This years Sid Humphries trial was subject to 3 changes of venue before a suitable location could be found, the end result had the trial being held at the infamous 400 acre venue.
This place is like Marmite to the North West trial riding fraternity, you either love it or hate it. I must admit it is one of my favourite venues especially on a clear crisp and dry day like we had on Sunday, unfortunately it is nigh on impossible to be able to offer a beginner route. This had a negative effect on the entries with only 30 entries in total, but the positive spin of the situation was not a section queue in sight (happy days).
Back to the trial I think the sections were bang on the money on the day ,every section should have been cleanable at least once by the the majority of the field. To the results there was a bit of an upset to the pecking order in the Expert class with Julian Ingham putting in one of his star rides to take top honours, this left runner up award to Andy Cripps who has been unbeatable at Rochdale trials recently. Third expert was Martin Sandiford he looked to be riding well and was closely followed by Adam McCanna aggressive as ever on his very tidy 4RT.
Matt Hopkinson was top Inter losing 25 followed by Edward Berry on 33, in the Novice class a surname we have not seen for while Ben Cornthaite took the win by a 21 point margin over Andy Hope.
In the veteran classes over 40 went to Alan Lord and over 50 Pete Clibburn(but Clibbys victory might be under debate as he broke down on section 4 on lap 1 and to had to double up sections to finish).
The youth classes only had a single rider in each class but it still takes some riding around does 400 acres for a youngster on a little bike so respect due to the younger ones especially Charlie Cripps.