2003 3 in1 Trial

Course

The trial took place on a very hot and sunny day at Wick Hill Farm after several days course preparation by Jim Daffin. Tony Bolwell, Matt Boreham and I gave limited support to Jim in his Herculean task of clearing the nettles and undergrowth in order to find the sections.

Ten sections were laid out, with 6 being ridden continuously as a sub-section of 5, the length and severity of which caused some hold-ups. Due to a lack of observers sections one to six were ridden four times before lunch, with sections seven to ten being ridden four times after the break.

The morning sections covered a variety of terrain from deep mud in section one, observed by Chris Small, through logs and banks down the stream overseen by Alan Blackman, Bill & Maureen Latham, Tom Morling and Terry Owens.

The afternoon brought sections on the far side of the valley, consisting of some climbs and more use of the upper reaches of the streambed, and a long hill climb for section nine beneath the start area, which also had a difficult camber for the A route riders. Due to its severity it was ridden only by A & B route riders.

Entry

A total of 42 riders competed on the day, of which 5 were late entries riding for no award. The expert, non-expert and youth classes we well supported, though there were no entries in the twinshock or sidecar classes. As usual the real battle was amongst the experts, with Wayne Holdsworth winning the Pelling Trophy by a margin of five marks over Andrew Blackman, with the rest of the field some way behind. Mark Elms led the non-experts by five marks over Benny Ayres, to take the Wick Hill Cup and the Wrinkly’s Cup went to Malcolm Webb.

Six riders failed to finish, one through injury – Glenn Bailey, no 55, a Youth B rider, who fell onto his handlebars sustaining a groin injury. I checked with his mother on Monday 14th who advised that he was bruised and sore but fortunately hadn’t needed medical attention.

Rider no 87 Reynard Norris missed section ten for three laps, though a number of riders appeared to be doing each section four times, rather than complete four full laps, and he may have got confused as to what he had and hadn’t done.

Pixie Briggs managed to destroy the engine casing on his Bantam when the flywheel exited through it but, having pushed it back to the paddock, carried on using his 1937 350 AJS with a rigid rear end and girder forks – non mean feat at Wick Hill!

Administration

Following the criticisms of administration at the Kenchington regarding licence checks a firmer line was taken with this event, though still a number of riders disputed the need to produce their licence on the day, and I have passed their names to the Southern Centre secretary. I have also asked, through the Centre Steward who attended on the day, for clear guidance on what the rules are, as there is still some confusion, which even he could not clarify. One rider was turned away (apparently a new member) who turned up having not previously telephoned and was unable to produce a licence or even the number of one.

I heard no complaints about the event despite it running on until quite late – Terry, Jim and I finally left at six, and all we spoke to enjoyed the event. A final thanks to all those who helped before and on the day, including my wife Sharon who attended her first full day of trialing and ended up helping with the signing on and slaving over the laptop to produce the results.
- - - - - - - Mike Hutchings.