Molly Maguire navigated her brother Shane to the overall victory on the Monaghan March Navigation Trial last weekend.
Conor Mohan and Michael Carbin organised this event, which was based out of the Ballinode Community Centre.
The competitive part of the event, began at 21:01, when the first of the 33 starting teams left the headquarters. The first farm lane of the night was used for the approach to Timepoint 2 (Tp2), in Glasdrumman. After departing here, it was onward to Tp3, located at what the locals call ‘The Blind Lough’ (Tully Lough). The next checkpoint after here was Via 1 (V1), located on the Tirnaneill-Errigal road at Legacurry, which had to be approached using the twisty ‘Sheetrim’ and ‘Drumhillagh’ roads. It was over to Corra cross now, left toward Tydavnet and taking the next road on the right for ‘Killygavna’, before arriving at Tp4 back on the Tirnaneill-Errigal road. The events first Supplementary Route Instruction was received here for to guide competitors to the previously unknown location of, Tp5 and 6. This route instruction was in the form of a cumulative distance, two-page box tulip diagram. Navigators had to keep turning the page over to see which junction was up next, just in case the images were out of order. The first page of 12 images, and the first image on the second page were all in order. The second image on page two was, a ‘straight through an x roads’, however the distance on the car’s tripmeter wouldn’t add up, but the junction competitors were at, at this point, was in fact an x roads, so making the error of going straight through could be forgiven. The actual image that matched the distance was an upside down ‘turn left at x roads however. Even if a navigator did notice that the distance was incorrect and found the correct image, it was possible to not realize that it was upside down and interpret the ‘turn left’ as a ‘turn right’ either way, going straight through or turning right would bring competitors to Tp6 instead of 5. The correct thing to do was ‘turn left’ and arrive at Tp5 just 150m over the road at a T junction. After departing here left, it was back into the same farm as before only to go ‘straight through’ the x roads on this occasion. This section of the event caught out thirteen crews who received at least a ‘wrong approach’ mark (m). Many of the thirteen however, made an error at one or both of the checkpoints or received a ‘Double visit’ mark if they went back to get Tp5 after inadvertently arriving at Tp6 first and then returned back into the vicinity of Tp6 once more. This whole section took place in a farm in the townland of Ardnasallem.
The first Time Recovery Section (TRS) took place between Tp8 and 9 in Tamlat, and it was here that the Speed Regulatory Section (SRS) began. This 8.5-mile section brought competitors to Tp10 in Drumbristan, just north of Carrickroe. From here it was north toward Tp11, where competitors received the events second Supplementary Route Instruction for to find the location of Tp12. This route instruction was a simple full normal looking route card, only with the location of Tp12 written between V2 and Tp22. There was no trick here however, as the trick lay 2km away in Mullinacask. Tp12 was located in Killybrone with the southern approach on a long private lane. The shortest route between Tp11 and 12 was via Mullinacask, which was where the secret SRS check car had been located. Any competitor that hadn’t marked its location on their map, would forget about it and unintentionally pass by once more and receive a double visit mark as a result. Another cheeky sting in the tail was the location of Tp13 at Fort Singleton. The approach was from the north on a narrow public road. The cheeky thing here, was that the public road kinked right but there was a big house yard in front, that looked just like the road and the house lane followed the bends of the public road. Any competitor that continued onward would be met with a ‘wrong approach’ mark. Amazingly, only five competing crews would escape a wrong approach mark here, which shows just how well the trick was laid out. A short respite was on the cards here as the next TRS was between Tp14 and Control B (CB) in Carrickroe.
Tp15 was located over the road in Glen More, before it was time to cross the R186 for two loops of Bragan Mountain, one for Tp16 on a gravel track beside ‘The Rock Bridge’, and a second one for Tp17 at Barratitoppy Upper. It was at Tp17 that the next Supplementary Route Instruction was received. This route instruction was in the form of a ‘Trace diagram’. The trace diagram revealed that Tp18 was located in the centre of Esh Forest. Competitors had to enter the forest from the Knockballyroney side, turn right at the ‘Tin Hut’ out onto the Golan Road, travel north and re-enter the forest at ‘Caulfield’s chicken house’ before arriving at Tp18 at the end of the ‘short’ Esh Forest loop. The final TRS was located in Clontycasta between Tp19 and 20. Tp21 was located in Sally’s farm in Feebaghbane, which had a northern departure, using a cow lane for to arrive at V2 on the following public road. This checkpoint had to be departed from, using a private house lane. Twisty public roads in Agherakeltan and Drummans had to be used for Tp22 and 23 as the event moved to Greenfield Eggs, before turning back toward Scotstown. Tp24 was located in a farm at the end of Knocknagrat lane before it was over to Kibberidog x roads for Tp25 and to collect the penultimate Supplementary Route Instruction. The route instruction received here was in the form of a ‘Snake Herringbone Tulip’ diagram, with cumulative distance marked between each junction, which included ‘Mapped, un-mapped roads, gates and any openings. The diagram received included 28 junctions in just under two miles. It was a southern (right) turn at Kibberidog cross before eventually entering a private lane in Mullyera and taking a cow pass to the Annyalty public road. Once at the public road, it was a left turn before arriving to Tp26 in a farm in Tattindonagh. There was another sting in the tail here, as the final Supplementary Route Instruction was received. There was a notice on the reverse side that informed the competitor that the following ‘Snake Herringbone Tulip’ was to be read in opposites. Anyone failing to understand this would receive a wrong departure and a double visit penalty immediately as the first junction was only a few meters away. The correct departure, was down a cow lane and follow the previous lane back to the Annyalty road, take left once again, and just after the turn for Tp28, turn left into a cow lane that ran parallel to the public road. On this lane, competitors had to take a right turn onto the public road, turn immediately right once again before arriving at Tp28 100m down the road. The departure from here, was a hairpin right and back into the cow lane, but taking left on the public road for to reach the penultimate Control, just at the edge of Ballinode Village in Killygrallan. It was just a shot trip through the village now for to reach the final Control back in Ballinode Community Centre.
When all the results were totted up it was the Maguire siblings who came out on top having picked up just 19m. 15 of which were from receiving a wrong approach at TP13. In second place was David McCrudden/Martin Tynan who finished of 23m. Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan finished 3rd on 24m.
After receiving their awards for winning the March Navigation Trial, Molly thanked all the residence along the route, all the landowners, all the people that provided refreshments in the hall after the event finished and the plethora of Marshals for coming out to help make the event a tremendous success. Conor and Michael thanked all the residence too for the cooperation, all the landowners for allowing the event to use their property and all the Marshalls that came to man the 35 or so locations throughout the event.
In the classes, Carol and Rian Patterson finished 3rd in the Beginner class, Damien Cahill/Martin McEntee took 2nd and winners of the Beginner class were Elijah and Abraham Dixon. Adam Langan/Paddy McDevitt took 3rd in the Novice class, Adan Jordan/Aaron Dixon took 2nd and Aidan McDevitt/Aidan Sweeney finished 1st. Michael Sheridan/Cathal McGlone took 3rd in the Semi-Expert class, Ciaran Maguire/Mickey McNelis finished 2nd and Ciaran Coyle/Shane Laverty finished 1st. In the Expert class, Oisín Sherlock/Darragh Kelly finished 3rd, Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan finished 2nd and David McCrudden/Martin Tynan finished 1st.
At the end of the eight-round championship, the Monaghan/Longford pair of Ryan Treanor and Shane Dalton are provisional champions. This would be Ryan’s second title and Shanes first. Shane missed out on the title a few years ago as Shane did not drive Ryan on all rounds and as such, Shane missed out on the all-important points Ryan received. The Championship results will be confirmed soon.
Oisín Sherlock
Top 10 OA
1st Molly Maguire/Shane Maguire (Subaru Legacy) 19m,
2nd David McCrudden/Martin Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 23m,
3rd Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 24m,
4th Oisin Sherlock/Darragh Kelly (Subaru Impreza) 49m,
5th Christopher McMahon/Damien Treanor (Subaru Legacy) 50m,
6th Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel (Subaru Impreza) 51m,
7th Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman (Subaru Impreza) 61m,
8th Aidan Sweeney/Aidan McDevitt (Subaru Legacy) 67m,
9th Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy (Subaru Impreza) 69m,
10th Greg Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel (Subaru Impreza) 69m.
County Monaghan Motor Club 