The trial at Blacklands farm was a great success. After a lot of rain the week before I expected the river to be rather deep, but it was actually quite shallow so we could put more sections in the water than last time. More than 40 riders turned up to compete. This lead to an old phenomenon called 'queuing'. This is where a rider parks behind another motorcycle and waits just long enough to forget the route!
Unfortunately my back gave out during laying out, so rather than riding I was able to take a few photos for the club mag. Thanks to all of you who happily stopped with one foot down to get a better picture. Pat Lloyd-Jacob even reversed down a steep bank to help (see front cover), but I'd already taken the shot! Derek decided to get off and pose next to his bike in section 8 rather than clean the section, what a pro! Tom Shea tried to hide his leg behind a tree, but I still saw it.
Most of the sections were quite tricky to master. After lap 2, section 6 was changed for the blues after Garth Harris had a mishap on the steep drop over the back. The rest of the sections were left alone, they were a bit on the hard side but they weren't dangerous, just very hard to clean. Most of the days accidents were people falling off between sections. Poor old Dave Wooster bruised his fingers, chest and knee when his bike jumped into gear while he was stamping his card and hit a tree. Chris Roos fell off the back of his bike while queuing for section 8, 'Hilarious' I nearly injured myself laughing.
See you all at the next trial.