On the weekend of March 18/19th a hoard of NATBs descended onto the Checkendon Challenge arena for a weekend of fun and frolics.

It was an opportunity to catch up with friends and meet new members.

As always, and with a bit of help from Cliff, Sally, Roy and Emma the trail was looking amazing, having been leaf blown and raked the normal roots and holes were exposed to ensure any falls were easily blamed to poor eye sight!
This course is always a favourite, on private land, 5k of twists and turns single track, small obstacles and no public!

As always the NATBs camped near the wonderful Team SHWA and we once again were lucky to be included and treated to a wonderful feast of food due to our affiliation with them. Kerrie is our hero!

So who was there and what happened?

The following 16 members rocked up and put on an excellent show!

Cliff Tarrant, Sally Tarrant, Eleanor Tarrant, Matt West, Sarah Love, Isobel Powys, Emma Giles, Roy Giles, Hannah Giles, Mary Forster, Julie Graham, Danielle White, Helene Pettitt, Gary Oke, Lucy Matthews and Emily Thomas.

Covering off every discipline it was so much fun, and a tad hectic, helping everyone start, finish and recover! The bikejor classes had 45 entrants and scooter over 20 - massive classes!

With various dramas and funny moments one deserves a special mention, this being Izzys wonderful chair tumble, pulled over by the smallest dog in the field - AKA Aggie the wonder terrier x spaniel! We were treated to a tug of war content between some of our dog athletic team members,  it was great to watch the tenacity of the dogs, determined to not let go of their toy!

Once again we showed our true club spirit supporting each other and having fun, we are hugely looking forward to the April event, only 2 weeks to go!!

Results

Bikejor Female
Emily Thomas - 10th place
Lucy Teal - 17th place
Sally Tarrant - 19th place - I have to however mention here that Sally's run with Vinnie the wonder beagle (also known as Jesus) was rudely halted on Saturday due to crow scarers making extremely loud noises. On Sunday however Vinnie (AKA Jesus) put in a sterling run pulling Sally round to finish with the biggest smile of the weekend. Based on their Sunday time they would have actually finished around 12th if the Saturday race had been completed - go Sally and Vin!

Bikejor Male
Cliff Tarrant - 3rd place
Matt West - 7th place
Lee Drury - 9th place (honorary member for the weekend!!)

Scooter Female
Emma Giles - 9th place - the woos showing that their long distance trekking is paying off, putting in a performance of hugely fast pure trek speed! Sunday time only being slightly faster due to being bribed by mini cheddars!!

Scooter Male
Gary Oke - 5th place

Female Canicross F1
Julie Graham - 6th place
Lucy Teal - 10th place
Emily Thomas - 12th place
Hannah Giles - 13th place
Mary Forster - 15th place - Mary however was replaced by Emma last minute due to Mary being unwell.The lovely Aggie decided to sniff a lot, try and follow the other dogs under the tape and was generally having a marvelous time! It was a lot of fun and Emma and Aggie bonded! 

Female CanicrossVF1
Helene Pettitt - 2nd place
Isobel Powys - 9th place
​Sarah Love - 12th place

Male V1 canicross
Gary Oke - 4th place

As most people know the Brutal 10k has been a firm favourite with many of the clubs canicrossers, however due to changes in the MOD rules they were unable to accept canicross entries for any events on their land. Which basically ruled out most of them.

However on the 25th February 2017 a Brutal was taking place on private land - so all hail the canicross entries!

Hannah Giles and Mary Forster decided to brave this event. Temple Valley is a very hilly course, not overly wet or boggy but a real tester of endurance and steel!

Mary ran the first half with Aggie her trusted terrier cross spaniel, who thrived and puled well. Hannah ran the first half with Mya, who although pulled was a little disconcerted as to not be running with her actual mum!

The girls swapped engines at 5k: Mary taking Kavik and Hannah taking Oki. To say the boys were wound up and excited would be an understatement and their enthusiasm was a joy to watch. The girls finished the event with huge smiles on their faces and very happy fur partners. How Kavik, as the largest dog, managed to be 3 times muddier than any of the others lord only knows BUT the fact the dogs were smiling too far outweighed the mud allowance!

Well done ladies, good show!!

On the 4th March the final BSA event took place in Moors Valley country park. Its a greatly anticipated event and closes the season of racing. This year the entry list was closed after the allowed number was reached quickly, unsurprising as its such a fun event.

Only 2 official NATBs entered the event this year but many others came along to support the club.
Petra raced her awesome team of kelpies, Morph fitting into the team brilliantly, helping her bag a 3rd place in the DR4 class.

Emma raced (a loose term there) her woos in the DR2F class coming in 5th.

2 further potential members raced as well, Tony Borrell competing in Bikejor and finishing an impressive 5th out of a huge class of 18. 
​Vanessa Borrell then ran in the canicross class and finished 3rd woman with a great time.

Supported in the ranks by Maggie, Mark, Chesty, Ness and Kane as always the club spirit shone through :)

As always a brilliantly run event, the BSA family is a joy to be a part of, thanks to Zara and Chris for as always running a superb series with Matt Eames and Co.

The NATBs decided that being as it was only a one night event they should drive to Tidworth and go for a plains run on the Sunday morning. When this plan was made we did not however envisage the fact that the weather would be appalling! Sleeping through a storm ewan we braved still running in some horizontal rain and ridiculous wind! Only running a 5mile trek instead of 10 miles was actually a bonus, breakfast and a hot cup of tea being needed once we had finished, dried the dogs and settled them for a rest!

Another thoroughly enjoyed weekend spent doing what we all love!