CHG Non Expert Trial 6 September 09
Results are now out - congratulations to Andy Perry who pipped Rob Maller, who in turn pipped Chris Wickham!
Mike Clarke has taken plenty of great pictures - have a look and see if there's one of you.
Thanks to all the riders who came out and supported the event and swelled the ranks to almost 60 riders. As you may know, entries were slowing coming in. Most of all though, the club would like to thank its loyal band of observers for coming out.
A full report will be forthcoming later this week but for now, here's a few snippets...
The 50:50 route proved the most popular. We've seen it come in between the Expert and Clubman classes over past few years and Brian Bridson and Zona 1 have run it between Clubman and Sportsman in their trials too.
This was the first CHG trial with a 50:50 at that level, and it meant those who struggle on the Clubman route still had a good day out without having to do all the harder sections...Jake Hoare certainly enjoyed it - riding an 80 Beta, he beat his dad Adrian who gave himself a bit of an unfair advantage by riding a 250! Jake will be on a 125 next year and he looks ready for it...
Brian Shuttleworth easily won the 50:50 on 8 marks lost, ahead of Jim Delahay who skipped through the mud (mostly) on his Beta 200...Though Andy Perry won fair and square, we have to thank a couple of Experts who came along and supported the event for no award - Ben Toms lost 3 and Scott Faulkner 12. Scott was heard to say he wasn't taking it seriously!...Ben's swapped bikes with Dad Nick, so he gets to ride the Beta 2T and Nick the lovely-sounding Bultaco (sorry, Sherco) 320 4T...
It was very tight at the top and with the top three on consecutive marks, followed by Andy Ridley and Dave Stanley just two marks behind them...A bit further down was Ian Bridson, who took his twinshock SWM round on the hardest route - good man...And young Charlie Langston of the Langston trials dynasty gave it a good lash on that route too - equally, good lad!
...I'm going from memory here but number 50 Shaun Brammer took the prize for the most spectacular crash of the day by dumping his Sherco over the edge of the steps on section 12. He was unscathed but the bike had to be dragged out upside down, after both dropped 6ft off the top...
Many club members put a lot of hard work in to the event and on the day observed too - Sam Wilson didn't even get his bike off the trailer but then again, it'll be clean for the G&C Matthew Trial this weekend. Instead he settled for doing the results super efficiently and observing the evil bank on section four, which saw just seven cleans on the 50:50 route...Steve Hancox managed to ride in to a tree, just getting away from this section, taking a nasty blow to his face...It didn't get much better on Steve Venn's section 5, or Ian Bradley's at 6 where mud got dragged on to harder ground but they sorted out the results nicely...
Mike Clarke took some great pictures, in between holding on to his 300 Gas Gas and doing the entries...Seven members of the Falconer clan came out: three to observe, two grandchildren to ride their cycle trials bikes, one more to keep an eye on them, and the last one to ride - and he got given a 3 by his mum when he thought he'd sneaked a 2!...John Edmonds headed up a fiercely competitive trail class on the 50:50 route, beating your Editor in to the bargain, so he's got bragging rights until the next long distance trial...