Michael and Ciaran Tynan took outright victory on last weekend’s Cavan
Navigation Trial which was based out of Crosskeys Resource Centre. Clerk of
the Course Sean McConnell ably assisted by Anthony McDonald laid out an 80
mile event that covered a huge area between Stradone and Finnea.
Last weekend’s winners of the Midland Navigation Trial, Shane Dalton/Ryan
Treanor were seeded number 1 and lead the pack off at 21:01. From Timepoint
1 at Corbeagh crossroads, it was immediately into the first farm lane of the
night. This lane, which was just shy of two mile long brought crews through the
townland of Aghavaddy and up to TP2 at Killynanum.
At TP2 a plot and bash box tulip diagram was handed out for to direct crews to
the unknown location of TP3. The box tulip was rather straight forward until
near the end, when some boxes were switched around and navigators had to
figure out which box came next. TP3 was located on a farm lane at Grellagh,
and it was here that a second tulip was handed out. Competitors received an
upside down herringbone tulip which brought crews to TP4. TP4 was located in
a farm opposite the end of the lane that TP3 was located in. From here it was
down another short farm lane to TP5 witch was located only a two hundred
meters away in the public road.
This opening section didn’t throw up any problems for the Expert crews apart
from some people dropping time. Further down the field the less experienced
competitors did struggle with the quite complex P&Bs. Six crews missed TP3
and a further nine missed TP4. A short trip over the road and across another
farm lane lead to TP6 at Leiter. Michael Carbin/Conor Mohan would miss this
TP and then receive a wrong approach at TP7 to ruin any chance of an overall
win. Surprisingly, quite a few competitors were caught out at TP7, which was
located at Carrickaboy crossroads. To get the correct approach, crews had to
travel a farm lane Denmore. Derek Mackarel/Conor Boylan were another
Expert team to receive 15 marks for taking a wrong approach here.
TP8 was located just a hundred yards away to the west, but this TP had to be
approached via yet another farm lane at Carrickaboy Glebe, with only one
minute allowed to reach it. Another farm lane at Aghadreenagh had to be
taken on the way to TP9 to avoid arriving at TP10. TP9 was on a farm lane at
Drumcrow and after leaving the TP, competitors had to turn left at a T junction
before doing a short loop on the public road before arriving at TP10 and
departing up another farm lane that joined the lane that TP9 was on.
The ITC section began at TP12 located at Shannow Lower just south east of
Ballinagh, and it ended in the village of Finnea on the southern bank of Lough
Sheelin. Control B, the halfway mark of the event was just over the road. At
this point two crews were still holding clean sheets, with both Michael
Tynan/Ciaran Tynan and Martin Tynan/David McCrudden getting through the
first half unscathed. Next up was Dalton/Treanor, down 1 mark from the ITC
section. Darragh Kelly/Oisín Sherlock were also down 1 mark from arriving late
to TP6.
The second half of the event was slightly more open with longer distances
between the TPs. TP14 was located at farm buildings down a grey lane at
Ballynascarry while TP15 was located at the end of a separate grey lane at
Cullendragh, and it was here that the third P&B was handed out. This time a
list of gridlines was handed out for to reveal the locations of TP16 and TP17 as
well as the correct approach to Via 2.
TP16 was located at the start of a grey lane at Clontyduffy Nugent. After
reaching this TP competitors had to travel down a cow lane a Pollakeel for to
reach TP17 with the correct approach. National Championship leaders, Derek
Butler/Denis O’Donovan’s night came to a premature ending just after this TP
as they would burst the radiator and break some steering components on their
Subaru.
The next few TPs after Via 2 were relatively straight forward as the event
headed up to Crosserlough before proceeding back towards Slieve Glah. The
last P&B was handed out at TP26. This P&B consisted of the location of TP27
being muddle in with plots for some other TPs and a trace diagram on the back
of the sheet. TP27 was located at the end of a road goes at Corriga and the
trace diagram revealed that the location of TP28 was at the end of the farm
lane at Grellagh, which had been used at the start of the night for TP3. Once
TP28 was delt with it was just the small matter of going to Via 3 and then
traveling back down the very first lane of the night, this time in the opposite
direction for to reach TP29.
In the end team Tynan managed to hold onto their clean sheet despite all the
hardship McConnell and McDonald could throw at them. Tynan/McCrudden
had held their clean sheet up until they dropped a minute figuring out the
trace diagram at TP28, but luckily for them they won the further cleanest
tiebreaker over Dalton/Treanor as both crews had finished the event on 1
mark.
In the classes, Tynan/McCrudden finished 1 st Expert, with Dalton/Treanor 2 nd
and Kelly/Sherlock finishing 3 rd . Jack McKenna/Patrick Corcoran won the Semi-
Expert class, finishing on 9 marks. Finishing 2 nd in the class, and only 3 marks
behind was the Donegal pairing of Darragh Kelly/Eamon Doherty. Aidan
Keenan/Sean Marron finished 3 rd in the class on 12 marks.
Shane Maguire/Ciaran Maguire finished 1 st in the Novice class, finishing on 18
marks, with Phillip Smith/Conor Smith finishing 2 nd on 25 marks. Declan
Tynan/Ben McIntyre had to settle for 3 rd in the class as they lost a further
cleanest tiebreak over Smith/Smith as they too had dropped 25 marks.
Martin Swinburne/Gretchen Swinburne had a commanding win in the
Beginner’s class, finish on 25 marks. They were on for finishing on just 10
marks when they unfortunately received a wrong approach at the very last TP
of the night. World Rally Championship competitors Craig Breen/James Fulton
made a surprise entry to the event, and they finished 2 nd in class on 87 marks.
3 rd in the class went to Ciaran McGorman/Aaron McGorman who finished on
90 marks.
The final round of both the National and Border navigation championships
takes place on Saturday night the 11 th of March with our own clubs March
Navigation. First time COC’s Shane and Ciaran Maguire have laid out an 80 mile
event based out of Ardaghy hall. Regs and entry are available now.
Samsonas Fivemiletown Rally
Took place last Saturday also, MarkDonnelly/Stephen O’Hanlon emerged victorious after a hard fought battle with
Gareth Mimnagh/J.B. McCarney and Vivian Hamill/Andrew Grennan all day.
Donnelly finished the event 1.7 seconds faster than Mimnagh, with Hamill
finish a further 0.9s in arrears. Derek Mackarel/Emmet Sherry finished 8 th
overall and 1 st class 8 in their Mitsubishi Evo IX. Arthur Kierans guided Alan
Smith to 13 th OA and 1 st class 7 and Killian McArdle navigated Peter McCullagh
to 15 th OA and 3 rd class 8 while Ryan Farrell on the notes for Damien McGauran
finished 29 th OA and 5 th class 6.
PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com
County Monaghan Motor Club 