Bedlington Motor Club held their first trial in Thrunton Woods on Sunday, a new venue made available by the Forestry Commission. The event was enjoyed by 78 competitors on the day who were treated to two laps of a seven and a half mile fifteen section course.
On the Expert course the final scores were extremely tight with Bedlington club member Glen Quinn taking the overall win on 29 marks on a most cleans tie break from Joe McMeekin, Andrew Battensby was only a single mark behind these two. On the expert course sections 8 and 9 proved the most difficult, both were located in the same area of the wood and featured a series of steps and tight turns amongst trees on a steep hill. Section 8 was cleaned by only 3 expert riders, Quinn cleaned this section on both laps and single cleans were recorded by Anthony Stephen and Philip Battensby. Section 9 remained uncleaned all day with the best rides going to Ian and Anthony Stephen with a single dab effort each. All sections on the expert course were rideable yet difficult to master with many riders losing ones and twos throughout the day.
Results on the clubman course were even closer with a three way tie between Carl Shaw on a Gas Gas, Richard Hawes on his immaculate TY175 twinshock and 14 year old Scott Aitkin being settled in Shaws favour. All three got round the 30 sections for four marks.
Scott Aitkin is improving rapidly and was one of the days stand out performances. Clubman were faced with the same route as the experts on section 8 and Scott had the first clean on the section. Fellow clubman Phil Clark was more surprised than anybody else at his performance on lap one. Mounted on a new 300 Ossa Phil was perfectly on line from start to finish for proper old school clean. No other clubman rider mastered the section but Shaw cleaned everything else to take the win on most cleans. Richard Hawes also deserves credit, losing just four single dabs on the TY.
The Easy course honours went to Eric McMeekin who dropped just a single 5 at section 10 on lap 2. Eric has recently acquired a Drayton Bantam and rides it very well. Neil Hebdon and Tony Pull were second and third.
After the event competitors and observers were treated to hot beef sandwiches by Amelia and Pam.
The club would like to thank all of the observers and the following individuals for their help in setting out this trial.
Barry Hays
Ian Stephen
Garry Salmon
Brent Main
Colin Battensby
Rob Dyson
Glen Quinn
Bedlington Motor Club are delighted at how well their first event went at this venue and hope to use it again next year. Riders should note that under no circumstances should anyone return to Thrunton Woods with a motorcycle. Illegal riding is a significant problem within forestry land in Northumberland and the Forestry Commission and Northumbria Police will confiscate machinery from illegal riders.
Bedlingtons next trial is Easter weekend at Elsdon.