With no bike to ride, I faced the prospect of missing this week's championship round until Alan Nicklin stepped in with an offer of lending his Greeves late last week - of course I jumped at the opportunity as I have ridden it before and know that it rides really well.
Today's trial was a mix of streams and banks that had seen some serious rain over the last week but as the ground used to be a mining area the majority of the banks consisted of a mix of mud and shale so held up quite well and remained quite grippy.
I had an odd start to the trial as there was a lot of debate about the correct route at the start of section 1. One or two riders took a route that looked to be incorrect but the observer gave them cleans so I had planned to do the same and as I went into the section other riders told me to go the other way which I hadn't looked at. I ended up stalling going down the bank and after debate with the observer about the correct route, she fortunately allowed me a re-run and I rode away with a thankful clean.
The first lap went well for the loss of only 1 mark, however the bike was not running well and refused to rev out cleanly even after a change of plug. Alan advised that he'd changed the carb before the trial so I can only assume that this was the cause as it normally runs so well.
The second lap wasn't too bad (a further 5 marks) and I was on 6 at the half way point which I was quite satisfied with, however the bike was deteriorating rapidly and was bogging under power and running very lumpy.
Where I had been able to ride steadily on low throttle early in the trial, this was no longer possible as the muddy banks got worse coming out of the streams and I needed more clean power available. The result was that more marks slipped away, specifically section 7 which was an undercut root out of the stream and a steep bank and I struggled with a couple of 3's just to get through.
A number of other marks were lost in similar circumstances which was a bit of a shame as it all started so well, however I think my final score will have been something like 25 - 27 marks. Not the end of the world, but after the strong 1st lap I felt that I should have been on something more like 10 marks less.
I thoroughly enjoyed the trial and even with the bike not performing like I know it can, I owe Alan a big debt for the loan and the opportunity to score a few championship points!
Results just in.........It appears that although the observer gave me a re-ride on section 1, she didn't change the score and gave me the 5 anyway... Not that the result would have changed anything as I would have still been 4th in my class and scored the same championship points.
Experts Up to 350cc
1. Dave Wood 12
2. Alan Nicklin 12
3. Mick Parkes 21
4. Dave Dawson 28
5. Gary Hawkins 28
6. Keith Gardner 31
Experts Over 350cc
1. Steve Thompson 25
2. Jim Pickering 49
3. Arthur Browning 42
4. Pete Reed 52
5. Bob Greenhough 62
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