Good results for JOK at Scottish 6-days

The Scottish 6-days saw a good turnout of JOKers, some opting for the plush 'Cross Mansion' in Glenlivet, others plumping for camping on the event camps site. Fun was to be had by all, and particular thanks to those who put on the BBQ on the rest day, and to the 6-days organisers for putting on yet another excellent competition in some superb Deeside terrain.

So to the races, starting with the elites. The elite format at the 6-days takes the best 3 results out of the first 5 days to calculate start times for a chasing start on the final day, in which the order over the finishing line determines the overall results. Competition was hotter than previous years with a large foreign contingent including Mattias Niggli, husband of top Swiss WOC runner Simone, and himself narrowly missing WOC selection this year; and Swede Jenny Eriksson, who finished 10th in Super-Elite at the O-Ringen last year.

M21E saw Ed Catmur, Nick Barrable and Duncan Archer battling it out, with all taking some top 10 places early in the week. After 5 races, Duncan was in 6th (and 2nd placed Brit after Matt Crane), Nick hot on his heels in 7th, and Ed in 12th. Sadly Nick declined the challenge of the final day in preference to a free flight to Japan to commentate at WOC, leaving a thankful Duncan, safe from his chase, to put in a solid race to finish in 6th, with Ed slipping one place to 13th.

In W21E, Pippa Whitehouse, Becky Carlyle and Beccy Osborn were pitted together, each pulling out some top 5 results early in the week, including two day-wins for Pippa. In the chase, Pippa started an excellent 2nd. Unfortunately she dropped a place in the chase to local girl Sarah Dunn, but still scooped whisky from the local distillery and flowers for the bronze medal position. Becky and Beccy both put in steady runs to finish 8th and 12th respectively.

The other classes saw a variety of battles being fought out during the week. See below for the M/W21 classes, see www.scottish6days.com for the rest!

M21E

Duncan Archer 6th
Ed Catmur 13th
Nick Barrable [DNS on last day]

W21E

Pippa Whitehouse 3rd
Becky Carlyle 8th
Beccy Osborn 12th

M21L

Hedley Proctor 39th (just pipping Steve in the overall scores with his final day's result)
Steve Fisher 40th
Jacob Sharpe 49th (a steady improvement throughout the week)

M21S

Oliver O'Brien 18th
Anthony Cover-Crump 23rd (apparently he is 'in training'?)
Pete Murphy 36th
Tim Day 42nd
Tim Smith 44th
Andy Macleod 94th

W21L

Ann Osborne 15th

W21S

Nicola King 37th (narrowly beating SLOW teammate and Tony's sister Sarah)
Christine Jones 42nd
Jen Murphy 71st (Pete's wife, and our newest JOK member, progressing from the orange course at the start of the week)