Home Counties Trials?

Nick Wollett asks if anyone knows about Classic Trials that have been held in his part of the world (Kent, Surrey and Sussex).

Help for Marlin Owner

Robert Porter would like some technical help:-

"..I have a swb Roadster not yet prepared hence the call. Do you of anyone who can fit Ford diffs into Leyland axles, the vans are very rare now."

BTRDA Gold Star Final

Bristol Motor Club are hosting the Championship Final on Saturday 15th January at the Fedden trial venue in Dyrham Woods, a couple of miles from the Allen Start. If you would like to see the Top Sporting Trials Drivers in action why not come along and help marshal. Drop me an Email if you would like further details.
Pete

 

ACTC Web Site

Check out the ACTC Web Site. Pat has up-rated it and it now loads quicker. I can't remember the URL. There's a link over on the Classical Gas Web Site.
Michael

Pictures(s) of Sporting Trial Cars

Hi everyone,
Stimulated by my recent article on "JABS" I have received a very nice contribution about Sporting Trials for Classical Gas. However, it doesn't have any pictures. Does anyone have any pictures of a modern Sporting Trials car they could e-mail me.
I have searched the net to little avail. (I found two, but neither are really what I want aws one is quite old and the other from New Zealand and the driver is wearing a crash hat!). One source could be the MSA  bulletin when they put in pictures to illustrate the championship table. However, I have thrown all mine away!
Michael

Exeter

Hi everyone,
Great to get the Exeter stuff thru' yesterday. It reminds me of how little time there is to get the car ready! Can I put in a plug for marshals. Anyone who would like to marshal would be welcome to join the Falcon Motor Club team on Clinton near Sidmouth.
Clinton sarts around 2 am so you can be home for a late breakfast if you live locally.
If you would like to join the Falcon team on Clinton contact Arnold Lane on his wife Andrea's e-mail andreajlane@hotmail.com
Michael

Links ?

Hi everyone,
I'm just about returning to the land of tyhen living after being knocked back with just about the worst flu I've ever had. Fever, bad dreams the lot!
Anyway, I've been very inactive on the Web for a week or so.
One thing I do want to do is update the links over on the Classical Gas Web Site. Has anyone they think would be interesting to trails bods, Classic, Bike, PCT or Sporting? including old car or bike sites.
It is also possible to post links here but I'm not sure if members can do this themselves or if I have to.
Members can cerrainly post "Recommendations".
Michael

Allen Trial Report on the Classical Gas Website

Hi everyone,
I've just posted my report over on the Classical Gas Web Site. John - hope you don't mind but I have used some of your nice pics!
Michael

Exeter 1989

Thanks John Salter, I did not remember the name as I posted the photo in the album.Digging through my route cards it was GreenLanes in 1990 and then back to Tipley in later years. The map of old town wood recalls that wickedly slippery lane that we used to descend. But not as bad as the tarmac lane that was covered in ice about three years ago- John Beaumont measured his length several times over down it and had to be checked over - after the finish of course as he is such a hard case! Watch out for him in his mid engine RS400GT RIALTO in the Exeter!

Allen trial pictures

Hello everyone
Finding my role as one of the club stewards on the Allen on Sunday not tremendously taxing I was able to take some pictures of a few of the competing cars.  I have put them all up on my web site so anyone can have a look at them.  The URL is
www.chater.demon.co.uk
follow the link to the picture pages.  There are 16 in all, with thumbnails so you don't have to download the lot.
Mark

Edinburgh 99\, Bamford Clough

Greg Warren gets confused by the meaning of "re-start". Barry Clarke later retired with a flat battery.

Photo's

Hello,

I have put some photo's that I took on the Edinburgh this year, and the Land's End last year in the album.

Any ideas how I could improve the photo's that I take of you all competing?

Duncan

The CROSSBY SPECIAL trials car

Ladies & Gentlemen, I am need of some help. I realise that this has been said many times before, but this time it's trials related.
The latest edition of the MCC's TRIPLE will carry an article on the above car, a Vauxhall engined device from the 50's. The writer of the article would dearly love to know what has become of it today, even though it is believed that the last location is somewhere in Kent.
The VRM is EXW 513. Read all about it soon, as they say.

Steve Harris
By way of a PS, 'logging on' or booking in, or whatever Bill Gates' cronies call it, ain't easy - it took me the best part of 20 mins and a few re-runs, but I'm in at last. A member of your elite squad of trials contributors..........

Lands End 98

Roger climbing from his restart up through the mud

Edinburgh 991

David on Bamford, just managing to scrabble his way up.

John's Bike

John Lees has added a picture of his Triumph to the Phoro album. I believe this is the machine he won his triple on this year so it can't be that un-suitable John.
Also belated congratulations on your triple.
Perhaps this is a good opportunity to say that members can post photo's to the photo album and add items to the recommendations section. This feature was added in a system up-date by Microsoft last week. That's why the communoties were down last Sunday.
It maybe that there are other things you can do on the community. Go ahead and experiment.
Michael

Photo's of Old Trials Hills (posted on behalf of Pat Toulmin)

Michael,
With regard to the debates about trials hills and photographs and, in particular, Roger Thomas' book and the criticism it may be getting, I would like to say three things:
1. Roger wrote that book in a very short timescale in order to have it ready for the 1995 Works MG Trials Re-Union at Rodborough Common.This may have comprised the accuracy at times. Although, as a librarian, I realise that this is not an excuse. The Cowborne book takes an opposite approach - unless he was 100% (or maybe 110%)certain of a hill Donald did not publish the name. To people like yourself, Jonathan, Tony Branson and Andrew Brown this is extremely frustrating, as many of the photos he published are easily recognised but not named. One day Jonathan & I hope to write a book about works MG Trials cars ourselves (and have started the research) and I hope that we will be as accurate as possible, but will indicate where there is a doubt.
2. It is extremely difficult to verify 1930s photos even when you have first hand evidence. For example we have a photo of a particular hill and Maurice wrote on the back that it was hill A (sorry can't remember which actual one) and John Jones, Jonah Jones' son has the same picture of his father in the second team car on the same event and he calls it hill B! (also written on the back in his hand). Which do you believe? Obviously it might be sorted by research and visits, if possible, etc, but many authors take the easy route.
3. Every MG book we look at that mentions trials has mistakes, some more than others. The favourite ones are where it is so wrong - the wrong car etc etc. It is also interesting when we can dispute it by family evidence. Jonathan's mother only died last September (unfortunately Maurice died in 1958 at the age of 52) and had wonderful memories and stories of being Maurice's bouncer during the 1938 season and there are published photos and stories  that, because of this, we know are wrong.
We have a lot of photos that have never been published before and are specially saving them for our book............
Pat

Nice one Pat

Just finished reading my copy osf re-start, the ACTC magazine. I must say that I have personally not held re-start in much regard as a magazine in the past, as much as I may have had respected the editor! Hats off to Pat Toulmin, she has really produced a great mag. In addition to some nice reports and articles we learn there will be a new Classic in the Lake District next year on Saturday 1st April (hope the day is not significant!) I will try and find out more and post the info here.
Michael

Skoda

I am the new owner of a Skoda Rapid and I need some helpfull advice to make it into a Classic Trials car.

If you can help or have any spares for the job please E-Mail me or if you are a Falcon member my phone number is in Falconry.

Mike Hayward

Hot Gossip

I was chatting to David Alderson last night. He has sold is historic rallying Okrasa Beetle to Graham Brasier and taken the Cornish ship's chandlers 2 litre, Triple Winning, Beetle in part exchange.

David was also telling me that Dennis Greenslade is taking a trialling sabatical but has not sold his cars and will be back!

Michael

Silverstone Race Meeting

There are some pictures on this site http://www.soft.net.uk/hackney/mcc1999.htm

Details were provided by Ken Green

Michael

Tamar Classic Trial

This morning managed to get into Classical Gas, its a great idea. I did the Tamar yesterday in my Troll, good trial, very well organised. I thought that the class 7 & 8 only hill was a bit too rough, I like a challenge but not breaking the car. Any other thoughts on this?

Help wanted with old members.

Help ! My name is Chris Ball. My farter was a member of the F.M.C in the 60's, his name is John Ball. Dad used to rally with Peter Turner in a Tornado Talisman. I have been intouch with Dave from the Tornado regestery, we are trying to locate any information from around that time. Is anybody out there from around that time or could you put me on to any body. We moved to Canada on 1975 so there is not much to go on from here.Please get back to me at  ball@pangea.ca

Parker does the double

The BTRDA PCT final was run by Owen MC at there normal challenging site.

In class A, Barrie Parker (Pug 104), Simon Harris and Nick Pollitt (Golf GTi's) continued there year long battle. They were joined by the Clarke's in a Nova, Vic Lockley (Golf), Jeff Buchanen (Citreon BX), Chris Smith (Golf GTi) and Angela Danby using Simon's Golf. Right from the first hill the battle commenced, on a slippery morning. By lunch Simon was 12 up on Barrie and Nick who were both on 112. The three of them were complaining at lunch that they were driving badly, so it was going to be the one who made least mistakes would win.

Class B consisted of just Neil Mackay (Corsa) and his previous car, a Nova driven by Duncan Stephens. Both had fitted ballast for the day. Due to some rougher than normal hills Neil, dropped some marks to Duncan, but the Nova was climbing better generally. By lunch Duncan was on 95, with a revised target for the day, of being the front wheel drive with the lowest marks dropped.

Class C was once again being dominated by the Imp of Bill Moffatt. Continuing numerous years off battle were Steve Courts (Imp) and Mike Stephens (Beetle), just seperated by a single mark. I think that the poeple who enjoy their trialling the most, and always have the biggest smile on their face must be Pete Evans and Dave Harvey in a classic trials prepared Skoda. Even when not doing that well, they are always laughing!!!

After lunch Barrie Parker had two storming rounds, but would it be enough to win the class? Simon and Nick claimed to have bad rounds, and after all having similar last rounds it was Barrie who won the class on 133 to Simon's 145, with Nick not far behind. Next was Matt Clarke and then the rest were all inthralled in there own little battle.

Neil was now getting the hang off the car with ballast in, and beat Duncan on the fourth round. Duncan was driving badly, by own admission!! This was put right though on the last round and finished with a total of 142. More than Barrie!!

Bill Moffatt continued to pull ahead of everyone else in the class. Steve pulled out a small advantage on Mike. Malcolm Brown (Westfield) ended up fourth and Dave and Pete were very closely matched at the end.

Barrie Parker won the event and thus the BTRDA Gold Star, from Bill Moffatt by 0.6%. You can not get much closer! Congratulations must go to Barrie. He has driven excellently all year and drove even better to pull something out of the bag in the afternoon. It is very hard to Bill though to loose by such a close margin.

The Moffatt familly have won enough though this year!! Alistair (son, 21) has won the BTRDA gold star Autotest and Allrounders. John (youngest son, 19) has won the MSA Autotest championship outright and also the BTRDA Silver Star. It would be a bit boring if Bill had won the PCT too!!!!

Championship award winners:

Gold Star: Barrie Parker
Silver Star: Nick Pollitt
Silver Star runner up: Jack Williams
Bronze Star: Malcolm Brown
Bronze Star runner up: Chris Smith

Class A: Simon Harris
Class B: Duncan Stephens
Class C: Bill Moffatt
Class D: not awarded

Ladies Award: Angela Danby

Dunca

Simms and Stuff

Fred (Dutton Melos) Gregory is down in Devon on holiday and naturally dropped in at Simms to update his pace notes! He sent me a postcard saying that the farm on the right is for sale, including the escape road. Guess the MCC need to do some PR work with the new owner. Would affect the Torbay as well as they use this as the entry track rather than going thru the village.

On another subject we have quite a few people drop by the community to read the messages but are not members. As there's no way to add a counter we don't know how many but I have had a few e-mails and phone calls so people out there are reading your stuff members.

Hey you lurkers why don't you sign up!

Michael

Jenkins Chapel

We had an old films night at Bristol MC this week a local chap collects old 16mm films and calls himself the Dustbin Film Company. The first film was a sales film from Ford for the Ford 8 he believed from 1938. It consisted of a whistle stop tour of the country and to my suprise a trip up Jenkins Chapel in Derbyshire. The car was filmed on the right hand hairpin and up past the restart site. The track looked in much better condition than it was a few weeks ago!  

 Pete

Updated Edinburgh Notes

Falcon Members:-
256 Fred Gregory and Peter Stafford (Dutton Melos) (7) - Failed Pindale and Hucklow
268 Jonathon Baggott and Ian Banton (Marlin) (7) - Retired after Excelsior
Others:-
Barry Clarke retired his Austin 7 on the track after Hucklow with a dead battery. He was hoping to limp to his hotel using only dynamo power.
Derek Chatto (Cannon) Winner of JTP cup
Andrew Brown (Marlin)- Failed Litton and Hucklow.
Adrian T-P (Peugeot) failed Litton and Bamford
W. J. Bennett (MG J2) won class 2
David Heale (Escort estate) won class 3
Terry Ball won class 6 but then he was the only starter!
Roger Ugalde won class 7 in that wonderful Allard
Pete and Carlie Hart won a Gold in their Marlin
In the bikes John lees won Class A

What's in a name?

As I compile the ACTC Trials Section Database, I come across Sections that have been known by more than one name so I thought I'd share this information with you all and see if anyone knows any others:

Historic Names

• Today's Calton was known PreWar as Taddington Moor.


• Today's Corkscrew was known PreWar as Jenkins Chapel.


• Today's Crooked Mustard was known PreWar as Breakheart.


• Today's Darracott was known for the 1933 Lands End only as Gooseham.


• Today's Swan Rake was known as Hollinsclough until 1937.


• Today's Travers was previously known as Ubley Drove.


• Today's John Walker was previously known as Hall Lane.

Duplicated Names

• Bidgood Lane (Silverton) = Port Lane (Minehead).


• Bray Hill (Holsworthy) = High Bray (North Devon).


• Crackington (MCC) = Mineshop (Launceston).


• Higher Gabwell (MCC) = Higher Shells (Torbay).


• Rocky Thomas (MCC) = Milltown (Camel Vale).


• Upper Dean (MCC) = Lower Dean (Torbay) - strange but true, I think. Can anyone confirm?

Any others?

Andrew

New Mill or not New Mill?

Now that the collective knowledge of the wired Trials Community has solved the 'Jenkins Chapel puzzle', it's time to start the next piece of historical research. So here goes ...

Not many competitors in the Lands End, descending the steep hair-pinned road to the start of Treworld, know that they are actually descending New Mill, a famous Pre-War hill included in both the 1938 and 1939 Lands End. There are good photographs of the foot of New Mill, all taken on the 1938 Lands End, on Page 70 of Peter Garnier's history of the MCC (although this is incorrectly captioned as 1937), Page 53 of Roger Thomas' history of MG Trials Cars, and Page 121 of Donald Cowbourne's mega-tome British Trials Drivers, Their Cars and Awards.

However, what really interests me is another sequence of photographs referring to New Mill which is clearly not the same hill. These, all apparently taken on the same event (and definitely not the Lands End), appear on Page 48 of Roger Thomas' book, and Pages 122 and 156 of the large-format book The Golden Age of British Motoring by Roy Bacon with photos by Bill Brunell. They can't be before 1937 as two of the photographs show Musketeer team MG cars from that year (ABL 961 and JB 9445).

I've checked the trial numbers against the lists in Donald Cowbourne's book and they don't match any of the major events listed so the pictures must have been taken on another trial, albeit one of sufficient importance to warrant an entry by the MG Team. Unfortunately I don't have the facilities to scan the photographs easily but, hopefully, there may be someone out there who has the books and recognizes the hill. All information will be gratefully received and, when we've solved this mystery, I'll move on to my next 'where is it' conundrum!

Thanks in anticipation.

Andrew

RAC(MSA)/BTRDA PCT Championship Review

The start of the season started off with some very wet events, and generally conditions have been getting drier and drier.

The largest battle for class honers has been in Class A, for non-ballasted fwd cars. Nick Pollitt and Simon Harris (Golf Gti's) and Barrie Parker (Pug 104), have all won the class and events. Barrie won the MSA championship at the Owen, a few weeks ago. Nick and Simon took second and third in the championship. The class has been very popular throughout the year, and Mike and Duncan Stephens have been doing some events in Neil Mackay's old Nova, a very competitive car. Shame about the drivers!!! There have been battles for class position all year. Jeff Buchanen (Nova) has won the class award.

The Loughborough Youth Squad, have been a very welcome inclusion at three events, and were getting the hand of it. At there own event one of them was third in class at lunch (out of about 15), but fell back as it got tighter. Very comendable nonetheless.

Class B has kind of lost compititors through the year, as it appears that the way forward in fwd is in class A. The Clarke's and Lane's have done some events though, and won the class on each time out.

Class C, rwd generally, has been ultra competitive all year, apart from when Bill and Alistair Moffatt in a 915cc Imp come out!! It has been very tight between Malcolm Brown (Westfield), Steve Courts (Imp), Duncan and Mike Stephens (1302s beetle) and Matt Barker (Skoda). Different conditions have suited different cars, but competition has been very close. Duncan Stephens has managed to tie up the class award in the MSA, due to Bill Moffatt not entering!

Class D, kitcars etc., has been strugling for entries in the latter half of the year, but that has not stopped Jack Williams dominating the class in his umbelievable Tempest.

The BTRDA gold star will be decided on the 17th October, at the championship final. Marshalls would be very welcome, as always. It is being run by Owen MC at there usual site. MR will follow!! The silver star is between Nick Pollitt and Jack Williams, and the Bronze is probably nearly in Malcolm Brown's hands already.

Dunca

Edinburgh - by John Lees

hanks for your message , yes I had spotted it ,but feel a little out of
place, being a motorcycle intruder! had a sort of enjoyable Edinburgh , don't
know how well I did at the restart at Haggside, ran back off the edge with
the back wheel both locked but there was no flag and he was counting!!! very
strange, got away OK so might be a Triple. Great Hucklow horrific on a 500lb
1961 Triumph ,needs to go up sections fairly quickly but this was not
possible here, leapt from rock to rock and ended up at the top OK.
Cheers, John Lees.

Edinburgh - By Andrew Brown

Michael -
Looks great (so far) but, at present, I'm finding it totally impossible to
get my 'Passport' and join. I'll keep trying! ... and ... How do you find
the time to do all this??
I assume that the Trial was 'cut short' as per the Route Card - I was
running #146 and we did Putwell 2 as did everyone that finished around the
same time. The early delays at Excelsior were due to the petrol problem plus
a large number of the bikes then failing (or so I believe - we certainly saw
quite a few whilst we were waiting).
I failed the Litton Restart and Great Hucklow - the first driver
error/hesitation in selecting the right place to stop, the second bad luck
(or so the spectators said!) in clipping the most exposed rock at the
deviation with a front wheel that stopped the car dead and slewed me 90
degrees across the track. We exited up the failures route, parked, and
walked down to see how it should have been done - better luck next year!
Andrew

Just got back from the Edinburgh

Hi,

Just got back from The Edinburgh. Personally I had a great time, failed Great Hucklow but otherwise managed to climb everything. There were quite a few delays. First the bikes couldn't find any fuel. Then there were a couple of problem hills. Last person signed off about 8pm.

I hope to post something on the site later this evening. However it will probably take me around a week to put together a fuyll report. What I will probably do is put the drafts as a message here first as it is much quicker to put stuff on thw Web Community than on the web site.

I am after as much Edinburgh info as possible and would welcome it either as a message posted here or as an e-mail to mleete@compuserve.com

Many thanks for participating.

Michael

Michael Leete

Here is Michael enjoying himself at one of Falcon's Autotests.

Here is Michael enjoying himself at one of Falcon's Autotests.

Edinburgh Trial - Pictures and Words

Hi guys and girls.

I would love any Edinburgh pics you snap. Also any info on how you or your friends did, snippets of info etc for my report on the web site.

Michael Leete

mleete@compuserve.com

Hi everyone

Hi,

Inspired by Andrea's Falcon community I have set up this Trials Community. Use it for whatever you want. Sales, Wants, moans, publicity about events. It's here for you - use it.



Michael Leete