Lands End 2002

Top Left - Colin Sumner smoking away as he trys to re-start his Morgan on Sutcombe Hill. Top Right - John Lee's hustles his Triumph Twin around the Bude special test as he trys to regain the time he lost when his electric's burned out on Stoney Street. Bottom Left - Team Falcon attacking Neil Bray's Skoda wheel nuts with a cold chisel! Bottom Right - Eric and Chris Wall starting off on their successful assault on Hoskin.

With Easter being early this year the clocks hadn’t changed, so it was dark as most of the competitors left the three starts, for the night run to the collecting control at the lorry park at North Petherton near Bridgewater. The thirty something competitors in Class 0 started from here for their trial which ended in the same place as the Lands End, but apart from the Bude Special Test, and some of the controls, it went its own way and followed its own route with its own sections. There was a diverse collection of machinery, mostly driven by familiar names. The MCC seems committed to the class which is a good thing for the sport as it allows newcomers to have a relatively easy introduction to Classic Trialling and old stagers to dust down some of those nice old cars lurking in the depths of their garages.

With no Sugg Lane this year (will the Exeter now be able to use this?) the first section was Felons Oak, a nice easy section that nobody can fail! Well that’s the theory but a few did, including Michael Leete and Verdun Webley. Then it was down to the A39, but sadly bypassing that delightful green lane with the rocky descent past the farm. Another place we missed was Minehead Rugby Club, which was cold and dark as we went by on the way to Stoney Street, where the approach lane was dry and the dust was still hanging in the air.

The section is not too steep, but it is long and rocky, with a horrendous drop on the left-hand side. There are no little lay-bys on the way up, so recovery is difficult if anyone has any problems. John Lees had his before the section even started when his lights suddenly went dead while waiting in the queue and smoke started to rise from under the seat of his Triumph Twin. Investigation revealed the main wire from the battery to the ammeter had shorted out and burned through. While getting things repaired John managed to lose the screw to the battery compartment cover so there was no way the battery would stay in place. John decided to leave the battery behind, which of course meant he had no lights. By this time the cars had come along, so John went up the section behind Duncan Welch with the aid of a torch, following Duncan and Dudley Sterry on the following road section to the halt at The County Gate Control where he waited for daylight to carry on.

Chris Sharrod had problems with his Skoda, causing a delay and a bit of confusion when there were problems with the radio and suddenly there were three cars and a bike on the hill, causing Neil Bray to claim a balk. With such a long hill it’s necessary to have more than one car on the hill at a time and the MCC has to rely on competitors being sensible in such circumstances. The dramas weren’t over yet as Stuart and Andrew Cairney were struggling with their clutch and stopped on the following road section to let things cool down. Unfortunately it didn’t get any better and Stuart decided to turn for home while he was still mobile. Everything was going fine until he got on the Motorway when the gearbox packed in and the remainder of the journey back to Reading was on the back of a Brittania Rescue recovery truck! With two nights booked at the "official" hotel Stuart didn’t want to waste his money so he and Andrew drove down to the West Country in their Peugeot daily driver to do some spectating.

There was the first of many re-grouping controls at The Culbone Inn, up on the hills, where Dennis Greenslade worked very hard to get all the cars into a small car park. These controls certainly kept the trial together and provided a nice opportunity to socialise. Pete Crawford was enjoying his ride with Clive Booth in the Dellow Replica after John Allsop had to stay at home. Pete was particularly looking forward to Bluehills which he last visited back in the 70’s. PCT expert Barrie Parker was another Falcon trying an MCC event, driving his Citroen in class one and enjoying the experience. Colin Perryman was struggling a bit in an un-familiar Skoda, having gone and out bought a car for the event after he ran out of time trying to repair his trials car after The March Hare.

Beggars Roost is a bit tame compared to the old days, now the council doesn’t dump a couple of lorry load of shingle from the beach on the hill anymore! However, the restart can always catch you out and it was certainly a bit rough this year. Neither Neil Bray nor Peter Thompson could get away cleanly. Michael Leete/Mike Hayward got away this time but at the expense of a puncture on the exit road. Tony Branson had a puncture here as well, which prevented him getting of the re-start. Lands End débutantes Ed Nikel and Richard Tompkins were running right at the back of the field having taken their trailers down to Cornwall and started down there.

Riverton was bought into play on this "New Lands End" to break up the long road run to Sutcombe. There had been quite a bit of discussion on The Web Community about the hill, which was reported as pretty rough when used on The Exmoor Trial. However, the MCC road gang had been at work and it was fine on the day. The hill starts off a bit rough, then it zig zags up the slope with a couple of tight hairpins. These caused problems for some of the bikes that ran out of lock. The early cars had quite a wait here as a number of the bikes had problems. Then Peter Faxon stopped in his Reliant and there was considerable delay while the recovery Land Rover made a bit of a pigs ear pulling him out, causing a lot of damage to the car and Peter had to retire and head for home. The section didn’t cause to many problems for the cars and Riverton got the thumbs up from most four-wheeled competitors.

Sutcombe somehow epitomises all that is wonderful about The Lands End. The approach down to the river is picturesque, with primroses gracing the bank. It has a ford at the bottom, with Peter Mountain checking tyre pressures, and there’s such a warm welcome at the top with the ladies of the village dispensing tea and refreshments from their back door! The hill itself is quite gentle but competitors had to tackle a rocky re-start, under the eagle eye of Jim Travers. This stopped quite a few competitors including Michael Leete and Ed Nikel.

The route ventured out onto The Hartland peninsula as usual to tackle a nice gentle Darracott but missing out Cutliffe Lane, denying many competitors the chance to clean this hill in the dry conditions. There was quite a delay at the Bude special test, probably caused by the class 0 competitors feeding back into the route and jumping to the head of the queue. Triple Editor Charlotte Blight was given a real white knuckle ride round the cones by Dave Turner who really had his BMW on the bump stops as he took the corners. There was another holding control on the crowded beach car park just before Widmouth Bay where car competitors rather got in the way of the surfers.

Emma Flay easing her Troll away from the Crackington re-start (picture by Jim Scott)

Crackington hadn’t been doctored too much this year and only the red cars had to re-start, so the famous old hill didn’t claim as many victims as usual. You can’t take it for granted though as Peter Thompson found out in his Opel, which ground to a halt despite the urges and shouts of the spectators. The same happened for Ed Nikel who was finding that the ruts get deeper when you run at the back of the field.

It was warm and sunny at the Wilsey Down rest halt and competitors were able to really relax instead of shivering in the cold which seems to be the norm here! It was soon time to be off, to tackle Warleggan, absent for a few years. This turned out to be the roughest hill of the trial, which was probably why it was dropped in the first place!

Anyone that was clear so far approached Hoskin with some trepidation. It’s deep inside Cardinham Woods and has a steep gradient, a bit of doctoring and a re-start for the yellows and reds. It lived up to it’s reputation and competitors in the queue watched car after car reverse back down. It was possible to get up though, as Bill Rosten proved, although he had a puncture in the process. Joe Caudle was delighted to get the Torum away from the re-start for a clean and was having a good run apart from a broken wing stay which John Turner tie wrapped into place after the Wilsey Down halt. Class sevens struggled a bit with their restart and neither Tony Branson nor Simon Robson got away under the eye of a spectating Duncan Stephens. Neil Bray didn’t have a restart but failed when he punctured near the top. This was the start of a real drama as a wheel nut rounded off when Neil tried to remove it and nothing he or his Falcon team-mates did could remove it. Finally they decided to change the tube with the wheel in-situ. This became complicated when they found the tyre was wrecked so they had to remove one from one of the spare wheels. Then they found the aluminium rim was split. By now there was nothing to lose so it was beaten into place, taped up, a new wheel and tyre fitted and off they went.

There was a very nice special test at Bishops path, once the horses had got out of the way of the motorbikes! This was a new hill for many competitors who didn’t know what was coming. The section was in two parts , divided by a track. Once this was crossed competitors were faced by a steep bank and the yellow and red cars had to re-start just before it which caused problems for many including Simon Robson. So did Tony Branson but like everyone else he was enjoying his trial.

After another route check the route followed the familiar path down to Bluehills with spectators thronging the hillside beside the track across the valley. But the "silly little horseshoe" of Bluehills One had to be tackled first. Always ready to catch the un-wary, tired, driver if they cut the corner back onto the track too tightly. Most managed it OK although Chris Sharrod’s Skoda did something dreadful to its rotor arm causing a bit of a hold up.

Neil Plumridge at the end of the winch cable in this atmospheric picture of Bluehills taken by Jim Scott

Then it was up the track to tackle Bluehills 2. Not a forgone conclusion since then MCC put in it’s artificial chicanes. The blue classes were allowed a straight run through but the rest had to negotiate the artificial hazards causing all the usual problems. Joe Caudle lost his gold here when he parked in a hole on the re-start and couldn’t get away. Brian Sussex was another Classical Gas fan who lost Gold here when he had to put his foot down as he negotiated the MCC’s hazards on his Yamaha.

The competitive part of the trial ended here and despite the threats in the routecard most competitors lingered for a few minutes to relax and catch up with how everyone else was doing. Stuart Cairney and Jim Scott were here looking for Bill Rosten who hadn’t appeared. Neither had Verdun Webley and Mike Pearson. They had problems during the night with Silicon in the fuel lines. They fixed this but later on they had electrical gremlins and had to call it a day.

There was a new finish at The Bay Hotel in Newquay with a club supper in store for those who were staying ‘there. The only problem was that you had to stay two nights which isn’t conducive to family life for everyone but seemed to go down well with those who availed themselves of the facility. So ended the first "New lands End". There were very few delays, although that could have been very different had it been wet, especially on a hill like Bishop’s Path. There are different opinions about The Lands End. Many people feel it should finish at Lands End but there are also Newquay fans who loved the new arrangements. However, whatever your opinion on that everyone voted this "new" Lands End a great success.

Tommy Kalber doing what every competitor wants to achieve - cleaning Bluehills in front of all those spectators! (Picture by Clive Kalber)