classictrials

Golds Scarce on Exeter

Awards were at a premium on a tough Exeter Trial held in excellent conditions. It went down well with competitors despite some of the sections being pretty rough. The only real complaints seemed to come from car competitors in classes one, two and five who were denied an attack on Waterloo and Tillerton and the harsh judgements made once again on the Slippery Sam restart.

Dave Nash hustles the MGeetle into retirement with a slipping clutch on the Clifford Special Test

Start and run to Sparkford

It was clear and bright as competitors assembled at the three starts for the run down to Haynes Motor Museum at Sparkford. The route card had a recommended route but very few Popham starters turned off the A303 for the tour of Salisbury Plain and Devizes. Most just kept straight on with the aim of some shuteye in preparation for the day ahead. There were exceptions though, and Clive Booth and John Alssop preferred the scenic tour. Having returned to live in Ross-On-Wye Stuart Harrold had his first Cirencester Start and was rather surprised at the efficient and professional scruitineering after years of a more laid back style elsewhere. Down in the West Country none were more disappointed than Brian Alexander when he couldn’t even get to the Trewint start when his Fiat’s brakes locked solid. The only reported problems on the run in came from yours truly. Michael Leete arrived at scruitineering to find he had no petrol cap, having left it on the bonnet at Sparkford services just up the road. A quick about turn to the filling station Michael started to search the forecourt to no avail before a friendly motorcyclist shouted out he had seen it lying in the road about half a mile away! Scruitineering left the MCC confused over Dave Nash’s class 7 MGB and a list of remedial work for Ed Nikel’s ex-Matt Willmore, ex- Mike Pearson Buggy.

Sugg Lane

It was good to see the MCC using this nearby Hill, now discarded by The Lands End in pursuit of a politically correct shorter route. The Class 0’s had a go at this one as well, sharing a common road-book and mostly a common route. After descending Windmill Hill, used as a section last year, there was a long 40-mile road run through Axminster, crossing the track of the Seaton Electric tramway, before the next section. The tiredness was starting to creep in by now and there were many nodding heads and swigs of Red Bull on the way.

Gatcombe Lane

Another gentle section for the entire field although it claimed one of the magnificent Trojans and John Salters Vincent who retired soon after.

Normans Hump

With the class 0’s diverted away the competitive triallers entered Bovey Woods for the first show-down of the trial. They found Norman’s had plenty of grip but was very rough with lots of loose rocks. Dave Nash was in immediate trouble as he found the MGeetle didn’t have enough power for the gradient. Running the mandatory 15psi for class 8 Stuart Harrold expected to be free from punctures but arrived at the top to find the sidewall ripped out of his nice new tyre. Stuart Cairney was another one to puncture here although he didn’t find it until he got out onto the tarmac road, only to find the wrong socket on the extension despite having checked it in the morning! Jonathan Laver spun his wheels at the start and they kept spinning all the way to the top but he just made it out of the section. Dave Sargeant struggled with his engine, which he just couldn’t keep on the cam and he bogged down for a fail.

Clinton Bottom

I think this is the long version and was straightforward this year with no restarts and plenty of grip. Unlike Normans Clinton has corners and it can get a bit confusing coming over a hump and seeing tracks going in different directions. Jonathan Laver was a bit gentler with the right foot here and cleaned it without any trouble and so did a delighted Stuart Cairney.

As usual though there was lots of activity on the road just outside the woods. Dave Nash was taking the opportunity to find out while the MGeetle was down on power, discovering that the ignition timing was about 20 degrees out. Dave’s problems weren’t over, as no sooner had he got going than a tyre went flat.

Waterloo

This is one of those hills that hasn’t changed much but has got much more difficult in recent years. The organisers seemed to recognise this and diverted classes one, two and five up the escape road, called Rockenhayne, with the class 0’s. Mind you quite a few others joined them as many competitors struggled to find grip on the loose services just after the 90 right. Fred Gregory was one of them when his exhaust came loose.

Stretes

The class 0’s were allowed to tackle this one which indicates it wasn’t too difficult, in fact its been used as a special test in recent years.

Higher Rill

The next section was only a few yards up the road with Mark Tooth in charge. Unusually it had a downhill start which meant you had to be a little careful not to under-steer into the bushes on the first corner but otherwise it was simple enough.

Back Lane

With the Class 0’s doing this first section in Otterton Woods under the eagle eye of the Dellow Register it wasn’t too difficult. They soon diverted back onto the main road while the more competitive classes wound their way through the trees to the next section. The route included that very difficult left hand hairpin at the bottom of a muddy descent. Peter Mountain was one of those to have trouble with this and bent the Panhard rod on his newly restored Dellow Mk1 on the process of the multiple reverses necessary to get round.

Passaford Lane

John and June Blakely were in charge of the start, which was positioned on the start of the hill itself so there was some concern about getting away. Fortunately almost everyone found enough grip for a nice muddy blast up through the trees.

Exeter Services

With no servicing in the car park quite a few competitors disappeared up the road for a bit of maintenance after handing in their control card. Michael Leete changed tubes on punctured wheels while Fred Gregory had a look underneath his Rickman Ranger as it was making horrible clonking noises. Fred and Steve Boakes soon saw that the UJ on the propshaft was on the way out and decided to retire and do some spectating rather than risk further damage on the hills. After fixing his punctured tyres, which were devils to get off the Rim, Dave Nash had a look at his slipping clutch. He couldn’t do anything and decided to press on. Earlier Dudley Sterry and David Wall were spied under their J2’s bonnet adjusting the clutch ready for the serious stuff in the second half.

Tillerton

After last year the organisers had hoped to do some repairs to Tillerton to make it a bit smoother. However, the best laid plans of mice and men go wrong sometimes and the work didn’t get done so it was scrubbed for classes one, two and five who were getting a bit disappointed at missing out on the action. With Angus Stewart on the start as usual things ran pretty smoothly and the hill didn’t claim that many scalps although Clive Booth lost the headlamp bezel from his Dellow Replica but was quite delighted to have somebody hand it back to him later in the event.

Fingle

The old hill was as enjoyable as ever but didn’t trouble the scorer too much. Perhaps next year it could be a special test. Start online A and stop astride line B. Perhaps next year line A could be the start of Fingle and Line B at the section ends board!

Hinchcombe Special Test

The first special test was on the approach road to Wooston Steep, alongside that rather nice looking fast flowing river. It was dead straight and pretty simple. Start on line A and stop on line B. Pretty easy though. Well no, just ask Ian Davis, revelling in the power of his new engine, who overshot the line in his VW or Stuart Harrold and Chris Phillips. On braking the Troll shot right, demolished the finish line boards and ended up with three wheels over the river bank. It took eight people to lift the car back on the track and at one point Stuart thought it would roll sideways into the river!

Wooston

Cars were going in more directions than Piccadilly Circus hers. The class 0’s went up a gentle little track to the left before the main hill. Personally I think that was shame because the Class 1 to 6 route was pretty easy, even for the class 6’s who had a re-start. The real men in classes 7 and 8 had to assault the steep bit and this ended the hopes of many including John Parsons who had been going really well up until now. The hill wasn’t Buggy friendly as Ian Davis also spun to a stop although later in the day Simon Woodhall proved it could be done. A Dellow Replica seemed to be the car to have as both Mike Pearson and Clive Booth sailed to the top in fine style whereas both Peter Mountain and Ross Nuten failed in their Mk1’s and Mk2’s respectively and Eric Wall was given a run back on the restart in his Mk1. Not surprisingly none of the Liege’s made the summit on this power-sapping slope.

Clifford Special Test

The second special test didn’t have the drama of the first one although it did involve a bit of shuffling backwards and forwards. Oh how I wish the special tests on a trial all followed the same format, or better still get rid of them all together. The MGeetle ended its trial here when Dave and Julie retired with a slipping clutch.

Simms

There was a different route to Simms this year with a compulsory stop in Islington Village Hall on the way so competitors could contribute to the church restoration fund. The hill itself was in fine form, finishing many of the clean sheets. Running towards the front of the field Clive Booth and John Alssop sailed up in their Dellow Replica but shortly after Mike Pearson ground to a halt in his similar car, as did Geoff Hodge in the third car from the Reg Taylor stable. Simms was Buggy friendly than Wooston and both John Parsons and Ian Davis stormed to the summit although later on Simon Woodhall was to stop in his big-engined version. In class 1 Alan Cundy only had to get to the A boards in his Golf but cleaned the whole section nerveless. None of the FWD Allstars came out the top but they all got to the A boards for a clean on Simms and a gold medal although Michael Collins broke one of his drive shafts in the process. Class three was spectacular, both David’s Heale and Turner taking the corner in glorious four wheel drifts on their way to cleaning the section.

In class four Giles Greenslade was the only Beetle to get to the top. Michael Leete lost his clean sheet here; all the others had come to grief on earlier sections. It looked as if Giles would be the only car in class four to clean the old hill until Adrian Booth came along and stormed up to put a smile on his face after a disappointing run through the night. There were very few cleans in class 7. It was possible though as Clive Kalber proved in his venerable Ford Pop. Only a couple of Marlins succeeded but Andrew Martin had no problem in his Dutton Melos. It was difficult though and even Roger Bricknell failed!

Slippery Sam

Thee was controversy her last year and it was to be repeated with Run Backs on the re-start being awarded to both Clive Booth and Stuart Harrold, costing both of them gold medals, the same fate befalling Nigel Moss for jumping the flag in his Troll.

The Finish

Most competitors arrived at the hotel in reasonable time. Very convenient for Ed Nikel’s passenger as brother Richard from Northampton was able to watch his local side play Torquay! The club supper was a nice occasion but a little to informal as everyone would have appreciated a few more words from the hierarchy and the opportunity to see some of their fellow competitors receive their awards. In conclusion the 2004 Exeter was a very nice trial, spoilt only by some unhappiness over the interpretation of the restart rules. It has probably saved the MCC a few bob on triples at the end of the year though!

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Cars I have owned – Keith Pettit

In this case the tense of the title isn’t really right as Keith still owns all the cars featured in this article! Racing, Rallying, Autotesting, Classic’s,PCT’s – Keith has done it all with his Mk One Sprite’s

It was only last year that I discovered that Keith Pettit’s well-prepared “Frogeye” Sprite looked different on Autotests to when it was trialling. I soon discovered the simple reason, Keith has not one, but two, of these British Racing Green machines. He also has another classic “A series” motor, his trials prepared A35.

Very soon I was on the phone, asking Keith if he would be the next subject of my “cars I have owned” feature. He agreed and we got together with my tape recorder and his photo albums during lunch at Falcons July Autotest.

Frog

Keith bought his first Sprite, 820 NPK, known as Frog, back in 1975 when he was just 17 years old. It soon took to the hills as a Trials Car when Keith took part in PCT’s forming part of the local ACSMC championship. Many of these took place on rough army land, good practice for it’s MCC début on the 1979 Lands End when Keith was very happy to win a 2^nd class award, as a Silver was known in those days.

Keith continued to concentrate on PCT’s, his Classic career confined to an annual excursion on the Lands End at this stage. These were not without success though and Keith was the class 4 winner in 1982 (not class 5 – remember the class structure was different in those days). In between PCT’s Keith started autotesting, taking a number of FTD’s, before giving Frog a major re-build in 1983, prior to making a serious assault on the Classic’s in 1985. This was pretty successful, resulting in a class win on the Chase Clouds in 1985 before obtaining a coveted MCC Triple in 1986, along with the ACTC’s Mike Stephens award. This was a very full season for Keith and from an old copy of “Four Wheels Out” I see he competed in the Clee Hills, Chase Clouds, Kyrle and Exmoor Clouds in addition to the three MCC events and a full season of circuit racing!

Although continuing with the MCC events Keith’s trials career now started to take a back seat as the smooth tarmac of the racing circuit beckoned. In the winter of 82/83, Keith had bought another Frogeye Sprite that was so much of a “basket case” that it had to come home on his truck. The registration number of this second car was 3189 AH, but it soon picked up the affectionate name of “Toad”.

1976 MSAC Social Climbers – 1st Novice
1977 Weavers Down PCT – 1st Class
1978 ACSMC PCT – Class 3 Winner
1979 Lands End – 2nd Class, ACSMC – Class 4 Winner
1980 ACSMC – PCT Class 6 Winner
1982 Lands End – Best in Class Four
1984 FTD – Singer Owners Autotest
1985 Chase Clouds – 1st Class
1986 MCC Triple, ACTC – Mike Stephens Award
1990 Exeter – Class 5 Winner, Lands End – Best in Class Five
1995 Edinburgh – Best in Class Five

TOAD

The previous owner had started restoring it, and done some of the welding, but there was a lot for Keith to do to finish it. He paid a lot of detailed attention to the sills, box sections and prop shaft tunnel as these are the main structure in a Sprite, so important in an open car without a roof to brace things properly! Keith also put on new repair arches, another very important structural part of the car. The suspension turrets were in pretty bad shape and the radiator mountings had gone as well so Keith still had a lot of welding to do to get the car in the condition it is in today.

Keith kept his original Frog in trials trim while his new acquisition, Toad, took to the racetrack in the MG Car Club Midget Series. Keith’s first ever race was at Brands Hatch and in true trials tradition he scorned a trailer and drove the car to and from the meeting, although later in it’s track career it did sneak the occasional ride on the back of the businesses truck!

The new Austin Healey Series followed the MG championship in 1985. There were four classes. Two for “big” Healey’s, modified and un-modified, and two for Sprites where Keith competed in the un-modified class and was overall champion. Pursuing the AH championship involved around 8 races taking in most of the British circuits, of which Brands was Keith’s favourite, with Donnington second. The following year Keith was third in his class before packing up racing because of the ever increasing cost and taking up Historic Rallying in Toad.

When he finished racing Keith changed the suspension for rallying, fitting different springs to raise the suspension and replacing the special Spax’s with standard shocks because of the regulations. Keith’s first rally with Toad was actually during his first year of racing, the 1984 Coronation Rally with Robert Ellis in the passengers seat and the came first overall.

With navigator Richard Dalton, Keith competed in the Historic rally championship for 3 or 4 years. Including the Rally Britannia, which was run at the same time as the RAC over some of the same stages. One of Keith’s favourites was over in Ireland where he competed in the Circuit of Ireland retrospective, which was a really good event, and Keith won a first class award in 1992.

One of the highlights of Keith’s Historic Rallying was the 88 Pirelli Classic Marathon, starting at Tower Bridge the route went down to Cortina in Italy and back. There were stages at Spa and Monza and an exciting trip over the Stelvio pass where the engine got really hot. The evening entertainment was pretty special as well, including a dinner amongst the cars at the Sclumff museum. The event finished at The RAC Club in Pall Mall after a final stage at Crystal Palace. The added excitement was that all this took place on Keith’s honeymoon as he had just got married!

Keith’s last Historic Rally was the 1993 Rally Britannia, after this the rules changed, mandating a steel bonnet. This would have made Toad far to heavy for the power output of the engine. Faced with the necessity to up-rate the power output, with the risk of unreliability, plus family commitments, Keith decided to call it a day, gave Toad a much needed re-spray before semi-retirement, just bringing him out for the occasional autotest.

Throughout it’s racing and rallying career Toad’s specification was very much determined by the championship it was competing in. In the MG series Toad ran on standard width wheels with either the hood up or a hard top. With the move to the AH series it was allowed to run with wider tyres and an Aero screen. When the Austin Healey series started in 1985 the body had to be kept standard so flared arches and so on were definitely out.

Toad had been running a 1275 lump for racing, which in fact is exactly the same engine it has today. Originally the 1275 motor was allowed by later the rules were changed mandating use of the original engines so Keith fitted a 948, which he used for around four years. As you can imagine Keith has become quite knowledgeable about “A series” engines over the years. Toad has a gas flowed head, a 731 cam from the Midget Series and this motor has always ran well. Carburettors are still the twin 1 ¼ SU’s from its racing days.

All the time Toad was racing and rallying the Frog was still being trialled pretty regularly. Frog has had a pretty full life in Keith’s ownership. As mentioned earlier he gave it a pretty major body rebuild about 3 years after he bought it as the wheel arches were starting to go, necessitating quite a bit of welding. Like many trials cars Frog has had quite a bit done to it to keep it going, with several attacks on the sill sections and a major job on reinforcing the rear arches and boot where the weight bouncing about in the back had threatened to start a crease.

Originally Frog had a steel bonnet and was used with that for MCC events and PCT’s before tackling other Classics with a Glass Fibre front end. Like with all Trials cars there have been lots of changes to the springs, involving raising the suspension with supplementary coil springs replacing the bump stops. This gives about another 1 ½ inches of ground clearance and can easily be removed for PCT’s. The front is the normal wishbones but with Imp rear springs to raise it up.

In the early days of trialling Keith spent a lot of time underneath changing diffs before fitting the modified Ford Internals that most Midget people went to about ten years ago. This involves keeping the Leyland CWP, but replacing the sun and planets with Ford components. This has proved to be extremely reliable, even with only two planet wheels. Before this he broke a lot of planet wheels (which he used to re-build) the record was the year when he broke ten and won the ACTC Tractor Tug Trophy!

The A35 came more recently. It’s competition début was in 1997. Keith had owned the car for about 4 years previously, but it lay fallow while he enlarged the garage to accommodate the additional member of the family. It was built it in a year and competed on the Lands End with the family before tackling The March Hare and The Edinburgh where the prop shaft broke because the bodies of the coil-overs were bending and twisting. This caused the axle to rotate, straining the UJ, which of course protested and broke. This sent Keith back to the drawing board. He has now changed things to prevent re-occurrence but the car has not yet re-emerged in competition although it gets used on the road occasionally.

Keith is still enjoying his motoring and has lots of ideas for his cars for the future. I didn’t ask him, but I doubt very much if any of them are for sale!

1984 Started Racing in MG Series, 1st Overall – Coronation Rally
1985 1st Overall – Austin Healey Racing Championship
1986 3rd in Class – Austin Healey Racing Series
1988 Pirelli Classic Marathon
1989 Circuit of Ireland Retrospective
1991 Rally Britannia – 2nd Class
1992 Rally Britannia, Circuit of Ireland Retrospective – 1st Class
1993 Rally Britannia

Paul Bartleman wins Allen Trial

The rain god shone on Bristol Motor Club and there was a fair amount of the wet stuff descending from the sky to make the sections on the fringe of the Mendip Hills nice and muddy.

The Start

There had to be a last minute change of venue when The White Hart Inn pulled the plug at the last moment and the start was moved to The Cross House Inn in organisers Pete and Carlie Harts home village of Doynton. The pub was right in the centre of the village with a super atmosphere and a nice car park un-spoiled by all those nasty trailers which were relegated to a muddy field several miles away.

The Route

This years Allen incorporated the usual favourite hills, including Birch Hill that was added last year. Perhaps the only despoilment is that it’s no longer possible to use Elwell, that lovely long section the other side of Winford. The route did go a slightly different way though, with the usual opener, Tog Hill, coming towards the end of the trial this year.

Bitton Lane

This was the usual section, entered by the side of a house on the A431 in the village of Bitton, the challenge being a restart on polished stones positioned on a left hand bend for all but classes one and two. It wasn’t as slippery as usual so tyre pressure limits were in force and only four competitors didn’t get away. Unfortunately these included both Simon Robson and Peter Mountain, competing in his newly restored Dellow Mk1 for only the second time.

So, the Allen wasn’t being very kind to Falcon Motor Club members driving open yellow cars! John Looker in his Yellow Beetle and Colin Biles in his Midget were the other competitors who didn’t get away. Classes four and five could now breathe a sigh of relief, as they had no more re-starts for the rest of the day.

Guys Hill

**Dudley Sterry pondering on his technique while Barry Clarke enjoys the view ahead**

Next on the agenda came one of the Allen terror’s, Guys Hill with its deceptively slippery surface with separate restarts on slippery stones and tree roots for the yellows and reds. It wasn’t a doodle for the non restarting blues and whites though as the hill is much steeper than it looks and quite a few didn’t build enough momentum to carry them over the slippery tree roots on the upper reaches. Unfortunately these included Stuart Cairney, taking part in his first trial since the Exeter and shaking down a new transmission in his Imp. Stuart had a bit of drama just before the trial when he found fuel spraying out of his fuel lines all of which had completely perished during the Imp’s lay-off, sparking the question about the effects of un-leaded fuel on rubber.

The yellows and reds had different re-starts and these were to have a big effect on the results as only three yellows, Roger Bricknell (Vincent), Andrew Martin (Dutton Melos), Mal Allen (Marlin) and one red, Paul Bartleman (Troll) got away to clean the section. Pete Hart was there to see Paul’s climb and his impressive trickle away from the restart.

Sandy Lane Special Test

This was run downhill this year, approached by the local councils newly surfaced entrance road. Despite being the only class eight to clean Guys Hill Paul Bartleman was taking no chances and set the fastest time amongst the specials but it was beaten by a flying Andrew Martin in class seven which put him into the overall lead of the event.

Travers Hill

There was a diff test just before the section with Patrick Osborne’s uncle in charge. On this occasion competitors had a different face at the start as Jim Travers (after whose father Ted the hill is named) was marshalling on a bike trial elsewhere. The restart for yellows and reds was in its usual place on a rocky step and positioning was crucial for both front and rear wheels. John Parsons was well aware of the difficulty and went high on the bank to the left in an attempt to avoid both step and gradient. It was to no avail as the car slipped sideways as soon as he let the clutch out and he was stationary in the middle of the track with spinning wheels just like so many others. Simon Robson made up for his indiscretion on Sandy Lane, picked a good place and restarted successfully but neither Peter Mountain nor Clive Booth could get away. Clive was trying some new Continentals, which were proving very successful in mud, and disaster as soon as a rock came into view.

Travers Special Test

**Patrick Osborne splashing his way through the water.**

This started downhill, through a puddle to line B before a reverse to stop astride line C. This was a disaster for Andrew Martin who got a fail, which was to cost him the chance of overall victory. Patrick Osborne and Michael Leete both fumbled their changes to reverse gear. Earlier Patrick had problems on Travers when the coil lead came adrift just after the section ends board.

Chew Valley Lake Rest Halt

This couldn’t really be called a lunch halt as it came very early in the event, perhaps “Brunch Halt” would be more appropriate! Never less it was a welcome opportunity to have a social chat with other competitors and helps the organisers by regrouping and controlling the flow to the following sections.

Burledge

**Giles Greenslade speeding to the summit**

Another of The Allen’s major challenges was on form this year, with Nigel and Ian Moss in charge. It starts with a rocky surface on a gentle gradient with a big bump over a sunken pipe a few yards up the track just before a right hand bend. This slows things down, even for those who don’t have to re-start. Once round the bend the real challenge of Burledge comes into sight. It’s a rutted sunken lane, very muddy with the ruts getting deeper towards the top. The yellows and reds have a restart just as the ruts begin, the blues and whites have a straight blast, in as much as the dreaded bump over the pipe allows!

As you will gather ground clearance is all-important at Burledge and it was very unfriendly to the Midgets and Morgan in class five, all of whom bottomed out early on. The Escorts were in similar trouble, David Heale getting furthest with a two. A BMW was the class three car to have here and both David Turner and Phillip Mitchell sped to the top on their larger diameter wheels with blowers whining. With Jim Scott and Colin Perryman marshalling the hill Stuart Cairney wanted to do well and got to the two after slip sliding away from the rocky start. Michael Leete and Dave Sergeant nearly got out the top for a one as did Patrick Osbourne. Dave could have cleaned the section if the throttle cable hadn’t became detached, but the class one honours were definitely Giles Greenslade’s as he stormed out of the section at enormous speed.

A fair sprinkling of class eights were clean but Tony Rothin didn’t get away from the restart and Stuart Harrold, Clive Booth and Peter Mountain all bottomed out. The class sevens all struggled a bit but Roger Bricknell made good use of the Vincents 15 inch wheels for a clean and Andrew Martin came out of the top as well, kicking himself for his indiscretion on the Travers special test. Clerk-of-the-Course Pete Hart looked in on the section just in time to see both Dave Haizelden and Paul Allaway clean Burledge as both proved yet again that they are little short of trialling supermen.

Nanny Hurns

Run as a section rather than a special test this year Nanny Hurns gives lie to the Allen sections all being run on real roads. The organisers can be forgiven though as this strange little section is part of the character of the modern Allen Trial. For those of you that have never seen Nanny Hurns it’s an artificial deviation off a track. First there’s a more or less level sharp left hand bend, then a very steep bump where there is a great danger of bottoming out at the top before the downhill finish. The main problems came for the big engined Beetles who had the usual under-steer problem on the left hander and the low slung sports cars who bottomed out on the crest of the bump. So a special well done to the persistent Brian Osborn for his first ever Nanny Hurns clean in his MGB.

Mill Lane

This is the long section, going under the railway bridge just after the start. The big disappointment was that there was no big puddle this year, to drown out the electrics, and the entire entry cleaned the hill.

Little Uplands

It was Little Uplands again this year as the track to its big cousin was blocked with construction machinery! The section was its usual self with a tricky restart in the rocks for the yellows and reds. Most of the non-restarters made successful climbs but both Dave Sargeant and Patrick Osborne lost momentum amongst the rocks and stopped. The restart was certainly a tough proposition though and by far the majority who had to attempt it failed.

Birch Hill

There was a long road run off over 20 miles east across the M4 to Birch Hill with John Sargeant in charge. The hill was similar to last year, a relatively straightforward run up a stony track then a right left into a field and the challenge of a huge patch of clay. The lower classes were allowed a straight blast but yellows and reds had a restart just before the glutinous stuff under the eyes of MGeetle builder Dave Nash. None of the cars in classes four, five and six got through but Giles Greenslade got far enough to give him the class four win and the lead in the Crackington league of the ACTC championship.

After cleaning Burledge both Dave Haizelden and Paul Allaway showed they are human by failing at the three but it was possible in a class one car as both Michael Collins and Nick Farmer proved and this was to give Michael Collins the class win. In class three both of the BMW’s failed to blast through the mire but both David Heale and Harvey Waters were successful in their Escorts reversing the fortunes of Burledge.

The status quo in 7 and 8 was preserved with the leaders all going clear and John Parsons and Clive Booth were happy to be successful under Dave Nashe’s gaze but Peter Mountain wasn’t so lucky.

Tog Hill

It was back across the M4 and back to Doynton for Tog Hill, tackled in the dark for the later numbers, but presenting no problems and everyone was clear.

John Walker

The Allens usual finale was on form as usual. The first cars arrived a bit early at just gone 2.30 and were asked to hang around at the summit in order not to get back to the pub while the lunch-time crowd were still enjoying their meal! The water level in the stream was pretty low so there wasn’t the usual problem of drowning out the ignition and everyone apart from Brian Osborn and David Mallin went clear.

The Finish

Back at Doynton Paul Bartleman was found to be the overall winner with a clean sheet, beating Roger Bricknell on special test times. Things could behave been very different if Andrew Martin hadn’t failed the 2nd special test as he was fastest on the first one and went clean on the observed sections.

So concluded another successful Allen Trial. The wet weather and skill of Pete Hart and his team resulted in a competitive trial over some non-damaging sections as it was mud rather than rocks rubbing the underside of the cars that ran out of ground clearance.

Michael Collins (VW Golf)	2	Class 1
Jeremy Flann (Austin 7)	1	Class 2
David Heale (Ford Escort)	2	Class 3
Giles Greenslade (VW Beetle)	3	Class 4
Mike Wordsworth (MG Midget)	6	Class 5
Terry Ball (VW Beetle)	19	Class 6
Roger Bricknell (Vincent)	0	Class 7
Carl Talbot (Morris Trialsmaster)	5	Class 8
Paul Bartleman (Troll)	0	Best Overall

2003_allen_results Download

Mechanics Trial by Michael Leete

Adrian Marfell won this years Mechanics Trial, but in a Beetle this time rather than his usual special. There were quite a few clean sheets so Adrian’s win was decided on special test times and he was fastest by a long way

Adrian Marfell with his Mechanics Trial winning Beetle

Unusually for my reports this one will be written in the first person as running at the front of the field I didn’t see much of what went on and didn’t stand waiting in many queues to chat to competitors and marshals!

This was the second year Stroud had run The Mechanics as a road trial. It was born out of the clubs one off Anniversary Trial, organised by Andrew Brown and Rich Welch, but never ran because of Foot and Mouth. The event was taken over by the Hayward clan and run by taking The Mechanics Trial out on the road. With the Cotswold Clouds running in the area there must have been a great temptation to use some of the well-known hills. However, this was resisted and there was no duplication with “The Clouds” apart from the start and finish venues.

Mike Hayward, (who is not related to the organising family) and I had entered “The Mechanics” last year but never even got to the start as my Beetles Brakes seized only a few miles from home. We managed a bit better this year, which was really good as we were especially looking forward to The Mechanics, which promised us new hills and a route in the area of Falcon’s old Guy Fawkes Trial.

We were running only a few cars from the front so it was an early start, leaving Bedfordshire at 4.30am and arriving at The Little Chef just off the M5 at Stonehouse dead on 7 for our slap up breakfast. This was not to be, as along with Clive Booth and John Allsop we waited in vain for some sign of life, giving up at 7.30 in favour of a bacon bap at The Ryford! We were first in line at scruitineering and started to worry as there were was no scruitineer, no organisers and no other competitors. There were signs of life just before 8 and the formalities were soon completed and we were on our way with a few nice words from Ken Hobbs, thanking us for journeying out to the Cotswolds for the event.

Clive Booth and John Allsop in good form on the start line at Tin Pan Alley

It was right out of Gordon’s garage, as would be usual for the Clouds, but instead of turning left we went straight on, past the Little Chef that was now open, and crossing and re-crossing the M5 to the first hill. This first section was not the problem hill of last year where so many people got stuck, but Tin Pan Alley which May’s Wheelspin tells me was first used before the war on the Bristol’s Clubs Fedden Trial when it was called Tramps Paradise.

A very un-tramp like John and June Blakeley greeted competitors on this gentle warm-up hill. Like most of the hills it was a long and leafy lane and as an early number there were so many fallen leaves it was difficult to see the surface underneath.

A passengers eye view of Alf’s delight as Mike Hobbs waits on the start line.

Eric Wall greeted us a few miles up the road at “Alfs Delight” another long leafy section which finished by going over a carpet to get the mud off the wheels before emerging onto a very clean and tidy estate road that led us to the new Age Traveller encampment at the Crooked Mustard/Axe cross roads so familiar on The Cotswold Clouds.

Things got a bit tougher at Boxwell where we approached through Scrubbets Farm. Looking at an old Guy Fawkes program from 1960 I see that the last two hills were “Axe” and “Scrubbets” and Mike and I reckoned that this was the same hill. It was approached with quite a steep downhill so the Guy Fawkes section could have been the Mechanics approach road. Anyway today’s section was easy enough, apart from the restart at the end which was on a big bump leading to a very sharp left at tee.

Robert Gregg hustles his Troll towards the tricky re-start on Boxwell

Waiting at the start we heard Mike Hobbs fail the restart in his Beetle and then David Bowlas do the same in his Midget and when we arrived we made it three in a row! Looking through the results afterwards we saw that around one third failed and two thirds got away clean, including both Dave and John Sargeant in their Beetles who were running just behind us.

Dave Sargeant approaching the summit of Wood Lane watched by some of the many spectators from nearby Nailsworth.

The route then led into the centre of Nailsworth and Wood Lane, a tree lined track with a grassy surface, that would have been tricky had it been wet, but didn’t trouble the scorer in the dry. The route then wound its way round the houses and cottages up and down some very, very steep single-track tarmac roads to Ferris Court where Simon Harris was in charge at the start of another hill used on the 1960 Guy Fawkes. Simon warned us that the exit track was extremely over-grown. The section was nice and long with two quite sharp hairpins, the first left, the second right and what I thought at the time was an easy re-start but from the results I see it stopped a few competitors, notably one Andrew Brown!

We were soon back in Cotswold Clouds territory, passing Merves Swerve and down Catswood (used on the 1960 Guy Fawkes) where we stopped to observe the two minutes remembrance silence. At the bottom we went straight across to King Charles Lane, which again was very, very long with the track developing a deep vee gully towards the summit so it was important to keep up the momentum if you wanted to avoid toppling over!

Jim Scott marks Carl Talbot’s card as he heads towards the fallen tree on Greenway Lane

The route now headed north towards Cheltenham up the A46 to Greenway Lane where Jim Scott was on the start line and Stuart Cairney on the restart. The surface was smooth at the start but it became rougher and rockier then deviated off to the right around a fallen tree where there were two different restarts for the higher classes. It looked pretty fearsome as there was a steep step on the inside but by keeping right it was possible to avoid it and most of the experienced drivers went clean.

The distance between the sections started to markedly increase now and we went into the suburbs of Cheltenham coming out again on heading South east on the A40 towards Oxford turning off on the B4632 through Winchcombe to Laverton, a hill I’m sure I remember reading about but can’t find any reference to! It looked innocuous enough at the bottom but the ruts soon got deeper just before we reached a huge rocky step, which had experienced an extremely local downpour. The yellows and reds had a restart but we were able to go straight through so we just eased the Beetle over the bump for a clean. There was a very long exit track and as we were getting hungry and it was one o’clock we stopped for the best part of twenty minutes to eat our sandwiches. We didn’t see any competitors while we waited so there must have been some delays somewhere.

The route wound through Winchcombe again and back north towards Cheltenham, interrupted only by a special test at Postlip managed by Bill Foreshew and his wife. This was another familiar name from the Guy Fawkes, featuring in the 1970 event, my first Classic trial as a competitor, bouncing for Pete Smith in his Anglia.

Bryan Phipps leaving it very late to turn into the hairpin at the top of Noverton Lane. To late as having lost his ballast on the restart Bryan compounded his problems by under-steering into trees immediately after this picture was taken!

The trial was coming to an end now but there was a sting in the tail at Noverton Lane with Tim Lakin at the start. It started easy enough with a gentle track through a wood but soon the gradient and the rocks started. There were separate restarts for whites to yellows/reds. Just as I slowed for our restart I heard a loud hissing and on the restart stuck my head out of the window to see a rear tyre going down. We tried to pull away but not to hard as we could see a horrendous rock step ahead and we didn’t fancy our chances getting over with a wheel down to the rim. Mark Linforth had a rescue crew here with a tractor and a Landrover and they dragged us up to a lay-by where we changed the wheel and took a few pictures. We saw that competitor’s troubles didn’t end at the step as there was a very sharp hairpin left just before the finish and this caught out a lot of drivers who under-steered into the trees.

We weren’t the only Beetle to get a puncture here as both John and Dave Sargeant were changing wheels at the summit. All that remained was a special test at Burcombe Lane and an observed section called Viaduct before the finish on Minchinghampton Common. It wasn’t that easy though as we got well and truly lost, as did a few other competitors, and we were pretty certain that all was not well with the road book here.

Mike and I signed off just before 4pm and headed straight for home, as I had to get up at 4 the next morning. We arrived back in Bedfordshire at 7pm having driven though a bit of rain!

We enjoyed our Mechanics Trial. Lots of nice long sections, all on real tracks. OK Noverton Lane was a bit rough but as Andrew Brown says there was plenty of grip so you could pick your speed and line. Like a lot of the hills it could have been a very different storey in the mud! All round we really enjoyed our Mechanics Trial and we will be back next year.

Adrian Marfel (VW Beetle)	0	Overall Winner
Michael Collins (VW Golf)	0	Class 1
Nigel Green (Ford Escort)	0	Class 3
David Shaylor (Beetle)	0	Class 4
Peter Davis (Panther Lima)	0	Class 5
Gary Browning (Beetle)	0	Class 6
Steve Tucker (Imp)	0	Class 7
Carl Talbot (Morris Trialsmaster)	0	Class 8

2003_mechanics_results Download

Edinburgh 2003

If you were car classes 1 to 5 it wasn’t a competitive trial because it was so dry and only the higher classes were let loose on Bamford and Corkscrew. But what a good day out. Nice weather, gorgeous views, a new road route and a nice club supper to finish the day. Super news, Brian Sussex won a gold and his triple.

Start at Moto Services Tamworth

The start was just as sterile and devoid of atmosphere as last year and most of the facilities were closed and locked up behind steel shutters. The President participated in scruitineering, shaking spare wheels vigorously to make sure they were secure. There were lost of abandoned tow cars and trailers around the car park and the management will have made a few quid if they all paid their £6 long term parking fee.

Agnes Meadow

The run to the first section followed the usual route up the A5 and north through Litchfield to Ashbourne and out on the A517 to Agnes Meadow. There was a deviation here for classes seven and eight but it didn’t catch many people out this year as they knew all about the sharp turn back onto the main track. Everyone wasn’t lucky though as both Maureen Chattle and Neil Bray were shown as failures in the results. I don’t know about Maureen but not only did I see Neil not fail I videoed him not failing!

Clough Wood

**With John Alssop not available Clive Booth coerced car builder Geoff Jackson into the passengers seat of his Dellow Replica.Corkscrew was Clive’s only failure.**

There was along run of around 20 miles through Matlock to petrol at Two Dales before crossing over the Peak Railway to a rather rough Clough Wood where the sharp rocks ripped the sidewall out of one of the front tyres of Stuart Harrolds Troll. The sidewall was too badly damaged to put in a new tube so Stuart and Chris put on a wide rear wheel so they could continue.

Wigber Low

Cars had the usual holding control in the breaking dawn before to prevent queuing on the main road. The section was pretty straightforward and the marshals, which included Morgan racer Rob Wells, weren’t troubled by many failures. Neil Bray was in problems on the following road section as one of his knock of hubs was coming loose from the flange. The problem was that the securing nuts had hobbed their way into the hub leaving almost no flats exposed to get a spanner to.

Bentley Brook Inn

**Ian and Phillip Bovill entered their ISOC Sports which has its origins in a Sherpa Van! According to the owner it qualified for class 7 because of the long wheelbase.**

The organisation creaked a bit here as the wait for breakfast grew longer and longed and the really late numbers had to wait for around an hour and a quarter. Needless to say quite a few left without any food inside them!

Putwell 1

Ian Blackburn is still enjoying the luxury of Tim Short chauffeuring him around Classic Trial sections in his Singer Nine Sports. Here they are tackling the big bump immediately after the start. (Picture by John Salter)

The normal start was just before a raised hump over a pipe but the big hole from last year was filled in. It was tricky getting away though, even for the front wheel drive cars who had a preferential start a bit lower down. There was quite a bit of blue smoke as competitors burned their tyre getting over the hump and the diff in Richard Tompkins Imp cried enough. Earlier Stuart Harrold and Chris Phillips had gone to let down their rear tyres only to find one was flat already so they were down to no spares!

Special Test One

**Richard & Edward Cooper raising the dust as they round the 90 right on the Putwell Special Test. (Picture by John Salter)**

The route card explained this as start on Line A, Stop astride Line B, Stop astride Line B affair but competitors were greeted on the start line with the news that it was a straight blast, stop on line B and that’s it. Nice and simple.

Putwell 2

**Dudley relaxing while Stephen and Phil Potter take their time in restarting their Trojan. Both the Trojans went on to Gold. (Picture by John Salter)**

Dudley Sterry and Eric and David Wall were in charge here with John Salter taking pictures. The re-start was in the usual place on the rocky slab and was very, very rough. Most competitors got away OK but positioning was critical.

Litton Slack

**Dave Nash and Julie Fleet attacking the upper reaches of Litton in The Skeetle.**

The old hill was kind to competitors this year with plenty of grip all the way up.

Black Harry

After Litton the route divided. Bikes and Classes 6 to 8 went straight to Great Hucklow while 1 to 5 went east on the A623 to turn off into the quarry complex to Black Harry, a nice simple straight track which didn’t trouble the scorer to much.

Great Hucklow

**Michael Leete and Mike Hayward demonstrating that their Beetle has plenty of ground clearance. (Picture by Derek Hibbert)**

There was a special test before the section which deviated up the bank as usual. There was plenty of grip and this was one section that didn’t seem as rough as usual. Brian and Kevin Alexander had a few problems and had to stop just before the section but soon got going again to claim a gold, only to find they were given a fail on Litton Slack.

Gliding Club Control

This was a compulsory 30 minute rest halt and the holding control for those lucky enough to be allowed to tackle Bamford Clough. The organisers had clearly been taking lessons from the Lands End as they had found the coldest, windiest godforsaken spot in the whole area for Stuart and Chris to replace the tube in one of their flats.

Haggside

**Chris and Linda Beaumont from Hereford arrive at the summit.**

The restart on Haggside was in the usual place just around the corner immediately after the start. There was plenty of grip in the dry conditions and only competitors who got their positioning totally wrong had any problems.

Old Long Hill

After Haggside it was back alongside the Ladybower Reservoir and the local constabulary wasting the taxpayers money in a very expensive camera vehicle trying to trap speeding motorists. At least they were nice and safe inside their van which they wouldn’t have been on the streets of nearby Sheffield protecting innocent citizens from murders, rapists and muggers. The long road section wound its way along the valley through Hope and Castleton and up the spectacular Winnats Pass before coming into Buxton from the north down the A6 and out on the A5004 where the car entry split. Classes 1 to 6 tackled Old Long Hill, complete with downhill start.

Corkscrew

Classes Seven, Eight and the bikes went on to Corkscrew, which was to pose a real challenge. Not only was it rough, narrow and twisty but it had a difficult restart, between the two hairpins, and it was wet. No, the MCC assure us it was not doctored, a natural spring runs down the hill. Amongst the bike entry Brian Sussex was on tenterhooks as he listened to first a crescendo of noise and then total silence. Fortunately when his turn came Brian kept his nerve and cleaned the section for a well earned triple.

It was a tough section for the four-wheeled brigade but it was cleanable with a lot of care and a fair slice of luck. The section was very slippery for the early numbers and Stuart Harrold was one of the few early numbers to get a clean. It wasn’t easy, although they got the Troll away from the restart Stuart and Chris had to fight for grip all the way to the summit. Fred Gregory got off the re-start OK only to come to a halt on the left hand corner. Mike Pearson came to grief when his left front wheel went up on a rock and the car pivoted on diagonal corners loosing drive. Ed Nikel failed as well but was happy as he was enjoying a nice reliable trial with VW power even if the engine was fluffing a bit. Corkscrew was Peter Montain’s only failure in his newly refurbished Dellow which was going very well apart from the carburation needing a bit of tweaking.

Haydale

As the routes re-joined there was another very long road run, north and then east in a huge circle around Buxton to Haydale where John and June Blakeley presided over a comparatively easy section in the dry conditions.

Calton

The final hill was Calton. It was pretty easy in the dry but the ruts are a slowly stating to come back so it could soon be returning to be a competitive section.

Bull L’Th Thorn Inn, Flagg Moor

**Reg Taylor and Bill Rule at the finish after a successful class 0 run in their RDT Anglia.**

The finish was at this rather desolate pub in the middle of nowhere again. But inside it was noisy and crowded with competitors eating and drinking as they signed off. Popular opinion was that it was a very nice day out but with the very dry conditions not a competitive trial unless you were one of the lucky ones allowed to have a go at Bamford andCorkscrew.

Pavilion Gardens Buxton

The MCC had organised a club supper at The Pavilion Gardens which made a very nice conclusion to an enjoyable day. Hopefully this will be a feature of future Edinburgh Trials. The only thing wrong was that many of us were waiting for a few words from the hierarchy which never came!

2003_edinburgh_results Download

My Lands End Trials and Tribulations by Verdun Webley

Verdun and Mike Pearson in fine spirits as they set out from Popham

Two weeks before the Lands End Trial and things were progressing well, all preparations were well advanced and arrangements made for the start. A thorough check of everything and some repairs had thrown up nothing untoward except for a wire, which had fallen off the main lights. All Lucar connectors were checked as a precaution and tightened up. Now the Marlin sported new side windows and everything was ready two days beforehand.

Mike Pearson and I, in company with Dot and John Parsons, set off at 4.00pm for Popham. A good run down and arrive early, everything seems unusual because it’s daylight and we usually arrive in the dark. We sit around and then having chatted to lots of people we go to scrutineering. Perhaps this year I will finish the event and have a trouble free run just like the Exeter Trial. Now the gremlins strike, no headlights! Suddenly club members arrive out of nowhere and soon Neil Bray and I have the dashboard out and Neil says,” there’s a wire off’. Wire replaced everything checks out and we present ourselves once more and all things work well.

We set off in high hopes and still in daylight, the car is running well and everything seems a pleasure. Darkness falls and North Petherton is reached in plenty of time for a gargantuan breakfast, yummy. We clean the first hill and the restart is no problem with more grip than a sticky bun. We reach the holding control, with everything swinging. Ross Nuten asks whether anyone has brake fluid as he has virtually no brakes. I produce a bottle of said fluid from the Marlin and get ready to go, no lights again! Off comes the dashboard and replace the same wire!!! We follow Ross into the fuel halt before Beggars Roost and fill up. Onto the hill, and although if takes an effort, we complete the restart, with the engine almost stopping under load. We notice Ross changing a wheel and as he seems all right we motor on to Stony Street. We clean this one and Mike says I need to slow down a little as we seemed to tackle the hill too quickly and it was very rough. Onwards to Sutcombe, where we sail up and leave the restart, easy, then the prop-shaft lets go ten feet from the end of the section and the Lands End ends here.

After the last competitor leaves we still wait for Frances and Dorinda to arrive. Many competitors offer help and one even drives home and collect anew UJ in the hopes we can get mobile, no such luck, as the prop-shaft drive flange is broken. We leave the Marlin in the village until Tuesday when we manage to make temporary repairs having found a drive flange and had the prop-shaft welded. We set off and have an uneventful journey home to the sound of metal rattling and the car behaving like a squirrel on an ice rink. Ah well! We had a superb break in Newquay with great company.

The Marlin already sports new suspension, its new engine is ready and lots of modifications are underway, in fact a complete rebuild. Next year I will get to the end, I hope.

Verdun Webley

My Lands End by Patrick Osborne

In the the Tucker-Peake tradition they start young in the Osbourn family.

I have been trialling on and off for about fifteen years mostly in class one cars with differing levels of success and many trips home via Britannia Rescue ! My dear wife also loves the trialling experience, so what do you do when children come onto the scene? Trialling and young children don’t really go together do they? …. or do they??

We do love the Lands End Trial, it has to be my favourite, probably because I was brought up on going up to Blue Hills every Easter to see my Uncle try to scratch his way up the gradient in his Mini! Anyway my wife and I agreed that we would take our two boys, Bradley 4, Jacob 2 and Morvah the dog to Cornwall to see my family the hard way!

I asked my wife Candece to pack a small bag of clothes for us all, and when she had I checked it and halved the amount again to keep weight to a minimum, even the child seat was the lightest we could find. The dog had to use her ballast behind the rear seats and the potty doubled as her drinking bowl.

So on the Friday afternoon we set out to Popham, one small bag of clothes, 4 nappies, one dog, two children, one wife and myself. The run to Popham was lovely in the warm sunshine we almost needed air conditioning. After signing on and trying to help Stewart Ikin with his electrical problem we set out again for North Petherton, a nice steady run across the beautiful scenery of Salisbury Plain, somewhere along the route the boys fell asleep, we checked in at North Petherton and had the car checked with the boys still asleep in the back.

As we set off for the trial proper Candece and I wondered how the boys would cope with the rough hills. We went up through Fellons Oak without any problems, boys still asleep, and we tackled the rough Stoney Street (that really felt rough !) but it didn’t wake the boys they actually woke in the rest control before we went up to Beggars, good I thought, we need all the bouncing we can get from the re-start, I put the Skoda low in the re-start box which was a mistake, but we did manage to get away and out of those deep pits. The boys must have been so tired from their bouncing that they went back to sleep and totally missed the hairpins of Riverton, again with the dry conditions it was tempting not to go too fast.

On to Sutcombe to see the first signs of daybreak, so I threw a boneo into the back for the dog and could hear that she was enjoying that as we bounced our way over the sea of rocks from the re-start. The clutch was starting to feel a little on the hard side after that and I knew that we had the Daracott re-start to come. We stopped in the box on the re-start, the flag went down and so did our hopes of climbing any more sections in the driest Lands End for a long time. We managed to make it out of the section but the burnt out clutch finally gave way on the main road so after discussing the possibilities of changing it in the layby (yes it did cross my mind) we telephoned Britannia Rescue who took us the rest of the way to St.Ives.

So would we take the boys again? Well until they become a real weight liability yes, and they loved it. It wasn’t the easiest way to travel to visit my family but it has to be the most enjoyable way to visit Cornwall. I have to say thanks to Colin Perryman for the advice on the clutch and bell housing, I now have a Sachs clutch and a vented bell housing for the Exeter.

Patrick Osborne and Family

Peter Mountains Lands End

I finally got the Dellow going, but as usual work got in the way & car preparation was left to “last minute motors”. On the Good Friday morning I had the petrol tank out to solder the drain plug back in. Anyway, that’s my excuse for not testing the car fully loaded.

Jim & I set off at 4.30 for Popham and got to Reading before we realized that the burning rubber on right hand bends was ours. The new exhaust was great unladen, but too big for the wheel arch with a full crew, tools and tank of petrol & was cutting a groove in the tyre. Nothing for it but to
screw the dampers up & go home. Spent all day on Saturday modifying the new exhaust to side exit in front of the wheel.

Regards

Peter

My Lands End in Class 0

Jonathan Laver Reports

We had the Lands End that you missed. I was sick at most sections and on the roads joining them. By the end of the event I was feeling great but complaints were coming in about some of the restart lines being a bit sticky ! Ann, my wife was taken down with the same “BUG” for 24 hours and stayed in the hotel bedroom believing she was going to die until Monday. Fish and chips be blowed – t`was a “BUG”.

Anyway what of the event – Beggers caught a few out with a hole and some loose at the restart (VW`s included). Hoskins was disappointing but gave some, the chance to see what its like at the top. Blue Hills what can you say – I have heard every excuse for not getting up from “the sun was in my eyes” – “they put a bend in it and did`nt tell me” – “the restart box was a bomb crater” to this year —— “THERE WAS A CLOUD AT THE TOP THROUGH WHICH I COULD NOT SEE ! “

I saw some of the action, listened to the reports and walked the section upon Sunday morning, with Arthur. Blue Hills two was horrendous. The surface was very loose to a depth of six to nine inches, this being made up of very fine dust mixed with rock and stone. The section from the start to the left turn was cut into steps of about a cars length and would have made the climb that much more difficult since each step had to be driven up and over. I do not believe that these had been made by anything other than the trials traffic and the very dry conditions. The same material on the track could be seen falling out of the bank side. While we were walking a dust cloud swirled around us. Any competitor that cleaned this section deserved an award. Miss it and weep – we did, taking a very low slung Triumph TR3 around the class “O” route, and what a joy. Well done to the organising team.

Regards Jonathan Laver.

My Lands End by Brian Sussex

Hmmmmm – what was it like for me? I guess it was spoilt a bit by suffering from what was nearly a migraine for the last few hours – it was only a determination to get my own back on Bluehills 2 after footing a few yards from the top and losing a Gold last year that kept me from turning tail for Newquay!

Left Exeter at 4pm for the ride down to Plusha on the TTR250 – a nice atmosphere down there and a very congenial Chief Official, Bob Slatter, which got everyone in the right mood for the trial ahead. Met a few old (and young!) friends and made a new one, Tony Mogford from Truro on his Yam XT350 who I was to bump into on various occasions during the event as we were only 4 numbers apart. Tony impressed a group of us by explaining the ¾ rule at Culbone Control in a way that we understood. However, I couldn’t explain it again now in the cold light of day! Also, thanks for the camera batteries Tony; I wish I had remembered to use it more.

It is odd to be troubled by dust at this time of year, but following three sidecars to Felons Oak wasn’t fun. Felon’s itself is a nice little warm up section just to get the concentration going. Despite being sure that I had my road book correctly marked with restart sections there was a great temptation to stop at the yellow restart boards just in case… Glad I didn’t, but I wasn’t alone in needing reassurance from other m/c competitors that the restart wasn’t for us.

I love Stoney Street, but don’t let your tyre pressures down beforehand unless you want a “snakebite” on your inner tubes. The run from there to Culbone in moonlight is almost magical and I am determined to see it in daylight one day. As a vertigo sufferer my next big challenge was Countisbury Hill, you will only know what I mean if you are a fellow sufferer, no trail riding in the Picas for me sadly.

It was good to get a friendly welcome from the officials at Beggars. Again, I wonder what it looks like around there in daylight? Riverton was a challenge last year, especially at the almost hairpin right, and I was expecting the worst this year but my Spring trail riding on dry ruts has helped my technique and I stayed clean. I really dislike the Torrington Holding Check, a long wait in the cold. The good burghers of the town could at least spare us a few pence of electricity to see what we are doing in the Gents.

Got the tyres muddy for the first time at Sutcombe. Daracott is beginning to wash out so to me it seemed a lot better than in 2002 when it seemed over improved. I know a couple of fellow competitors thought it was rougher last year but there you go. I missed my number being called at Widemouth Bay and had my control card put to the back of the marshal’s box and waited another half an hour to be called again. I was a bit chilled at that point and will certainly listen more carefully another time.

Crackington was great. Last year I struggled and had to really push my boots hard into the pegs to prevent involuntary footing. It looked relatively solid so decided that I would give it the beans this time and managed to accidentally get a bit too much air a couple of times, a very satisfying and enjoyable climb.

Treworld unnerved me. I hadn’t done it before and couldn’t really work out what was going on in between the trees, as each competitor’s engine note appeared to vary a great deal from its predecessor. I later learned that Tony Mogford (he got ahead of me by kneeling in front of the marshall at Widemouth so didn’t miss his number being called!) manage to loop his XT at the restart which explained one odd set of noises at least. Neil Browne’s BSA 951cc twin-engined monster (#81) sent shivers down my spine – no mistaking his exhaust note as he charged up the hill – luvverly. I stopped OK in the restart box and then slipped backwards with my front wheel locked (before the marshall put his flag up) but managed to stay in the box. Got away OK so was still on for a Gold – phew!

Warleggan was surprisingly easy but no Highwaymen! Mind you the Authorities in Bourn must have filled their coffers with the novel “congestion charge” at a quid a vehicle. I won’t mention my special tests as the times will be a joke but no way was I prepared at this stage to get too gung-ho and foot or fall off dicing with those cones, not with the lock on the TTR anyways. Hoskin was fun and the restart so much easier than last year when it was very heart in mouth. Bishops Wood is a lovely section. A slight queue that allowed me to warm up a bit in the sunshine and chat to the marshalls. I was in a very good frame of mind and couldn’t resist giving the TTR a bit of wellie over the suspiciously muddy-looking take-off ramp, surprised there wasn’t a photographer there; I bet there would have been some good pics especially with the cars.

Regrettably my slight headache started to thump shortly after Bishops Wood and the ride to Bluehills a real struggle. Instead of hanging around at Blue Hills, as I did last year when I think I let my nerves get the better of me, I rode straight to the start of Section 1 following Mike Robinson on his Serow. Mike entertained us by coming out of the loop a bit wide and having to use the opposite bank as a berm to get around the corner without footing and finishing of with an impressive little wheelie.

I was soon at Blue Hills 2, my Nemesis in 2002. This time I took a wide approach to the entrance of the top loop and it seemed to work. Last time I tweaked the fast button over much and had to foot to keep the TTR in line, this year I chugged the last bit willing the little TTR to keep going, which it did to my great relief. I had cleaned Blue Hills 2 – Wahoo!

I am sorry if I was a little curt to any riding friends at the top but all I wanted to do then was to get back to Newquay and sign off pdq. I have claimed a Gold and hope the marshalls’ scorecards agree my optimism.

Another great event and thanks to all the organisers but particularly to the marshals, who were all to a man (and woman) very friendly and non-officious – brilliant.

Thanks also to my fellow Devon TRF Group members Mike Holden (#512) and Roger Cantle (#511) for their company at the Bay after the event and giving the TTR and me a lift back home to Longdown.

Brian Sussex

#74 – Yamaha TTR250

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Start and run to Sparkford

Sugg Lane

Gatcombe Lane

Normans Hump

Clinton Bottom

Waterloo

Stretes

Higher Rill

Back Lane

Passaford Lane

Exeter Services

Tillerton

Fingle

Hinchcombe Special Test

Wooston

Clifford Special Test

Simms

Slippery Sam

The Finish

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