LIAM Walker shrugged off the ice and snow on Sunday at the exposed Keighley Gate trials venue to win the first Yorkshire Centre Championship trial of the year.

It was no easy ride for for the 97 competitors, as judicious section plotting in the deep valleys yielded low penalties.

The clerk of course held off the actual section marking until just after dawn on Sunday morning as snow and zero temperatures were the deciding factors in the Aire Valley.

Tom Minta's first lap dab in section sorted a tiebreaker in favour of Walker who rode through the first nine sections without fault. Richard Sadler was right on the top two until the Leyburn contender incurred a two-mark penalty in the 12th section on lap two. The same section took both Walker and Minta for a single mark.

Dan Thorpe headed the double figure scorers ahead of TRS mounted Sam Beecroft-Penny and top inter Thomas Housecroft.

Bradford teenage novice Charlie Smith won his class and was eighth in the overall count just ahead of Sam Yeadon who was one of the dawn workers on Sunday.

Class A Youth Brett Harbud won his class, leaving Harry Turner to joust with Harry Hemingway.

The 'Old Firm' was in charge of Clubman A with Andrew Jackson taking the class by one penalty from Jamie Stephenson and Rob Bratley. The latter lost out on second place through the most cleans.

The 'Leg', aka one George Hemingway, just sneaked Clubman A youth class from Owen Chestnut, by a mark with Henry Stephenson, riding his new TRS machine, to a close third place.

Phillip Hammond salvaged Clubman B from Howard Dixon and Hillsborough entertainer Andy Turner, who held off Chris Greenwood and Neil Gaunt. Significantly, that duo and Ian Haigh were all riding four stroke powered machines as was Falcon front runner Ian Haigh.

Results: Hard course: Experts: 1 Liam Walker (Gas Gas) 2; 2 Tom Minta (Scorpa) 2; 3 Richard Sadler (JST Gas Gas) 3.

Inters: 1 Thomas Housecroft (Beta) 17; 2 Louis Haley (Montesa) 32; 3 Joel Tett (Beta) 56.

Novices: 1 Charlie Smith (Beta) 18; 2 William Tolson (Beta) 20; Aldis Blacker (Gas Gas) 27.

Youth Class A: 1 Brett Harbud (Beta) 17; 2 Harry Turner (Gas Gas) 35; 3 Harry Hemingway (Beta) 40.

Clubman A: 1 Andrew Jackson (Montesa) 12; 2 Jamie Stephenson (Montesa) 13 mc; 3 Rob Bratley (Sherco) 13.

Over 45: Steve Clarke (Sherco) 45. Youth Class B: 1 George Hemingway (Beta) 40, 2 Owen Chestnut (Gas Gas) 41, 3 Henry Stephenson (TRS) 7.

Non-competitive: 1 Gavin Black (Sherco) 14; 2 Alice Minta (Scorpa) 15; 3 Andrew Reynolds (Beta) 31.

Clubman B: 1 Phillip Hammond (Sherco) 4; 2 Howard Dixon (Yamaha) 6; 3 Andy Turner (Beta) 7.