Over the past ten or eleven years I have been a competitor, either driving, or as a navigator for my dad, on the Cotswold clouds trial. As this year I decided not to compete I thought I would join my dad marshalling a section.
Being familiar with the sections I looked forward to the day, and particularly the hill that we would be marshalling, would it be Merves Swerve, Nailsworh Ladder or even Crooked Mustard? No, it was Highwood 2, a fantastic hill I have certainly never climbed over the top of, although I have balanced on the peak of it a few times but never quite managed to get enough power to finish it properly.
As we didn’t have to be there until 12.15 we didn’t have to leave our Worcester homes until 11am. It seemed funny to be leaving knowing that usually we would be half way around the sections by now.
We got to the hill and parked the car, to be greeted by a familiar face, Mike Workman, who kindly saved our legs and gave us a lift to the section itself. Along with myself and my dad, were Mike James, Andrew Brown and Guy and family at the top.
We all walked up the section to see what the competitors had in stall for them The hill looked very wet and deep mud at the top, starting by the 4 marker, the rest of the hill was covered in leaves so hard to tell what lay beneath. To clear the section the whole car had to go right over the top at the 2 marker then go right and then finally left to clear the section.
We all commented that we would be surprised to see many if any out of the top, as we waited for the first cars to arrive with us we got into our positions and took a look at the entry list, the first few cars were down as class 8 so it would be interesting how high they were going to get.
First car to arrive was Tony Underhill, who attacked the section with vigour but only reached an 8. It certainly was greasy under those leaves. A few more class 8s attempted the section no one getting any higher. Then came Jonathon and Pat Toulmin, trying to get the class 7 Marlin up this tricky section reaching an 8 also A couple of Escorts from class 3 started to push the marks higher. Paul Eamer had a great climb up to 7, bring on the Trojans!!. The lack of speed made them look like they weren’t even going to reach the 11 marker, but these amazing vehicles plodded their way up to 10.
Bill Bennett had a good run at the hill to reach 8, hearing Ian Moss had retired from a broken gearbox the first class 4 car arrived driven by Dave Shaylor a nice climb up to 7 nearly reaching the marker for a 6.
Next came Paul Bartleman. Up until now the marshals and spectators had been able to comfortably stand across the top of the section, would Paul be able to push up past the 6 marker, we didn’t have to wait long for the answer, he blasted past the highest previous mark up to a 4, and warmed my feet up with his exhaust as well, did that mean the hill was unclimbable today?.
Nicola Wainwright and Emma Flay pushed class 4’s effort up another notch as they got the Beetles’ front wheel past the 7 for a well earned 6.
Simon Woodall and Barbara Selkirk fresh from their success on the Clee Hills were clear up to Highwood 2, could they get over the top? Not even the power of this Buggy could reach any higher than 7. Eric Wall reached 7 and Brian Partridge reached 8.
The first of the Class 6 beetles arrive driven by Mark Smith. Could this 2 litre Beetle make any impression on the Hill? No Mark reached 7 for all his power and effort.
On came Anthony Young with his fantastic VW special, surely this could be the car that broke the top of the hill, everyone moved back as Tony unleashed the power, the road speed was impressive as the car went higher and higher finally stopping higher than anyone had been all day on the 2 marker, he certainly cleared all the deep mud out of the ruts.
Gregor Dixon–Smith was out in Geoff Margetts old class 5 Morgan, I passenger this car on two Exeter’s and a Lands End trial when it was driven by Morgan man Bill Beck, unfortunately I didn’t see much of it as he reached 9 on the hill.
Tony and Ann Rothin attacked the hill, had Tony Young’s climb made the hill any easier, it didn’t look like it, as Tony reached a respectable 5, and George Linnecor reached 3 with a nice bouncing motion along with his passenger.
Now half way through the entry list I spanned over the names of who was to come, there were still some big names that could do what seemed now impossible and clear the section.
Ian Davis attempted it but stopped at the 9 board, leaving us looking at Stuart Ridge, Dudley Sterry, Mike Chatwin and Carl Talbot from class 8 left in the entry list surely one of them could make our day and climb the hill.
In class 7 there was Derek Tyler in the Baja Bug he had a great climb up to 3; David Haizelden reached the highest in class 1 with a 5. Simon Groves pushed his Escort up to 6 in class 3. This left us with 3 determined class 4 drivers left, Terry Ball, David Dyer and Adrian Marfell, winner of the Clee Hills trial.
David Dyer attempted the section and really nailed the throttle, the mud on the 4 marker slowed his progress and he stopped between the 4 and 3 marker. Next came Adrian Marfell, you could feel the expectation in the air, surely he would go that bit further and we would see the first clear of the day! He drove the hill in his usually style with head out of the window, the Beetle sounding lovely as it powered up the hill, but even Adrian couldn’t beat Highwood 2 on this day he stopped just past the 4 marker. Terry Ball attempted the section later and reached a 7.
And so the wait went on, Dudley Sterry’s attempt ended with a 7 even with the supercharger whistling away merrily, up came Mike Chatwin could the Troll get to the top, no Mike finished with a 7 also.
With 5 cars left to go, the only class 8 car left was driven by Carl Talbot, he was certainly clear up till now, he blasted up the section and finally we saw what we all had waited for as Carl drove the Morris Trialsmaster over the crest and turned past the section ends board, what a fantastic end to our day. A great cheer went up and we all agreed how the hill had really tested all classes and in fact we had ended up with a car stopping on every number apart from 12 and 1, reflecting was this the perfect hill. I certainly think so, well done to Carl Talbot after cleaning this section he went on to win the trial overall with a clean sheet. Paul Bartleman only dropped 4 and Simon Woodall dropped 7, The first 4 cars overall were from class 8 and then Adrian Marfell came in 5th overall only dropping 12 points. Well done to all the Cotswold Clouds organisers they have always done a fantastic job of running this event and we all enjoyed marshalling this section.
See you soon
Dave Sargeant.
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