Dromara Trail Quest League Round 6 [Paddy's Barn, Saul]
Dromara Cycling Club hosted the sixth and final round of their Winter Trail Quest on Sunday 24 January 2010 from the event headquarters at Paddy's Barn, Saul, Downpatrick. These popular leisure mountain bike events have attracted a wide and diverse range of cyclists from across Ireland including lots of familiar faces and newcomers taking the plunge for the first time. The events were part of a fund raising for the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children which the club have raised money for over the past number of years.
Riders can form teams of up to 3 and are issued with a map, answer sheet and a time limit to return to base. The majority of riders at this round entered the 3.5 hour event setting out to find as many of the 36 markers as possible within the time limit. The map covered an area from Downpatrick out to Strangford and the markers were mainly places on old lanes, bridal ways and public paths. There was a light drizzle to greet the riders as they gathered at Paddy's Barn with the first team leaving just after 10:30 am and the rest at one minute intervals thereafter. Thirty four teams made up of 71 riders took part in this round and as it was the last round there was to be a prize giving afterwards for the top 3 teams. There were only 4 teams in the running for the top 3 places, Team "Retro Grouch", Team "Nocturnal", Team "The Losers" and Team "Who the Fox is that?" all of whom were at this final round.
The overnight rain had made many of the paths very mucky and slippery. The markers had different point values ranging from 10 points to 50 points so the teams had to choose the best path to gather the most points. This round had been set up by club members Phil O'Neill and Geoff Brown, who are experienced participants but this time had volunteered to organise and run this round of the Trail Quest League. They had their work cut out for them after 2 pm when the first of the 3.5 hour competitors started returning and over the next 40 minutes there was a non-stop arrival of teams waving mucky answer sheets for them to mark. The riders were then able to enjoy the open fire, hot soup and wheaten bread provided by the hardworking staff in Paddy's Barn.
There was only one serious injury on the day when club member Martin Grimley took a tumble which resulted in a badly cut knee which required hospital treatment. Phil was on hand to lift Martin in his car before his team mate Ross Galway drove him to the hospital. Martin did return in time for the soup.
After all the sheets were marked the winners of the overall league were announced. Team "Retro Grouch", Mark Forrester and Glenn Cobain, won this round with an impressive 519 points out of a possible 720 and took the overall league title. There was a close result between Team "Nocturnal" and Team "The Losers" with "The Losers"(Stewart Moore, Dennis and Alan McMullan) finishing fourth at this round which secured second place overall ahead of Team "Nocturnal" (Martin McMullan and Laurence Hamilton) who finished 7th on the day, third overall. The prizes had been generously provided by local cycle shops McConvey Cycles, Mourne Cycles, Downey Cycles and CycleZone. The CycleZone prize was for the top junior team "Young Guns", Derek Hanna, Zak Hanna and Gary Gray (Dromara Cycling Club) who were not able to make this round.
Other notable results were Team "Lucky Red Sox", Ivan Millar, who finished second today with a score of 512 points and newcomers Team "Borat and the boys" scoring 510 points to secure third place on the day.
Many thanks to Phil and Geoff for their hard work in setting up this round, to the sponsors for their generous donation of vouchers and to the staff at Paddy's Barn for looking after us. A big thank you to all the participants over the last 6 rounds who have helped us achieve our goal of raising £3,000 for the charity. The club are considering running some more of these trail quests during the spring or summer. Please keep an eye out on the website for more details www.dromaracc.co.uk.
Photos by Martin Grimley, Phil O'Neill and Geoff Brown.
Report by Martin Grimley
Team "Side saddle, brakeless and the butcher boy" with Tommy Mackin
