Ian Davis wins Cold Clee

With high forestry charges this years Clee Hills stayed East of the A49, with what proved to be a good mix of sections to challenge everyone from Beginner to Expert. Many of the sections were not subdivided and there was only one restart scheduled but even this disappeared when Longville was cancelled.

The event started from The Squirrel at Ludlow with a ten mile run north up the A49 in freezing temperatures. It was to remain cold all day and icy roads were to be a feature of the event.

The first two sections at Harton Wood and Heywood Common were a gentle introduction to the trial with few penalties. An exception was MCC organiser Dave Middleditch in Class 7 who experienced engine issues and retired soon after with a broken distributor cap. Simon Fairbanks didn’t get much further, retiring when his diff cried enough a few sections later. There was quite a long queue before Heywood Common, the first of many delays for later numbers.

Coats Wood

The only Special Test was in the farmyard before the section. On concrete it was very fast but took Charlie Merson out of the frame when he failed to stop astride the line.

With frost on the ground the grassy part of Coats Wood needed to be treated with care, especially the part with adverse camber.

It claimed a number of victims, particularly amongst the X90’s, where only Simon Lewis and eventual class winner Nick Deacon went clear.

Easthope 1

With deep ruts and a lot of slippery mud this familar section was to be a significant challenge. The first problem was to build speed on the steep approach and many didn’t. Duncan Stephens was amongst those who failed here when his UVA Fugitive came out of gear.

From the start the section was more or less straight before a sharp left turn onto the forest cross track.

This was the downfall of many who had conquered the lower reaches and faced either a long reverse or a recovery pull. Several who chose the latter regretted their decision with body damage when the recovery vehicles pulled them into a tree.

Deeper into the forest came either Majors Leap or Ippikins Rock, depending on class, neither claiming many scalps this year.

The Jenny Wind

A long straight climb this famous old hill is all about momentum and grip. A few of the motorcycles went clean but Ian Facey was the only car to be spared the long reverse down under the experienced eyes of marshals Charlie Knifton and Stuart Bartlett.

Dean Partington got his Wasp to the one, followed by Ian Davis who stopped at the two in his Buggy.

There were two sections up the following Harley Bank. All those in the lower classes cleaned theirs but half of the sevens and eights failed their adjoining hill.

The challenge of Meadowley Wood

The historic Meadowley was only attempted by bikes and 3 to 8. It’s characterised by deep ruts where the track has been worn down to the tree roots. It’s not as rough as it looks as the deep gulleys exit with relatively easy slopes but woe betide a heavy car that didn’t tackle them with momentum.

The lower classes didn’t fair to well here but neverless Ian Facey powered through in his Class 5 BMW Z3.

Michael Gibson had much less ground clearance in his MG Midget and had a diff to drag with a live axle and 13 inch wheels but had the momentum to get through the difficult bit, and it was shame he ran out of grip as the gradient steepened towards the exit onto the road.

Classes 7 and 8 faired a bit better but even Dave Foreshew fell foul of the deep gulley.

Hungerford was a Long Section

Later numbers had a long wait on the B4368 for their attempt at what proved to be a very long version of this well known section, continuing after the first “hump” and only finishing after the second “hump” when it finally starts to go downhill.

Only Class 0 didn’t get to attempt this the Clee’s “Queen Stage’. It’s a bit like the Allen Trials John Walker. Almost everyone gets a clean but its the one that sticks in the memory after nearly 3 minutes on the hill!

Abdon Liberty

The routecard described this section as “Stoney track onto mud onto grass”. In other words everything. The muddy bit was in fact heavily rutted, followed by a 90 right onto the grass and it was here that Ian Davis won the trial.

Ian Facey arrived at Abdon Liberty with the only clean sheet, followed by Dean Partington who had dropped one mark on The Jenny Wind compared to Ian Davis two.

Ian Davis clawed his way to the summit in his VW Buggy but Deans Wasp was spinning its wheels as he emerged from the 90 right and he was unable to burn his way past the five. Then Ian Facey dropped six, putting Ian Davis into the lead of the trial with the 2 dropped on The Jenny Wind. Dean and Ian Facey were now on 6 with Dean ahead on test times.

Charlie Merson also reached the summit which would secure him third place in Class 8 and fourth overall.

Flounders Folly

With dusk falling the tail end of the field tackled the last section with the aid of their headlights. The grassy surface was very, very slippery and only the leading Class 8 contenders went clear. Ian Facey dropped one but this didn’t affect his third place overall.

Back at The Squirrel it was dark when the tail of the field arrived but the consensus was this was a good trial. The organisers had gauged the severity of the sections to perfection with car winner Ian Davis dropping just two marks. Best motorcyclist was MCC News of the Week Editor, Joe Wills who cleaned all the sections.

Links :-

• Clee Hills Trial on the Classic Trials FB Group
• All the Clee Hills Trials Posts on the Classic Trials FB Group
• Dave Cooks Clee Photos
• Paul Lawrence Photos
• Simon Lewis reports on his Clee Hills Trial
• Video Playlist

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