Stony Green Open Trial - 26th September 2010
Words: Colin Jones Press Report: Ben Falconer
Henry was having to 'Watch out for the schoolies' with Joel Edwards, Connor Evans and Jason Galvin all waiting, one more 5 and a dab would have let them all through.
The Final Results are now out. Click the link on the right.
The video camera you saw was Digger who had the footage up as quick as a flash on YouTube. You can double click on the image below to watch in lower resolution if you have a slow connection, as this one is in HD.
Thanks Digger. You can also see some fine Enduro action in his other videos.
Ben's Press Report
STONY Green's fine collection of rocks tend to sort the men from the boys – and the boys nearly won out at the West Glos and Dean Forest MCC Western Centre championship round.
The boys – youth A Joel Edwards and youth B Connor Evans – came within a whisker of toppling centre champion-elect Henry Bendall over three laps of 13 sections.
Despite carding six five-mark maximums, the Lydney rider won by a nose from Edwards, who only lost a pair of fives all day. The difference between them was just two marks. Edwards used more dabs than Bendall, whose freestyle 'five or clean' approach paid dividends.
He recorded five more cleans than Edwards, but only two more than Connor Evans and three more than Jason Galvin, who were both four marks behind the winning score.
Clerk of the course Merv Morgan marked out a demanding course. It gave the experts and top youths plenty to think about, especially as many of the rocks on which most of the sections were based became polished as the event wore on.
Clubman/expert route riders, who rode half of each class's sections, had a young and impressive challenger in their ranks – Thomas Minta. He defied his 80cc Beta's relative lack of power to finish third in class.
It was headed up by Scott Faulkner from Oxford, who overcame Coleford rider Ben Bishop by a handful of marks.
The event was something of a Faulkner benefit, as Rob Faulkner convincingly won the clubman class. Like him, Tim Wheeler and Martyn Wilmore were Scorpa-mounted, and that their very respectable scores came nowhere near approaching Rob's showed what a good day he had.
Best of the 'locals' in this class was Alf Bendall, only a mark behind clubman centre champion Glyn Smith, who refused to drop a five all day. Lydney's Steve Biddle's training for the Tough One returned a respectable 62 mark loss, a mark ahead of West Glos youngster Jake Hoare.
Youth topped experience in the Sportsman class, with youth B rider Oliver Pekala edging Adrian Hoare by a mark.
The club would like to thank the observers for their invaluable assistance and the Forestry Commission.