It may have been the first weekend of spring but as forecast snow and rain greeted the 100 riders who braved the weather to enter the Ken Eyre Trophy trial held at Rough Hey Quarry. With the wet weather in mind the setting out team did a fine job laying out the 12 sections - each with three routes to test all the riders of whatever ability. A fantastic turn out of observers in the awful weather was much appreciated by all organisers and riders. All but one of the 12 sections were set on the rocky or more gripper parts of this popular venue . The one section in the lower part of the venue was for the majority of the entry and where they lost the most marks. With its slippery mud covered climbs and angled logs and drops, it was a test for all.
It was here that Richard Timperley excelled on his way to yet another winning performance at Rough hey Quarry with a loss of just three. His closest rival on the day, Chris Alford lost 10 here and only Joe Spivey and Billy Craig remained in single figures (both 9) on the hard route. Mitch Brightmore had a good ride and mixed it well with the adults on bigger capacity machines.
Best Inter Josh Atkinson (18) took the win with a healthy lead over Mat Treweek(40) but Josh was just beaten to best overall on the inter route by 0/40+ rider Greg Moore (16) by 2 marks.
On the middle route it was Mark Timperley (12)leading the way ,3/4 of his marks were lost on the notorious section 5 . Following close behind was Toby Eyre (17) on his twinshock.
Best novice was Chris Beech (41) just beating travelling companion Paul Whalley (47) by 6 marks.
Best overall on the clubman route was J Cropper on 6 the only rider to keep his score in single figures on all the routes. A superb clean sheet on section 6 was the key to this win - a far from easy final turn and climb on this section took marks off many riders but J remained feet up.
Best on the white route was M Bennett on 11 with T Smith in second and in third overall on this route youth rider J Barlow.
Youth