The first one-day trial was a close fought affair with Andrew Martin just piping Falcon’s Ian Davis to overall victory by one mark with Adrian Marfell close behind them in his Beetle. Andrew would have had a clean sheet but for failing to get away from line B on the Longville special test, along with most of the field! Ian managed this OK but dropped marks on The Jenny Wind and the restart on Harley Bank.
This years Clee was back in Jonathan and Pat Toulmin’s hands from Simon Woodhall and Barbera Selkirk who have been looking after it for a couple of years. Both teams have been steadily improving the event since it restarted around ten years ago. This year it was organised with a very compact route based at Craven Arms. The entry was split into two. Classes 6, 7 and 8 headed North to Rattlinghope, doing battle with the frosty and icey road over The Long Mynd on the way. Going up was bad but Stuart Harrold reported that coming down was positively hairy! The majority of competitors were cleaned this first loop although Meadowley claimed a few scalps including Roger Bricknell, EricWall and Dave Nash who had Neil Bray passengering for him in The Skeetle, fearing that his MGeetle might prove to much for the purists in the MAC!
Jonathan Toulmin had incorporated a couple of new sections. Walkmill had John Sargeant in charge and was a nice track up to the village of Wentnor. Medicot seemed awfully familiar and turned out to be the approach road to Clee regular Astone with some very deep ruts to conquer.
Returning to Craven Arms the second loop was to decide the trial, particularly the controversial Longville Special Test. The track was smooth enough and it seemed simple enough on the route card. “With front wheels on Line AA, at drop of flag, drive forward until all wheels have crossed line BB. Reverse until all wheels have crossed behind line BB. Drive forward and stop astride line CC.
The only thing was that line B-B was a steep slope of polished stones with very little grip and it was very difficult to get away. Nobody in class 7 made it and only a couple of the class 8’s, including Ian Davis, Paul Bartleman and Simon Woodhall who all retained clean sheets.
The trial was decided in the next few sections. Ian Davis went into the lead when he cleaned the new section Easthope after a keen eyed marshal spotted Paul Bartleman making a momentary stop. Then Ian stopped on both The Jenny Wind and Harley Bank, which left him with 7 marks dropped. Meanwhile down in class 7 Andrew Martin had been cleaning everything in his Dutton Melos apart from the Easthope special test. This put him one mark in front of Ian and overall victory.
The lower classes started with the eastern loop so The Longville Special test was their first section. Again this was a major problem for most of the competitors although Adrian Marfell managed to burn away while Michael Leete dropped right back before making a clean assault. Adrian did very well on the new Eastcote section and also managed the tight hairpin on Ippikins Rock, which was the downfall of all class 4 apart from Adrian and Giles Greenslade. Simon Groves also failed here putting him behind Harvey Walters and John Cox in class 3.
Adrian did very well to clean The Jenny Wind the only car in the lower classes to do so apart from Dudley Sterry who was driving Barry Clarkes Austin Seven on The Clee.
The loop over The Long Mynd didn’t cause to many problems for the lower classes although there was a surprise at Gattens Gamble when Ducley Sterry stopped at the six to loose the lead in class two to Jeremy Flann.
Competitors arrived at the last section with Adrian Marfel leading the trial overall having only lost 4 marks at Eastcote. This is a real Beetle Hill, a pretty straight drag through the muddy ruts. All the Beetles went clean apart from one and that was Adrian who stopped at the four, dropping to third overall and handing the lead of the trial to Andrew Martin.
The first competitors finished not much after 2 pm so JonathansToulmin’s plans to minimise delays were an outstanding success.
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