Having been 'sleeping' members of the club for over a year, both myself and my partner decided that it was time to 'take the bull by the horns' and actually enter the trials, although I must say we were slightly 'pressured' by a certain Richard and his son Malcolm into this decision.

Once decided though, we set about making our practice sessions at Don's more than just a game to see how many times we could fall off or 'hug a tree!' We received lots of excellent advice from many members who we only know by smiling at in a sort of 'I am here but I don't know what to do!!' sort of way.

Our first trial at Hookwoods was arrived at with fear and trepidation, all of course totally unfounded that is until we found that there was no yellow route! A quick word and the same Richard and Malcolm hurriedly 'put together' a route especially for us 'oldies.'

We set off with others and managed to complete all the sections and all the laps albeit in a 'up and down, oops where did that come from?' manner and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and all the help and encouragement that we received.

After that initiation we set off in diabolical weather conditions to the next trial at Hanging Wood. I was glad that I had taken the decision of not washing the car prior to the event!! (It was bad luck I told Julie!) As it was, I think the term goes… a bit 'claggy'. This was a completely different set of challenges to the previous trial and that father and son team had had more time to ensure that although yellow, the route gave us plenty to think about. I am sure that I detected an evil grin from a certain person at one stage during the day!!
However, once again we had a super day in not so good weather conditions and went away from Hanging Wood with no intentions of committing 'Hari Kari', just a feeling of extreme tiredness and pondering what the next trial will be like.

A big thank you to all involved for making it and the club an enjoyable experience for us two 'novices'

Steve Mims & Julie Thompson (No relation to Kevin or Ian!)