Jason North	Oscar Jones
Bret Harbud	Adrian Steele
Brian Ayres	Jason Cookson

2016 Norton Trophy Trial

Report Ken O'Brien

Pictures Gary Dowzall more pictures can be found here

There were two trophies on offer at Oxford Ixion today the Norton Trophy for the best Pre 65 on the standard route and the News of the World Trophy for the best team performance from any club in the South Midland Centre.

The Norton going to Jason North 199 Triumph Tiger cub and the News of the World to the Oxford Ixion team comprising Adrian Steele 250 Beta Bret Harbud and Oscar Jones both 125 Beta.

Congratulations to these.

Three laps of twelve sections were plotted today erring on the easy side as primarily this event was for Pre 65 and Twinshock machines.
Sections were set with steep climbs wooded cambers and muddy rooty slots.

Bret Harbud put the best performance in on the Expert route with a loss of 18, eight of which went astray at section eight a 60 yard blast over roots with a watery gully and muddy bomb hole just before the ends.

Best 50/50 rider was Alicia Robinson over from the North Berks club 3 was her tally with section seven 'Dickies Ditch' extracting two prods as the final turn up by the road got slicker as the day progressed.

On the standard white route three were on clean Jason North Adrian Steele and Alan Taylor the latter two taking joint clubman.

 Tim Blackmore 185 Bantam had a steading dab at section eight but this was the only one all day and went on to take best Pre 65 Two Stroke Gordon Pusey 315 Montesa was next on this route also prodding once.

In the novice class Ryan Tomkins 250 Gasser dropped eight with section five a twisting drop into marshland then a soft turn around a big oak before a forth gear blast to the ends took two of his total last lap he was best in class.

Best twinshock was awarded to Rowan Hill 240 Fantic with a sprinkling of dabs totaling 12.

Max Agar Beta 80 pressed on in these fairly tough conditions for a small wheel machine and was rewarded with best youth C.

The Blue Sportsman route was well represented with no less than ten different marques.

Julian Wade representing the VMCC had a good ride on his Rigid BSA losing nine, section five was proving a little difficult for the big bike but practice makes perfect and a brilliant clean came on his last visit.

Brian Ayres BSA 250 was on gold until a low flying spy plane appeared from nowhere, he dived for the bushes and got marked a big 5 the observer refused a re-run claiming it was pilot error.

Brian went on to take best in class Pre 65 Unit.

Justin Cookson showed a clean pair of heels to all with a faultless ride on the 250 Beta and Peter Rank who had traveled afar was runner-up on 1 mark lost.

Worthy of a mention Tabitha Ward the youngest competitor today who kept going on the little 50cc auto Sherco, she managed to conquer all the sections and finished well within the time limit.

Many thanks to all the observers who braved the cold conditions.