Videos by Michael Leete and James Shallcross

 Pete Hart and his team ordered good trialling weather for The Allen Trial. Nice and damp but with the rain holding off until the drive home.

There were problems after the introductory Tog Hill, when a police motorcyclist closed the A439 in the village of Wick after half the entry had passed because a wide load was on its way out of Bristol. This delayed proceedings for quite a while and some competitors retraced their steps to make an off-routecard diversion to Bitton Lane. In the end everyone regained the original route, but the running order was mixed up for the rest of the trial.

There were two challenges at Bitton Lane. The restart and getting to it! From the start it looked smooth enough but after the 90 left there were deep ruts on a 90 right and this stopped a lot of cars with limited ground clearance. The restart was in the usual place, a left hand bend surfaced with polished stones. This caught out a surprising number of people, including Mike Hobbs in his Class Six Beetle and Mike Workman, Bill Foreshew and David Bache in Class Eight.

Uplands was next, approached along the normal flooded track, although the water was not as deep as a few years ago. The Yellows and Reds cruised up the resurfaced Little Uplands on a non-competitive transit. They were to have their go at Big Uplands later, the morning was for the minnows in Blue and White who were able to make their assault without having to restart. It was tough enough though, the ruts were fearsome. All the diff draggers in class three bottomed out, leaving the glory to class two who all went clean, even the low powered Austin Sevens!

Guys Hill was next, not to much of a problem for those who didn't have to restart but the steps and tree roots awaited those that did. Few of the re-starters could get away. Dave Foreshew was one of them and dropped six, which transpired to be the only marks he would loose on the trial. If he had gone clean here Dave would have won the event! Andrew Rippon retired his VW Baja with a broken transmission, concluding that a powerful engine and grippy Matador tyres don't mix! Michael and Colin Weeks retired their MG Midget here as well. Mainly PCT drivers they had entered The Allen to prepare for The Exeter.

Travers was another traditional Allen Trial hill with a restart for the Yellows and Reds, situated on a nasty rocky area. The non re-starters should have been able to carry enough momentum through the rocks for it to be a trouble free section. However, it wasn't so easy for some, and three of the Austin Seven's failed, only Emma Wall going clean in her ex Peter Trelving car. Colin Perryman (BMW 2002) and Michael Leete (VW Beetle) also failed and both should have known better! The Yellows and Reds had quite a challenging restart amongst the rocks. Mike Hobbs made up for his failure on Bitton Lane by being the only class six Beetle to get away. A Marlin was definitely the wrong car here, only Jonathan Ellwood succeeding while all the non-Marlins were successful. Most of the leading runners in class eight were OK, apart from Dave Wall, in his smart Dellow Mk1, which dropped him out of contention.

At the top of Travers competitors turned left into a muddy field for the two Ubley Woods sections and the first special test. The sections were similar, both very muddy, starting on the flat and turning 90 right up a greasy bank. Tyre pressures were free and going as low as possible was definitely the order of the day. Although decidedly out of character with the body of the trial these two sections placed a premium on driving skill and throttle control and while there were a lot of failures the leading contenders in all the classes cleared them both. The trial lost Steve Johnson here after suffering half shaft failure on his Triumph Special.

There was a rest halt beside the reservoir at Chew Valley, with hot meals available in the visitor areas cafeteria for those wanting them. Burledge was just up the road, not the same challenge now the ruts have been filled in, nerveless Simon Groves and Michael Leete both failed the restart under the eagle eye of John and June Blakeley who were marshalling here.

It was back to the mud for three sections at Lakeside. The first was a strange affair, a gentle run up a tree lined muddy bank before dipping into a watery pool with a very sharp right-hander around the trees, taking care to avoid a hidden tree stump, which a kindly Mark Hobbs was pointing out.

Up until now there had been some clean sheets but Dave Haizelden (Golf GTi), Nick Cleal (Peugeot 205), Tristan White (Class 7 Hillman Imp), Dean Partington (DP Wasp), Charlie Shopland (Shopland) and Ian Davis (VW Buggy) all lost them here, failing to get around the right hander in Mark Hobbs pool and dropping either one or two. This left only Adrian Dommett clean in his supercharged Wolseley Hornet. The other two Lakeside sections were PCT style up a muddy bank. Adrian surmounted the first one but failed to get around the bend at the bottom on the second, dropping nine and falling back to fourth overall behind Dean Partington, Dave Foreshew and Simon Woodall.

And that's how it remained at the finish. The Yellows and Reds had their attempt at Big Uplands and the wonderful John Walker section rounding off the event in fine style but not impacting the leading positions.

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