The first round of the 2016 Pat Death Summer Series was held at a new venue – Pagham Farm, Rookley, courtesy of A. Brown Farms. The Club are very grateful to the Landowners for the use of this excellent piece of land – what a great place this is. Thanks also to the course setters, Nick Read, Mick Brown and Will West. Both Nick and Mick spent several evenings last week clearing the way for the sections – top effort guys. Phil Silvester and Paul Kent did a great job clearing up at the end of the day and Viki Taylor was on hand to photograph the day’s antics.
The Youth classes were headed up by Brendon Penn (Youth Expert) and Harvey Grieve (Youth Novice) although both riding unopposed they should be really pleased with their performances, posting very competitive scores. Harrison Crickmore proved to be the clear winner in the Youth Beginner class with relative newcomer Josh Morris finishing in second place.
Will West took the honours in the Expert class finishing ten marks ahead of rival Nick Read with Simon Newnham in third. We must spare a thought for Mick Brown who was forced to retire on section two where his bike developed a mechanical problem. (new piston rings I understand). Mick had put in so much effort to help make today’s trial a very successful event. The Intermediate class was won by Ben Read who put in a confident effort to stay ahead of Mark Gray and Mark Coombes who finished in second and third respectively. Scott Milton finished well to take the win in the Clubman class. Scott completed the trial dropping just thirty seven marks – excellent effort.
The well contested Novice class was convincingly won by Paul Kent. Paul finished with the lowest total of the day, just seven dropped marks – very good effort. Brian Brockwell did just enough to hold on to second spot from the improving Ben Brodie in third, only one mark between them. Nick Symes also finished with a low total of eight to win the Twinshock class from second place rider Stuart Freeman. It was good to see Stuart riding again following a non-trial related back injury. John Townsend, the only rider in the British Bike class seemed to really enjoy himself and bagged himself ten Championship points. Phil Silvester, with another solid performance, won the Adult Beginner class by ten marks from Jon Diffey in second with Steve Chase finishing third.
The next trial, Summer Series second round, will be held on Sunday 19th of June at Hawthorn Manor Farm (Gotten Lane) Chale. We are looking for volunteers to come along the Sunday before the trial (12th June) to help clear the venue – the bracken there can grow to 7ft! The bonus for those able to help will be a practise session - once the site has been cleared. So load your bike along with your strimmer’s and rip hooks! The more helpers we have, the faster the site gets cleared - the longer we have on the bikes! I look forward to seeing you there, 11:30am.