Report by Ken O'Brien

The annual Ivan Davis cup trial promoted by the Oxford Ixion Club turned out to be a good days sport for all classes with varying skill levels on show proving what a good sport this is.

This event was a round of the South Midland youth champs,

With no 'A' class on show it was left to the 'B' lads riding the standard route and the 'C' lads and lasses riding the eased blue route,

In the latter Beta mounted J.Williamson put in the best performance with a loss of 55 including a super clean on the steep hills of sub 10.The best 'B' ride of the day was accredited to Ross Fletcher running out a narrow one point victor over Sherco mounted Jamie Miller,Ross going particually well on the slick downhill loose cambers of section 1.

The Ivan Davis Cup itself goes to the best adult peformance on the standard route riding any machine, This premier award of the day went to BSA mounted Alan Taylor who put in a mighty performance of 5 marks, Three of Alan's prods were extracted on section 4 a rooted steady uphill gradient with a nasty right hand turn over a stricken bough midway.

Mark Howkins of van hire fame had to settle for runner-up spot with a creditable 21 point tally,Howkins having just a solitary dab on the deep muddy stream crossings of section 6.

Mark Howse ' messenger bantam ' who switched routes proved it is possible to upgrade to the harder standard route even if you are 'getting on a bit' with a second spot in the bangers,

Evergreen expert Sean McCullagh borrowed a 4RT for the day and shaded this class on the most cleans tie-break from Lenny Tidd who had 4 superb cleans on sub 7 three foot high branches to negotiate before turning and twisting over snotty roots culminating in a long muddy slot to the ends.

On the blue eased route Tom Collett put a good steady performance in dropping 7 marks but section 3 the long deep narrow gully with plenty of roots lurking below slurry towards the exit found many out and dabs were a plenty.

Many thanks to the two observers !