was best Youth B, Brett put in some tidy rides on the 125 Beta at sub nine a real tricky twisting downhill uphill affair through Gorse with a third gear blast up to the ends Brett lost only two here after four visits.
Best Intermediate went the way of local firefighter Jason Clifford.
 Most riders struggled at section seven where Jim Axford was on the pen, to start there was a choice of lines over a deep ditch crossing and once you had sussed this on to the sting in the tail a really tough right hander around a big oak where full lock and balance was essential then a multi-line exit across the offending ditch anything less than a three was a good ride Jason produced a couple of two's here.
 The standard white route saw Adrian Steele 250 Beta post the lowest score and best Clubman on 9 with three exceptional clean rides at section one.
A natural spring had been disturbed somehow during proceedings and the consequence was a new watercourse running down the section this made for a  boggy right hander where you had to be wheel inch perfect with a turn up over roots to finish this sub became the toughest of the day for all.
Alan Taylor had a brilliant ride on the Tigercub claiming best Pre 65 on the standard route with a lesson in how to ride mud at section two a marshy crossing out to a lonely tree with a loamy turn then again across the bog where big gears had to be selected if there was any chance of making it back
Richard Bushnell out on the 250 Sprite was runner-up in the banger class.
Rowan Hill took best Novice and Mark Kenyon-Bell was slightly awry in a couple of sections as his Sat-Nav batteries had flattened off.
On the Blue easier route Steve McHugh was top dog on ten but arguably the ride of the day went to Chris Hurworth piloting his trusty BSA B40 around for an impressive 13 marks lost, section eight was a classic banger sub 80 yards of mud and sandy uphill slots the BSA could be heard echoing though the woods from afar as full chat was required to complete the task.
Oxford Ixion new member John McCabe was certainly enjoying the day with some excellent cleans on most sections before the BSA C15 gave up the ghost in the clutch department.

Many thanks thanks to all the observers and hope to see you all at the next event .