The 1^st round of the 2006 YMSA Trials Championship, The Talon Trophy Trial, was held last Sunday 12^th March at Dudwood Farm, North East Derbyshire. Despite the heavy snow, 67 riders turned up for what turned out to be an excellent competition in the very tricky conditions.

Since the last YMSA trial in the late autumn, Barry Burton has created some excellent new sections at Dudwood which on the day brought out some brilliant rides from the young riders. Three laps of twelve sections for the A, B and adult classes with the C class riders having ten sections and the D class just eight.

On the youth A route Alexz Wigg set the pace with a blistering opening lap of 11 with Ross Danby on 20 and Jack Challoner dropping 26. Alexz kept up the pressure on lap two with a lap of 7 compared to 13 and 15 from Ross and Jack respectively. All three riders pulled out the stops for the third and final lap, but Alexz was in a class of his own with just 3 marks lost, winning the trial on just 21 marks and a healthy margin of 19 from Ross in second place.

The adult expert class was won by Lee Sampson with an excellent ride finishing the day with just 34 marks lost.

The youth B class was fiercely contested by Jack Thompson and Ben Morphett who on the day, were in a class of their own compared to the other riders. Ben completed his first lap for the loss of 4 marks and Jack was on 7. Lap two saw Ben drop another 2 marks whilst Jack had a brilliant clean lap. The final circuit took just one mark from Ben and two from Jack and so the victory went to Ben by just 2 marks. The next three places were closely contested with Alan Ayres coming home in third place on 29 marks lost.

The adult Inters rode the same route as the B class, with the Burton brothers competing for top honours. On this occasion, younger brother Ben took first place from Dan with an eight point margin.

Darren Cox took the youth novice class after a close contest with Max Varney

An excellent entry of eighteen riders on the youth C class route saw some close rivalry and only eleven marks separating the first six riders at the end of the day. After the first lap, the difference between the first five riders was just 2 marks with Daniel Knaggs and Chris Stay in the lead, both on 11. So close was the C class contest that at the end of the second lap, the first three riders were on 19 marks lost and the fourth and fifth places were both on 20. Daniel Knaggs kept his nerve and produced a steady last lap of just 4 marks lost to come home in first place from George Gosden.

In the youth D class, Oliver Webster was a comfortable winner on just 14 marks lost with Jack Price coming home in second place on 22.

A good days sport was had by all, despite the heavy fall of snow before and during the trial. Credit to the organisers for getting the sections just right in some very tricky ground conditions and to the riders and their drivers for braving the weather to contest The Talon Trophy Trial.

Report by Geoff Heppell

Results: of Sunday’s Talon Trophy Trial.

Youth A Alexz Wigg 20 Prem

Ross Danby 40 R/Up

Youth B Ben Morphett 7 Prem

Jack Thompson 9 R/Up

Youth C Daniel Knaggs 23 Prem

George Gosden 27 R/Up

Youth D Oliver Webster 14 Prem

Jack Price 22 R/Up

Expert Lee Sampson 34 Prem

Inters Ben Burton 51

A-Novice Damian Owen 34 Prem

Yth Novice Darren Cox 26 Prem