Summer Puzzle

Hmmm ... An interesting one! Michael is obviously in a privileged position because he knows where he found it on the Net and may have seen a better image, but here goes anyway.

I think it might be Bluehills (2). The surface, general gradient and curvature, and the right-hand side (as viewed) all look correct and it could be that the spectators down the left-hand side are concealing the drop to the sea. I've certainly seen 1930s pictures of Bluehills that show the 'scarred' waste dumps in the background rather than the grassed 'hills' we see today.

It's a well-attended section and the Number (133) would suggest a major event. The number provides the conundrum, however. I'd always believed that the MCC generally gave the bikes and outfits the lowest set of numbers with the cars following later (as they do now). A quick flick through 'Cowbourne' confirms that, in the 1930s at least, a start number of 133 would generally have meant a car rather than a bike - and remember that the old Bluehills was used until well into the 1930s. I then noticed that BSA 3-Wheelers were often given numbers in the 'car series' so did this cover outfits as well?? I need an MCC expert to answer that question!

Although other events (the 'Gloucester' and the 'Brighton-Bere' for example) often had fields well into the hundreds, I don't think any of them combined cars and bikes. So I still think an MCC event is the most likely. It certainly doesn't look like an 'Exeter' hill and the 'Edinburgh' didn't run in the Peak District PreWar, but it could have been an MCC 'Sporting' Trial in the Peaks although these didn't always attract three-figure entries.

Anyone got any better ideas than Bluehills (2)?

Andrew