You have stumbled on a delightful box of tricks, Classic Trials & other perverse stuff from Michael Leete. MCC ACTC and other trials. VW Beetles, Dellows, Marlins, or even Suzuki X90's
Stuart Roach left his familiar HRG behind and went family trialling in his recently acquired Ford Model A. Photo on Simms by Stuart Palmer
There was a significant change to last years Class 0 event which pretty much followed the main trial, just missing out some of the rougher hills, although including Slippery Sam!
This year there was little in common with the main trial apart from the special tests, Fingle and Donkey Trot.
There were a couple of new sections. Bovey Warren was in forestry just opposite the Normans Hump/Clinton Complex and was a nice addition. Then after breakfast Butterdon was an easy section near Wooston Steep.
Donkey Trot was the challenge for the cars, only four going clear, but then there were a lot of failures in the main trial who also did the section.
Neil Bray was one of the Donkey Trot clears but failed to position his Escort correctly in the Millen Lane restart box reducing the tin count to three.
Only one of the Class 0 motorcycles finished the trial.
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Luke Evans captures the atmosphere as Mike Tucker tackles Simms in his rather special Morris Minor. The Exeters Signature Hill was on form as usual
After organisational issues last year the 2024 Exeter was in the safe hands of the genial Pete Batty with Pete Hart as Deputy Clerk of the Course. The team were concerned when a severe storm hit the South West a couple of days before the event, but with a bit of work all was well on the day resulting in a very successful event.
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Rob Holden was an excellent second in his BMW estate with the only other clean sheet apart from Dave’s. Dean Partington was third, keeping his Wheelspin Trophy hopes alive.
Rob Holden finally found some engine reliability, cleaning all the hills in his BMW but having to give best to Dave Haizelden on special test times
The ever popular Allen Trial took just four days to max out the entry in the main trial. There was also provision for Heritage cars to take part in a parallel event but as this didn’t attract any entries it looks as if Heritage is defunct. It was a damp start to the day which didn’t brighten up and ended with persistent rain.
The start at The Bull at Hinton. Lined up are three of Dean Partingtons DP cars competing on the trial. From left to right. The DP Falcon, trialled by Dean many years ago and recently re-acquired and updated. In the middle is the very familiar rear engined DP Wasp recently purchased and driven on The Allen by Paul Merson. On the right is Jack Selwood’s DP Ford, originally constructed by Reg Taylor. This is the car that took Mike Furse to a triple and Graham Marshall to ACTC championships. It still has the original 1500 pre-crossflow engine (Photo by Kieran Bartlett)
Tog Hill was just up the road from the start and there were some delays after about half the field went through as one of the Austin 7’s experienced problems and blocked the section. It wasn’t a happy start for Class 2 as Michael Wall’s Trojan had to retire on the following road section.
The restart on the polished stones on Bitton Lane challenged some of the Austin 7’s in a bumper Class 2 entry.
Not so Mick Holmes who got away smoothy in what I believe was his cars first trial. Mick’s passenger was son Sam, normally seen driving his very competitive Class 4 Beetle with Mick as his passenger.
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Dave Middleditch reports on his first experience as a Sidecar Passenger
Photo by Peter Browne
Last year we spent the week of October half term visiting sections for the Land’s End. As my services were no longer required, it was a full week of surfing at Croyde, but I noticed that the Tarka Trial takes place on the last Sunday. As a car driver, that’s not an option…. or is it? I passengered for Andy Abraham in a very last minute pairing for the Edinburgh ’22, so gave him a call to see if he’d like to come all the way down for the Tarka and I’d passenger for him on the KTM 660 Outfit. He agreed, so after a Saturday spent mostly in the pub avoiding the rain, so arrived at the start in Bideford as first bike away, and with me having had precisely zero experience of riding a Chair! £20 ACU licence obtained and a borrowed set of boots and helmet from Andy, and we were on our way.
Jack Selwood strengthened his position in the Wheelspin Trophy over Dean Partington who moves up to second place eight points behind the car he bought back into the sport.
Paul Jones captures Henry Hoggart on Tanks Terror. Henry was passengered by Norton Selwood the force behind the ACTC FB Group and Instagram.
This was a challenging Tamar Trial, especially for the cars, where even the most hardened competitors struggled on the new woodland sections towards the end of the trial.
Kevin Miller was third bike overall and would have won if he had not failed the first observed test. Kevin is the Admin of the FB Group “Long Distance Trials, LDT’s, South UK Lightweight Bikes” Photo by Paul Jones
Motorcycle competitors had some bike only routes and sections that were difficult enough to ensure there were no clean sheets. The classic lanes that started the morning didn’t prove too challenging but then came the Solo only section at Ladye Park where three was the lowest score. John Luckett dropped four here and was the only bike to clean the grassy Tanks Terror but had the misfortune to retire later.
Dean was one of five clean sheets, winning the trial by being fastest on the tests. Fellow Wheelspin contender Jack Selwood retired so the championship is still wide open
Bryan Hunt captures Matt Facey using BMW power at the foot of Blaize. Matt dropped his only point on Tee Pee’s to finish 6th overall. Only Matt and Dave Haizelden were able to break inside the Class Eight stranglehold on the top ten.
Ross and DMC managed to overcome the difficulties associated with running a forestry based trial and the Kyrle was held on a dry day making it a little easier than usual.
The results were dominated by some very competitive Class Eights, many in the hands of drivers in the lower end of the age spectrum which is good for the future of the sport.
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This was a trial of two halves. A dry night and morning and a wet afternoon when some of the sections became very muddy and there were some cancellations.
Follow this Draft report as it develops
The Edinburgh Trial has steadily evolved under the stewardship of Clerk of the Course Mark Gregg and weather apart this was a successful trial. Fortunately the rain didn’t come down until the afternoon but when it did it was relentless. This caused the abandonment of Booth Farm, at least for main trial cars. Litton was affected as well and the lower class cars confined to the grass section overlooking the old hill.
Like Dave Middleditch on the Lands End Mark Gregg is to be congratulated on his pre event communication and making himself so accessible to help with even the smallest query with such good grace. It remains to see to see if the clubs remote hierarchy learn from this.
The entry included the leading contenders for the ACTC Wheelspin Trophy and this was to be an important event for that competition.
The Start
There were the inevitable issues affecting some on the way to the start. Lee Sample had forsaken his usual Rickman Ranger to try two wheels on a Honda. Unfortunately his Camper and Trailer became immobilised on the way to the Duke of York campsite. Not to be deterred Lee arranged recovery and proceeded on two wheels. Ed Wells had to be on domestic duty at home and Roger Ashby had a trailer tyre blow out on the M5, fortunately he had a good spare.
Litchfield Rugby itself was heaving with people as they had double booked and there was a social event taking place downstairs. Fortunately the weather was OK and after some efficient scruitineering it was warm enough for competitors to socialise outside.
Tissington Ford
The 40 mile run up to the Tissington Ford Holding Control was mainly on small roads and single track lanes. It was remarkably uneventful once past the canal bridges and many turns in the first few miles after the start.
Early cars joined a rapidly developing queue for the 25psi tyre pressure check handled by the ever present Dave Middleditch.
Haven Hill
Arriving at the section there was another lengthy queue. Restart marshal Peter Thomson reporting the reason was the number of motorcycles struggling to navigate the ruts and hitting the ground. Putting machine and rider back on their feet was time consuming, especially the heavy larger bikes which sometimes took three pairs of hands to get upright.
The cars weren’t so much of a problem with few failures. This was aided by the marshals announcing the tyre rule was scrapped and allowing free pressures.
Ballidon
Excelsior was challenging with separate restarts for the different classes (Video by Simon Everett)
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Held in dry conditions Charlie only dropped two and the top ten were only spanned by a further four marks.
Charlie Merson is a picture of concentration on his way to an overall win on The Mechanics Trial. Photo by Calvin Samuel
This years Mechanics Trial was earlier this year and held on a dry, sunny day. It was a low scoring, but very close battle between the leading contenders. However, unlike the Exmoor Clouds last week Class Eight dominated the leader board.
Wood Lane was early in the event and traction was at a premium at the top. (Video by Bultaco Boy)
Mackhouse was back on the agenda this year, there were only a couple of failures but it was considered a bit rough by some competitors.
Dave Sargeant was out in his new VW Buggy but had the misfortue to damage the bodywork early in the trial and retired shortly afterwards when the transmission cried enough.
The trial was decided in the Catswood complex where Charlie Merson dropped his only marks of the trial on Sapseds Surprise in his Ford Special. Charlie got to the two followed by Mark Hobbs in his trial on a three.
Classical Gas 
