Classical Gas is an independent web site and is not affiliated
to any of the clubs or organisers of the events featured. Words and Pictures
by Michael unless attributed otherwise. Michael is a proud member of the MCC,
ACTC, Dellow Register and Falcon amongst others, but does not represent their
views nor the views of any other organisers or clubs.
John Salter was at the MCC Testing Trial
yesterday and took this photograph, capturing the atmosphere of the
event.
Click Here for more of Johns Pictures. Check back often because more
will be appearing over the next few days.
Falcon Motor Club celebrated the 60th
anniversary of their Tewin Water Speed Trial on 20 June. Claire Oakes
and
"the Spodfother" captured the atmosphere of the event on video, as
do
Mike Haywards Photos
29 Jun 20
Neil
went well at Baking Hot Thruxton. David Howard was back on top in Group 1
but couldn't touch the flying Nigel Garrett in Post Historic.
Click Here for the report
10 Jun 10
Brands
Hatch Report and Pictures. Neil finished 11th
and 8th in the two Group 1 races on Sunday and fourth in Post Historic
with the Capri on Saturday.
4 Jun 10
OK I know I am behind but I have collated
about half of The Ilkley Report
31 May 10
Ron Warrens funeral is at 11.00 on
Thursday 3 June at St Marys Church Whitlebury (near
Towcester)
A good time appears to be had by all on
The Exeter Centenary Trial held over the Bank Holiday weekend. John
Salter and Graham Whiting were on hand with their cameras.
Ron Warren, pictured with his Dellow
Mk2, at the end of a Lands End Trial. Also in this picture is Alan
Preston (his bouncer), John Tucker-Peake, Marilyn Tucker-Peake (now
Marilyn Knight) and Derek and Betty Fleming. (Picture from the Derek
Fleming collection)
Ron Warren
Ron died suddenly on Friday 21 May, aged 86.
Ron was a
stalwart of Falcon Motor Club and the MCC, as a competitor, organiser and
steward. He served both clubs with distinction, holding, various
positions over the years and was a Vice President of both when he passed
away. Ron was also instrumental in establishing the London Counties
Association of Motor Clubs and was its first secretary. His contribution
to the sport was recognised by the MSA when they appointed him as an Officiel d'Honneur.
A keen
trialler in the 50's and 60's Ron purchased a Mk2 Dellow, moving to an
Anglia with a 1500 engine when he wanted more power. When Ron retired
from his job as a transport manager he moved from Stevenage to
Whittlebury to be near Silverstone. Until recently he went to LeMans
every year where he enjoyed speaking French.
A quiet, but direct, man Ron didn't suffer fools gladly but, teamed with the late Tucker, was a force behind both Falcon and the MCC for many years.
20 May 10
Laurie
Knight
Laurie passed
away last week after a long illness. A bastion of trialling in the
Chiltern area Laurie was a familiar sight in his big engined Escort
with its15 inch wheels. Laurie was a key member of the SODC team that
established the Conquest Trial in Derbyshire and in recent years was
Clerk of the Course for the MCC Edinburgh Trial.
11 May 10
Invites
to the ACTC Dinner & Awards Evening (on the 12 June) have recently been
sent out. If you have not received your invite and would like to come
please email either Tina Allaway at
t.allaway@exeter.ac.uk or
Judy Phillips at
rogernewton@blueballinn.net and we will send you or email you
another copy. Padbrook Park have only 7 rooms available so get your
overnight accommodation booked now and have a fabulous evening out with
your fellow triallers!!
June Blakeley is taking part in The Race
for Life again this year. She has a very special reason for this cause
being so close to her heart.
In case you need reminding the Blakeley
family - June , John and Alex, come to almost all of our trials. They
travel all over the country scruitineering and marshalling
for us, always with
a smile and a supportive word. They support us, this is our opportunity
to support them.
A reminder that if you are a tax paying
private individual you should "Gift Aid" your contribution. That way the
government contribute an extra 25% + another 3%. Also for those of you
lucky enough to be higher rate taxpayers you can offset your donation
against your higher rate tax.
13 Apr 10
A reminder that the 6th Bovey Downs Trial
is on the 25th April. Its a single venue event in the woods containing
Normans Hump and Clinton.
Click Here for more information.
13 Apr 10
Lands End Stuff (click
the arrow for the playlist)
The MG Car Club – Midland Centre held
their annual Spring Trial on 21st March at a sunny Lintridge Farm. The
entries this year were down a bit with 20 starters spread over a range
of classes, but with a good class of Lieges. Thanks guys, but where was
everyone else? The conditions were ideal – a nice sunny spring day after
rain on the previous afternoon when we were setting up, so there were no
clean scores, a few clear rounds and quite a few clear attempts on some
of the sections.
Lowest and hence best score of the day
was Phillip Hyde in a Liege with a score of 34, he was Best Overall and
Best Liege. The Premier Award – The Bryant Cup - was for the best MG and
this was won by Martin Curren in his MG TA. First class awards went to
Ray Jacobs (classes 1-4); Fred Bury (5); Greg Dixon-Smith (6); Kevin
Barnes was 2nd Liege and the best Novice was Matt Johnson in his A7.
Well done, thanks to you and the marshals for your company and we look
forward to seeing you at our Autumn Trial at Burton Dassett on the 26th
September.
Brian Osborn & Tony Lake
25 Mar 10
Dudley Sterry,
pictured by John Salter on the Class 8 Simms deviation, won
Sundays Torbay Trial
Falcon triallers who aren't doing the
Lands End, or get back on Sunday, might like heading east for the
Eastern Counties MC Trial on Easter Monday.
Click here for more
Tim Hanman won Sundays West Suffolk MC 3 Way
event on Sunday. Stephen Page was fourth overall and a Class Winner in
his VW Buggy. Stephen took this in car video.
Michaels Blog
Tina Allaway reminds
us the date for the ACTC Dinner and Awards Evening will be on 12
June at Padbrook Park, Cullompton. If anyone has a trophy to return
please could they give it to Giles Greenslade or Judy Phillips at the
Kryle Trial.
1 Mar 10
Greg Warren reports with news of the
Torbay Trial on 21 March:-
Been to look at some of the sections
this afternoon. Unless we have a drought over the next 3 weeks it
going to be a heck of a lot more slippery than back in Sept. We have
some wicked deviations for class 8 and only one re-start line on
Tipley so if your in class 3 burn baby burn !!!!!
You all missed having a go at Simms
back in Jan,so come ondown to Devon on Sunday March 21st and have some fun.
Start venue very easy to get to right beside M5.
I never thought i say this but thank
goodness for the four wheel drive brigade! they really use Simms a
lot these days and a combination of four wheels digging and
continuous frosts this winter, some of the dreaded concrete is
beginning to lift........
Click Here for more info and regs
No championships, no competition licence,
this one is for fun. I had a look at the venue during the week and it
looks good. The issues getting in and out of the gate have beenresolved.
The ruts have been filled in with hardcore.
A reminder that Strouds Mechanics Trial
is on Saturday 13 March.
This
is the clubs 60th Anniversary and there will be special 60th
Anniversary finishers certificates.
One week left until entries closing date
and a few places left
Northern
Trial Report finished (sorry no pictures yet). You will see the
results are a bit different to those first published, moving Dean
Partington up to 2nd overall and class 8 winner
Brian Osborne reminds us
that he MGCC - Midland Centre’s “Spring Trial”
will be on Sunday 21st March 2010 at Lintridge Farm, near J2, M50. We
hope you will join us for a frolic on the farmland slopes, Reg’s and
Entry Forms are downloadable from our website
www.mgcars.org.uk/mgccmidlandcentre
21 Feb 10
The Regs are now available for The Torbay
Trial on 21 March. The route will include 17 observed sections and at
least one special test, traversing some very spectacular scenery.
Congratulations to David and Emma Wall on
the birth of their son Jack last Friday. As a third generation trialler
on both sides of the family we look forward to
seeing him on the hills very soon!
The 25th Launceston Trial is on 14
February. Its a single venue Classic Trial for Bikes and Cars.
Click Here to Download the Regs
18 Jan 10
Carl Talbot asks me to remind you that
The S+DMC Mechanics Trial will take place on Saturday 13th March this
year, NOT on Sunday as we wish to avoid any
conflicts with Mothers.
The Mechanics Trial:-
" A pleasant early Springtime drive in the Cotswolds ,
interrupted by the odd trials section or two "
Falcon have published the regs for their
March Hare Trial on 7 March 2010.
Starting and finishing in the Luton area
near to Junction 9 on the M1 the March Hare uses a number of historic
Chilterns sections. There is a Class 0 / Clubsport category for those
who do not have a competition licence.
Much work has been applied by the
organising team to freshen up the well-proven format around the
Shropshire Hills, to keep the event stimulating and realistically
competitive, and addressing competitors' feedback.
For example...
Grading
of Easthope and Meadowley should mean that we don't have most of the
field grounding out in the same spot
Strefford's gunge pit has been drained
somewhat so more of you Class 7's should have a crack at this great
long blast
Strefford Woods have been opened up,
with Classes 1 - 6 also getting an opportunity up the same escarpment
Classes 1 - 6 also re-visit a historic
lane section (thanks Simon!)
The abrupt Slab section has been
dropped in favour of a dramatic climb right up the side of the scenic
Long Mynd
Class 6 will run with 1 - 5.
So with a repeat of the previous-evening
scrutineering facility, electronic entry facility and a 'breather' of
two weeks after the Exeter, we look forward to your support for our
endeavours.
Falcons usual March Hare Working party
will take place on 16 January, the Saturday after the Exeter. The work
is mainly cutting back brush and clearing fallen trees. EMail Michael at
mleete24@hotmail.com if you
would like to help out.
If you are not a member of the Classical
gas Message Board you can email mleete24@hotmail.com
24 Dec 09
The Answer to Question 1
Fredrick Smith, with cigarette, the
founder of Wicliffe Motor Co Ltd, with William Paddon on Nailsworth
Ladder.
The car is a 10 hp Hampton, made at the
Dudbridge works in Stroud from 1919 until 1931. The photo is actually
from 1914, when the cars were being made at Kings Norton, Birmingham.
The car was one of four to make a clean ascent that year, and appeared
regularly in the annual ascent of the Ladder in August. Probably a bit
easier than in February, but an impressive performance nonetheless.
The Hampton was known as ‘The Master of
the Hills’, and its history is comprehensively documented in Trevor
Picken’s book, ‘The Story of Hampton Cars’. See
http://www.hamptoncars.co.uk. William Paddon was a director of the
company.
Many thanks to John Hammill for sending me this
question and perhaps more importantly the answer!
I'm awarding equal first prizes to Nick Farmer for
identifying Nailsworth Ladder and Mark Simpson for identifying the car
as a Hampton. An honourable mention to Dave Cook who sent in the answer
by email.
The Northern wasn't held this year as
organisers weren't available. However this year its back with Derek (DAF)
Reynolds, David (Escort) Miller, Fred (DAF) Mills and Tony (Marlin)
Branson joining the team.
15Dec09
(Picture by
Jade Bray)
Paul Bartleman won the final ACTC
Champioship round, The Camel, on 6 December.
As you can see from this picture of Dick Bolt there was some mud around.
There was a delay for some of the lower classes at the Bakewood sections
but afterwards things ran smoothly.
Regs are now available for The Clee Hills
Trial on 24 January. After many years of sharing Clerk of the Course
duties Jonathan Toulmin and Simon Woodall have handed the reigns to
Adrian Tucker-Peake and Graham Austin.
With Adrian's
heritage I think we can look forward to some innovations!
You can
download the regs from The Midland Automobile Club Site. Regular
competitors will have received an email inviting fully electronic entry
and payment, another Clee first I think. As a Clee fan my entry was
entrusted to Postman Pat before being aware of this system. If you can't
compete marshal but don't miss this one.
3 Dec 2009
Colin Biles and Dick Munns fighting for
grip on one of the new Lakeside sections on Sundays
very wet Allen Trial. There were quite a few clean sheets and
Paul Bartleman won the event on Special Test Times.
Regs for the Allen on 29 November
and Camel on 6 December are available on the
ACTC Site, along with
recent trials results and the latest
championship positions. It looks like with three outright wins Paul
Bartleman has a lock on the Wheelspin. With the top 5 in the Wheelspin
dropping out of the Crackington that trophy is still very open. Although
he is in eighth place relative newcomer James Shallcross is in with a
shout. Go James go!
On the subject of the ACTC are you a
member? If you are into Classic Trials you should be. Doesn't matter if
you don't plan to compete for the championship or even if you don't
compete at all. You can get the excellent Re-Start magazine posted or
emailed to you four times a year for a mere £11 a year. Packed full of
reports, interesting articles and news, 95% of the material is unique to
Re-Start, you won't even be able to read it on Classical Gas!
Click Here to subscribe to Re-Start or even better join the ACTC.
The Torbay Trial organising team are
looking at including
bike classes for their trial on 7th
March. However, being car orientated, the team need someone
from the bike community to help them out if this is to happen so they
can do justice to two and three wheel competitors. Keith Sanders is the
man to contact. If you can help drop me an email at
mleete24@hotmail.com and I
will forward his contact details.
31 Oct 2009
Text in place for the
Edinburgh report. Pictures and
links to other stuff to follow
22 Oct 2009
Still working on The Edinburgh report.
However, I have more or less finished my personal
recount of
Class 0 in a Sidevalve Dellow
20 Oct 2009
David Butler has revised the British
Motor Sports Association for the Disabled Web Site which can now be
found at http://www.bmsad.co.uk
As most of us are getting older its worth looking
at this site to see how are various conditions affect our competition
licence. Trialler Neil Bray, who only has one arm, found them very
helpful when he wanted to go racing and had to battle with the MSA.
20 Oct 2009
Dave Cook has published his photos of the
Edinburgh and
Ebworth Trials. Dave was a brave man to stand out
in that wind at the top of Calton!
Geoff Hodge, in his Dellow inspired RDT,
was best overall in Falcons Brickhill Trial yesterday.
Click Here for the results
10 Oct 2009
Been doing some tidying on the site. Have
created the placeholder for the Edinburgh stuff which
will be here soon. Have deleted the Metcheck link. The site is no longer
active as
the webmaster is detained elsewhere
Alan
died last week, finally loosing his long
battle with cancer.
Alan started
his life long interest in motor sport with Motor Cycles. The first time
I met him was around 1970 when he was Autocrossing his daily driver, a
new Mk1 Escort. Later Alan had dedicated Anglia and Escort Autocross
machinery. He was very successful with these cars and dominated the
London Counties Championship for many years.
In the long
time he was a Falcon member Alan served the club in many of its offices,
including the formidable job of taking over the chair from H. W. Tucker-Peake.
In more recent years Alan steered the club through changing times when
many clubs folded, guiding Falcons amalgamation with the former SODC
trials group.
A gentleman in
every sense of the word Alan was 83 when he died. He will be sorely
missed.
The funeral
will take place Tuesday 29th September at 2.45pm at Harwood Park
Crematorium, Watton Road, Knebworth, Herts, SG2 8XT
24 Sep 2009
Paul Wheatley pictured in action by his
family on Sundays MGCC Midland Centre Trial at Burton Dassett on Sunday.
Nigel Weeks was the overall winner in his Imp.
Click Here for Brian Osbornes report
Meanwhile down in the West Country Paul
Bartleman was best car in his Troll on The Taw and Torridge.
Click Here for the results
News of the
Torbay Trial from David Haizelden - "Entries
for the trial have been coming in at a great pace,40 in total. Keith,
Greg and myself have been spending the weekends uncovering the sections
and we are finding it difficult to drive down the hills let alone drive
up. With restarts for all classes on Tipley and Simms its going to be
tough day."
Regs are published for Holsworthy Motor
Clubs Taw & Torridge Trial on Sunday 20 September.
Click Here for more details
Just to mention I am no longer updating
the old Rough Guide. Information is now on the New Rough Guide which can
be found further down this page.
30 Jul 09
The Regs are now published for The Torbay
Trial on Sunday 13 September.
The organisers say:-
Torbay
Motor Club are running the Torbay
Trial as a championship round in place of the Exe Valley. The event will
be described as not for the faint hearted!
Organisers are Greg Warren, Keith Sanders
and Dave Haizelden
The trial is starting and finishing at
the usual place, The Exeter Court Hotel, 2 miles at the end of the M5
motorway. Simm,s and Tipley are being used along with some old Torbay
fav's not used in over 10 years, namely Baddaford Lane and the fearsome
Lower Dean. we have also found some new hills near Ashton never been
used before.
The weather looks pretty bad for Classics
on the Common. If the forecast stays like this I may not go. So don't
wait for me at the Truck Stop! - Michael
24 Jul 09
Its
Classics On The
Common this coming Wednesday 29th. Falcons, Friends & Gassers who
want to park together on the common will meet up at
Markyate Truck Stop and travel in convoy, leaving at 15.45.
A good time was had by all at the MCC's
Testing Trial on Sunday with Bill Rosten achieving significant honours.
Some regard this as a useful opportunity for testing including Dave
Haizelden (pictured here by Dave Cook) who experimented with another ton
of lead in the front bumper.