The Second round of the Macclesfield summer evening trials series took place last week at Ptattwood Farm near Stockport. Sponsored by Trial Magazine the event attracted a healthy 65 entries. Whilst the evening was pleasant and dry, rain in the week before the trial made conditions in the woods quite muddy and anyone who could find grip on the steep sided woodland was going to have a big advantage.

Four laps of 10 sections with a variety of routes to suit all was the order of the day. The experts on the hard route as usual made light of the condition. Mike Roberts and Mark Atkinson both finished on 2 marks and had to be split on furthest clean, with Mike getting the verdict. Top youth rider Tom Stewart (Beta) finished the evening on his brothers bike (Gas Gas) having seized his gearbox with one lap to go.

The 50/50 route proved to be master class from Andy Hipwell, his smooth riding style suiting the conditions perfectly; however the ride of the night came from youth rider Jonny Stewart. Riding with Andy for the first 2 laps, the 13 year old learnt fast and made his Gas Gas 125 grip where others came to grief.

Paul Atkinson made it two wins from 2 starts on the middle route. He had a 4 mark advantage over Adrian Bellis, section 10 being the difference between the two. The over 50 class saw Kevin Stannard take the win from Henry Rosenthal, once again the slippery logs at section 10 was the deciding factor. Novice winner Andy Downham avoided expensive 5’s and pipped Mark Thorpe by one mark to bag the 20 Championship points.

Club Secretary Bill Brown had an outing on the Middle/easy 50/50 route and showed the rest how it should be done. He only dropped 1 mark on section 5, a muddy climb following a tight turn out of the stream that had everyone but Bill footing hard.

The bits between the sections proved to be quite tricky for the white route riders. Several retired, rather than risk getting stuck down in the woods after dark!!! Butty wagon owner Paul Glendenning raced round to get back to his culinary duties, but still managed 3^rd place behind Ian Dommett and winner Steve Elliott.

An excellent evening was finished off by a brew and bacon butty at Paul’s wagon. Thanks to the section setters, observers and landowner Richard Emmott.

RESULTS;

Hard route:       Expert.             M. Roberts 2     M. Atkinson 2   K. Hipwell 15    M. Boam 16

                        Youth.              T. Stewart 29    M. Vennard 83

Hard 50/50        Over 40                        A. Hipwell 9

                        Inter                 P. Sharrock 27  L. Meridith 29   A. Mellor 29     P. Scottney 36

                        Youth               J. Stewart 12

Middle              Over 40                        P. Atkinson 2    A. Bellis 2         P. Clark 21       P. Mountford 26

                        Over 50                        K. Stannard 4    H. Rosenthal 7  K. Roberts 18   N. Stott 28

Easy 50/50        Clubman           B. Brown 12     T. Pratt 26        K. Shanks 29    L. Patterson 31

Easy                 Adult                S. Elliott 51       I. Dommett 53   P. Glendenning 71