With dry conditions it was predictable that the Allen was going to see clean sheets, but the way they were spread across the classes showed Pete Hart and his team had got the event right. Josh Moss was second overall in his Gregory Special.

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New Start Venue

With the Cross House closed it meant the Allen Team had to find a new start venue, coming up with The Bull Inn at Hinton which proved a popular choice. It did confuse one or two though, who had problems finding the route to Tog Hill, but all was well and everyone cleared this nice starter hill.

Traditional Hills

Bitton Lane didn't have tyre pressure limits for its restart on polished stones. It didn't cause many problems apart from Class Five, where four of the seven didn't get away. Everyone had to restart on Little Uplands which proved tough on Class One, where only Dave Haizelden (Golf) and Nick Cleal (Peugeot 205) got off the line.

As ever Guys Hill was a tough challenge for Classes Seven and Eight where they had their usual restart on a mixture of polished stones and tree roots. This left only Duncan Stephens, Andrew Rippon, Mal Allen and Murray Montgomery-Smith clean in Class Seven and Josh Moss, Dudley Sterry, Mike Chatwin, Charlie Knifton, Carl Talbot and Russell Clarke in Class Eight.

Ubley Woods Sections

After a tree rooty Travers competitors tackled four sections and a special test at Bristols Ubley Woods venue. Although muddy there was nowhere near the usual amount of clag and things flowed smoothly. The Class Eight restart on Ubley Woods Four sorted the red category out and only Josh Moss (Gregory Special) and Carl Talbot (Morris Trialsmaster) were clean going to lunch. They were joined by another eight clean sheets, including the Model T based Board Racer of David Golightly.

Burledge

There were four traditional hills after lunch, starting with Burledge. This had been closed to motorised traffic following last years event. However, Pete Hart and his team had worked a miracle and got permission for the hill to be open for the event.

The second special Test took place on the way to the section. With so many clean sheets this was going to be decisive in determining the results. Carl Talbot was fastest here and coupled with his time on the Ubley Woods test was in overall lead of the trial.

Burledge started just up the track, beginning where the old section finished before the ruts were filled in! It was all about stopping in the right place at the restart. About 25% of the entry didn't, although it didn't trouble the leading contenders.

Mill Lane was enjoyable but not too problematical, although David Golightly retired his wonderful car here. This was a shame as David had his clutch fail on the VSCC's Cotswold Trial on Saturday. Undeterred he returned home to Grimsby to make a repair. An exercise that involved removing both the gearbox and back axle, returning to Bristol on Sunday morning.

Big Uplands

Only class eight had the pleasure of tackling Big Uplands as water erosion had created some deep gulleys. It was a tough one, even for the specials, and decided the result of the trial when Carl Talbot failed at the seven, putting Duncan Stephens in the lead of the trial.

John Walker

The Allen's finale was the wonderful John Walker, tackled in the dusk for later numbers as there were a few delays extracting those unfortunate to puncture.

With all the clean sheets there were a lot of hopefuls at the finish. After the ST times were taken into account it was Duncan Stephens (Dutton Melos) who emerged the winner, followed by Josh Moss (Gregory Special) and John White (1300 Beetle). Everyone enjoyed the trial which was a credit to the effort and experience of Pete Hart and his team from the Bristol Club.

Added 29 November 2013

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