The Rockfield Trail Bike Trial - 30 May 2009
Words: Colin Jones. Pic and Vid Clip: courtesy of Pete Barnett. Also Ben's press report
Steve Venn's wealth of experience beats the 'comparative youth' of Ben Falconer in the Trail Bike class.
Pete Barnett had a good ride to beat Nibbs in the Enduro class, only slipping up on one section (Well, everone did on section 5 didn't they! so that doesn't count.) but Nibbs suffered 2 slip ups beside section 5 costing him 10, but as usual, Nibbs' times on the special test blasted all others into the weeds. (Scroll down for a video clip of Nibbs on the Test.) Also we should thank Pete for the Pic and Video clip and his kind words. He says: "Thank you for putting on such a good event at Rockfield, the organisation was spot on and obviously took a lot of thought and effort, well worth the travel down from Evesham for the afternoon." Thanks Pete, you guys must come down for the Hill climb and have go at beating Nibbs again - It's a tough job but somebody's got to try.
Guy Mansfield-Smith won the Trials class on a classic Spanish tool thanks to his tie breaking special test times. Adrian Hoare lost out by 4 seconds but his son Jake took control in the youth class to win with 9 and to top that, beat his dad's test times by 2 seconds.
Scanning through the test times I can see that Dave and Jayne Smailes have a potential Enduro rider in Alex with 3rd fastest test overall.
Anyone got any photos? admin@wgdfmcc.org.uk We've got the Press report coming from the keyboard of Mr 2nd Overall later.
Pete Barnett spotted Nibbs about to fly the test and chanced a video. He says sorry about the quality, but it is good enough to see he makes it look easy.
Ben's press report
One challenging section split the pack nicely in this year's trailbike trial, which made for a meaningful competitive edge in a fun event. Glenn and Darren Thomas and their team fine tuned last year's sections and found some new ones to give riders of all abilites an enjoyable day out, on trail, enduro and trials machines.
The idea of the trial is to give long distance trials riders a chance to spend just a few hours in the saddle on a closed course, and grab a bit of practice. Typically though, Cheltenham Home Guard MCC members kept it competitive, with Steve Venn finishing on top. He managed a below-par 2,2,1 on each lap of section five. Riders had to negotiate a slick rock slab and head right out through a muddy rut, and most settled for 3 each lap.
Second best on this section was Caerphilly's Nibbs Adams, who despite the handicap of riding a bigger machine, went 3,1,2 in spectacular, full-on fashion. He finished second to Peter Barnett in the enduro class, but both lost out to the trail bikes in the tighter sections.
Steve finished a mark ahead of CHG's Ben Falconer, who went 3,3,1 on section five, and CHG's Dave Eeles who also lost seven there and three more elsewhere. His score of 10 was matched by trials class winner Guy Mansfield-Smith, and Adrian Hoare, who finished second on special test time. Adrian though, was beaten by one mark by his son Jake, who took the youth class win with a very tidy ride by losing marks only on section five. The event gave the younger riders the opportunity to hone their skills with little pressure. One who certainly did that was Alex Smailes, whose special test times were only just behind Honda XR400-mounted Adams, and Neil Ludlow and third quickest overall.