The Ten Tors Trial 2004

At 8.00am on Sunday 5th December following a light breakfast, we left our accommodation in Exeter for the start of the Ten Tors Long Distance Trial at Littlehempston near Totnes.
The West Glos entries consisted of Paul (Jammer) James, Colin (Pappy) Davis, Robert (Dick) Davis (Colins brother), Mike (for the sake of decency we'll forgo his current nickname. says 'Shocked of Viney Hill') Allen and myself.

After signing on more breakfast was consumed from the catering van and we set off for the first section "BowdenLane".

There were a few lanes on the route before section 1 enabling us to warm up, but unfortunately the dangerous tarmac between them claimed my first 5 of the day christening the Sherco accompanied by the West Glos Horn Section.

The muddy slot claimed a total of 11 marks. Any hopes that we had found our form on section 2 "Boreston" (five cleans), were soon dashed at "Crabbaton" section 3 where we totalled 13 marks with a 5 from yours truly not helping.

The indoor Special Test near Curtis Knowle was like a scaled down supercross track all inside a barn - excellent!! Every rider entered the barn looking a bit unsure but exited with a huge grin from ear to ear.

"Dundridge Steps" needed a long dab to get the Sherco around the tree or so I thought until Jammer cleaned it on the CCM. The two Davis brothers were battling away still with a couple of cleans while Mike took maximum marks on the KTM.

A few sections later we arrived at "Wash Wash" where Dick managed to drop his Serrow playing in the mud while waiting - time for the West Glos Horn Section then. A drop into a stream with a climb and some tight turns saw Pappy drop 1 mark and Dick through clean. Dick (from Northampton) pointed out to his brother that the "Davis Cup" was sitting nearer Northampton than Coleford!

We struggled with the road book for about half an hour before finding "Al's Design" sections 8 and 9. I instantly recognised this from previous years having witnessed Stan Howitt's stealth ride through this double sub on Nick Jones's TT600 which he could hardly touch the ground on. This year will be just as memorable with Jammer trying to concentrate in the section being watched by Pappy with a rocking horse sat on the handlebars of his Beta waving its front leg at him! Jammer entertained us with a spectacular 5 breaking the road book holder clean off which he then threw at us, but it got stuck in a tree. Mike came to the rescue by throwing some more rubbish at it and ran for cover while the route came back to earth.

"Mortimer's Wood" (section 10) seemed just as difficult to find as section 9 and we struggled with the route and time for the rest of the day unable to find section 11. At 87 miles the Sherco ran out of fuel as we approached a castle car park near Berry Pomeroy. When the man from the cafe came over to see what all these bikes were doing in his car park Pappy diffused the situation by ordering 3 teas and 2 coffees. We decided at this point it was getting too late to try and finish the event so Colin ordered some fruit cake to help us back. Two Sprite can's of unleaded from Jammer's 404 was enough to get me back to the finish.

Robert had the best ride out of us on 30 closely followed by Colin on 31. I was next on 46 (I knew I had something in common with Valentino), with Mike returning with no broken bones and a big smile on 57. Paul had top score on 59.

An excellent days riding but maybe the odd arrow would have made the navigation a bit easier.