We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the 2025 series. Full sunshine, little wind and warm. Control 19 must take the prize for the prettiest location of the evening. What more do you want! A bumper entry of 65 riders kept us on our toes all evening.

The area we chose has been used several times before but we managed to find a new venue which, as a number of riders commented, made it feel completely different. Gilcrux village hall was used as a starting venue as we were told that the pub in the village did not do food on a Wednesday. However it turned out some lucky riders managed to get served. Sorry that the rest of you had to make do with tea and biscuits!

We set out to plan a route that gave everyone a chance to get a good score whilst still challenging the faster riders. We make no apology for the big gap up the left hand side of the map, and lots of controls close in to the start, because it forced you into making a tactical decision right from the outset. Do you start in the north and finish up picking up as many controls as possible near the event centre at the end or do you start in the south and risk running out of time to get the more northerly controls? If you take the northern controls first first do you loop through them and return back through control 10 or do you commit to some dead running down the west side of the map? Control number 16 was a deliberate red herring which innocently added nearly 4 miles to your route. Most wisely avoided it!

With some very close packed scores it leaves the competition wide open for the remainder of the season.

Well done to Tom Gibbs and Fiona Wright. Ray Morriss was first ebike whilst Colin & Gillian Fell took the Mixed honours. Great to see James and Jessica Moore do well in the Generation class. Click below for full results

The Next event is only a week away so get your entries in quickly. Watchtree Nature Reserve is a well used venue and the home of a charity that we regularly support through your entries. Since we were last there they have a new café and a Gelato bar which are opening especially for us. Hazel is even laying on some specials. As manager Ryan says “come hungry”

We had lots of riders trying to enter after the closing date for Gilcrux. Luckily I was able to get some more maps printed. Please enter early so that I do not have to disappoint you.