Mercian Dirt Riders ran their first event of the year on June 17^th and it turned out to be a great success. Thanks to landowner Joe Binns and family the club were able to set out a good course with variable terrain. Many of the riders were worried that the ground would be too wet to run after the heavy rain of the last few days but luck was on our side and the weather turned out fine.

The race started with a ride through low woodland and zig zaged up the hill above Pandy the course then turned left up a fast rocky climb to the top of the hill the riders then had a leisurely ride across the top of the hill until they reached the slopes on the other side they then reached their first rocky descent, Sportsman rider Nigel Lloyd fell on this section injuring his leg which put him out of action but luckily he was not too seriously hurt. Then they did a series of climbs and descents through the gorse bushes until reaching the end of the ridge followed by a mad dash back along the bottom of the ridge. Most expert and clubmen riders thought that it was a trail ride so far but the worst was still to come. Although the club had had to cut a lot of the difficult parts out because of the weather they kept the steep descent into the farmyard in and this is where it started to get tough, it was almost impossible to ride down this hill on the first lap while keeping the bike upright however as the ground dried out it did improve but many of the sportsman riders found this part very challenging. They riders then had a good blast down the hill and back to the start.

All riders seemed to have a good day and many of them commented on what a good event it was. Dave Bayliss road most of the race on his KDX stuck in 2^nd gear but still finished.

Winners were (Expert and overall) Derrick Bawn from Crumlin followed closely by Martin Jakeman from Leamington Spa. (Clubman)class was won by late entry Dale Lewis from Blaenavon followed by Antony Williams. (Veteran) Gerald Poole from newbridge followed by Raymond Whittall from Shrewsbury. (Sportsman) Alan Thomas beat Dean Rhodes from Newport. (Twin shock) Robert Thorlby from worksop beat Edward Davis from ledbury. In the (Trail bike) class Ben Innes from Cleobury Motimer beat Carl Griffiths from Abergavenny.