Round 5 Wessex CX League - GWR Team Swindon at Supermarine RFC

A sunny autumn day at Supermarine rugby club, founded in 1958 by the workers at Vickers/Armstrong. In the background, you can just about see the archery targets of the Supermarine Bowmen, who were out training this lovely, but chilly, Sunday:

Once again, an entertaining course. On each lap, many things came in pairs. There were two twisty grassy sections. Two flattish stretches across the playing fields each swooping into a right hander. Two barriers far enough apart that it was better to ground the bike and roll it between the hurdles. Two wooded sections. Each wooded section had a brief excursion out of the woods before shortly diving back into the trees.

It had rained heavily in the week, so some of the course was muddy. I have no pictures of the muddy sections, but it was the kind that sticks like clay in shoe tread and doesn't allow you to clip in to the pedal. The mud was worst coming out of the second wooded section. Interesting study in mud here. To exit the woods you had to cross a bank, which required a dismount and running up and down the other side. The bank had sticky clay type material on both slopes. Immediately after that was a twisty section through peaty, loamy stuff. On some of these turns by the end of the race, running may have been faster than riding. So, different kinds of mud just a few yards apart.   

A twisty grassy section at the end of the lap had some slight off camber bends, which did catch out a few riders (not me thankfully). Here's an intrepid junior negotiating it nicely:

The only downside today was that from the start, a wide stretch of grass, to the first wooded section in single track, there was a drastic funneling effect. This created a huge traffic jam, like a hopper jamming. Ho hum, you can only play the cards you're dealt. At least there weren't any major crashes.