> POSTED: 25/6/18 11:13

What an amazing weekend!

North Berks MCC held their popular Summer 2-Day Club Trial this weekend. The weather forecast had promised good weather and it didn’t disappoint, we had wall to wall sunshine.

Saturday’s trial was due to start at 3pm, eight sections had been set out in and amongst the sandy banks and bomb holes at Besselsleigh near Abingdon. We had a fantastic entry of 41 riders and Stu Robinson got the trial underway at 3pm sharp sending each class off to different sections around this great piece of land we’re lucky enough to use once or twice a year.

Stu Belcher, who is running the Southern Centre Trials Academy Training Day on behalf of North Berks MCC on July 14th gave all the riders a heads-up on this fantastic opportunity to receive a full days tuition from top coaches from the Southern Centre. Its taking place on 14 July at Seymours Arena and we’re currently looking for more entries, there is more information about the day on the website, alternatively give Stuart Belcher a call on 07586 288979 he’ll be pleased to hear from you.

Back to the Trial – We had two riders tackling the Adult Expert route, being Tom Nicholas and brother Joe Nicholas. Tom took the honours going round clean for the day whilst Joe dropped 10 marks.

Clubman 50/50 route was won by Luke Hora who had a great ride dropping just 7 marks. Alex Taylor was placed second on 14, losing most of these on section 7. Joe Bayliss took 3rd on 15, closely followed by Lee Sullivan on 17.

Clubman B route was the most popular route for the day with nine riders. Reynard Norris took the win with a clean ride closely followed by Finley Belcher riding his dad’s TRS for the weekend on 4. Mark Elms came third dropping 8 marks and Stuart Belcher riding Finley’s Beta 125 came forth on 11 (I’ll leave them to argue whether it was the bike or rider that helped clinch that result).

Clubman C was again well supported. Gordon Pusey had the best result on this route dropping just 5 marks. Tom Nicholls on 10, Dereck Fowler on 18 and Todd Jones on 22.

Clubman D route had just one rider, Aaron Watson who went round clean.

The youth classes were well supported as usual. Brett Harbud won the Youth A class dropping just two marks which was an awesome ride, Alicia Robinson came second on 31 and George Clarke on 86.

Youth B was taken by Bailey Tidbury on 18 and second was Max Agar on 34.

A well earned Youth C win for Ben Nicholls dropping 46 marks, a way ahead of Amy Clarke who had bike trouble on 62. Josh Cole took third spot on 107.

Down to the littluns riding the Youth D route – Harry Wheeler took an impressive win dropping a mere 7 marks, Jonathan Brett riding his new Oset to second on 56 closely followed by young Amy Longdon (Daughter of the well known Maria Conway) on 63, let’s hope she has as much success as Maria did on 2 wheels.

That was day 1 done and dusted. A good number stayed over on Saturday night sitting out in the evening sunshine, its such a lovely venue to spend time with friends and family.

Sunday broke to blazing sunshine again, everyone that had stayed over rose early and there was a fantastic smell of bacon and sausages wafting across the field. Mark Anderson did the honours giving the rider briefing on Sunday morning and got everyone off for another great day of fun in the wooded copse.

Again we had a good entry of 38 riders across all the classes, there was an additional section that had been plotted for the second day and most of the other sections had been tweaked to keep every one on their toes.

Sunday saw five adult riders tackle the expert route. The win was taken by Tom Nicholas again riding immaculately and going round with a clean sheet. Tom Plant took second place dropping a few slack dabs here and there on a total of 7. James Grist a little further back on 17, followed by Joel Tett on 24.

Clubman 50/50 route saw the same three riders taking the top spots as the previous day. Luke Hora taking the win for 12 marks lost, one mark behind him was Alex Taylor, followed by Joe Bayliss on 17. Thomas Hawthorne stepped into forth today for the loss of 18.

Finley Belcher stepping up into the Clubman B adult class this weekend took the win dropping a mere 2 marks, great ride Fin and you beat your dad again, even if you did have his bike, Stu dropped 12 today. Sandwiched between father and son was Mark Elms, just one mark off Finley on 3. Patrick Middlehurst had a good ride losing just 16 marks over the 4 laps for forth spot.

Clubman C route was well supported today with a total of 9 riders. Club chairman Mark Anderson took the win on 7 after observing on the Saturday. Todd Jones in second on 16, Dereck Fowler took 3rd spot on 23 and Tom Nicholls dropped to forth today with 25 marks lost.

A couple of youth riders took on the 50/50 class. Elizabeth Tett came out on top dropping 38 marks, closely followed by Max Agar on 45. Great ride from you both.

Brett Harbud took the glory in the Youth A class riding the expert route for the loss of 5 marks, George Clarke a way back on 70 marks.

Bailey Tidbury was alone in the Youth B class and went round for a loss of 23 marks.

The top Youth C riders from Saturday swapped positions today, so Amy Clarke took the win on 39 riding Brett’s spare bike after blowing her Sherco up on Saturday and Ben Nicholls was relegated to second on 51. Jess Basford was third dropping 66 and Aaron Watson in forth place on 97.

Youth D was again won by young Harry Wheeler losing 17 marks, followed by Jonathan Brett on 50. Excellent results you two!

So that was it – another amazing North Berks event over. It really was a perfect weekend, the weather helped, we hope you all enjoyed it as much as the Club did putting it on.

Thanks as usual go out to all the usual helpers, from the course plotters that were out in the week previous to the trial. Sue for getting everyone signed on and number crunching the results out quickly. All our observers over the weekend, especially those that did both days, amazing!

Just a note for you all, our next Club Trial was due to be our Evening Trial at Seymours Arena on Wednesday 18th July, this will now be a normal Wednesday night practice session because we have the opportunity of using a new piece of land and are planning to hold round 5 there on the 29th July, we’ll have further info up on the website soon so watch this space.

Again, don’t forget the Southern Centre Trials Academy Training Day at Seymours Arena on July 14th. It’s a fantastic opportunity to receive a full days tuition from top coaches. There is more information about the day on the website, alternatively give Stuart Belcher a call on 07586 288979 he’ll be pleased to hear from you and tell you all about it.