Poachers Pre 65 Parkinson's Farm

Shane LockleyShane LockleyA slightly lower number of riders turned out for the 8th round of the club championship with 8 sections set out on the hillside on either side of the Viking Way, which were to be ridden 5 times. The sandstone sections of Parkinson's Farm were in prime condition and the riders had some well laid out sections to contend with, low early morning cloud soon cleared as the event started, warm September sun made for an excellent day.

 

On the hard route, 12 experts tackled the sections but only one rider managed to keep a clean score sheet, that was 2-Stroke rider Mick Ash riding his new James for no marks lost. He was followed by a trio of fellow 2-Strokers on single figures, Andy Webbe on 5, with Shane Lockley and Mark Spencer on 6 marks each, the majority of these lost on the sandy drop-in turn on section 4. Other expert class winner Tony Bilton finished just on double figures on his C15, his best result in this year's championship.

 

Intermediate class saw another fine result in the Unit class for Michael Smalley winning the 50/50 route on a Tony Bilton B40 for 1 mark lost, he was pushed hard by Cub mounted Paul Kirkby, fresh from a good ride in the Manx Classic finishing with a loss of 2 dabs. We saw a couple more riders on single figures, Steve Fewster on 5 and 2-Stroke intermediate class winner Graham Cannon on 6 marks lost. Intermediate riders found sections 3 and 5 the most difficult, which didn't allow any errors when choosing the correct line.

 

The clubman route returned only 1 rider on single figures, class winner Simon Hewson on his Drayton Bantam completed the day on an impressive 5 marks lost, the majority of these on section 1 which all of the clubman riders lost marks on. It proved to be the most difficult section of the trial for them with a tricky drop-in and a right hand turn up a sandstone climb to a tight left turn on a grass bank that took the marks.

Due to late holidays the club was a couple of its regular observers down and it has to be said, hats off to Brenda McGregor and Errol Gowshall that positioned themselves strategically enough to observe 2 adjacent sections each, swapping the boards from one to the other. A big thank you to Alan Hunt who came to Glouceby to spectate and kindly took a section board away from Brenda, again thank you to the rest of our regular observers Alison, Jean, David and Brian for giving up their time so that we could enjoy a great days sport. ]

 

MG.