Holmes Cup win for Gt Yarmouth CC after draw in ReliabilityTrial

A huge turn-out by both clubs in the reliability trial, the last event in the Holmes Cup competition between Velo Club Baracchi and Gt Yarmouth CC, resulted in agreement on a draw in that event.

However, this was not the whole picture, because the Yarmouth club already held a commanding lead in the series and thus won the trophy.

In the 10-mile time trial on May Day VCB had won thirteen points on scratch, earned by Mark Pearson, Mark Newnham and Chris Womack.  The Yarmouth club mustered just eight points.

Sadly the lead was completely overturned in the late summer 25-mile time trial, scored on handicap.  VCB had earned just one point for Newnham’s ride, leaving Yarmouth to hoover up the other twenty.

So the Yarmouth overall win in the series was by twenty-eight to fourteen points, the reliability trial having been regarded as a draw with no points added.

In fact there were over twenty riders from each team on Sunday and they rode through pouring rain after the first six or seven miles of the 50-mile course.

Despite the poor weather it was a great social occasion and riders from the two clubs enjoyed riding along together.  It was also a great achievement for VCB to get so many riders out and match the Yarmouth numbers, given that the Yarmouth membership is currently much greater.

Not everyone finished and those who did included a few who went significantly off course somewhere near Bungay, forging along behind someone who seemed to know the way.

With so much rain about and most riders clad in waterproofs it seemed harder than usual to consult the paper map and route instructions to get it right, though most had no such problem.

It was not a race but for some the spirit of competition was irresistible. The riders all set off at 9am from the Blundeston Plough and returned within three-and-a-half hours, some very much quicker than the others.

It was rather too wet to hang about so some soon turned round for home, but others ventured inside for refreshments. Perhaps that was why attempts to score this event precisely were doomed to failure, but the overall result is certainly a fair one.

This Sunday the club run will leave from the Cotmer Road roundabout at 8.30am and ride out to via Sotterley (where the Freewheel competition will take place) and thence via Brampton and Rumburgh to Dove Hill at Homersfield to see who is best at defying gravity this year to win the Bernard Dale Trophy for the hill climb.

The annual general meeting is on Monday November 12 and the annual prize presentation is five days later.

Lee Cook of Rock Estate Runners & Riders, who recently won the VCB’s duathlon, was in form again at the weekend, coming second in the seniors and juniors race in round 2 of the MTB series at Taverham School.