Wild, Woolly and very, very wet!
By TMX Archives on 7th Jan 10
THIS year's Wild and Woolly event was preceeded by weeks of very wet weather followed by a fortnight of snow and freezing conditions. As the temperature on Boxing Day rose and the sun made an all too brief holiday appearance, it was always going to be a wet affair. However, every cloud or in this case lack of has a silver lining and the glorious weather brought out thousands of spectators for the 84th running of this historic race.
Pre-race favourites were nine-times winner Ryan Griffiths, 2004 winner and close runner-up last year, James Berrill, and 2004 winner, Richard Main. Richard's threat failed to materialise as his bike expired during practice.
As tradition dictates, at precisely 11am the flag fell on a silent start-line to signal the beginning of the race.The dead-engine start favours those whose bikes easily fire into life and this year was no exception. As the crowds thronged to get the best views of the muddy river crossings, the marshals and ‘pullers' waited anxiously. Emerging from the start as the early leader was Jack Lee, with Ryan Griffiths close on his heels at the end of the first lap, looking to take the lead at every opportunity.
84th WILD AND WOOLLY SCRAMBLE
Blisworth (Northampton MCC)
OVERALL: 1 James Berrill 16 laps, 2 Adam Castledine 14, 3 Jack Lee 14, 4 Mark Bussey 13, 5 Jonathan Lee 13, 6 Nigel Batchelor 13, 7 Dennis Harrison 12, 8 Paul Baldwin 12, 9 Mark Bates 11, 10 John Abbott 11, 11 Ashley Wilson 10, 12 David Sampson 7, 13 Laurence Wiltshire 6, 14 Steve Harrison 6, 15 Kai Passmore-Jones 6, 16 James Higgins 6, 17 Sean Dowling 6, 18 Richard Lowe 5, 19 Rob Brown 5, 20 Garry West 4, 21 Giles Agar 4, 22 Steve Wright 3, 23 Jamie Nelson 3, 24 Chris Livesey 2, 25 Andrew Hartwell 1.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2010
We've heard about using up the left over turkey but this is going a bit too far!