A slightly lower than normal entry of 38 riders took part in Round 3 of this 4 round summer series. A light drizzle welcomed the riders at the start of the event but this eventually gave way to a pleasant evening. Only 3 riders tackled the hard route. Iain Robinson took his first win in the 2017 series losing 31 marks and with a 2nd & 4th in the previous rounds he has a healthy lead in the series. Tom Shepherd was the only youth rider to tackle the hard route and he had a very confident ride to finish on 72 on this far from easy course.Only 3 riders took on the inter route. Mike Renshaw coming out best Inter on 36 and Paddy Edwards best O/40+ and best overall on 23.
With the section severity slightly higher than the last round no rider stayed in single figures on the middle route but Andy Foot came closest on 16 to take best O/50. Best youth was Andrew Renshaw just seeing off the challenge of Andrew Worth for the second time in this series. Best Novice was Jack Beresford taking full advantage of home territory although with a 20 point advantage over 2nd place man it probably wasn't required. Pat Sharrock was best O/40.
On the blue route only 4 riders tackled the 50 /50 route where they rode half the middle route sections and half the easy route sections. Bill Brown was best here on 17 with Keith Chambers in second place on 35 . A good ride on the tricky middle route of section 8 helped Bill to the win - a score of just 1 here was only matched by one other rider on the middle route (Paul Mountford) .
Peter Lakin on his Gas Gas was not able to repeat his win in the last round but did finish a close3rd on the easy route . Of all the classes this was the most keenly fought with just 4 points separating 1st from 3rd and only 12 points between the top 6. Steve Green with a steady ride had a narrow victory over Alistair Rowe.