Classical Gas

Bucklers at Long Lawford by Stan Hibberd

After a certain amount of uncertainty due to the foot and Mouth epidemic, The Buckler Register staged it’s 2001 Buckler Day and Road Run at the Memorial Hall Long Lawford Rugby. The weather was perfect close to 30c, and nine Buckler cars from bare frame to road legal turned up to take part. Our friends from the Ford Sidevalve OC also brought three cars, the tea pot never ran dry all day and a lot of interested people visited to chat and look at the cars.

**Bucklers, and an interloping Dutton!, basking in the sunshine at Long Lawford.**

It can fairly be claimed that this Buckler Day ranks with the 40th and 50th Anniversary days as one of the best events staged by the Register. In common with those other memorable days the weather was brilliant, also as in those events we had a road run. This in my view is important. Only by encouraging cars to be driven to and at events are we able to increase the number of road legal runners. Also on show were three examples of the Buckler chassis building art. The Mark V rolling chassis of MYG 10 was brought by Ken Green and Chris Hackney, the rebuild of this car should be fairly rapid as Chris is keen to have running it on the road in next years road run!! Brian Malin brought his hybrid Buckler chassis, which we think was intended to have a Ford V8, fitted. As part of the build up to the event my DD2 frame was collected from the lock up and Red Oxide applied by Messrs. Hackney & Green and Hibberd to the replaced tubes in order to make it look a little decent to illustrate what a light strong space frame should look like.

The roadworthy Bucklers present were Keith Ambrose in the pretty Peco DD2, 800 KBH, Keith retains the Pete Boswell trophy for another year for driving the car up from Bristol. Brian Malin, Mark V BLY 618, Ken Green Mark V DFB 140, the Boswell family brought their Mark VI JVS 347 from Thatcham. My own Mark VI NAC 344 making the shortest journey to the event. One of the things that made every Buckler owner envious was the Mk5 (KBL), brought down from Blackburn by Trevor Anderton, Henry Allen spotted this car in Lawford on Saturday, he ‘phoned me to say that Bucklers were arriving, it was a nice surprise to see the car with it’s very complete history.

Our visitors from the FSOC were Alan Hart from Shipston on Stour with a very pretty 1962 Ford 100E saloon, John Porter from Nuneaton with a Siva tourer. C. Hammond from Hillmorton came in his Shirley Mk 2 and Rob Daniels visited, but was unable to bring his Rochdale. Keith and Claire Oakes were invited and turned up with their Dutton trials car. Both Keith and Claire go back a long way to the 1960s with the Allen Bucklers in trials, right up until the Dutton arrived and began to do the business for them.

Everyone turned up pretty promptly, and when we had found parking for all the cars and trailers it was time for our Road Run to get under way. Rhona took the little green car for a spin round the village, sadly the car suffered a repeat of its prop shaft problems, which had led to it arriving on a trailer, so JVS was out of the run. Brian Malin disappeared in his Mark V to get petrol just as the run was getting under way and nothing further was seen of them until the run was over. Henry and I ambled off in NAC dispensing with the route card, as we knew the route, having traveled round it time or two. When we reached the Canal at Willoughby we paused for a few minutes and were joined by two Buckler Mark V’s. Ken and Chris in DFB and Trevor and Steven Anderton in KBL. The narrowboat Martin E arrived with my family aboard, so we had liquid refreshment and chat on board before resuming our wander round the leafy lanes.

A little while later we found a Buckler DD2 in a gateway and it’s driver round the corner in the pub, so we paused for lunch with Keith Ambrose. Also in the posh bit at the pub were Rhona and family but we settled for a very good and reasonably priced Ploughmans in the bar. During lunch I was lectured on the difference between a right and a left turn, funny how we all managed to end up in the same pub. I think my mistake had the cars running around a bit on the approach to Shuckborough, my claims of deliberate mistake didn’t go down too well. Then the highlight of the day for me. Our little convoy of Bucklers then set off toward Lawford and the finish, we all enjoyed the drive “home” it’s nice to drive our Bucklers but it’s much more enjoyable in company with three others. Trevor Anderton described it today as ultra relaxing.

Back at base in the Hall lots of interested visitors, both enthusiasts attracted through the Internet, and several locals who came and looked round. Tea and snacks went down a treat, plenty of chat, David Hayes drove down from Manchester and identified his Buckler car (so far unseen by the Register) as being a modified DD2 with alloy body. Geoff Roe from Nottingham spent the day with us and brought a piece of the original rear frame from the Carnegie Buckler Mark V for us to see. The welding was typical Buckler – funny shape though! By 4.30pm people were drifting away, the car park emptying, the washing up done, by 5.00pm we were cleared up and all the cars away by 5.30 pm.

A memorable event hopefully the first of many of it’s kind, ideal venue, superb weather, good turnout (on the day) a new car turned up. Trevor Anderton was presented with one of the Malcolm Buckler 50th anniversary mugs to mark his turning up with a “new car” and driving it round with us on the run. We also recruited two new members. Magic……

Technical Trauma

Driving a Volkswagen Beetle does induce a certain amount of complacency, they may be rather strange contraptions but they are just about as reliable as a trials car can be, especially if you leave as much as possible as Herr Volkswagen, well Dr Porsche actually, intended. When you do see a Beetle retiring it’s normally the mucked about bit that’s bust. Well, at least that’s what I thought until this year’s Cotswold Clouds!

Years of bouncing around the nations trials hills with the weight of those spare wheels on the back bumper creased the body over the rear wings

I have had the Beetle since 1990, which I guess is longer than most marriages last these days, and have done between six and eight trials a year since. I can’t say that it’s exactly as I bought it as it’s on its 3^rd engine and about the fourth of fifth gearbox. There are a few original bits, like the top half of the body, the steering wheel and the back brakes, which I shall return to later.

During all that time have always driven it home, even on the two occasions that I have retired. The first occasion I had any real trouble on an event was my second Exeter, which I think was in 1993. Brother in law Simon was passengering, it was the first event he had done where we were staying over and he was particularly looking forward to an evening with the lads out of site of “she who must be obeyed”. At that time, the car still had the engine it came with, a well-worn and completely standard 1600 twin port. We were running along with Fred Gregory in the days when he had his Skoda. I can’t recollect how we were doing, but we were certainly enjoying ourselves when we hit problems on Stretes. The car seemed to be going pretty well, but the engine was starting to sound a bit fruity.

On the road down to Honiton we realised something was wrong as it was making a horrible noise. We stopped but couldn’t find anything wrong. We had a good look at all the machinery in the car park at Exeter Services but could find nothing amiss. The exhaust was in one piece, the timing was OK, we even took the valve covers off and checked the tappets. We found one at 22 thou instead of six, closed it up a bit, and pressed on. The long dual carriageway stretch down to Tillerton revealed that something was very wrong. I was all for retiring but the disappointed look on Simon’s face when I mentioned it made me press on. We finished by driving on a very light throttle on the road and only opening it up on the hills, to the accompaniment of the most horrible noise.

We had a great evening and limped home the next day to more and more noise, and less and less power. I had already decided to fit a new engine that was waiting in Murray MacDonald’s lock-up, but was still interested to know what was wrong. It turned out that one of the studs securing the exhaust to the head had sheered and the exhaust gasket had blown completely away!

It wasn’t that much later that I had my first trials retirement since I broke the diff on my Mini at a PCT in the early seventies. It was on the Edinburgh that finished so late, I think it was the first Laurie Knight event. I had spent some time prettying the car up before the event, even painting the wheels, and it looked very nice. Everything was fine on the run up to Derbyshire but on the descent down to Putwell I heard a distinct knocking from the rear on the over run. A ra-a-tat-tat, just like a CV joint on its way out in my Mini days. There was a big queue for Putwell and I slipped underneath to peer intelligently at the drive-shafts, nothing appeared amiss so we pressed on. The noise got worse and worse as the day went on and the trial got later and later. It was gone six in the evening when we came down the exit road from Haggside, the weather wasn’t very good and we had a couple of sections to go, including Litton Slack. The noise was really loud now, we had failed a couple of sections, so there was going to be no medal and we retired rather than risk being stuck with a broken drive shaft at he bottom of Litton late at night.

In those days, the Edinburgh finished at The Haddon Hall. We were staying there and got in for dinner at about eight, quite late but not as bad as the last competitor, David Alderson, who arrived just before midnight!

The following morning we thought about calling the RAC, but decided to try and limp home under out own steam. I was convinced one of the UJ’s had gone and was already planning a quick change as soon as I got home, for we were entered in The Ebworth Chase the following Saturday. We made it back to Bedfordshire to the sound of really loud knocking as soon as the car was off load. The Beetle was promptly up on the axle stands to change the drive shafts. Damn, forgot to undo the wheel nuts, not much hope but lets see if they will come off with the wheels in the air. Oh dear, all the wheel nuts are loose!

What had happened of course is I has painted the wheels with Hammerite, did the nuts up over the paint and they slackened off after a hundred miles or so. A hard lesson.

The only other time I have retired the Beetle was at a Brickhill PCT. If memory serves me, right this was the first event after the big changes in Falcon when all the disgruntled “SODS” joined us. Anyway, Mike Furse was Clerk of the Course and he had a special test, which involved driving forward down hill, stopping and reversing back up. I had the family in the car and wanted to put on a show. We went flying down, I dipped the clutch, slammed it in reverse and it immediately jumped out of gear. Nothing would persuade it to stay in reverse and as something had clearly broken inside, I decided to call it a day. We stayed to take some pictures and drove gingerly home. I hadn’t had this box very long, it was a 1300 with a low ratio and I had recently had it rebuilt because it wouldn’t stay in reverse! Anyway, I had apparently bent some selector fork or other. Rather than repair it I got another box part exchange, but I never took the old one back and it’s still in my garage as a spare at the cost of a lost deposit.

Apart from punctures, I then had a long trouble free period while out on events. Not that there was no work on the car. Another new engine came along, again curtsy of Murray MacDonald. This was a 1300, putting the beetle in class four, escaping many of the dreaded re-starts that organisers had introduced to subdue the performance of the type 4 monsters. I had fitted yet another gearbox, not because there was anything the matter with the other one, but I wanted an ultra low final drive and a 4-planet diff. Then of course there was the endless work on the body, doing battle with the tin worm and straightening out the inevitable dents. Things became a bit more serious when the body started to crease at the back over the wheel arches, necessitating a lot of work to pull it out and brace it to keep it in place as best I could. The bracing bars ran under the engine so I could no longer use the Trekker “bootscraper” skid plate that was bolted direct to the crankcase. A large sheet of upturned chequer plate replaced this. All this reduced the ground clearance so I had to raise the suspension even more to compensate. I had to grind a bit off the bottom of the spring plate’s to give some suspension movement which means the CV joints bind upon full droop!

All of this of course took place in the garage rather than on the road. All the more surprising then when we had a very strange problem on the 2000 Allen Trial. It started on a road section quite early in the event. There was a funny pulling feeling at the back, as if one of the brakes had come on. It only lasted a second. I tried all the brakes, everything seemed OK and we pressed on. A little later, after Guys Hill, it happened again, in a more pronounced fashion. This time I thought we had a puncture so we stopped and hopped out but there didn’t appear to be a problem. The truth came after Burledge. We had an honourable attempt at the hill but bellied out when we ran out of ground clearance at the top. We were about to reverse down but we were only a few yards from the summit so a Land Rover backed down to haul us out. I hauled on the handbrake to stop us rolling back and it just kept coming!

We stopped and had a good think. Clearly something had broken but it was out of site inside the drum and at a couple of hundred ft-lbs of torque I couldn’t take it off to have a look inside. We knew there weren’t any horrid reverse back down hills ahead so we pressed on with the handbrake working only on one wheel. The footbrake seemed to work OK and all seemed well apart from the occasional horrible graunching noise from the back when whatever it was got stuck between the linings and the drum!

We finished the event and drove carefully home. When I took the brakes apart, the following weekend I saw that the clip holding the handbrake arm pivot pin had fallen out, as had the pin itself. With the arm detached from the shoe, the handbrake didn’t work although the hydraulic footbrake did. The offending components were still inside the drum, but in a bit of a mess, as were the lining and the drum itself. A quick telephone discussion with Murray MacDonald explained the problem. I had always thought the clip securing the pin was just pushed on and held in place by its springiness, although it never appeared to have very much spring! Not surprising really, as you are supposed to clinch the clip shut and it’s made out of a nice soft material to help you!

I suppose I had been lucky really, as I had been driving around with those clips holding on with a wing and a prayer for the last ten years and although I have religiously stripped and cleaned the brakes every summer I had only ever pushed the clips back on!

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Mike Chatwin wins Classic Clouds

The Stroud Club found a window in the wet weather and although some of the sections were very boggy put on yet another excellent event. Nigel Moss set out to bring the event closer to a “classic format” and the sections had a more natural feel with very little “tree weaving”.

**David Thompson storming Crooked Mustard in his Troll**

Stroud had their usual full entry for their event, which stands alone, no championship, triples or anything at stake, you do this one for it’s own sake. There were a couple of non-starters, including Clive Booth, so second reserve Ian Davis got a run as second reserve.

With Sandfords know longer available Nigel Moss had found a new hill called Crawley for the first section. This was pretty muddy, but there was plenty of grip, so it didn’t pose many problems. Hazel MacDonald wouldn’t agree as she under-steered off into the scenery on the hairpin!

There was a queue for Crooked Mustard and Andrew Brown had to hold later numbers out on the main road for some time. The old section was quite slippery and there was a big step between the second and third corners. Most of the class eight’s got up OK, and a few of the sixes and sevens, but the rest floundered on, or in between, the corners. There were exceptions of course and local man Mark Linforth came out of the top in his Escort. So did Mick Workman in his class seven Imp. Colin Perryman broke a drive shaft on the first corner and dropped nine. However, he managed to repair the Skoda and went on to win class four. Mike Pearson found he had damaged a wheel quite badly and had to stop to hammer it straight.

Rushmire was badly washed out so part of it was used as a down hill special test. The challenge here was to stop on the finish line and this caught out a few including David Heale, Paul Bartleman and Adrian Marfell. Neil Bray broke his gearbox, loosing first and reverse and retired to limp home after a bit of spectating on Nailsworth. Michael Leete was also given a fail, even though he and Mike Hayward were certain they performed the test correctly, perhaps it was for setting such a slow time!

There was a holding control in the lane before the road to prevent a build-up at the foot of Axe, which was causing a few problems this year. It didn’t seem to be causing any PR problems as the lady in the pub at the start was keeping Clerk of the Course Nigel Moss supplied with tea served on a proper cup and saucer! All the rain had made Axe pretty claggy in a couple of places, one just after the start and the other quite near to the top. This caused problems for the lower classes with their lees powerful engines and lower ground clearance. However, the results make interesting reading. Adrian Tucker-Peake went clean in his Front Drive Peugeot but local men Mark Linforth and Mike Hobbs both failed even though they had just cleaned Crooked Mustard! The class 4 Imp’s all failed but Stuart Cairney and Jim Scott were level pegging with local Ian Moss.

There was lots of grip on Nailsworth Ladder and there were very few failures, even amongst the restarting class eight’s. The Ham Mill restart was just after the corner this year, which made it much easier and there were not very many failures. Although it still caught out a few, including Dick Glossop and Ade Welsh in class four, Mark Smiths powerful Beetle and all the class ones apart from Adrian T-P.

**Nathan Camm was disapointed not to win The Ian Moss Trophy for best presented car**

Lunch was taken in the civilised surroundings of the Tesco cafeteria, civilised for us maybe, but I don’t know what the shoppers thought of the muddy triallers and their strange collection of cars! Fred’s Folly was the usual glorious long blast up through the trees, there were special tyre pressure restrictions but no nonsense like restarts to impede progress. It is pretty boggy and rutty up near the top and like Axe you needed a combination of power, ground clearance and a heavy right foot to get through. This caught out both Stuart Cairney and Jim Scott, letting Ian Moss into the lead of the Imp battle.

The trial was to be decided on the next section, a new Catswood, reached after a lovely long drive through the forest below Merve’s Swerve. The Forshew family was in charge here, some of the many regular competitors who were out marshalling, for what must be the strongest trials club in the country. The lower reaches of the hill aren’t a problem, these started after a cross track where there was a restart and a ninety left ninety right, followed by a very steep, muddy gradient which nobody cleaned. Most of the competitive class eights got to the two, but Dudley Sterry failed lower down for a four and I can vouch how hard it is for Dudley to get the narrow tracked J2 up such a section as it won’t go in the ruts! This was also where all the Falcon class eight’s failed, including David Thompson, out for his first trial in his Troll.

Merves Swerve was next on the agenda, a “Clouds favourite! Not for John Bell though as he broke the gearbox on his Escort. Only classes seven and eight had to restart. The challenge for the rest was to crest the slippery big bump on the sharp right hand bend, which defeated all but Nigel Allen in his big engined Beetle. The class sevens all struggled and hot shot Arthur Vowden couldn’t even get away from the restart. Neither could David Thompson who was still adapting his driving style to the Troll. David had been told it wouldn’t trickle and was still to learning how to slip the clutch on the line and blast it! Dudley Sterry, Mike Chatwin and Peter Fear were amongst a select group of class eight’s to come out the top of the section. So was Adrian Marfell who was also one of the few to get away from the muddy restart on Highwood 1. David Thompson got away here as well with only Dudley Sterry and Mike Chatwin joining them to succeed in class eight.

Although there was, a lot of mud there seemed to be a fair amount of grip on both the Highwood sections. However, there was a horrible hump at the top of Highwood 2 and most of the entry bottomed out and faced the horrible task of reversing down carefully or risk a plunge to oblivion. Mike Chatwin cleaned the section, putting him into an unassailable lead. Ian Davis was the only successful Falcon. There was no doubt a short wheelbase helped, as the section turned left after the bump this year and the turn was very tricky.

Cimperswell was a glorious mud bath with a tricky restart with tree roots just waiting too catch out the un-wary. A lot of the class eight’s managed it OK, including David Thompson, but Mike Pearson failed. Apart from the leading class 3’s and Colin Perryman in class four competitors in the lower classes failed on or around the restart. Adrian Tucker-Peake didn’t have to restart in his class one Peugeot but never less must be congratulated for emerging from the Climperswell bog in a forward direction.

There were just the two Bulls Bank sections to complete the day. Hazel MacDonald got away from both of them and would have challenged for second in class if it wasn’t for her mistake on the first section.

Overall Winner	Mike Chatwin (Troll)	2
Class 1	Adrian Tucker-Peake (Peugeot)	33
Class 2	Steve White	16
Class 3	Mark Linfiorth (Escort)	17
Class 4	Colin Perryman (Skoda)	17
Class 5	Andrew Biffen (MGB GT)	74
Class 6	Nigel Allen (VW Beetle)	7
Class 7	Arthur Vowden (Marlin)	14
Class 8	Dudley Sterry (MG J2)	5

2001_cotswold_clouds_results Download

An Exmoor Adventure

Generally I don’t write first person accounts of Trials as I think “Triple” contains more than enough reports of “….and we lost the Milky Bar under the seat on Sugg Lane” variety. However, I hope you will appreciate this report is an exception as it’s about my day passengering with Dudley Sterry on The Exmoor Trial.

**Dudley Sterry and Michael Leete put on their best grins for the photograher**

I had my first experience of trialling in an open car when I passengered Dudley Sterry on The Exmoor. The drive through the breaking dawn from The New Forest up to Barnstaple was of course an experience in itself. This I will write about later! All the class eight’s were running together at the head of the field and we were third car on the road. This meant that apart from a handful of class eight’s and the occasional late biker we saw very few other competitors all day.

Jenny Wren was the first section and we had a long wait, first at a holding control, then at the foot of the section itself, as the bikes were having major problems in the slippery conditions. We heard that Adrian Marfell, who is the current man to beat, didn’t get off the re-start, but when our time came we did. Although all the sections apart from Beggars were new to me none of them held any surprises for Dudley. He knew the class 8 restart was going to be on some slippery slate. His advance strategy was to trickle off, that’s exactly what he did and it worked!

The Hallsinger test was a blast forward, then back and then forward again. Dudley directed me to hang on tight and hold the gear lever in place while we were reversing. All this while trying to keep clear of his flailing arms as they sawed away at the wheel trying to keep the little car in a straight line as we rocketed back and forth. While we were waiting our turn I saw Tony Young knock a marker flying, which according to the route card meant he should not have had a time recorded, but looking at the results he got away with it.

Sepscott 1 and 2 and Snapper 1 and 2 were in a wood and neither posed any problems for Dudley’s J2 although Snapper 1 was a bit hairy where the track was washed away. The worst bit was after the section ends and I should think the lower classes would have had problems getting out the top.

Riverton was reserved for Solo’s and Class 8. This was because the track was badly eroded. The J2 didn’t have any problems although if we had stopped it would have tipped on it’s side we were at such an angle.

We lost our clean sheet on High Bray. It looked easy from the start line but then I couldn’t see what was around the corner! We got of the re-start OK and Dudley tried to drive up the left-hand part of the track, avoiding the “Grand Canyon” on the right. Unfortunately we didn’t quite have enough momentum and the rear slid into the canyon and that was that, well after a spirited attempt to “burn-out” it was! Adrian Dommet went clear and that decided the result of the trial as Adrian Marfell failed to get his Fiat engined rail off the restart.

We were back into another wood at for Pheasants Hill and Lower Mouland, both of which we cleaned easily, although we got a flat front tyre and had to change the tube, which is nice and easy if you don’t have to break the bead! Beggars was a no problem at all. It looked completely different to The Lands End, when the restart area is rough and rocky, whether with doctoring or because it gets cut up by the earlier numbers, or both!

We got a route amendment at Beggars, substituting Lyncombe Bridge with Scoresdown (anybody know why?). This was nice and easy which is more than could be said for the last hill at Floyds Bank, a grassy weave amongst or through the gorse bushes. The J2 didn’t want to steer properly and Dudley couldn’t get it straight enough to attack the last bank so we dropped another couple of marks. I would think this would have been a nightmare for the lower classes.

John Lees came over for a quick chat at the finish then there just remained the matter of the drive back to The New Forest to pick up my Volvo to go back to Bedfordshire. I got home at 9.30 pm having left at 2.45 am. 600 miles in all, two thirds of it in an open car with no hood and no windscreen! A long day but what a fantastic adventure.

I will be honest the trial went much as I expected. Dudley is a very skilled and competitive driver. The car performed magnificently. The engine is beautifully tuned and will pull from almost nothing well into the high fives. The thing that really surprised me was how well it went on the road. Like many of you I guess I have been overtaken on the A303, the little J2 flashing by in a red blur, but this didn’t prepare me for just how well it performs on tarmac. The engine is extremely tractable at low revs and is very smooth as the speed increases to far beyond what the boys in blue are prepared turn a turn a blind eye to. We went along the A35, which has got a lot of long sweeping bends that the J2 handled with ease. Later Dudley showed me the modern suspension tweeks, all carefully hidden away so they don’t disturb the period look.

The class eights are certainly a varied lot. Some of them look a bit rough and there are some pretty weird contraptions that don’t look particularly road worthy no matter how well they go on the hills. Like Dudley I am anti-trailer and my view is that classic trial competitors should drive their cars to and from events. If this were ever to become a rule I am sure some of the stranger machines would disappear which (imho) would be good for the image of the sport.

Overall Car	Adrian Dommett (Ford 100E Special)	0
Class 1	P. Allaway (Vauxhall Astra)	34
	D. Symons (Citeron AX)	58
Class 2	Bill Bennett (MG J2)	22
Class 3	Dave Turner (BMW)	7
	C. Jeffery (Escort)	9
	Harvey Waters (Escort)	10
	Emma Flay (Escort)	11
Class 4	Giles Greenslade (VW Beetle)	13
	Bill Rosten (Imp)	25
	Jim Scott (Sunbeam Stilletto)	32
	J. Mildrew (Skoda 136)	45
Class 6	T. Johns (VW Beetle)	12
Class 7	Arthur Vowden (Marlin)	2
	Roger Ugalde (Allard J2)	5
	Roger Bricknell (Vincent)	11
Class 8	Tony Young (VW Special)	4
	Dudley Sterry (MR J2)	5
	Peter Fear (Dingo)	5
	J. Blight (TKP)	8
Overall Bike	C. Lidstone (Yamaha Serow)	2
Class A1	R. Gerring (Kawasaki KMX)	5
Class A2	S. Sandford (Hind XLS)	16
Class B	Mike Maddocks (Honda XL500S)	28
Class C	Tom Beckerleg (Areial)	16
Class E	M. Crocker/T.Griffiths (Yamaha XS)	11

2001_exmoor_results_route Download

Cancelled Clee

Snow caused the cancellation of this years Midland Automobile Club Clee Hills Trial

Competitors leave the start at The Boyne Arms, but the route led home rather than to the first section as “The Clee” was snowed off.

The weather was reasonably clear for most competitors travelling to Shropshire for The Clee Hills Trial. There was a little light snow but it wasn’t settling and they were looking forward to a good day. However, once they passed thorough Bridgenorth and started the climb to the start at Burwarton the snow started to settle and several who were trailering their pride and joy had problems getting up some of the hills.

By the time the first cars arrived at the start Clerk of the Course Simon Woodall had already re-routed the trail to avoid The Long Mynd and Barbera Selkirk issued amended directions bypassing sections three to six. The start was delayed by 30 minutes while Simon went out to inspect the route and it wasn’t long before he phoned in to say the lanes and byways had so much snow that he had no option but to cancel the trial.

So it was home for an early bath for the early numbers. As they descended the hills back towards Bridgenorth they passed later numbers who were still on their way to the trial who must have been very confused why so many people were going the wrong way!

Exeter 2001

The MCC ran a truly excellent Exeter Trial over the first weekend in January. There were two new early morning sections and the weather was just right and all the hills were in prime condition, although one or two were a bit on the rough side!

With all the bad weather between Christmas and New Year the Exeter organisers had an anxious Christmas. But by the Friday the snow had gone and the hills were in prime condition.

**Fred Gregory easing his Dutton Melos off the Passaford Lane re-start on a cold January dawn.**

DRAMA BEFORE THE START

There were a few notable non-starters. Ian Blackburn had been under the weather for a while and wasn’t able to get his Singer ready, or help Kevin Barnes prepare his, for what would have been Kevin’s first competitive MCC event. As it happens with Tillerton and Slippery Sam being so rough this may have been no bad thing!

We were also deprived of seeing Alan Bellamy’s unique Brasilia. Alan decided not to start with only 10 psi in his new dry sumped motor. David Alderson sold his ACTC championship winning Troll just before Christmas, but didn’t want to miss out, so he and John Boswell wheeled out son Liam’s ex Graham Brasier 1303 Beetle, complete with type 4 motor. Unfortunately the car had been the victim of some dodgy preparation in the past and one of the wheels parted company with it’s hub on the way to Cirencester, so they were relegated to spectating.

Fred Gregory made it to Popham, but not without drama. One of the sealed beam light units went on the blink on the way to the start. Not to worry, as Fred and Pete Stafford were carrying a complete spare. However, when they put it in that wasn’t working either! Thinking there was a problem with the wiring they swapped the good one over and it worked fine so the trouble was clearly with the units themselves. The predicament was that it was going to be pretty difficult to find a sealed beam unit at half past nine on a Friday night. But Fred and Pete didn’t intend to miss their weekend. Calling in at a garage they managed to convince the cashier behind a locked grille that they wanted a headlight bulb. Pete then carefully knocked the back of the sealed beam unit and our intrepid pair tank taped their precious bulb in place to make the start, albeit a bit late.

In class 7 both Pete Hart and John Salter had problems even before the action started. Neither car had been used for a while, and both played up in protest. John’s Vincent refused to run properly whatever he did to it. Finally, having to decided to give the trial a miss, he just threw it back together and gave one last turn of the key to drive it back in the garage. Low and behold, it purred sweetly into action, although as things were to transpire it was only lulling him into a false sense of security!

MORE DRAMA BEFORE BREAKFAST

Pete and Carlie hadn’t used their Marlin in anger since last years Lands End. All was well on the way to the start but the problems started once they had left Popham. The engine died in the middle of a roundabout and the crew had to push it some way to work on it safety. They managed to get going and limp to the Haynes museum. En-Route Carlie realised her handbag wasn’t in the car. They were about to retrace their steps when Pete decided to stop and ring Carlies mobile. It was answered by Patrick Osbourne’s passenger, as the Citeron 2CV crew had found it in the middle of the road and reunited it with it’s rightful owner at the Tintinhull breakfast halt. Who says trials are no longer an adventure!

Verdun Webley made the start OK but the Scruitineer at Tintinhull took exception to his new tyres and the Marlin continued under the threat of the MCC version of a Stewards enquiry. Barry Topgood’s Burlington Arrow was another car to spend a lot of time in the scruitineering bay, presumably it’s huge six bolt wheels infringed some rule or other.

THE ACTION BEGINS IN BOVEY WOODS

The field finally arrived at Gatcombe Lane on a clear dry night. With very limited gradient this opening hill didn’t pose any problems, so it was on into Bovey woods for the start of the real action. Normans Hump is long and dead straight. The recent wet weather had made nice and muddy but there was plenty of grip underneath. Class 8’s had it easy this year, as their restart was on the cross track along with the yellows, allowing them a nice run at the hump itself. This is defiantly not Stuart Cairney’s favourite hill as once again the Imp bogged down on the steep bit just before the section ends board. This is certainly a deceptive hill, it looks pretty slippy but there is usually bags of grip, and the penalty for going too low on the tyre pressures is to come off the cam if you loose momentum, which spells disaster for those of us with peaky engines.

Clinton, marshalled by Falcon Motor Club, whose crew included Barrie Parker the RAC/MSA PCT Champion, was the long version, with the re-start situated in the same place as the start was located last year. This years start was further down the hill, which meant competitors failing on the lower reaches had to be hauled up to the first cross track. When the long hill was used a couple of years ago Falcon had a super four wheel drive tractor allocated to them which made mince meat of the job. This year they were given an old two-wheel drive affair, over thirty years old, with a dodgy gearbox. This made life pretty difficult for the driver, who I believe is one of the Flay family, and with around a third of the entry having to be towed up he couldn’t avoid digging some pretty deep ruts. This made life more difficult for competitors causing even more to fail as time went on.

Neil Bray came out of the top, but with a puncture, the first of many as usual! Stuart Cairney wasn’t so lucky as the Imp just didn’t have the power to get up the gradient on the lower slope. The Pop team lost their leader here when Tommy Kalber broke his half shaft just after the restart. He had a spare but wasn’t able to get the broken bit out of the Fack Diff and retired.

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

Waterloo had a lot of loose stuff on the hill this year, causing problems for David Haizelden who failed on the lower reaches. Neil Bray got up OK but at the expense of another puncture. Verdun Webley was having problems with his lights and stopped in a garage forecourt to fix them. Neil Bray also stopped there to change his two ruined tubes and Dave Nash had to remind him that it was still night time and attacking the bent wheel rims with a club hammer was likely to disturb the neighbours!

At Stretes there was a long climb up the old section to a special test that started just as the hill flattens out at the top. It was a nice simple special test. Just flat out and stop aside line B. No taxing of the brain cells so early in the morning!

NEW SECTIONS AT SIDMOUTH

Normally the route goes north up to Honiton after Stretes but not this year. It was south down the A375, to loop back through Sidford and into the woods just West of Sidmouth, for two super new hills, Bulverton Steep and Passaford Lane. They were both similar in character. Start on the level with a blind ninety right immediately after the start, after which came the gradient, although you couldn’t see it from the line! There was a solid surface somewhere deep down but a fair old layer of mud covered it. Some ruts developed but basically nothing too damaging.

Just like Clinton and Waterloo the blind bends caught out a few competitors including Richard Tompkins and John Salter both of whom approached the corner with too much caution and didn’t have enough momentum to cope with the gradient.

Passaford Lane had a relatively gentle re-start for the yellows and Reds just before a final hillock at the top. Although they didn’t have to stop this hillock caused a few heart-stopping moments for some of the front wheel drive brigade as there was no recovery in sight and it was an awful long way if they had to reverse back down! Dudley Sterry had problems of a different kind on Passaford Lane when his bonnet strap got caught on a protruding branch and ripped right away, necessitating Darren Baker making a fair old hike to retrieve it once the MG got to the top.

RETIREMENTS AT EXETER SERVICES

There was no fettling allowed at Exeter Services and early entries got there well ahead of schedule. Plenty of time to catch up on all the gossip for some. But not for Tony Branson. The Marlin was becoming increasingly difficult to start, so he nipped off to the local Industrial Estate to work on the car. All seemed well and Tony and Sally Bolam continued, only to have to retire on the M5 slip road. Stuart Cairney had also run out of sparks and retired. The distributor was red hot, the advance/retard had seized and the electronic ignition cooked its goose. It ran after a fashion once it cooled down and Stuart went down to spectate on Simms.

TILLERTON ROCKS TEST TRANSMISSIONS AND SUMP-GUARDS

There was the usual queue on the approach road to Tillerton, even for the early numbers. The hill itself was pretty rough, as all the loose material had been washed away, leaving some large, awfully solid rock steps. The yellows and reds had it easy in a way as they had to stop here. The lower powered brigade were allowed to go straight through and had the dilemma of whether they should go through gently and risk bogging down or loosing grip, or building momentum and risk damaging the underside of the car.

David Heale chose the momentum way, necessitating a bit of club hammer work on the rear wings at the top where the body had distorted. There were a few broken transmissions as well. Alan Grassham broke the axle on his MG PB and was last seen taking the floor out trying to fix it. Richard Tompkins had his transaxle let go in a big way and with no way to fix it left his Imp at the foot of the hill till the next day so he could join his Falcon clubmates for the club supper in the evening.

While most of the competitive blues and whites could, blast their way over the boulders if they were brave, or stupid, enough things weren’t so clear cut for the restarting yellows and reds. It was very critical where you stopped. Tillerton has always been Fred Gregory’s problem hill, but this year he and Pete Stafford positioned the Melos in exactly the right place and pulled smoothly away. Clive Booth had been having a good run up until now. There was an unfamiliar face in the passenger seat. Regular bouncer John Allsop was not available for family reasons, so James (VW Fugitive) Lindsay was substituting. Young and energetic he may be, but James couldn’t bounce the Dellow Rep off the re-start. Clive dropped back six inches, still within the box and just drove away. Yes it was all to do with positioning and quite a few were to be caught out, including David Thompson and Mike Pearson.

WOOSTONS STEEP!

After Fingle came Wooston Steep, where Mike Pearson made up for his disappointment on Tillerton and was first out the top, closely followed by David Thompson. Pete and Carlies Marlin was running like a train and they romped to the top, the first class seven car to clean the section. John Salters Vincent had been running a bit rough ever since Tillerton and gave up the ghost here when it lost most of its power in a cloud of smoke just after the restart. John carried onto to get a finish by voluntarily stopping just after the start line on the remaining hills. Keith Sanders was a bit luckier and came out of the top in his Rickman Ranger. However, a few miles up the road he lost drive when the prop came out of the gearbox when one of the “U” bolts securing the back axle broke. Several competitors stopped to help, notably Mike Warnes, Clive Kalber and Harvey (jump the queue on Hoskin) Waters. They got the Ranger mobile, but Keith was another who decided to retire and do some spectating on Simms.

**Geoff May about to tackle Wooston Steep**

SHATTERED DREAMS AT SIMMS

The trial was drawing to a close now, but there were still some formidable obstacles to come. A tremendous crowd of spectators greeted competitors and they were not to be disappointed. The old hill was in fine form, climbable, but certainly not suffering fools gladly. There were two elements in a successful climb. Momentum and going up the right track, which popular opinion reckoned was the middle this year.

The Dellow Reps of Clive Booth and Mike Pearson both failed but David Thompson and Ian Davies crested the summit with ease in their VW Buggies, in front of some distinguished spectators. These included PCT ace Mike Stephens and MSA head honcho John Quenby, who is still putting his MG back together after it’s trip across Houndkirk Moor on the Edinburgh. Simms was to break its usual quota of hearts though and Michael Leete and Pete Hart were among those that lost their clean sheets here.

A couple of the three wheelers had problems. Clive Cooke broke the transmission of The Old Spot Piglett and Sue and Paul Davey had a double roll in their Citeron Special when they lost control reversing back down. A spectating Stuart Cairney was impressed by the class eights of Stuart Harrold and Dudley Sterry, both for the noise they made on full throttle and the height they flew over the bumps on their way to clean climbs. He makes special award to Clive Booth who managed to slip backwards at least fifteen feet while the wheels wee still driving forward! However, the unanimous vote for “best entertainer” was Bill Foreshew, who managed to get three feet up the left bank, then three foot up the right bank, without lifting off, to clean the section while the spectators fled for their lives!

STING IN THE TAIL

All to soon the field arrived at the final Hill on the outskirts of Torquay. Higher Gabwell for the Boys and Slippery Sam for the Girls. Actually Slippery Sam was pretty rough this year. It had been resurfaced some time in the last few months. It wasn’t to bad at the bottom but the loose material became bigger and bigger as the summit beckoned and the contractor had dumped a load of dinosaur eggs art the top where the restart was positioned adjacent to a deep washed out gully. Most competitors choose the eggs, which reeked havoc on their undersides.

Over on Higher Gabwell the yellows were allowed a clean run but the poor old reds had to restart and again it was very critical where you stopped. Clive Booth got it right but Mike Pearson was among the many who failed.

At the Torquay finish, popular opinion was that it was a good Exeter. OK Tillerton and the last hill were a bit rough, probably far to rough for newcomers but just about acceptable to the regulars. The two new hills were great, filling a normally boring middle section of the trial.

2001_exeter_results Download

Adrian Marfell Wins Allen Trial on Special Tests

There were 12 clean sheets on this years Allen Trial so the overall winner and three of the classes were decided on the two special tests, both of which put a premium on reversing skills. This played into the hands of Adrian Marfell, with his famous head out the side style, and he emerged the easy winner. OK, the result wasn’t decided on the hills, but this was a brilliant Allen Trial, despite the loss of a couple of old favourite hills. The weather was reasonably kind and the organisers were rewarded by a wonderfully varied entry, including a magnificent old two stroke Trojan.

Adrian Marfell, hanging out the side to see the road ahead in his usual style, approaching the re-start on Burledge on his way to winning The Allen Trial (picture by Murray MacDonald)

Falcon’s Mike Massey Memorial Trophy winners Clive Booth and John Allsop led the field away from the Crown Inn at 8.30 sharp on a mild day. The autumn rain and storms had caused problems though and Pete Hart had to take Big Uplands out of the route, when he found all the water that had been running down the section had washed most of the track away. This was a shame as the trial has also lost Elwell, another favourite, because of resurfacing a few years ago.

Tog Hill was first on the agenda, after a last minute diversion to avoid some flooded roads. This is quite easy these days, since some resurfacing was done a few years ago, removing the big bump that put such a huge dent in one of my new floor pans! Anyway, this one didn’t trouble the scorer as they say, so it was right onto the A420, down the hill and past the Texaco garage. No drink for thirsty motor cars though, as it was all shuttered up, with builders working on a refurbishment.

Bitton Lane was next. This is the one with the tricky re-start, cunningly positioned on a left hand bend where the polished stones evilly glint in the light as you approach, warning of the challenge to come! Actually it wasn’t so bad this year, claiming only a couple of victims, including ACTC Rights of Way officer and Stroud Anniversary Trial organiser, Andrew Brown in his Marlin. The route emerged onto a busy A4175 to skirt the edge of urban Bristol, crossing the delightful river Avon into the town of Keysham. Does this ring a bell with you older triallers? Well, remember when you used to listen to radio Luxembourg under the bedclothes and the music was interrupted by Horace Bachelor with his ad for the scheme that would win you a fortune on the football pools? You sent your Postal Order to “box something or other, Keynsham, that’s K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M”. Don’t knock it, you can learn something here on Classical Gas, best value on the Internet, you get what you pay for!

No Big Uplands this year, so it was onto Guys, which didn’t trouble any of us girls who didn’t have to re-start. It put Mike Hobbs into the class six lead though, as his opposition both struggled on the re-start. Ace Beetle fettler Nigel Allen crawled to the five but bead breaker maker John Looker moved hardly at all on those smooth stones. Most of the class seven aces got away OK, including Classical gasser Mal Allen but poor old Tim Lakin stuttered to a halt after a tremendous tyre smoking attempt. It was pretty tough for the class eight’s as well and 12 of the 21 hot shoes failed, including notables such as Adrian Dommett and Stuart Harrold. Perhaps you could have to much power as there were great cleans by Clive Booth in the 1300 Dellow Rep and Iain Daniels in the Rebel TS with it’s little 700cc motor. Clean or fail there’s no way out the top of Guys these days, so it was back down to the start and through the field to the road. The rain showers had started by now and this could be a slip-sliding affair if you weren’t careful.

**Eric Wall catches up on his sleep as Dudley Sterry eases of the re-start to glide serenely to the summit and another clean sheet. (pictures by John Salter)**

Competitors relaxed a little on the way to Sandy Lane, as this is one of The Allen’s easier hills. Michael Leete stopped to investigate a funny feeling from the back, which felt like a tyre going down. Nothing appeared amiss but this was to re-occur later and looking back was the first warning of a mechanical problem. Did I say Sandy Lane was easy, well not this year? It was quite wet by now and the re-start was very muddy. As there is no bottom to the section it was quite tricky and got more so as the holes got deeper and deeper. Everyone had to re-start here. The classes ones were probably quite apprehensive about this but they needn’t have worried as they could get their driven wheels up steam of the holes and all but Paul Allaway got away. It caught a lot of the rest of us though. Percentage wise the class three’s fared worse and in class two Stephen Potter incurred his only fail of the day in the wonderful Trojan. The hill also spoilt David Thompson’s clean sheet, despite some frenetic bouncing from Hazel MacDonald, enjoying her first outing in an open car.

The Strode section was nice and easy but it saw the end of John Parsons trial when the big Westfield nudged the bank at the end and broke a wishbone on his front suspension. The Allen is not John’s lucky trial as I think it’s the third retirement in the last three outings. A special test followed, just up the track. A blind round a ninety right, through a big muddy puddle, all four wheels over line B then reverse back again. David Heale was fastest, completing the section in an un-believable 17.6 seconds in his Escort Estate.

The re-start on Travers caught the unwary yellows and reds, including Anthony Young, big wheels and all! Martin Jones was struggling with a very sick engine in the ex-Vowden VW Variant Special and had to retire just up the road. Martin wasn’t that surprised as this was a thrown together motor after the pukka job seized up on the last event. The whites and yellows could drive straight through and the section wasn’t too much of a problem if you maintained plenty of momentum over the loose stones and rocks just after the re-start. However, they caused a problem for Neil Bray who blew a tyre, changed the wheel only for that to go flat as well.

Lunch was taken, as usual, at the Chew Valley lake picnic area, where there was plenty of time to relax as the trial was running well to time. Neil Bray soon had his inner tubes changed with the help of Dave Nash, who would be in the Guinness book of records for the job if they had such a category! There wasn’t much else happening on the mechanical side, although the Trojan crew took time out to oil their drive chain.

**Adrian and Andrew Tucker-Peake confer on how better that man Haizelden. They got a clean sheet but lost out on the special tests.**

Burledge was interesting this year. The rain had washed all the mud away from the lower reaches, so the rocks were exposed and there was plenty of grip here. Yellows and Reds had a re-start at the bottom of the straight gully. This caused a few problems, particularly for Peter Fear who got penalised for jumping the re-start flag. This is where the ruts started and they were quite bad this year, becoming deeper and deeper towards the top. Apart from the re-start these were the deciding factor. A spectaing Murray MacDonald said that you knew if a car would come out the top by how they went over the big bump on the left hander. Anyone who bashed their bottom here would bottom out their belly up at the top. This was the fate befalling about a third of the entry. Things became more difficult as time went on. The Range Rover towing the failures out of the top was backing down into the section to hook up, and the driver hadn’t been to classes on throttle control, making the holes deeper and deeper as time went on. The other organisational problem on Burledge was that failures that came back down the hill had to go over the village green to get past the queue, which made quite a mess. This was a shame, but there wasn’t much chief official Nigel Moss could do about it without establishing some form of holding control well before the section.

Nanny Hurns was a combined special test and section. Pete Hart taking the opportunity to sub-divide the tricky bit over the bump to help sort a result. The special test bit was very similar to Strode. Forward round a corner and reverse back. Adrian Marfell won the trial here, setting a time of 15.2, nearly a second quicker than his nearest rival. Most of the yellows and reds went clean and so did all the class ones and the Trojan! The three’s, four’s and five’s all struggled and Neil Bray was the only one of the lot to come out the top. This was where some of the results were decided though. John Bell went one mark better than Paul Eamer to claim class three. Colin Perryman got to the two but because he had dropped one on Burledge it bought him level with Giles Greenslade and Jim Scott. The class going to Giles in the Nigel Allen prepared Beetle by being 0.1 seconds quicker on the special tests!

The trial was drawing to a close now. As things were running on time competitors were able to do Mill Lane in the light. Nobody failed but that doesn’t matter. This is a lovely long hill. The locals enter into the spirit and a guy at the top has an airline available outside his house for competitors to pump-up. The section wasn’t kind to Skoda tyres with both Philip Mitchell and Neil Bray knocking out sidewalls on the same rock.

Competitors wound their way through Bath alongside Gods Wonderful Railway on their way to Stony Hill, which started just off the A4. There was plenty of grip but there were a few failures on the restart. Michael Leete’s handbrake had disappeared by now. The problem after Guys had been an early warning of something breaking inside the drum and with no socket cable of undoing a couple of hundred foot lbs of torque Michael had carried on to the sound of much graunching. All this meant the Beetle slipped back on the restart. The section wasn’t kind to Mick Workman in the Ford engined Imp either and he broke something in the driveline.

**Mark and Will Rosten-Edwards coming out the top of Mill Lane.**

John Walker rounded off the day. It was in prime condition, nice and muddy and a glorious thrash. It wasn’t a formality though. The water at the bottom caught out Neil Bray and he stuttered to a halt before the crossroads. Stuart Cairney didn’t fair much better. Stuart went a bit to fast to soon and when the right hand front wheel dipped into a rut the Imp got sucked into the muddy bank and came to a halt just before the cross track. The class eight’s didn’t have too much trouble but don’t say that to Bill Foreshew who incurred a fail with the Fiat engined GVS Mk 2.

That rounded off another magnificent Allen Trial. OK with the terrain available it will probably always be necessary for the special tests to sort out the results amongst the super stars. For the rest of us it is a superb event, with everything, apart from the deviation on nanny Hurns, on real tracks and roads. Pete, Carlie, Mark and Tim were rewarded by a truly diverse entry; long may they continue with the event in this format. Well done Adrian Marfell and a special message for Stephen Potter, please bring the Trojan back next year!

1st Overall	The Allen Trophy	Adrian Marfell (Buggy)	0
Best Navigator	The Bob Wood Trophy	J. Paterson
Class 1	The Henly Trophy	David Haizelden (VW Golf GTi)	0
Class 2	The Woodberry Chillcott Trophy	Bill Bennett (MG J2)	0
Class 3	The Bryan Brothers Trophy	John Bell (Excort RS 2000)	4
Class 4	The Renwicks Trophy	Giles Greenslade (VW Beetle)	3
Class 5	The Rumsey Trophy	Rob Cull (MG Midget)	4
Class 6	The Highland Circle Trophy	Mike Hobbs (VW Beetle)	0
Class 7	The Rootes Trophy	Arthur Vowden (Marlin)	0

2000_allen_results_route_report Download

The Exmoor Clouds

For as long as most people can remember the Clouds has been based at the Minehead Barbarians rugby club. This year, however, the event started and finished at the Ralegh’s Cross Inn, high up on Exmoor. This new venue was chosen partly because it could offer hot food and drink and partly because for the last few years there has been a cycling event starting and finishing at the rugby club on the day of the trial. You can imagine the organisers’ surprise when they found out that the Ralegh’s Cross Inn was being used as the headquarters for a huge (1,000+ riders) mountain bike orienteering event on the same weekend as the trial!

When Dick Hutchings and other members of Minehead MC were marking the sections out on the day before the trial they discovered to their horror that not only were the mountain bikers using the pub but most of his sections as well. Luckily on the day of the trial the mountain bikers had moved on to other areas and we saw very little of them on the trial itself.

47 motorbikes and nearly 60 cars started the trial this year, more than in previous years when the trial’s rough, tough reputation has probably kept entries down. Although this is deepest Troll country you wouldn’t have known it as the only one entered (that of fellow Falconer Dave Alderson) didn’t start. Where have they all gone? Instead, Class 8 looked like a meeting of the buggy owner’s club with 9 of the 19 vehicles in this class being VW based! With the exception of the escort boys in class 3 the saloon entries were pretty thin on the ground with only Nigel Allen turning out in class 6.

With a different start venue we also got a new route; although it featured mostly the same hills as in 1998 and 1999 they all appeared in a different order. The first hill for the bikes and classes 6, 7 & 8 was Steep Lane with a restart for class 8. The hill itself was fairly straightforward but the route to it down a steep grassy field was very slippery.

The next section for us was Port Lane. To my mind this is one of the best sections on the entire trials calendar; a long, sunken lane with deep mud, ruts and a huge rock slab near the top. Thanks to the heavy rain in the preceding weeks, much of the usual mud had been washed down the hill and into the village at the bottom. Although there was plenty of grip this year the resulting gullies meant that only solos and Class 8 were allowed to tackle the section.

Following an ‘impossible’ restart for classes 7 & 8 in 1998, Northmoor seems to have got progressively easier. The section itself was followed by the first special test which involved a quick blast round a corner to line B, a short reverse over line C and a longer forward section around a tree and over a bump to stop astride line D. I’m not sure if it was the mist or the reversing that caused confusion here but quite a few lost their way and failed to record a time. As the stop watch was giving the time-keeper some trouble the car in front of us got two attempts at the test. We thought we’d ask for another go if we didn’t record a fast time but the timekeeper told us that we had done the best time so far so we didn’t argue!

A few miles further on and we joined the queue for South Hill. Although not that steep, once away from the start (on tarmac), the section was very slippery with a deep rut on the right at about the 7 marker and a tight hairpin just before the restart. The rut seemed to attract quite a few cars and once in, it must have taken some effort to get out of again.

There was also quite a deep gully by the side of the road, as Thomas Bricknell found out when he parked his dad’s Vincent in it, leaving the offside wheel at a very peculiar angle and the diff on the ground. Judging by the look on Roger’s face as he ran back up the road it may be some time before we see Thomas behind the wheel of this trials car again…as the results show though, the Vincent seems to like this treatment as Roger finished a fine fourth overall. Charlie Shopland (first gear again – modification on its way) and Arthur Vowden were less fortunate and both retired here.

Ski Slope was next and only those who haven’t seen it will be wondering why it is so named. Dead straight and formidably steep, this section was to take points off all but 3 car entrants although most bikes cleaned it OK. Classes 1-5 tackled the hill non-stop (in theory) whilst 6 & 7 had a restart on the steepest part of the track. We were lucky enough to see one of the few clears as Nigel Allen blasted the big Beetle off the restart to clear the hill impressively. The class 8 restart was situated on slippery grass to the side of the track and although a few heroes got out of the ruts, over the bank and onto the restart line, none managed to clear it and get back to the main track.

A bit downhearted at losing our first points of the day, we moved on to Pin Quarry which we usually manage to get up. Each year the hill takes a different route and this year after a blind start on a stony track the hill turned sharp left and up a steep muddy bank. We didn’t give it quite enough right foot and ended up stuck at the 8 marker. Five other class 8 cars cleaned the section but for the rest of the field 9’s and 10’s were the order of the day.

If not enough right foot was the problem at Pin Quarry, too much was definitely our downfall on the 7^th section, Allercott, and after fishtailing from side to side across the hill we ended up all crossed up at the 2 marker. Due to the heavy rain the muddy dip was bypassed this year and the section started fairly flat before turning left and becoming steeper and more rutted.

The classes divided after Allercott, with solo’s and class 8 going straight on to a new section called Muddlecombe and the rest heading off for Ewart’s Pickle (aka Slade Lane). When I first saw this in the route card it seemed odd as Ewart’s Pickle is usually one of the roughest sections on the trial but Dick Hutchings explained later on that the council had recently graded the section with loose chippings (it is a RUPP). We didn’t see the hill itself but the results show that this was the only hill not to claim a point from a single competitor.

All classes met up again for section 9, Muddlecombe. This section was a late substitute for Middlecombe woods as the woodland was hosting a motorcross event which had been postponed by the fuel crisis in late September, hence the name. Entry to the section required traversing a steep grassy field, which proved as much of a challenge to some as the section itself! Adrian Dommett and Dave Hazelden were just two who suffered punctures on the adverse camber. After a sharp right hairpin the section climbed steeply up the side of the hill behind Land’s End section Hindon, with a surface of slippery grass and bracken. Only two cleans were achieved, by Dudley Sterry and Roger Bricknell.

It was only a few yards down the lane to the next section, the aforementioned Hindon, with the usual slippery grass at the top and restart for classes 6, 7 & 8. Aville Ball followed shortly after and, although the route directions to it were more straightforward this year than last, someone had removed a direction marker within the woods. Very helpful! This is another very long hill, steep and slippery towards the end with a restart for solo’s and 8’s at the top under the trees. The bikes really struggled on this one with only eventual winners Michael Crocker and Trevor Griffiths getting up it on their Yamaha outfit. Although most 7’s and 8’s got up, only three saloons did so – the escorts of Tommy Kalber and Philip Roberts and Nigel Allen’s big-engined Beetle.

Vinegar Hill, another steep forestry section, also caused the bikes quite a few problems although most cars managed to get through OK.

With the night starting to draw in we moved on to the special test at Maddocks which must be one of the longest and most enjoyable around (especially for pretend rally drivers). We were determined to record a fast time here, as this is where Tony Young won the overall award from us last year. We got to the top in just over 29 seconds and were quite pleased with that (although it didn’t mean a lot as we had by now dropped more points than in the previous three years put together). The timekeeper told us that the fastest time was under 27 seconds and then added ‘he was flying’. He must have been! Not surprisingly, ‘he’ turned out to be Tony Young and fast special test times again won him the overall award from fellow ‘Big Wheeler’ Adrian Dommet.

Just down the road was Druids, which this year was for bikes and car classes 6, 7 & 8 only due to the deep, deep muddy ruts. Those with good ground clearance generally got to the restart at the 6 marker and then sank, those with less clearance grounded out further down at the 9 or 10 marker – so the other saloon drivers didn’t miss out on too much. I suspect Nigel Allen may agree as after a strong run he dropped 9 here and then 12 each on the final two sections suggesting the Beetle developed a problem somewhere nearby. First car Adrian Marfell, in his Fiat(?)/VW special, excelled here to reach the two marker, whilst the amazing outfit of Michael Crocker/Trevor Griffiths went two better to record the only clean of the day.

The penultimate section of the day was at Tarr Cott and was another very long section (you certainly get value for money on this event!). This section climbs up the side of a deep Exmoor valley and seems to finish right on the top of the moor but few competitors got that far and long delays built up. The problem was an adverse camber section with a deep gully on the left, which the start marshal described, to us in glorious Technicolor. This rather un-nerved Lesley in the passenger seat but before she could clamber out of the car we were off and she spent most of the time on the way up looking for the gully which had been described so dramatically to us! A handful in classes 7 & 8 made it to the top together with only 2 saloons – another great climb for Dave Hazleden in the GTI and a class winning effort for Harvey Waters in his Escort.

On to the final section Tim Wood, now in total darkness, which was a new find close to the start/finish pub. After a very muddy start, which stopped a high proportion of the entry, the section divided to the left for classes 6, 7 & 8 and to the right for the rest (or should that be for Giles Greenslade as his was the only saloon to pass the 9 marker). We couldn’t see very well here – I’m not sure if this was down to the pathetically low output of the buggy’s dynamo or because the headlights were liberally coated with mud. After a close encounter with a tree in the lower reaches we got to the 5 marker but Tony Young and Adrian Dommet must have much better electrics (or they must eat a lot more carrots) as they were the only two carrying enough speed to clean the section.

In conclusion, another a great Exmoor Clouds and, after the dry events of the last few years, one which was very challenging. Now with slicker organisation and slightly less rough sections than when I first started doing it (in the mid 1980s), it may be time for some of those who stayed away this year to consider putting the event in next year’s diary. Better make sure your lights are working though because it still finishes in the dark!

Classical Gassers report on their Edinburgh Trial

John Lees was competing in Class A on his Triumph Twin

I finally got onto the communities site through IE instead of my usual Netscape only to find that, as you say, I could not post a message. Three of us Mike Robinson, Tom Beckerleg and myself all failed to spot the last sentence of the final instructions because at the breakfast stop they were papier mache. The next day we managed to read the bit that casually mentions that class A follow route to Corkscrew. We did not have this on our route as we cut out the bits that don’t apply and this year we were not to do Corkscrew or so we thought! So there we are exclusion we presume.

We had got behind after leaving the first time control, we waited 50 mins until time to go in to discover that early arrival did not matter! We left after quickly reading the bits abouts local councils and rights of way not realizing the punch line for us at the bottom. Well thats enough for us and the Edinburgh only possible on a specialized machine, Goatscliff was near impossible and stupid. I came across two riders on road tyres struggling half way up. I had to stop as well but could not stop at the marshal to claim a bulk as this was the last thing in my mind until I got to the top, too late I did not have the energy to go back down and complain.

A very miserable trial made worse by an important route change, our last Edinburgh as we feel at the moment, no point in doing it if exclusion is so easy. We take a lot of trouble in checking the route and annotating the various instructions regarding restarts etc. before the event if a section is deleted that is OK but to add one in for a motorcycle makes life very difficult. We even laquer our route sheets after photocopying them at 120%. No we can do without last minute changes !

Editors Note – John was writing this before the results came out. They show him failing Goatscliffe but marked as not having to do Corkscrew! John was best in Class A as noboddy in his class climbed every hill. I have read and re-read the original route card and the ammendment and like John I am confused!

Stuart Cairney was driving his Imp

First drama of the trial for me was at my local filling station when I couldn’t open the bonnet to access the filler cap! As you can imagine I was reluctant to butcher it open with a lever and wondering what the heck to do when Andrew managed to slide a screwdriver in and jiggle the catch – subsequently we discovered that slight pressure on the front edge of the bonnet wwould release it. All this was a legacy of fitting a repair section to the bottom of the front panel. It had been working fine but I hadn’t strapped in the spare wheel until the last minute and this must have caused slight distortion.

Anyway as far as the trial is concerned I failed Litton – I had deliberately left the engine in PCT spec to see how it would go and but the conditions there were such that I could have done with the extra revs. At least I got to the start line at the first attempt! For much the same reason the only other failure was Bamford although I must admit to lifting for one of the concrete troughs which left us on the final relatively smooth bit of concrete before the end with only about 1200 -1500 revs and it just petered out.

We encountered a problem on the first green lane across the moors due to a BMW parked right in front of the gate – not sure whether it was deliberate or just inconsiderate; the sun roof had been left open (tilted) in the rain so maybe they were just plain stupid… However we discovered that the small pedestrian gate alongside was just wide enough for an Imp, literally by about half an inch, so we were able to continue; albeit pretty slowly as it was so rough. We saw a police car in the village at the foot of Jacobs Ladder and there was talk of protesters organising a sponsored walk to deliberatley co-inside with the trial – lets hope this is not the sign of things to come….

Jim Scott heard something go on Hucklow but couldn’t see anything amiss but by the time he’d cleaned Bamford the diff was graunching and he called it a day in the hope of restricting the damage. Final point of satisfaction for me was trickling off the Old Longhill restart with no wheelspin whatsoever, whilst the final mistake was a slight caused by missing slots when we were running on our own and getting tired near the end – the electric woodpecker in the back signalling that we were out of fuel. Fortunately we were able to coast down the hill into Buxton which left a brisk walk to Safeway’s petrol station with the can… All in all a good trial – shame about the rain.

Wet and Windy Edinburgh

The weather was truly wonderful on Friday for final preparations, and on Sunday for the drive home, but the Saturday was another storey. It rained, it drizzled, poured cats and dogs and when it wasn’t doing any of those things it was wet because we were up in the clouds! Despite all that it was a good event, with Litton sorting the men from the boys before it was cancelled for the lower classes.

Simon and Matt Robson climbing Haggside on their way to Liege

All the Falcon’s started from Toddington, although there were a few notable no-shows. Alan Bellamy was marshalling at the start, along with John and Dot Parsons, David Alderson, Dave Nash and Lee Howells. JAZ wasn’t ready for the fray as it hadn’t recovered from the stresses and strains incurred when Murray took it Green Laning with the local Land Rover boys, so Hazel missed her drive and Mike Furse was another Falcon who marshalled rather than drove on the day.

We had a few new cars to see. Richard Tompkins was making his MCC debut in his smart turquoise Imp, but may have doubted the wisdom of this with his clubmate’s telling him hair raising stories about Bamford and Litton Slack! Stuart Cairney made the start, but only just, when he found that last minute welding prevented the bonnet opening to access the petrol filler cap! Fred Gregory had been studying the weather forecast and decided to treat Peter Stafford to a bit of luxury, forsaking his usual Dutton Melos for a Citroen BX, complete with suspension height adjustment. Last, but not least, Simon and Matt Robson were the centre of attention with their new Liege.

JP and his team showed no mercy to their clubmate’s, sending Michael Leete off to get his stoplights working and Mike Pearson to locate his MOT certificate. This was all soon sorted and it was off up the A5 on a fine October evening to the joys of eligibility scruitineering at the Elf service station, just south of Atherstone, where Alan Foster was conducting operations in the car wash bay, quite appropriate as it turned out. Tyres seemed the major concern of the day and Scrut Foster was soliciting opinions from other Skoda drivers about the acceptability of 14 inch rubber on the ex Simon Robson Czech wonder machine.

The rain had started by the time the field reached Agnes Meadow and this was to continue all day. This first section was not one to trouble the scorer as they say. But just up the road Wigber Low was to prove a bit tricky for one or two people, including Fred Gregory and Pete Stafford who couldn’t get their Citroen BX away from the start.

They has a roaring log fire going at The Bentley Brook Inn and bikers and the crews of open cars were already drying out their sodden gear. These included Mike Pearson who can’t get into his Dellow Rep with the hood on and Simon and Matt Robson who haven’t got one yet as the guy making it had left out the fasteners! Simon had been quite busy since the Testing Trial. Rather than fix the troublesome Reliant back axle he had replaced it with a modified “A” series component. This had to be narrowed by removing some of the axle tubes and re-welding and shortening the half shafts. RAC supremo John Quenby was another eschewing a roof, claiming he has never owned one for his TC ex-racer.

Fred Gregory was in further trouble at Clough Wood when the Citroen stalled and refused to re-start on the exit road. Neil Bray stopped to help but tinkering under the bonnet didn’t do any good and they decided to tow the fuel-injected machine to the nearest surfaced road. The Citroen took one look at the tow rope and started immediately!

Litton Slack soon beckoned, but first came that hairy descent down the muddy track that barely clings to the side of the hill. Peter Thompson scared himself, and those following, when he got his Opel sideways and was only inches from plunging to oblivion when he managed to regain control.

The old hill was in fine form in the rain and drizzle. The first challenge was of course actually getting to the start line. You certainly weren’t going to do it by following the instructions in the route card, which directed you to go around the telegraph pole and approach the start line from the direction of Litton Mill. With the grass an absolute quagmire the only way was to take a run down the approach track, aiming for the gateposts and backing down the section to the line if you were fortunate enough to reach them. Even then quite a few couldn’t get to the start and one really pitied the poor class ones. All credit then to Mike Relf, who not only got his Mitsubishi to the line, but got a fair way up the hill as well. A much better effort than Brian Partridge who made a right pigs ear of things, sliding down towards Litton Mill with spinning wheels in a crescendo of revs. Duncan Walsh made the first clean climb in his special and Steve Austin was the first saloon clear in his 1641 Baja, which unfortunately broke its diff later in the trial. There were only two Volvo’s in the trial and they both played football with large rocks. Rob Wells dislodged the boulder up by the bush at the top, creating a chicane for those following. Later Tony Branson got a bit out of shape coming down the escape route, dislodging bits from a stone wall in the process. Stuart Harrold was also in trouble coming down the escape road, scaring the life out of driver and passenger as the Troll slipped sideways (writers note – I can remember doing the same on the White Peaks once).

The field split after Litton. The Solo’s went through Stoney Middleton on the A623, turning left onto the B6001 before diving through the hedge and up a bank to Goatscliffe, a section known as Excelsior on the White Peaks, a name used for a hill near Hartington, many miles to the east, on the Edinburgh. Cars and Three Wheelers turned off in the village of Stony Middleton, to tackle Jacobs Ladder, amidst an organised protest against the trial, arranged by a woman in the village in the form of a “sponsored walk”. Fortunately the Clerk of the Course had the courage to run the hill, even though the competitive bit was barely twenty yards, so competitors could make their runs in between the bedraggled protestors. The section itself wasn’t too bad, but the bits before and after were a bit rough. Fred Gregory’s Citroen had to be towed out by a Land Rover when Fred thought his clutch had gone, although it turned out to be a flat with the wheel spinning inside the tyre.

The bikes went directly to Great Hucklow, a mere two miles away, missing out a twelve mile loop tackled by the three and four wheelers. This traversed the old road across Houndkirk Moor and then went almost into the suburbs of Sheffield before going up what I believe was the Bassett section on a recent Edinburgh, looping back to Gridleford to bring competitors a few hundred yards from whence they had come! It appears the organisers were trying out this route in the hope that some of it could be used as sections in the future. However, without any form of route check it was a little galling to some drivers of open cars who got wet and cold when they could have short cut the loop without any penalty!

All classes had to restart on Great Hucklow before diverting up the bank to the left. In the past this has been very tricky, muddy with a terrible camber dropping away to the right. However, it seems the MCC road gang had been at work as the surface was pretty solid, with little or no adverse camber. It was rough though, catching out quite a few people, including Richard Tompkins who didn’t give his Imp enough welly. The trial saw the end of Fred Gregory here, when he and Pete Stafford gave up the struggle to keep the fuel injected motor on the Citroen running properly. Jim Scott was another one to experience problems, but continued with funny noises coming from the back of his Imp.

Then it was past the Gliding Club, before some more green laning, up and over Bradwell Edge to a cold and desolate holding control for Bamford. This was manned by a guy whose name I can’t remember, but he was the one who incurred the wrath of the MCC committee by painting a funny face on the front of his Beetle when he was told off for having a scruffy car!

There were no loose stones on Bamford itself which was not too difficult this year, if you had the engine characteristics and good sense to trickle, or the courage to give it some gun. If you took the middle course you were in trouble and it certainly wasn’t an Imp hill. Richard Tompkins was surprised by the roughness, backed off and lost too much momentum. Old campaigner Stuart Cairney ran out of puff on the last step with his PCT spec engine and Jim Scott’s Stiletto finally broke the diff that had been growling away for some time. The Haggside re-start was OK if you stopped in the right place, which was either just in or almost out. You were in trouble though if you stopped in the middle!

Recrossing the Ladybower reservoir, which is pretty full these days, there was a well organised half hour meal break at The Marquis of Granby. A special test at Pindale was next on the agenda. It was another of those stop on line B and restart in your own time jobs. The problem was that line B was on a horrible greasy bit of raw cement and a lot of people couldn’t get away. The route card was very clear about this. Rolling back on the restart constitutes a fail. Lets hope this doesn’t cost too many triples!

Dirtlow Rake was scheduled to immediately follow the special test, but the deviation was in very bad condition so it was cancelled making Putwell next on the agenda. There was only one section again this year. The long one with the re-start on the rock slab at the top. John Beaumont was in trouble on the lower slopes when his Reliant, which has a Mini engine in the back, punctured. The marshals wouldn’t let John change a wheel on the section and insisted on dragging the three-wheeler to the top behind a Land Rover which ripped one side off the rear suspension. Keith Pettit blew his clean sheet here when he couldn’t get the venerable Frogeye away on the re-sart.

Calton is coming back into condition, with a nice deep hole developing on the re-start. John Parsons, who was leading the Falcon marshalling team, explained that the ploy for the early numbers was to just put the front wheels into the box. However, as the day went on a big hole developed and the trick was to drive further in. Mike Furse was watching here and said Dave Turner was the only driver to park his rear wheels in the hole and drive out. For the yellows and reds the holes on Calton were a mere warm up for the monsters on Corkscrew, which was rated mega-rough by most competitors. It was easily on though, provided you got the re-start right. You had to keep your rear wheels on the hard stuff. Go a bit to one side and get a bit on the grass and you were in trouble, as Simon Robson, making his Corkscrew début in the pretty Liege, discovered!

John Beaumont had limped to a garage and fixed the suspension on his Reliant by the time he got to Old Long Hill. John was now running with the cars, well down the field, and showed the four wheelers how to do the tricky re-start on slippery grass. There was only Haydale left now. The muddy approach is quite tricky and fools you into using very low pressures on what turns out to be a very rocky climb. No problems for Ross Neuten or Mike Perason here though and they both reported clean sheets for the trail, and a toolbox fill of water in Mike’s case.

So it was back to Buxton to dry out and chew things over. Rain aside it was reckoned a pretty good event by most people. Shame about Litton but at least most people had the chance to pit their skill against the old hill ,even if it didn’t figure in the results. Wonder who got a triple?

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