Cowden has got to be one of the bests bits of land to lay out a Championship round of any kind, weather it be adults or Youths.the terrain is so vast and varies so much it makes it the perfect venue.I went down on the Saturday to be a catcher for Mathew Hogg,for those of you who don't know what a catcher does is basically stand in the section on the hard bits and catch the bike if the rider messes things up and to stop the rider from getting hurt as the sections are a lot tougher then normal.

So there I was running 3 laps after Mathew around the ground with his dad Andy trying to keep up and not to look to knackered,but by the end of the second lap I was needing medical attention and some good looking nurse with an oxygen bottle would have been nice!!!.It was my first time at a youth championship and was totally amazed at what these kids could do on a trials bike flying over large rocks and logs,even the little ickle baby bikes were having ago at some serious sections which most novices would find hard,and making it look quite easy.The kids have no fear they just point them bikes and hang on for dear life with the parents running after them screaming KEEP GOING…''HEAD UP''..head up whats that all about??.I did however see quite a few major stack ups with bikes flying in one direction and arms and legs in the other,but these kids are tough they pick themselves up and keep on going.There was one father who went a bit to far that I did see and that was when some poor kid launched his bike into mid-air and it came straight down on top of him,the dad seemed more worried about the bike then his son and screamed at him for messing it up,a bit harsh mate I thought give the kid a break!fathers like that need putting down…

Mathew was showing great promise on some very tricky sections one section sticks in my mind and I think it was 6 where Alan Wibberley was observing ,you had to ride straight up a steep bank and over a fairly large rock then back down a steep slope with a tight turn at the bottom.Mathew cleaned it on the third lap much to the surprise of his dad it was a brilliant ride,it wont be long before he will beating his old dad and probably me.I think Mathew came 13th out of about 30 riders in his class which is a brilliant result well done..Our other club member riding on the Saturday was little Jamie Webster on his 80cc clipic who was finding it quite tough going and riding sections far harder then normal had a nasty accident on a section and ended up braking all sorts of things,thankfully Jamie was ok just his bike was hurt,better luck next time Jamie…

Sundays event was for the A & Bs so the route was even tougher then the day before.You should have seen some of the rock faces they had to climb,6ft high and the only way over was to rev the nuts out of your bike and hit it as hard as you could.No wonder these top riders carry spare wheels in the vans,the sound the bike makes when it hits the rocks is unbelievable IM surprised I didn't see loads of bikes in bits everywhere with dads rushing around trying to superglue them back together.Michael Brown from Scarborough was heading the field by quite a few marks from the other riders with only 8 marks dropped on the first lap.that's when I last looked at the scoreboard so I don't really know how it all turned out.If you get the chance next year come along and have a butchers at some really good riders that will totally demoralise you with there skill that you will probably go straight home and sell your bike in disgust.Kytc have got this event down to a t,some really brilliant sections laid out by Kevin Ely and his helpers…Till next year I will return and have another really good weekend at Kent Youths championship round till then c ya