Start

Tom Goggin was in charge. The signing on process took some time as there were a considerable number of route amendments posted on the wall which had to be copied down. There was also notice of a minimum 16 psi for all classes throughout the trial,  apart from Bamford, although it was to transpire that very few of the Chief Officials knew about this and there were hardly any pressure checks.

Agnes Meadow

Only for Class 0. It was a shame for the rest of us to miss out on some green laneing and it must have been boring for the marshals.

Wigber Low

The first cars were there more than an hour early but the section was open and being nice and dry didn’t cause to many problems even with a restart. Myke Pocock had problems with his Skoda’s new rear suspension soon after the start. Unfortunately the repairs didn’t stand up to the rigours of the first section and Myke and Josie decided to spend the rest of the day spectating. The hill wasn’t friendly to Clive Booth either and he recorded a stop in his Dellow.

Clough Wood

There was a long wait for the first cars as there must have been at least 50 bikes still waiting for their go. Waiting in the queue Neil Bray noticed oil dripping out of his half shaft seal and for the rest of the trial tried to park on the level whenever possible.

Stuart Harrold and Chris Phillips were running the restart as the Troll’s back axle wasn’t ready. They reported that it was mostly down to positioning if cars got away or not and was particularly un-friendly to Lieges, most of which failed, Simon Robson being a notable exception.

Deeprake

The observed section in this quarry complex was just off the main road making life difficult for the marshals to keep queuing cars out of the way. Fortunately the section wasn’t very difficult. Competitors then had a long trip on the quarry roads to a nice simple special tests complete with a traffic light system. Quite a few competitors had problems with this as they started when red changed to Red and Amber and didn’t wait the five seconds or so for these lights to go out and the green to come on. Neil Bray was just one who jumped the start and was delighted when the test was scrubbed from the results.

Putwell

The organiser considered this to rough for the lower classes, who missed out on the superb views across to The Monsail Head Hotel. Fred Gregory was the first car to arrive and stuttered away from the start and fail to get over the step, only for the marshals to call him back, move the start a bit further back to give a run at the step and let him have another go, but they gave him a fail anyway! Fred was starting to worry about strange noises coming from underneath his Rickman Ranger which he thought was his new exhaust rubbing against the prop shaft. Despite the fact that it was a bit rough most other competitors recorded cleans.

Calton

There was a time when the ruts at the top made this a real stopper but its pretty tame these days where the biggest test was to see if the marshals could survive the biting wind.

Haydale

Veteran Biker Tom Beckerleg was in trouble here with an oiled plug on his Aerial which he reckoned was the oil scavenge pump not working properly. Tom slipped down the field amongst the cars but decided to carry onto the breakfast halt and see how things went. The main challenge occurred before the actual gradient started as it was the flat muddy rutted track that presented difficulties. Kevin Barnes, competing in class 2 with his famous Singer, didn’t have enough momentum , got stuck and needed a tow.

Breakfast

After a nice descent of Winnats Pass came breakfast at The Poachers Arms. The staff were taken by surprise when the first bikes arrived more than an hour early and they never managed to catch up.

Haggside

Haggside was it’s usual stony self with the restart just around the first corner as usual. There was a very pronounced step and competitors needed to either stop just inside the box and have a run at it, or go almost all the way through and get their rear wheels over. Later in the trial there was some aggro with a female rambler who got rather excited over the cars and threw the section begins board over the hedge.

Holding Control

Back on the A57 Alan Bellamy was in charge of the holding control for Bamford which was in a long lay-by alongside the reservoir. Unfortunately the best laid plans of mice and men go awry sometimes and he was having difficulty with non-competing cars parked there. As the event went on, and the delays for Bamford built up, it was necessary to open up another temporary holding control, courtesy of Travelling Marshal Simon Robson, and delay departures from The Poachers Arms for up to ¾ hour. Fred Gregory had retired by now as he found one of the rear springs on his Rickman Ranger had collapsed so he and Peter Stafford did a little spectating before going to the pub in Buxton.

Bamford Clough

Bamford was back on the agenda for everyone, except the girls in class 0, thanks to some very hard work by an MCC team led by Ian Bates. Their efforts were well rewarded as they had got the section just right. Not damaging provided you were sensible but not so easy as to make it un-interesting.

Early competitor Mike Pearson took a cautious approach but misjudged the severity of the gradient over one of the steps and stopped baulking Michael Leete who was following. Once Mike was in the lay-by marshal Paul Eamer kindly let the Beetle have a go from where he had come to a halt and Michael was tickled pink to climb Bamford with a  restart.

Fellow Falcon John Parsons was not so lucky when the throttle pedal on his Buggy flipped when he lifted of for one of the bumps and without power that was that. Peter Thompson was having problems with his Manta’s exhaust and was in desperate need of a piece of steel for repairs. He found an unusual solution, cutting it from the wing of a fellow competitors 2CV!

Alistair Queen was back in a Skoda and celebrated by storming up Bamford to the sound of crashes and bangs from underneath as his Rapid is still a little on the low side. Alistair had run out of ground clearance on Clough Wood and from then on his passenger had stayed in the front and Alistair didn’t drop below 21 psi.

PCT Champion Barry Parker recorded his first stop of the day in his Audi 80 and Keith Oakes had the misfortune to break his gearbox. Although Keith had to retire he had the good fortune to have a recovery man who had two spare ones lying in the back of his garage! Like Mike Pearson, Peter Manning paid the price for a lack of momentum and didn’t make the summit

Great Hucklow

The early cars met a big queue of bikes here as the restart on the deviation was proving difficult and many of the riders were falling off in the rock strewn morass. It was a challenge for the cars as well but Dudley Sterry showed how it should be done with a storming climb, albeit at the expense of David Walls hat!

Ian Davis wasn’t so lucky and try as he may he couldn’t get his buggy away from the restart. Neither could fellow Buggy driver Simon Woodhall who knocked the car out of gear when applying the handbrake and slid back into a hole. Another Simon had problems here when the Robson Liege broke first gear and had to retire.

The lower classes were allowed a straight attack at the deviation. Still on for a Triple Giles Greenslade threw his Beetle at the hill and stormed through. Michael Leete was more cautious and paid the price when he didn’t have the momentum to get over one of the many big rocks.

Litton Slack

The route card contained dire warnings of penalties for anyone stopping to reinflate their tyres in the lane at the top of the hill. This all turned out to academic as none of the cars cleaned the section. It would probably have been on for some of the Class 8 hot shots but the 16psi limit and a restart for 6, 7 and 8 put paid to their chances.

It was only Bikes that gained the summit. Amongst them John Lee’s who eased his big Triumph Twin off the re-start before turning on the power and storming to the summit.

Running later in the trial conditions became a bit easier and Colin Sumner was delighted to get to the A boards in his Morgan to win Class 5 and so were Simon Groves and Verdun Webley

It was raining when Giles Greenslade arrived and the Beetle didn’t get very far. Costing him his triple as a couple of competitors in class 4 got beyond the A boards. Triple wise things are more straightforward for Golf maestro Dave Haizelden and we can congratulate him on winning another one, tremendous achievement.

Old Long Hill

While 6, 7 and 8 went off to the challenge of Corkscrew the lower classes joined the girls on the gentle pastures of Old Long Hill where John and June Blakeley presided over a surprisingly slippery section down in the valley. It was good to see President Gerry Woolcott here, chatting to competitors.

Corkscrew

The former Jenkins Chaple was as tough as ever and caught out quite a few including Ed Nikel, Clive Booth and Dave Nash who had problems getting the long body of The MGeetle around the sunken hairpins.

Excelsior

This is a nice little section between stone walls. The early part of the section was muddy and quite rutted before rising on a stony surface after a ninety right. It proved to be a stopper fro quiet a few of the Class one’s and lower slung cars in other classes, including Brian Alexander’s diminutive Fiat.

Moneystones

This cuts the corner of the junction between the B5054 and A515. This was class 0 only which was a shame as although it isn’t a competitive section would have provided a nice bit of extra green laneing for the rest of the entry.

Moneyash Special Test

Another nice simple test finished off the trial after which it was just a short run to the finish. For most apart from Ed Nikel. Ed hit a hidden rock on the exit deranging the front suspension and had problems getting home when the recovery said it was a RTA and excluded from his cover!

Club Supper

The day finished with a mass club supper at The Pavilion Gardens. MCC President Gerry Woolcott made a short speech thanking the organisers and marshals that was just right for the occasion and went down very well.

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