Hi Hughie,
Sorry for my late response to you
yes, read your other post and see you had a walk round.
Yes, I’m in a very similar situation to yourself as new at this and finding somewhere to practice would be a great help. Have ridden road bikes for most of my life. Did go to Fry’s bottom with some mates but was a bit extreme in places for first time out and saw me hitting the deck plenty of times.
Also did enter one trial, missed plenty of sections but did do a few.
Also hoping to the North Berks trial. Have applied to join North Berks club as their arena at Aston is only a few minutes from me so definitely the closest club to me.