Arthur Vowden won The Cotswold Clouds

This was a tough ‘Clouds, the mud from the Clee Hills seemed to have travelled down to the Cotswolds to make this a very competitive trial. Organised with the usual laid back efficiency by the Stroud Club. Arthur Vowden was best overall in his class seven Marlin. The class eights being defeated by their tough re-starts on Merves Swerve and Highwood 1. Bad luck to Adrian Marfell who would have won if he had not failed both Bulls Bank re-starts.

Clive Booth and John Allsop coming of the re-start on Nailsworth Ladder. You can read all about this famous old hill elsewhere on the site. (picture by Mike Furse)
Ian Davis on “The Ladder”. Ian and Nigel Moss were the only drivers to clean Station Lane. A new hill for the Clouds (or at least not used for some time). This section set a record for the muddiest hill ever used on a Classic Trial. It even put Boynes Bouncer to shame! (Picture by Mike Furse).
Michael Leete looks back in vain as he struggles to coax his Beetle out of the hole on the Climperswell re-start line. Dudley Sterry and Bill Forshew were the only two competitors to emerge from this fearsome hazard with a clean sheet. (picture by Mike Furse)
Simon Robson coming to a stop on a very greasy Crooked Mustard. John Bell (Escort), Mark Smith and Terry Ball (big engined Beetles) were the only competitors to get their saloon cars to the summit. John Bell and Simon were among the 17 retirements on this tough event. (Picture by Ken Green).

This was a tough ‘Clouds. The mud from the Clee Hills had made the journey from Shropshire to the Cotswolds to make this a very competitive trial. Organised with the usual laid back efficiency by the Stroud club. Arthur Vowden was best overall in his class seven Marlin. The class eight’s being defeated by their tough re-starts on Merves Swerve and Highwood 1. Bad luck to Adrian Marfell who would have won if he had not failed both Bulls Bank re-starts. 

Murray MacDonald achieved the best Falcon result, winning class four by a large margin. However, all the Falcons enjoyed the event immensely, save perhaps for Simon and Matt Robson who broke their diff on one of the Bulls Bank re-starts. The results show them competing for second in class at this point having cleaned Axe and Ham Mill, both of which they actually failed! Like-wise Jim Scott is shown as cleaning Sandfords, but I’m sure he told me he failed it. However, he would still have come second in class. 

Interesting that there were seventeen retirements, including six of the ten starters in class three and the entire class five entry either non-started or retired! 

James Lindsay made his classic début in his ex Owen Briggs type four engined Fugative, getting the long chassis out of the gully on Mackhouse 2 and achieving one of the best scores on the very muddy Station Lane.

Overall – Arthur Vowden (Marlin) 29 marks lost
Class 1 – Terry Coventry (Citeron AX) 46
Class 2 – S. G. White (Riley) 53
Class 3 – Edwin Hayward (Escort) 71
Class 4 – Murray MacDonald (VW 1302) 37
Class 5 – No finishers
Class 6 – Mark Smith (VW Beetle) 42
Class 7 – Adrian Marfell (VW-Alfa) 33
Class 8 – Mick Workman (GVS) 31
1999_cotswold_clouds_results_routeDownload

We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media

Leave a comment