Local rider Richard Sadler from Leyburn was well clear of rivals James Stones and Danny Gamble, taking his victory by dropping just 7 marks with his Beta compared to the 19 dropped by Shercoʼs James Stones. Using the high moorlands above Marsett to great advantage the course plotters achieved a task worthy of the eventʼs National status. Surprisingly in spite of the good weather on the day only fifteen expert riders completed the course.
The course for the Clubmen entries extracted similar losses and proved to be a worthwhile link in the trials skills learning route. The eventual winner on his Yamaha was Roger Williams, then Masham Sausages director Paul Dennis on 29 lost, with a couple of Beta riders, Steve Swanson and Andy Tales level having dropped 30 marks each, needing a tie-break to sort the order.
The Wainwright is a long established event of two long laps in which are set the twenty-four sections, this year by Patrick Darbyshire, helped by Jonny Greenwood (well known for his section plotting at the Bayliss Gap world trial) and young Max Harker, who followed this by acting as starter for the trial. Completing the family organising duties was Jill (his Mum) undertaking the secretarial duties and working with the backroom staff sorting the results. The Wetherby club take the training of their back-up teams seriously.
As the competitors gathered at the parking area they were greeted by sunshine, in somewhat sharp contrast to much of the weather seen in the locality recently, so as they set off along Oughtershaw Gill, where the first nine sections were located, the mood was bright. By the time they reached the ninth section the observers had struggled through almost a mile of grass and heather.
For the riders, they were greeted with a visit to Oughtershaw stream coupled with two mild climbs, nothing drastic so on with the route, problems stared them in the face at the third section, where the main hazard was a climb over greasy rocks covered in green slime, under the careful observation of Brian Ayrton who noted the state of each riders battle for grip. James Stones added a dab to his second section prod. But Sam Beecroft-Penny had lost a five, in fact only Richard Sadler, who had won the 2015 event managed to remain clean - then a boot went awry at Sara Laws's dry rocky tenth section in a stream bed. Does the fact that those sections were used in the Marsett world trial years ago suggest that riding standards are improving when such a degree of severity was needed to sort National riders?
It wasnʼt much further to the four Dead Wood sections where marks lost began to mount. Sadler managed to clean the stream - but his was the sole success. The trio of challengers, Gamble, Stones and Housecroft all succumbed to the top sub. After Sections ten, eleven and twelve, riders followed the route back to the parking area, where most took advantage of the chance to refuel bike and body! Special mention should be made of the eleventh section, under the jurisdiction of Richard Midgley. In the world trial that had proved to be a real tester, but dry and grassed over on its right hand, carefully flagged to avoid the near vertical two-metre rock face it proved to be rideable by todayʼs expert riders. The clubmen were treated to a different route climbing an alternative narrow muddy slot. The only first lap cleans were for Roger Williams, Paul Dennis and Swanson, the other riders failing mainly on the rock step out of the stream at the bottom of the section.
For the second traditional Wainwright loop the course used Huntershaw Gill and New Close, where the first seven sections were in selected dry-ish stream beds. For Sadler all went well until section sixteen where he dabbed on lap one and took three on his second visit. The final two sections were observed by Rob and Richard Shepherd, which he cleaned with style. Indeed the last climb, turning sharp right at the top sorted everyone but Sadler, Sam Yeadon, Danny Gamble and Roger Williams who really floated over the hardware.
Sadly the bright weather relented and a sharp shower turned to more persistent rain, which quickly developed into monsoon. But the weather change was too late - the show was over for 2016.
Results
Hard course
1 Richard Sadler (Beta) 7,
2 James Stones (Sherco) 19,
3 Danny Gamble (Sherco) 37,
4 Thomas Housecroft (Beta) 46,
5 Sam Beecroft-Penny (Montesa) 57,
6 Tom Hick (Beta) 80.
Clubmen
1 Roger Williams (Yamaha) 11,
2 Paul Dennis (Beta) 29,
3 Steve Swanson (Beta) 30,
4 Andrew Tales (Beta) 30,
5 Andrew Jackson (Scorpa) 34,
6 Sam Jennings (Montesa) 48,
7 Peter Brown (Beta) 48