Manchester 17 MCC held their final Dead Easy Trial of 2019 at Heaton House Farm, Rushton Spencer on 24th November. Fifty one solos and six sidecars supported the event which was contested over four laps of ten sections for the solos and six sections for the sidecars.
The sections were laid out on the sheltered, compact area of the farm given the unpredictability of the weather at this time of year. As it turned out, apart from a slight shower at the start, the weather held good, particularly after the heavy rain preceding the trial. The usual mix of sections was laid on, tight turns around trees, up and down banks, with an offering of mud for good measure.
On the Easy route, no clean rides, but three riders tied on one mark lost, Julian Shelton, John Brown and Matthew Arnell.
On the Hard route, two riders managed to keep their feet up all day, Michael Radford, and Factory Kev Hipwell, who had also helped run the event.On this route, Father and Daughter George and Lucy Baker both had good rides. Father George had the bragging rights with a loss of two but Lucy rode well to only lose seven. Watch out Dad, Lucy is catching you up!
It was very pleasing to see six outfits turn out and proved it was worth persevering with the chairs when support was patchy. On the Easy route, Stuart Riches made a return to the sport after a break of many years and with Sophie in the chair, who had never ridden an event, went round clean. A superb effort. Bert White and John Rowson won the Hard route without loss of marks. Toby Eyre and Kiri will be cursing their failure to get up the tricky bank on section five which cost them a five.
Smiles all round at the end said it all and brought to an end another successful series of Dead Easy Trials. The Club would like to thank all the riders who have supported the series, all the people who have helped put the events on including the Observers, and the Landowners without whose cooperation there would not be any trials. Hope to see you all again next year.
Report: Roger Townsend