grumpy2

you'd never win, they'd have you locked up down the cop shop for wearing that yellow gay boy suit

Hey Perce, how did you manage to get to Italy to take these photos of Raga and still be back to ride the Three Day? This should have died down by next year's trial, but could be good material for the next programme!!!

Well I did hear that you beat Dougie on the first day up Scotland!

I will be involved with marking this trial out. There will be 3 courses, Hard, green, & clubman. The course is laid out in open moorland with becks and ravines. Between the last 4 sections this can be reasonably challenging, but we will be marking out on the gentler side as as the old saying goes you make more friends with an easy trial than a hard one! By the way will you be bringing any observers?! (You've got to push your luck now and again! )

Mark Doughty got the Clubman award, Kev Hipwell won the Over 40 award but Kev was also best performance on the Clubman course over all.

Having visited the French World Round last weekend, I must say that the atmosphere was spot on, as at most of these overseas events. As this round in Maisse, most are held in or around towns or villages, which appear to be totally behind the trial. At Maisse the start ramp, the Motul truck and the purpose made section were all based in the centre of the town. The rest of the factory trucks were all parked along the street - roads were closed for the event and a sound system to various surrounding parking areas etc. was installed. This, to me, is marvellous to see, when, in parts of our country, we have governing bodies and organisations which would stop an event like this before it even had chance to happen. I feel that this is a great shame. If Clubs don't get together to fight our corner, I see a time when our sport will be squashed. I cannot fault the French round for its organisation, effort and enthusiasm. However, my own opinion on the severity of the sections was that they were on the hard side, but this is a trend of the world rounds and even our own British Championship, down to centre level and sometimes club. As I watched riders having to take loops out of the section to tackle steps at different angles to make them possible, it did make me question the current marking system. What the lads are doing at World Rounds, Indoors, etc., does require a great deal of skill, but it, to me, does not make for the best of entertainment when spectating. Whilst talking to other people at the trial, most agreed that they can get bored watching at the indoor and outdoor trials marked on the stop permitted system. No stop trials can be marked out with less danger involved. I am probably from the wrong era, but after looking at the World Round results from the eighties and seeing 100 riders competing on the same course, I wonder, are things really going the right way? I can't help but look at trials like the SSDT, The Scott, Loch Lomond 2 Day, Richmond's Reeth 3 Day and other trials of similar style and notice that they are regularly oversubscribed. I have also seen that at trials at centre level where clubs have introduced trick style riding entries often suffer. No doubt some of the young riders will disagree with me, but I think that sometimes there is a need to look backwards before we can move forwards.