Sunday 30 November 2008
Dromara Trail Quest League Round 3 [Ards]

This morning started very cold with widespread frost and snow in counties Antrim and Derry.  However, the sky was clear and the sun was shining when the 'sign on' opened at Dundonald Old Mill.  Twenty three teams had gathered from across Northern Ireland to take part in round 3 of Dromara Cycling Club's Trail Quest League organised to raise money for The Northern Ireland Children’s Home, Shimna Valley in Newcastle.  Numbers were down from last week.  Perhaps given how savage last week's weather was it was no surprise that a few teams decided to stay in bed this morning.  Those that did stay at home missed a cracking day's cycling around the hills surrounding Newtownards.  With frost still on the ground the teams of 1 to 3 riders set off at one minute intervals starting from 10:30 in the morning.  The riders were given a map of the local area with circles indicating the location of a marker or reference point.  Teams had 3½ hours to find as many of the markers as they could before returning to base.  The local area was defined within the dual carriageways from Belfast to Bangor, Bangor to Newtownards and Newtowards to Belfast with some points placed around Scrabo Hill and along the Strangford coast.  

Once again there were cyclists from nearly all the local cycling clubs including Banbridge, Newry wheelers, Apollo, Lanterne Rouge, Phoenix, Ards and Dromara.  It was, however, no surprise when cyclists from the local area, Ards Cycling Club, dominated the event achieving the top two highest scores.  The top team (Who the fox is that?) were last year's winners and consist of a team of three strong riders including Paul McMinn, John Ruddell & David McCann.  In second place was fellow club mate Alastair Martin (Ards CC), doing a solo effort, who finished just 10 points behind.  Quite a bit behind Alastair was another lone rider, Ivan Millar (Lagan Valley Orienteers), who was 90 points behind today's winning team.

Today's event had been set out by Martin Grimley from Dromara CC who was brought up in the local area.  As well as organising the sign on on the day, Martin provided the back up as well as event photographer.  Martin had only one incident to attend to when a member from team CCAR had an unfixable mechanical problem with his rear wheel.  The rider + broken bike were returned to the car park at the old mill.  Once all riders returned to base they were able to use the café where there was plenty of hot soup and wheaten bread laid on for all the hungry riders.  This was the first time that Dromara CC have used this location to host one of the rounds of their Trail Quest and from the feedback from the riders the club would be keen to use this venue again.


Views from Scrabo

Round four of the Trail Quest League will be held on Saturday 27th December 2008 in Seaforde, County Down. The headquarters will be at Brennan's Service Station.  See website for more details.
 

Views of Scrabo


Team: McBrides on the Square


Team: Joyriders

Photos by Martin Grimley


The results of round three were:

Rank
 Team
 Points
 Riders
1 Who the fox is that?
 430
 Paul McMinn & John Ruddell & David McCann
2
 Loch Ness Monster
 420
 Alastair Martin
3
 Lucky Red Sox
 330
 Ivan Millar
4
 The Losers
 310
 Stewart Moore & Alan McMullan
5
 Mountain Muppets 2
 280
 Geoff Brown & Gareth Williams
6
 Muddy Bums
 268
 William Mulligan & Peter Lilley
7
 Over achieving
 260
 Gavin Millington
7
 The Blind Zeppelins
 260
 Ross Galway & Gary Gray
9
 Team Purple 1
 250
 Eddie O'Hagan & Brendan O'Hagan
10
 Muttz Nuttz
 240
 Maurice Mayne & William Forsythe & Paul Anderson
11
 McBrides on the Square
 228
 David McKnight & Jonathan McBride & Stephen Gabbey
12
 Lost and Bewildered
 210
 Stephen Heasley & Niall Cochrane
13
 The Barnardo Boys
 195
 John Bogues & Brian Smith
14
 Brothers in Arms
 190
 Michael Armstrong & Christopher Armstrong & Marcus Chesney
15
 Bonnie and Clyde meets Al Capone
 180
 Alan Reid & David Robb & Caroline Patterson
15
 All juiced up
 180
 David Neill
17
 CCAR 1
 170
 Peter Cole & Peter Crommie
17
 The Joyriders
 170
 Gavin Magowan & Chris Magowan
19
 Retro
 150
 Paul Jess & Andrew Wilson
20
 Two Tubes
 140
 Phil O'Neill & Val O'Neill
21
 Up Where?
 130
 Derek King & Dwyer Lavery
22
 Busted
 120
 Michael Smith
23
 Not the Sunday Run
 10
 Hugh Suffern & Diarmuid Macauley
* Any questions or queries regarding the scores please feel free to email Martin.

The questions and answers looked like this.

Marker
 Location
 Question
 Answer
 Points
 Found *
A Under one of the picnic tables
 2 digit number
 24
 40
 10
B
 At the fork in the road
 2 numbers and letter on the post
 10D
 20
 7
C
 Up the gravel lane. Stone shaped like a seat
 Single letter etched on the stone
 M
 20
 8
D
 Large Round Tower, remains of a Windmill
 Letter and number above the door on the inside.
 R3
 10
 15
E
 Mine shaft tower (South Engine House)
 3 digit number in the centre of the sign
 140
 20
 15
F
 Mine Agent’s House
 Last word on the sign (4 letters)
 here
 10
 12
G
 Burn out car (lower one)
 2 digit number scratched on the side
 74
 20
 11
H
 Chimney on the corner
What day in August did Mr Dee scratch his name
 26
 20
 14
AC
 Helen’s Tower
 Number of round bars on the window
 8
 20
 14
J
 Up the muddy lane opposite the pilon. Look behind a large tree
 3 letter name written above the word “loves”
 MAC
 30
 9
K
 Large fallen tree across path
 2 digit number
 87
 20
 11
L
 Invergarry Avenue
 2 digit number on pine tree
 73
 50
 11
M
 Tullynagarry Road
 3 letters on the sign
 ScV
 10
 11
N
 On the bridge
 2 digit number
 58
 20
 5
P
 On the entrance gate to the chimney
 Letter and number
 H4
 20
 9
Q
 On stone wall at back of Wood
 Number and letter
 5k
 40
 4
R
 Behind post number 14
 2 letters
 YT
 10
 4
S
 On the black sign at the end of the Ulster Way
 First word on the 5th line down (7 letters)
 Persons
 40
 8
T
 On the brick building in Creigton’s Wood
 2 digit number
 49
 20
 11
U
 On the column outside the school
 Two letters in the heart
 JC
 10
 13
V
 On the corner of the field near the radio towers
 Last letter on the water tank
 E
 20
 3
W
 On the gate to the reservoir
 2 letters
 gh
 20
 5
X
 Property number 50, Ballygrainey Road
 First 3 letters of the farm’s name
 Gre
 10
 4
Y
 Plaque under totem pole
 Last word (6 letters)
 Winter
 30
 6
Z
 Sign at the end of the lane. White numbers on a black background
 2 digit number
 35
 10
 8
AA
 At the top of the steps in Glen lyon Park, name painted in red on the tree
 First letter of the 5 letter name
 S
 20
 8
AB
 Water treatment plant
 2 digit number on the sign
 10
 20
 9
AD
 Along track to obstructive log
 Number & letter on tree
 V3
 20
 10
AE
 On gate
 2 digit number
 33
 10
 3
* Number of teams who successfully located this marker

Many thanks to the staff at the Dundonald Old Mill for providing the excellent soup and wheaten bread.
And finally many thanks to all the riders who turned up to support both the event and the Children's Cancer Home, Shimna Valley, who are benefiting from the proceeds of the 5 events.  


Overall scores to follow


Team: The Losers
Team: Loch Ness Monster

Team: The Barnardo Boys
Team: All Juiced Up

Team: Muddy Bums
Team: Bonnie and Clyde meets Al Capone

Coffee at the end
Dromara riders

Enjoying the soup
Soup and wheaten bread laid out

Overall scores after three rounds
Those who completed all 3 rounds
Rank
 Team
 Points
1
 Who the fox is that?
 1030
2
 The Losers
 868
3
 CCAR 1
 801
4
 Muddy Bums
 798
5
 The Blind Zeppelins
 700
6
 Team Purple 1
 670
7
 Lost and Bewildered
 650
8
 Muttz Nuttz
 640
9
 McBrides On the Square
 618
10
 Bonnie and Clyde meets Al Capone
 590
11
 All Juiced Up
 570
12
 Brothers in Arms
 530
13
 The Barnado Boys
 510
14
 Retro
 420
15
 The Joyriders
 416
16
 Up Where?
 375

Those who have completed two out of the three rounds
Rank
 Team
 Points
1
 Loch Ness Monster
 788
2
 Lost and Found
 705
3
 Lucky Red Sox
 700
4
 The Deliverance Brothers
 610
5
 Mountain Muppets 2
 566
6
 Over achieving
 540
7
 Two Tubes
 417
8
 A Big Boy Made Us Do It
 370
9
 CCAR 2
 360
10
 Not The Sunday Run
 280
11
 Three Blind Mice
 241

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