Stroud had good trialling conditions for this years Cotswold Clouds. There had been quite a bit of rain the week before the event but it remained dry on the day until just before the end. There was drama at the start for Colin Perryman, who forgot he wasn’t in his road car and filled his BMW’s tank with Diesel, leaving him with quite a job to get it flushed out so he could start. After a nice easy Crawley Wood the action started with Crooked Mustard where most of the class eights got up, although not Falcon’s Geoff Hodge or Ian Davis and surprisingly Stuart Harrold who got a twelve. Amongst the saloons class three did the best with a delighted Simon Groves cleaning the section on what was to be a class winning performance.
In class six Mark Tooth and Jon Robillard came out of the top but none of the Beetles in class four succeeded, leaving it to Ian Moss in his superbly prepared Imp to show how it should be done. We have come to expect some fantastic performances in Class One these days and both Dave Haizeleden and Terry Coventry came oh so very close.
Axe was not as difficult as in recent years and the big step seemed to have disappeared. The trial followed its usual route to Nailsworth Ladder where the restart caused problems for a lot of competitors in classes seven and eight. It had started to rain by the time later numbers arrived and Simon Robson couldn’t get enough grip to build the momentum to get over the step. This was very disappointing for Simon and Matt who had done well to clean Crooked Mustard in their Liege for the second year running.
There was quite a delay on the common opposite The Bear Hotel where competitors queued for Ham Mill. As if the restarts weren’t enough there was a “mini Nanny Hearns” diversion at the left-hander to spice things up. The rain was coming and going now and the conditions were quite a problem for some competitors who couldn’t even reach the restarts. Michael Leete and Mike Hayward managed that part OK but came to grief on the new deviation.
There are numerous variations of Mackhouse and this year it was a slippery, muddy climb through the trees with a restart for the higher classes. Restart or not almost everyone failed at the seven before a scary sideways slip down the camber. The most successful competitors were Simon Woodhall who got to the four in his VW Buggy as did Mike Chatwin although the excitement proved to much and he retired his Troll soon afterwards. We lost Peter and James Mountain here as well when the brazing on one end of the Panhard Rod came adrift and with the back end crashing and banging they decided to retire, which was a shame as they had conquered the fearsome Crooked Mustard earlier in the day.
Freds Folly had a slippery restart in the mud for the higher classes, causing particular problems for the yellow and reds where even the all conquering Andrew Martin failed in his Melos. A few miles up the road the usual crowd had gathered at Merves Swerve where Allen Trial organisers Pete and Carlie Hart were watching over a new variation where a taped off deviation marked a tight left hander where many of those lucky enough to get over the hump understeered off into the greenery. It was possible though as half a dozen or so competitors proved, including Terry Coventry in class one.
The trial was drawing to a close now, with the rain getting heavier as competitors headed into the woods for the two Highwood sections. Both of the sections seemed a little easier this year but the fearsome Highwood 2 remains a most daunting section. It seemed the rain had washed the mud away as there was plenty of grip, so much so that some of the less powerful cars ran out of grunt at the top. Class 8 had a tough start line which defeated most of front runners who were running at the front of the field but later numbers David Wall (Dellow Mk1) and Geoff Hodge in the Reg Taylor built RDT climbed out the top. Class 8 was decided here as when they arrived the top four had dropped an identical 7 marks, all lost at Mackhouse. None of them cleaned Highwood two but Mike Workman got the furthest to win both the class and the trial.
After a relatively easy Climperwell competitors arrived at the two Bulls Bank sections to be greeted by a very wet Chris Phillips. All the leaders cleaned both and picked their way through the puddles to the finish at The Old Lodge Inn at Minchinhampton.
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