NEMBOS is about to embark upon its third season of Mountain Bike Orienteering (or Trailquest) events within the North East of England, including the area from the northern parts of Yorkshire up to and over the Scottish Border. To date a mixture of cycling and orienteering clubs have organised a number of high quality events and a similar format is anticipated for 2006.

The eight events planned for this year are as follows:

1. Saturday 25 February – The first event should offer a fairly gentle introduction to the NEMBOS 2006 season and will be a 2-hour event, which is also the final event from the CLOK 2005/06 winter league. It will be in the area surrounding Stokesley (near the A19/A172). The event is being organised by Cleveland Orienteering Klub (CLOK).

2. Sunday 2 April – The next event will be a slightly longer 3-hour lanequest event in and around the small village of Capheaton in Northumberland. Being a lanequest it will be predominantly a road based event, but with plenty of route choice in an undulating area. The plan is to keep the legs going early on in the season in anticipation of the future events. The event is being organised by VC Nouveau and any financial surplus from the event will be donated to the Capheaton Village Hall fund.

3. Saturday 6 May – the Edinburgh Road Club is again presenting our annual trip over the border at the now legendary home of quality mountain biking trails at Glentress. This time, however, the event may also feature within the TCA’s national league. It will be another 3-hour event, but this time on much different tracks and terrain in a steep sided forest.

4. Sunday 14 May – This year’s Chainsnappers event in the Northern Pennines is entitled the ‘Derwent Reservoir Trailquest’ and it will be a 5-hour event in the wilds of County Durham. The usual high quality Chainsnappers event is eagerly awaited.

5. Saturday 20 May – The traditional 5-hour Kielder Reiver event, as organised by Forest Enterprise will be the third NEMBOS event in successive weekends. After peaking for the three May events we will all be allowed a rest before embarking upon the next event in the series.

6. Sunday 25 June – VC Nouveau will be returning to the Rothbury area in Northumberland for a new format event. The event will be mainly forest based in Simonside and Harwood Forests and will be set with a maximum 3-hour time limit. The plan will be to collect 250 points in the quickest way that you can. You are promised a good mix of riding in and around the Coquet Valley and the surrounding forests, tracks, bridleways and lanes. I also promise one of the best natural descents in England, dropping 300m in 3 miles of wonderful cycling, unless of course you choose to climb it!

7. Sunday 13 August – After a bit of a break, NEMBOS will return to Kielder, but this time with a Spanish Score format, as opposed to the traditional Reiver event. This is a new venture for Forest Enterprise in Kielder and will be eagerly awaited. The rumour is that it may go across the border, but we’ll have to wait and see!

8. Saturday 26 August – The final event of NEMBOS 2006 is the inclusion (again) of the now regular event presented in support of the Malham Show. There will be the usual 2 and 4-hour options, giving you and your family a choice of activities for the day. This event will also feature within the TCA’s national league for the first time.

As in previous years, there will be some variation in events, but this time the mix is even greater with events varying between two and five hours, and more event formats on offer. Again there is a reasonable spread of dates available, this time between late February and the end of August, to encourage you to attend as many of the events as possible. To register for a league score, the best five event scores from eight will count towards all of the normal TCA classes, subject to sufficient entries being received. (See www.trailquest.co.uk for details). As two of the eight events in NEMBOS have again been chosen as hosts to TCA National League events, then again this should reinforce the good quality of events to be expected.

It is anticipated that NEMBOS 2006 prize-giving will be incorporated into the TCA National Championship Weekend, which will be held in North Yorkshire Forest Park on 9/10 September 2006. A NEMBOS flyer can be accessed via www.trailquest.co.uk, which includes organisers’ contact details for all of the eight individual events.