Emma tops Ladies opener at Seymour’s Arena
By Colin Bullock on 16th Mar 16
The popularity of the Ladies and Girls Champs sponsored this year by Acklams Beta seems to be spreading by the season.Sundays event was round one of the 2016 series and was hosted by North Berkshire MCC and the club held a top class day down at Seymours Arena.
There were 44 entrants this year across the eight rider classes.
What's more, the sun broke through mid-morning making it a perfect day for riding or spectating as the competitors tackled three-laps of a 12-section course.
The Ladies Championship class was away first and Emma Bristow was quickly through the opening hazards. She cleaned the opening hazard and then needing one dab on the final part of section two.
Becky Cook was much later through and cleaned both hazards and for much of lap one went really well.
Donna Fox was the only rider in the top group to clean section six and she was looking her usual determined self.
At the end of the first circuit the scores were Bristow ahead of Cook with Donna in third.
On lap two Bristow demonstrated why she so highly rated with just one dab on her second punch card.
Donna Fox moved up into second place ahead of Cook with Jess Bown holding on to a very solid fourth.
There was no way that anyone would be able to catch Bristow on the day however. The bogey section nine took three marks off her, but no one else could better that and that was her only losses on the final lap. Donna Fox held her nerve and apart from the ninth hazard she dropped just one dab to take a clear second place ahead of Becky Cook.
The Girls A 50/50 class proved to be very close and competitive with Megan Savage taking victory, but only after a tight scrap with Gabby Whitham and Alicia Robinson, who has moved up into the group this year.
Robinson actually had the best opening lap, just, but Savage was super on the second circuit and then Whitham was best on lap three. What a battle but the middle circuit saw Savage home in front.
The best supported class was the Ladies Inter on Route two, with no less than a dozen riders competing.
This class however resulted in a clear win for Catherine Alford. She topped each of the three laps which gave her a well deserved victory ahead of Charlotte Kimber with Hannah Richardson third.
It was again section six which gave the riders a hard time with threes and fives the order of the day – except for Olivia Pearson who had a great ride on lap three when she got through for a dab.
Another rider to take a very clear win in her group was Alice Minta in the Girls B.
Minta is back with a bang and after a steady start she really got into an unbeatable groove.
Hannah Moore stayed in touch early on but Minta just moved up a gear and with second and third laps in single figure losses there would only be one winner.
Olivia Brooksbank was a well deserved third having improved her lap scores on each circuit.
The Girls C class went to Daisy Parsons and she had just one dab all day. One prod at section seven was all she needed and that was on lap one.
Sophie Bailey took second and Kaytlyn Adshead made the final podium place. All three went clean on lap two but Sophie had a good run in to grab second.
Chloe Cross claimed the Ladies Sportsperson class and Izzy Watmore, the girl's equivalent class, with Kira Beardshall the Girls Intermediate A to close a good opening round to the series.
