The Lyn & District Motor Club was established in 1952 and have recently upgraded and refreshed their website.
Affiliated to the Auto-Cycle Union, the club are based in the South-West and their locus is the Exmoor area, hosting half a dozen events in the Lynton, Parracombe and Exmoor districts.
Have a look at their website here: LYNMOTORCLUB
Image copyright: Trial Magazine UK
Over 140 riders lined up for the annual Highland Classic Two-Day Trial at Alvie Estate near Aviemore on Saturday 11th June.
The theme this year was The Yamscot Edition’ and guest of honour was five-times SSDT winner, Mick Andrews, entered on a Magical-Chase 220 Yamaha, on which he took home the best Yamaha award.
The event was supported by Classic Trial Magazine UK and Putoline Oils. It was oversubscribed after entries were released in February, such is the popularity of the trial.
Mick Andrews: ‘I was delighted to attend the Highland Classic and thoroughly enjoyed my weekend with great scenery, great people and it has a continental feel to it which is nice’.
Classic Trial supplied two free subscriptions for the ‘2-Day observers’ draw’ which also included some cash prizes for the lucky winners.
Best A route and B route lowest scorers also received new Michelin Rear tyres as extra prizes, courtesy of Classic Trial Mag and Michelin UK.
Two laps per day of eighteen sections over a 5 mile course on the picturesque hunting estate was a testing but fair competition for all concerned.
Unfortunately Chris Riley parted company from his Fantic on section six, which resulted in a helicopter evacuation to Inverness Raigmore Hospital with a dislocated shoulder and two broken ribs. He was released on Saturday night.
Former Scottish Trials Champion and Yamscot rider, John Winthrop was in attendance. Members of the Shirlaw family from Aberdeen were present on the Saturday as Yamscot was the promotional idea of the late Les Shirlaw when they were Yamaha agents for the off-road and racing range in the mid-1970s.
The trial uses the moniker ‘the friendliest classic trial in Scotland’, but in reality it is now the biggest classic trial run under SACU permit, with a limit of 150 competitors.
Rick Lound: ‘This is my first year as competitions secretary of the Inverness club and it has been a learning curve for me. We haven’t used a reserve list for this event, but it is something the committee may look at for next year and we have made changes already for the 2017 trial to the way we invite riders to enter. We always have a post-trial de-brief meeting and all these things will be discussed along with the next theme and guest of honour’.
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Results:
2016 Highland Classic 2 Day Results
Many thanks to Lorna Brackenridge and Jackie Siddle for the use of their photographs.
Chloe Cross is nineteen years old and lives in Bristol with her mother Karen Braunton and brother, James. This is her third year competing in trials sport.
Chloe: “My first trial was the Wells Miller Cup Trial at Binegar Quarry near Wells. I took up riding trials because my family are real enthusiasts of the sport. My Granddad, Frederick Cross was involved in trials for many years as a rider, organiser and landowner. The Sammy Miller Trial was held on Tithe Barn where he lived. The National Tuck / Cross Side-car Trial was partly named in his honour”.
“I guess I was inspired by my Dad, Jeremy Cross, who has ridden trials since he was a schoolboy, competing in the Scottish Six Days and the Scott time and observation trial as well as many national events”.
“He is secretary of the Wells and District Trials Club. My brother, James rides trials, enduro and motocross and my younger sister Tabitha competes in show jumping, but has recently been riding my bike so there might be another trials rider in the family soon”.
Chloe rides mainly in the Wessex and South West ACU Centres. Her favourite club is Somerton, she finds it a friendly club with some great venues and pays tribute to their beginners’ route, which she found very encouraging for a rider starting out in the sport.
Chloe: “I think I have inspired a couple of girls to start riding in our centre and it is really nice to see them competing. The men and boys who ride, help us out a lot which I’m always very grateful for as sometimes due to work commitments I have to ride without my Dad being there”.
Chloe works over forty-five hours a week for the Highcroft Vets in Bristol & Bath, who also sponsor her with tyres and some parts for which she is very grateful.
Chloe: “I don’t really have any other hobbies other than swimming in the morning before work and keeping fit at the gym two to three evenings a week. My ambitions for trials are to ride as much as I can as I love riding my Gas Gas 125 and just see where it takes me. I’d like to move up a class in the British Championships next year but my priority is to have fun.
I love trials because I meet lots of great people visit beautiful places and get to ride my bike every weekend”.
Links:
Wells & District Motorcycle Trials Club
Chloe Cross – Trials in the Family! is copyright Trials Guru, 2016
Images: Copyright:
Heath Brindley/R2W Trials, Bristol
Sarah Turner, Redruth
Dave Gatenby, former Teeside Tigers speedway star and trials rider died suddenly as a result of a heart attack on Wednesday 1st June, 2016.
He started his riding career in speedway before opening a motorcycle business as Dave Gatenby Motorcycles selling machines and accessories based at Yarm Road, Darlington, supporting many local competitors.
Famous for his very dry wit and sometimes orange hair, he will be sadly missed by all his friends. Our condolences go to his son Michael, daughter Joanne and their children.
A lifelong motorcycle enthusiast Ron Hulme passed away peacefully in Stepping Hill Hospital with his wife Joyce and close family present on 27th May after a brave enduring battle against Diabetes over a forty-eight year period which resulted in a stroke.
Ron’s introduction to the world of motorcycles came from his friend Ronnie Band at his garage in Horwich End, Whaley Bridge. After leaving school he worked at the garage before being drafted in for his National Service in 1952 where he spent eighteen months in the Suez Canal war-zone. In 1955 he married the love of his life Joyce and over the next sixty years the motorcycle became the third partner in this relationship. A new Francis Barnett was purchased before the bedroom suite when they moved in their home at 18 Reddish Avenue in 1957.
After his National Service he worked in the Gas board with his friend Roy Beard where many a story was reminisced later in life. In 1959 eldest son Alan entered the world just as he was riding in a trials competition in Wales which he had ridden to before returning home with an award.
In August 1960 a second son John would arrive and the family was complete. Employment was then provided by Ferodo where he spent his remaining working life as a motor vehicle engineer until he retired in 1991 aged 58. All his life was devoted to motorcycle trials and he was very proud of his two sons who achieved success in the sport and in life. He also encouraged many younger riders into the sport when he and his friend John Cantrell introduced the ‘Dead Easy’ trials at the Manchester 17 Motor Cycle Club.
After retiring, he found a new motorcycle interest in Trail Riding and along with a few friends enjoyed his outings two or three times a week in his beloved Peak District.
Ron is survived by his wife Joyce and two sons Alan and John.
The funeral service will take place at Macclesfield Crematorium – Prestbury Rd, Macclesfield SK10 3BU – on Tuesday 14th June at 1.20 pm. Family flowers only and any kind donations please to Ward E1 Stepping Hill Hospital.
Trials supporter, organiser, enthusiast and reporter, Stephanie Wood, one of few female presidents of the Yorkshire Centre A.C.U has died at age seventy-one years. She was appointed president in 1981 and was the daughter of Jack Wood, who started the well-known national trial in his name.
She had battled with cancer which had originated in the gall-bladder according to a family friend.
Stephanie was Motor Cycle News correspondent for South Yorkshire, North Wales and parts of Derbyshire and Lancashire. She covered road racing, trials and sand racing. She was an annual attender at the Scottish Six Days Trial from 1965 to 1997 and many times accompanied family friend, Ralph Venables the doyen of trials reporters.
Ms. Wood worked in quality control at Bassets Ltd at their Sheffield factory and lived at Holmfirth, Yorkshire for many years.
Her funeral details have been released as being at Grenoside Crematorium in Sheffield on Friday 10th June at 11.45 am with any donations to Cancer UK.
News has been posted on social media direct from the Scottish Six Days Trial organising committee that the feedback received from competitors after this year’s event was that the 2016 trial was a ‘bit hard’ for many.
In a spirit of open-ness, the committee invited riders to feedback their assessment of the annual Highland classic event which has been running for well over 100 years.
In a statement issued on 26th May, following from their usual debriefing meeting, the following statement was issued:
“The 2016 SSDT is now officially over after the committee had there ‘greeting meeting’ on Tuesday night.
We had some great feedback from the riders and while they all enjoyed it we did get the message that the sections were a bit hard this year.
We want to spread the message that we will be addressing this next year to ensure a good mix of sections.
For the SSDT to prosper we have to listen to the competitors and ensure they have an enjoyable week while maintaining the challenge of the event.
So we will be easing off on some of the sections next year.
We welcome feedback so if you want to let us know your thoughts please post them here or through our website http://www.ssdt.org”.
John Moffat at Trials Guru commented: “I am very happy that the SSDT organisers have taken the task on board to listen and make constructive comment upon what the competitors say. After all, the riders are this event’s customers, they pay to ride and without them, there would be no trial. I was assisting at the end of the event this year at the finish podium by interviewing the finishers and it was evident that many did feel that the severity of the trial was on the hard side of challenging. OK, one must accept that this may not represent all competitors, but certainly it did reflect the opinion of the majority as far as I could detect at the finish podium. I must applaud the committee for being open and transparent with their findings, this can only be good for the event and the sport of trials”.
The Scottish has a reputation as being the ultimate challenge for a trials competitor to undertake, but the majority of those taking part are clubmen and the over-forty age bracket, which included the winner, Dougie Lampkin. However, there is a fine balance between setting out a challenging course and a destructive one and it would appear that the SSDT committee are keen to set their stall out early to attract riders for the 2017 event.
We always like to bring you something different here on Trials Guru, so here we go again. There will be a special Honda debuted at the Inverness & District 2016 Highland Classic 2 Day Trial ‘Yamscot Edition’ on June 11th and 12th on the Alvie shooting Estate, near Aviemore.
The machine is a 1981 Seeley Honda TL200E, originally owned by Scottish enthusiast, Jock McComisky up until 2005, but now with a special paint job on the tank seat shelter as a tribute to the late Steve Hislop who rode the Castrol Honda RC45 in the 1994 Isle of Man TT races, his last TT race.
Hislop was from Hawick and lost his life at 41 years of age in a helicopter accident in 2003 near his home town in the Scottish borders. He gave Nortons their first TT victory after many years, known as the ‘long dry spell’ in 1992.
Steven Moffat will ride the machine at the Highland Classic and said: “I have ridden the last few years on one of my father’s Bultacos, but I have wanted to ride a four-stroke Honda and the 200 Seeley is just the machine. I wanted to have a little tribute to my hero Steve Hislop and the tank cover was sent to Bike Paints at Cupar Muir in Fife. Bike Paints do all Paul Bird Racings race fairings and have had much of their excellent work at world superbike, TT and North West 200 races, on many of the winning machines”.
Moffat is 25 years of age and a Civil Engineer who had to give up riding trials for four years due to university commitments which resulted in a masters degree in Civil Engineering at Edinburgh Napier University in 2015.
Moffat added: ” I am delighted that the Honda is finished in time for the Highland Classic, I should have ridden a Yamaha due to the Yamscot theme, but I thought the rival Honda would be something different”.
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All photos featured in this photo-review were taken at the 2016 Scottish Six Days Trial by a professional photographer. We would like to thank Mr. Jeff Horne, SSDT Clerk of the Course for his co-operation during the event.
Note: As always, please be considerate, these photographs are the legal property of: Trial Magazine UK and should not be displayed unless prior permission is given by the copyholder – any images broadcast or displayed are in breach of Trial Magazine UK’s world-wide copyright.
© – All text copyright: Trials Guru / Moffat Racing, John Moffat – 2016
© – Images: World-wide Copyright Trial Magazine UK (All Rights Reserved) – 2016.
TRIALS GURU - DEDICATED TO TRIAL 