Hughes and Duffy are Border Champions

Evin Hughes and Pakie Duffy are provisionally ‘The Squealing Pig Border Navigation Championship’ champions for the 2024/25 season, following the final round in Donegal on Saturday night last.

The final event took place around Cranford in north County Donegal. Aidan Friel and Charlie McMonagle organised a seventy-five-mile event taking in the area between, Carrickart, Creeslough, Termon, and Milford.

The competitive section began at Timepoint 1 (Tp1) on the R245 at Duibhleann Mór. The first Supplementary route Instruction was received at Tp3 in Duibhleann Riach for the location of Tp5. (full route card of plots was received) Crucially, the next checkpoint after Tp3 was Via 4 (V4). Anybody who did not immediately plot the location of Tp5 on their map would inadvertently pass by Tp5 en route to the Via, as Tp5 was located on the shortest route. If this occurred, a competitor would receive a ‘Wrong Approach’ mark (penalty) or a ‘Double Visit’ mark if they arrived back after V4. All of Tp3, 6, 7 and 8 involved lanes around Devlinmore Hill and Croaghnadownies. The event’s second Supplementary Route Instruction was received at Tp10 in Tullagh for to get to the location of Tp11 and V12. This time, the route instruction was in the form of a two page ‘Intermediate Distance’ ‘Box tulip’ diagram. Navigators had to be extremely careful, as some of the direction changes were only a few meters apart and two of the twenty-one diagrams were upside down. Tp11 to Tp16 including V12 and 14 were all located in the vicinity of Carrickart.

 From here, the event moved toward Creeslough, with V17, Tp18 and Tp20 located beside Lackagh Bridge. (Tp19 was located in Carrick Hill). From Tp20 it was over to Glen village for the two midpoint Control’s (CB and CC). At CC, the Speed Regularity Section began. This strict average speed section brought the event to the outskirts of Termon. Tp22 was located in a farm in the townland of Skerry. The event’s third Supplementary Route Instruction was received at V23 for the location of Tp24. The instruction received here, was in the form of a trace diagram, where navigators had to match the trace image to a part of their map to reveal the route to and location of the checkpoint.

Some competitors may have expected to receive the location of Tp31 at Tp30, but they instead received a circler ‘Herringbone tulip’ diagram for the likewise missing Tp33, as they had received the location of Tp31 earlier in the night at Tp3.

Following Tp33, it was a short trip over the road to the penultimate Control, CD, just outside the gate of the Cranford Community Centre. The final Control, CE, was located just inside the centre door.

On the night Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan finished 1^st in the Expert class and 3^rd overall (OA).

Adam Langan/Paddy O’Donnell finished right behind them in 4^th and 1^st in the Novice class.

Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy finished 5^th OA and 2^nd in the Expert class. Ciaran Maguire/Mickey McNelis finished 6^th OA and 2^nd in the Semi-Expert class.

David McCrudden/Martin Tynan finished 7^th OA and 3^rd in the Expert class.

Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman finished 10^th OA and 1^st in the Beginner class.

Michael Sheridan/Cathal McGlone finished 12 OA and 3^rd in the Semi-Expert class.

Adam Jordan/Aaron Dixon finished 13^th OA and 3^rd in the Novice class.

Oisín Sherlock/James McCabe finished 14^th OA.

Elijah Dixon/Abraham Dixon finished 19^th OA.

The full list of Monaghan Motor Club members results in the Squealing Pig Border Navigation Championship will be released in due course.

The Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship began on Sunday last with Carlow car Club’s Forest rally. Defending champions Derek Mackarel/Eamonn Creedon got their title defence off to an ideal start as they finished the six-stage event in 3^rd place overall. James McCarville/Arthur Kierans took their VW Polo GTI R5 home in 14^th OA. Jack Casey/Ciara Duggan took their VW UP home in 66^th OA and 1^st in class 9.

Oisín Sherlock