Simon Welch knew he would have another battle on his hands at this, unsurprisingly, Stony venue deep in the Forest of Dean organised by the West Glos & Dean Forest MCC. At last week's Nympsfield round he had to face multi British Championship winner Steve Saunders who proved he'd hadn't lost much of his edge. This week he'd face two new contenders: a puncture near the end forcing a last lap dash to finish like he was riding the Scott, and a new face who'd been missing from this year's championship in RAWSport's Ben Bowkett.
Ben had a few maximums but was matching some of Simon's rides. Like Simon said afterwards, if only he'd come out a ride more we'd have some great battles.
Not too far behind were the battling Bendall brothers, Joe and Henry.
The well supported clubman/Expert route was certainly tough with winner Richard Mott dropping 28 and young Callum Colbourne taking best youth on 42 on the same route.
Ashley Reed brought a new bike out, again we haven't seen him out riding much lately but he was pleased with a winning 13 on the Clubman route. Local boy Brendon Kedward snapping at his heels, if only he could loose a couple of 5s. The Sports Plus route must have picked some tough Clubman sections for the winner Sam Wilson to loose 42. Owen CHiswell, the winner of the Sportsman route intended to ride the plus route but his minder, son Lee obviously didn't mind him enough as he rode some of the easy routes so was demoted to full Sportsman!
Thanks to Ben Bishop who ran the conducted route with 2 course options. The Junior expert route was toughened up to save the juniors from struggling on the Sportsman's route but Youth C rider Oliver Goode buzzed his Beta 80 around for a loss of only 4. There was an entertaining swap of bikes afterwards when Amory Falconer tried a new 80 while Oliver tried the classic TY80 - how do you pull this clutch in Amo? (Oh that reminds me. Anyone got a Beta 80 for sale?)
The Junior route was also pretty tough for our contenders but Arron Kear blitzed the opposition on 15. With Fred Bishop missing Jackson Morman was the only electric bike rider and with good leg work he avoided 5s all day.
The club are looking to put on a practice day event in November so have a look at their website for info and results. Stony Green Trial Web page with Results/Pics/Video