SELOC Successes
A bit more back to normal this week with a few more events within range. First out of the blocks were Mark Sammon and Kev Latham at the latest in SROC’s Summer Sprint series on Tuesday night at Astley Park. Mark had a good run that placed him 2nd in the overall Men’s Open class but Kev had a good 3rd place in the Prologue spoilt by a mispunch in the Final, similar to his previous event in this series. Concentration required, though if the problem arose in the notoriously tricky housing estate then he will have been in good company.
There could be an outbreak of lost concentration as Peter Brooke ran in MDOC’s double header event at Torkington that same Tuesday night and also mispunched in one race. His first disqualification coming soon after his first win a couple of weeks ago, so he’s clearly getting well into the swing. But he made up for it the following night of a busy week with 5th place on the Maxi score course at PFO’s Marl Pits event, behind Steve Wilson who secured a comfortable win.
On to the weekend, Paul Turner and Stephen Richards both headed south to a popular Coventry urban event, with Paul running Men’s SuperVets and taking 22nd place while Stephen fell foul of a confusingly mapped pair of bridges putting him 36th on Men’s UltraVets. Meanwhile, Kev Latham headed north to run the Blue course at WCOC’s Cumbrian Galoppen at Threlkeld Knott, placing 39th.
Upcoming Events
The prime event of next weekend must surely be SELOC’s own Horwich Festival of Racing event, this year incorporating the NWOA Sprint Champs, on Sunday 16 June. Event organisers Kev Latham and Tony Varley are still seeking helpers for that, so save them the trouble of chasing and volunteer your services now. With enough helpers everyone wanting a run should be able to get one, and with a 50% discount on fees for helping. Pre-entries have now closed but there will be entries on the day while maps are available.
Midweek we have conventional events of various types on Wednesday 12 June from AIRE ( a sprint, near Leeds), LOC (on fabulous Graythwaite), and DEE (at Frodsham) plus the second of MDOC’s Countryside Score events using 1:25000 OS maps near Knutsford. Could be a busy night.
The following weekend see Yorkshire following the NWOA lead with their Sprint Championships staged by HALO in Gainsborough on Saturday 22nd and paired with a Middle Distance race the same day. Then East Midlands join the fun by staging their Sprint Champs at Newark on Sunday 23rd to make an appealing weekend. Equally attractive but a bit further away is the usually very well organised and planned Sprint Scotland weekend with 3 events on offer at Bo’ness, near Edinburgh.
To finish off June, EBOR have a regional event between Selby and York on Sunday 30 June, though you’ll need full leg protection at this time of year as their woods can be a bit brambly.
Then finally, don’t forget that entries for the premier UK multiday event this summer, the Scottish 6 Days, close at the end of June for the main age-class courses. Event dates are 28 July to 3 August so better get some detailed planning under way if you’re interested in attending this usually excellent event.