There was drama at the start when Mike Pearson arrived with a broken alternator pulley. He went off in search of an accessory shop that was open on Sunday morning, while Arnold Lane set about removing the offending item. Mike came back after a fruitless search to find a beaming Fred Gregory with a spare alternator in his hand! The field was soon away, to follow a route where the first five sections were all used before the war, and are featured in Wheelspin.
Sandfords only presented problems to a few cars but Crooked Mustard was a different problem of course. At the start, Ken Green reminded me that “Mustard” was originally known as “Breakheart”. It was a stopper then and it is a stopper now. Apart from David Heale, all the blues and whites ground to a halt on or before the steps on the third corner. A special mention here must go to Terry Coventry who persuaded his Citroen AX to climb to the five marker, which was better than many “more suitable” cars! ‘Mustard started to sort out the pecking order in class seven, catching Jonathan Baggott, Simon Woodall and Fred Gregory. Now Tommy and Clive Kalber are trialling a Melos Fred has a good benchmark for his car and they got up Mustard! So did all of the Web Communities red Marlins. The old hill was not very kind to Falcons class eight’s. Ian Davis got up OK but both Mike Pearson/Arnold Lane and David Thompson/Verdun Webley ground to a halt at the five.
A few years ago Axe went through a “stopper” phase but these days it doesn’t create to much of a problem unless you are in a front wheel drive car, or don’t attack it with enough speed. It didn’t trouble Terry Coventry’s AX though, but poor old Collin Perryman, he who cleaned Simms in his Skoda!, failed half way up for the second year running. Dave Foreshew hit problems when he heard air escaping from a rear tyre just a few yards from the line, and had to nurse the powerful car to the summit, for fear the cover would roll of the rim.
The route continued to follow a well-trodden route and soon reached the foot of Nailsworth Ladder. The old hill didn’t pose too many problems for the lower orders, but it was a different storey for the yellows and reds who had re-starts. In class eight David Thompson got way OK but Mike Pearson didn’t make it and Ian Davis lost his clean sheet as well. Nailsworth also shook things up in class seven as well. Andrew Brown, Pete Hart and Tommy Kalber retained their clean sheets, but Mal Allen lost his and neither Jonathan Baggott or Fred Gregory could get away and Fred broke his throttle cable in the attempt. He had a spare cable but didn’t have a pair of long nosed pliers to reach up under the bulkhead to reach the nipple. Fred and Pete were pondering the situation when Mike and Arnold rolled back down and dived into their tool kit to re-pay Fred’s earlier help.
Ham Mill started the “trial by re-start” that was going to be a feature of the rest of the route. It defined the shape of the class 4 battle as only Jim Scott, Neil Bray, Dick Glossop and Richard Peck got away cleanly. Stuart Cairney was particularly disappointed not to get away, but was enjoying his first ‘Clouds never less. This was not to be a great Falcon hill as apart from Neil Bray and Ian Davis, we all failed and Michael Leete picked up a puncture.
The Mackhouse’s were next on the agenda. They may follow directly after each other, but they are two completely different hills. Neither are proper tracks. “1” involves the dreaded “tree weaving” on slippery mud, where the descent from the higher reaches (they tell me!) is heart stopping. Personally I like “2” as much as I hate “1”. It starts by traversing some muddy grass before diving down into a stream bed, filled with what Fred Gregory describes as Dinosaurs eggs, the rest of us cal them bxxxxy great boulders! Assuming your tyres, transmission and underside survive this challenge you get to climb out the other side where, just as you crest the lip, the rocks end, the mud resumes and you get to do a little tree weaving before emerging into a grassy meadow. The competitive class threes all got out OK but Michael Leete and Mike Hayward were the only class fours to go clean, using the well known technique of foot flat to the floor and hang on! This is one of the occasions when paying all that money for a four planet “super diff” pays off as it gives you confidence! The Yellows and Reds had re-starts to slow down their progress and the reds had a bit of a chicane in theirs as well. It was on for most, but still caught out Andrew Brown and David Thompson. Andrew actually got out of the section OK but the re-start marshal adjudged that backing off the re-start and having a run didn’t constitute a clean!
There then followed an organisational disaster. There was no rest halt at Tesco’s this year! It’s hardly surprising as I never understood how us dirty lot were tolerated in their nice clean cafeteria, but it was super to have such a civilised lunch! Actually, it was just as well, because the time taken in extracting cars down Mackhouse 1 caused delays to build up and later numbers faced a huge queue.
Paul Bartleman and his team had spiced up Freds Folly, with a slippery re-start on the steepest part of the hill. This caused problems for some of the lower classes and caught both Michael Leete and Stuart Cairney, both of whom had severe cases of “pilot error” and were to have problems on all the remaining re-starts. Hazel MacDonald got away fine and was going well. In fact, she would have been challenging for the class lead if she had got away on Ham Mill.
Catswood was a new hill for some of us. It didn’t trouble the scorer as they say, but it did involve a nice bit of green laning through the woods to get there, and it was worth including the hill for that alone. Rich Welch was doing a diff check here and Jim Scott had his Stiletto jacked up alongside. It all looked pretty terminal, but turned out to be a routine donut change before Jim’s charge on Merves Swerve! At this stage, class 4 was pretty close, with Jim and Richard Peck on 14 and Neil Bray just one behind. However, it was Simon Robson who was to be the class 4 hero here, gunning his Skoda out the top in fine style in what may be one his last drives in this well used car. Tommy Kalber and Pete Hart cleaned the hill in Melos and Marlin respectively, and so did Dave Foreshew in class 8. Dudley Sterry lost 5 here, putting him out of contention. A special mention again for Terry Coventry, who got over the first hump in his fwd AX to score 3. OK he had a preferential start line, and no re-start, but that doesn’t take anything away from his achievement.
The two Highwood sections were pretty difficult. The first one had a fiendish, muddy, re-start which stopped all but three of the field. Likewise the second Highwood was tough, with different re-starts for the higher orders and nobody saw the summit here. The delays at Mackhouse meant the field was pretty spread out by now, and the later numbers arrived at Climperswell in the rain and dark. Stuart Cairney let the tyres down too much and bellied out in the ruts, dropping six. Michael Leete’s Beetle popped out of the ruts and Michael stopped to reverse rather than write the car off against a rather solid tree. The re-start marshal saw he had stopped and waved him through without stopping, but clearly took pity on him and recorded a clean. Thanks Dad!
Only the two Bulls Bank sections remained. Both slippery, polished stone affairs. Jim Scott got away from both successfully and won class 4 by one mark from Neil Bray. Most of the other leading contenders were fine as well but Bulls Bank compounded the misery for some, including Fred Gregory, David Thompson, Simon Robson and Michael Leete who failed both. Notable Falcon double cleans were achieved by Stuart Cairney, Hazel MacDonald and Mike Pearson who was reported as trickling off both at under a thousand revs. Allen organiser Pete Hart failed both as well, dropping him from second to third in class.
All in all a pretty good day, the delays at Mackhouse being the only problems on an otherwise smoothly run, competitive, event.
| Overall Winner | Arthur Vowden | Marlin | 11 |
| Best Stroud Member | Mick Workman | GVS | 13 |
| Class1 | Terry Coventry | Citroen AX | 31 |
| 2 | Bill Bennett | MG J2 | 38 |
| 3 | Mark Linforth | Ford Escort | 23 |
| 4 | Jim Scott | Sunbeam Stietto | 29 |
| 5 | Peter Davies | Panther Lima | 60 |
| 6 | Mike Hobbs | Beetle | 22 |
| 7 | Tommy Kalber | Dutton Melos | 11 |
| 8 | Tony Young | VW Special | 16 |
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