Round one of the Kelcoat championship, which is this year an open championship rather than a club championship as in previous years, saw a welcome return to what turned out to be an extremely dry Rough Hey Quarry. A good entry of 95 riders tackled the 3 laps of 12 sections, each section with 3 routes and there was also the option of 50/50 for both inters and clubmen.
A strong entry of expert riders were led by Richard Timperley (Ackhams Beta) and Kelcoat sponsored Sam Yeomans on his 300 Gas Gas. Although Sam recorded 3 cleans on the tricky very long section 2, compared to a total of 5 lost by Richard, it failed to win him the trial. Richard was head and shoulders above the rest of the Experts on the massive climb on section 7 with a perfect score of 0. This compared to Samʼs score of 8 - still a good score as virtually all the rest of the experts recorded a score of 15.
A good entry of Inter riders was headed by Yamaha mounted Sam Clarke who just beat Matt Treweeke by 3 marks. Recently upgraded Mike Renshaw and Will Hamlett had good rides finishing with respectable scores on what was a difficult course. The best score recorded on the Inter route was that of Kev Hipwell in the O/40+ plus class on 8. Scott Hipwell stepped up to the inter route for the first time and had a good ride with a score of 30.
T Heath from Barnsley Club led the way on the Middle route with a score of 8 - the only rider in single figures to take best Novice with club committee member Paul Clowes in second place.
It was a much closer call in the O/40 class with Rob Kelsall and Mark Cook both losing 19 marks and Rob just taking the win on most cleans . It was the same scenario in the O/50s with this time Dave Matthews just losing out to P Flintman on most cleans.
In the youths, young Tom Shepherd still a youth C rider had a storming ride losing just 20 marks and cleaning the difficult section 12. On the clubman route Andy Atkinson was out on his own in the adults with a loss of 18 - 9 of which went on the difficult section 2. Andy was the only rider on this route to record 3 cleans on another hard section for this class section 12 - most riders lost 5.
On the easy route it was youth rider Owen Bowers who recorded the best score of just 3 marks . It was again section 12 that took the majority of marks from the riders with a nasty rocky slot stopping many bikeʼs forward motion but young Owen managed it for just 2 marks - the best score of the day. Bill Brown on his Fantic was best adult .
Many thanks to Kelcoat Trials, Leek for sponsoring the championship.