With the principal organiser Barry Burton away riding in the reliance classic event, it fell to the "B" team to set up and run the event in his absence. On the Saturday despite being bothered by a swarm of bees and hordes of biting ants the course setters managed to produce 12 excellent sections, including two completely new ones, which although not particularly difficult made a welcome change from the traditional bracken rocks challenges.
The usual format of 5 routes was set out to be ridden 3 times by all competitors. A slightly disappointing entry of nearly 50 riders was blessed by a wonderful sunny day on Sunday, and although the bees had gone away the vicious ants still remained.
Section 1, one of the new ones, was a typical bracken rocks jumble of boulders which took some marks from the better riders but fewer from the lesser lights. The A class and adult experts had the greatest reduction of entries due to a date clash with a national event at Scarborough the previous day. A class star Jack Biggins and his family made a dash from Scarborough, where he scored a 6th place, arriving in Derbyshire to continue his challenge for the YMSA championship. A serious commitment from his family who live in the north-east. He was headed on the day by Oliver smith on the prototype 125 oset whose scores on sections 6 and 9 opened a lead that Jack never got back.
In B class, Daniel Slack riding his M.R.S Sherco returned to cthe top step of the podium after two hard won 3rd place rides at very tough ACU events in Devon the previous weekend. The ride of the day however was a brilliant second place by Jack Dance riding up a class on his 80cc Beta only 27 marks in arrears. Gus Oblein (SPJ sherco) took the final podium place on a tie break from current class B championship runner up Mitch Brightmore.
The C class saw Harry Turner continue his unbeaten run on his medium wheel Beta. He was followed home by Ashton Brightmore and Harry Bowyer.
Max Dance was the only finisher in D class consolidating his position at the head of his championship.
A disappointing entry in Youth Novice, with series leader Alice Minta at a ladies and girls championship round gave Charlie Bawden a comfortable win closing the gap on Alice.
The only finisher in adult expert was Tom McCabe.
The adult inters, with a good entry gave the win to Joe Spivey who put in the best overall score all day on the yellow route. Jamie Millers got his season back on track with a second place after missing out on the podium at the previous round. He was closely followed home by Tony Buckley, who won the previous round at Fox Holes.
Ian Margetts rode his ossa to a steady win in the adult novice class, his first YMSA success of the year. Jason Kenny took second place continuing the family rivalry with his dad Steve who missed out on the podium
this time. Dan Bower took third place on the day.
The green route saw Toby Shaw take a narrow win from Myles Hutchinson with Martin Evans a distant third.
With 4 of 6 rounds completed and all to count, the youth championships are up for grabs in every class. The only rider with an unbeaten record up to date is Harry Turner in C class. Rounds 5 and 6 take place in the autumn with the next big YMSA event being the Michelin 3 day trial over the August bank holiday.
Results
A class
Oliver smith oset 70
Jack biggins beta 89
Keiran tovey beta 123
B class
Daniel slack M.R.S sherco 44
Jack dance beta 71
Gus oblein SPJ sherco 72
C class
Harry turner beta 43
Ash Brightmore beta 49
Harry bowyer beta 56
D class
Max dance beta 96
Youth novice
Charlie bawden beta 59
Adult expert
Tom mccabe beta 136
Adult inter
Joe Spivey sherco 31
Jamie millers gas gas 48
Tony buckley beta 53
Adult novice
Ian Margetts ossa 17
Jason Kenny beta 24
Dan bower gas gas 41
Green route
Toby shaw oset 62
Myles Hutchinson oset 65
Martin evans 97