So here we go again, another month has shot past and I’m back on the keyboard. The recent Launceston Trial was very much a success and credit must go to Nigel and the team, we are very lucky to have members in the club who really do their utmost to put on events that everyone enjoys.   This enjoyment is under serious threat though, there is a consultation document out at the moment which if it goes the wrong way ours and many other similar sports will be lost forever , we urge everyone to log on to the Defra site and make their point. Tony Ferrari of the Nomad Byway Project has done an excellent you tube video which can be seen on the MCC news of the week explaining how to fill in the form, we only have until the 9^th of this month to respond so please do it NOW.   You’ll need to copy and paste the link below into your browser…….

https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW9fX1pULUdyUWprbTJ
For simple guidance purposes you can fill in the questions as listed below.

Q1 answer No, Q2 Your name, Q3 your email address, Q4 your region, Q5 If you live in a National Park say so or you can just say “member of the public”  , Q6 to 12 can be ignored,  Q13 if unsure leave blank, Q14 is very important NO Q15 leave blank or ignore, Q16 NO, Q17 to 25 Ignore,  you are now almost done add your  e mail address for a response and that’s it you’ve done your bit.

If you have more time, instead of completing the questionnaire, you may wish to email your own personal response to landscapesconsultation@defra.gov.uk.

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Chairman’s Chat

Since the last newsletter the club AGM has been held. I am pleased to report that Warin Kelly was unanimously appointed as a Vice President. Unfortunately our Club President Robin Moore is still in hospital recovering from his recent stroke so was unable to attend.  Warin took the chair as, the officers and committee were re-elected.

If the club is to be sustainable there is still a need to have a number of officers from our younger members in the future. Until then us “old timers” will do our best, supported by a committee with representatives from teenagers upwards. Congratulations to our most senior committee member Warin who recently celebrated his birthday, now he is officially an octogenarian and most definitely our most senior committee member!

Our last event was the Launceston Trial, ably run by Nigel and his team. Following some wild weather the previous day we were fortunate to enjoy a dry day for our sport. There was a good sized entry, particularly in the motorcycle classes, and the day was generally enjoyed by all. Thanks particularly to those who turned out to marshal as without you there would be no sport for the competitors, a special mention of thanks must go to Mr Peter Newman the land owner who over the years has been extremely supportive of our club.

If you haven’t already done so please give your views on the government’s consultation about vehicular rights of way. More details on the website “Another attempt to ban trials and green laning : what@s going on?” – the future of much of our sport will depend on this outcome.

In future we hope to have more news about social events, and as before ideas and offers of help are welcome.
Joe Caudle
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Lanson Trial

On the following pages are a few of the photos I took whilst marshalling on the event, It’s a bit tricky marshalling and attempting to photograph a vehicle coming at you particularly when you are unsure of it’s direction ( whether it sticks to the section or heads in your direction).  On several occasions I ended up dropping everything hastily in order to move to a safer spot, it’s a wonder my phone survived, then of course I would drop the score sheet in order to give assistance, after which I would be seen walking around the section trying to find the errant paperwork again.
All good fun.
J.T.

Lanson Trial Award winners
Newman Cup (class D)                                Alan & Patrick Keat
Class award                                                Stephen Kingstone
Novice award                                               Zak Ruby
Class B1 award                                           Sennen Mildren
2^nd Class award                                          Ben Benyon
3^rd Class award                                          Gavin Hunt
Cycle Bowl                                                 Richard Maddern
1^st Class award                                           Jon Mildren
Class award                                                Chris Barnicoat
Fulford Cup                                                  Ryan Tonkin
Class Award                                                Andrew Martin
1^st Class award                                            Philip Thomas
Class award                                                 David Haizelden
Class award                                                 James Vivian
Class award                                                 James Shalcross

                                               

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Future Events

On Saturday the 7^th of May we have the Northgate Sporting Trial at Ashley Farm Lifton, the regs for this are on the website but you are asked that you send in paper entries (you know that stuff you write on, used to be the thing to do) there will be no online entry for this event. As always marshals are needed so Mike Wevill would love to hear from you 01566 784451.

Werrington Speed Hillclimb. Once again Plymouth Motor Club are hosting this event on Saturday the 30^th of April and Sunday 1^st of May. They are in need of marshals, no specific marshal licence required and they do give you lunch and a small amount towards fuel costs. Speak to chief marshal Richard Brooks  on 07877 004462  or you can e mail him  
richbrooks20@gmail.com

They have a full entry list of just under a 100 cars each day ranging from modified production cars to single seat fliers.
Merv’s  Lanson Trial Report

After a week of dry weather, we were all set for the 36th Launceston Classic trial. The evening before Richard and I had exchanged the usual texts about where to meet up, as both he and I have to ride to the events as we have no trailer or van. So we agreed at 7:45, plenty of time, and it was a fresh and dry morning, so what could possibly go wrong?

I lead the way and I thought I knew where I was going but unfortunately took a wrong turning and went down to Coryton church before realising we had gone the wrong way, so we turned around. Then I came across an ‘Unsuitable for Motor Vehicles’ Green Lane which I remember from the road trial last year where a couple of local riders were at the bottom of this section and about to go up it but suggested to us that we take the road route as they ‘knew this section. Well,  I thought to myself this is a shortcut to the woods and we will go this way …what a mistake that was! I rapidly found myself stuck in a deep gully of broken slate and slurry. With our tyres still at road pressure, and dressed for the early morning commute our only option was to lift the bike out of the rut onto the high ground from where I was able to carry on and get to the top. I waited for Richard, then I waited, and I waited a bit more, and then I thought ‘Ah he must be in trouble!’

I headed off on foot down to the bottom and sure enough he was in the same spot I was. So rinse and repeat, and he went on his way. At this point, I was sweating so much I’ve got my jacket undone, and helmet off, and by the time I walked back to the top I realised I’ve lost a glove, so back down to the bottom once more. By the time I got to the top of the lane for the third time, we both felt we’d already done a day’s trial!

Sweating, flustered even more disorientated, I decided to ask for a drop pin in from my mate Chris, only to find we are about 500 yards from the woods, so we made it down to the yard, signed in, and I got myself a bacon bap.
Good to see loads of riders and lots of familiar faces and I join the queue to start the day chatting away, then Ben suggested my front tire was very low. Oops! I’ve let way too much air out of that one so off back to the van for my pump, back in the queue, and then I realised I’d forgot to protect my
headlight so back to the van again for the foam I usually stick across it as with an older bike these things are hard to find should you break them. So not the start to the morning I had planned, but finally we’re off !!

After a few sections I settled in nicely and hooked up with Chris, just Zach, the youngest entrant, to find now as his Dad, Darren had asked me to look after him Conditions were just absolutely perfect, And all the volunteers and marshals extremely helpful at the beginning of each section. As I wasn’t organised at all and I had forgotten to bring something to attach the map to the front of my bike. Unlike my friend George who was really organised.

Trying to find section 7, we were lost and turned up at 8: the special test; so we had to backtrack quite a way to get to the bottom. The funny thing is Darren had messaged me a week before asking if I wouldn’t mind looking after Zack, as he didn’t want to get lost, but in reality I should’ve been phoning Lisa and Darren to ask if we could ride with him as, once we had found him, he knew where every section was and how to get there without even looking at the map! Although between 7-8 we seem to have lost him probably because he knew where he was going and we didn’t!

The new section 7 Eastcott 1 going up the gully was interesting I like that one.
After completing 8 the special test Mike informed us that Zach hadn’t been through so we decided to wait and at this point it was a good opportunity to strip down and cool off.

Enter the enduro lads.
Not seen these lads before, oh my God they are fast! One amusing thing was the second lad that went through decided to take off at the STOP point and by the time he passed Mike at the START point he was probably doing 40 miles an hour! We were all laughing a lot. That’s a fail then!

Luckily enough Zak appeared next and we had our guide and mentor back. Then Richard turned up, just like us earlier coming up the wrong way looking for section 7

Back to the yard for lunch: coffee and double bacon baps, home-cooked by Chris this time. And a little bit of sunbathing. The section after lunch had the usual queue where many riders were straining their necks to see what
the hold-up was? That will be a deviation then! At this point I then realised I’ve got hardly any fuel left. I’m sure I filled up after the Holsworthy trial, obviously not then. 

George kindly offered his services “Go to my van and help yourself Merv. Fill it right up if you want.” Well in today’s money that’s probably about £15!  A very generous chap. At the next section Chris said he had some so Zach and I headed off to fill up. I really should be more organised.

If you don’t know me then you might know my bike: it’s an XR400, kickstart only and I could be seen many a time trying to get her started as it’s a bit hit and miss. At section 16 I was trying to fire her up and Chris Barnicoat said that if that was his bike he would be kicking it over the side of the hill. LoL! I think after that comment she actually fired! Although several times that day when at the front of the queue I had to suggest the next in line pass me and take my spot while I kicked away.

Eastcott 2 was interesting I managed to do a bit of filming there and realised hardly anybody got past number two, and looking at the results it even had Richard Maddern. The only person to clear this section was John Mildren. Well done.

On the final section: Up, Over and Beyond; the last-minute decision to change to a deviation caused lots of excitement and was a good move. However this was probably one of the worst episodes of my bike not starting and I was actually getting out of breath, there were various comments coming from behind me from the Enduro lads.

The one stuck in my mind was “You should have a grease nipple fitted to your hip ‘cause you’re gonna wear that out!”
That one got me laughing !! she eventually fired up, I raised my arms to the sky and the lads cheered from behind. This was the last section and I filmed a few of us coming up, but that deviation got a lot of victims.

Well that’s it what a fantastic day we had, the weather was absolutely stunning and I would like to thank land owner, club and all the volunteers for making this a truly awesome day. Time now to head home and make a list of what to bring and do for next time to be more organised. Although you probably guessed it I’ll have forgotten by then.

See you on the next one.
all the best, Mervyn Brown

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Tailpiece
Not too much to report from the garage this month other than that I treated the Dellow to a shiny new Crown Wheel & Pinion as the old one was getting a bit noisy after the Exeter trial so it’s fingers crossed for the Land’s End, and yes I did it by crawling around on the floor instead of using my shiny new scissor lift, Hey ho.  All for this month  J.T.

Newsletter contributions to billjan299@gmail.com

And the good news is……
I have just been speaking to Robin’s daughter Maria who tells me that he is now home from hospital  and making steady progress, he’s still doing a couple of trips to the hospital for therapy etc  each week but as with these type of illnesses it’s one step at a time.  Give him a few weeks and he’ll be back to his Zumba classes, the man’s a fighter!
Everyone in the club wishes him well.      J.T.

For Sale
This is my biggest mistake for some time and a somewhat expensive one at that, but it will make a few people smile.

Automotech Car Scissor lift, allows you to raise the vehicle up to 1300mm high yet lays very flat when not in use lifts 2800kg. I bought this for working on the Dellow but because of the shape of the Dellow chassis  (being “A” shaped)  it is a struggle, so as yet it hasn’t even had a car on it. I paid just under £1,800 for it a couple of weeks ago will take £1,500     J.T.   07971 249783 More photos are available.