Last Sunday the Macclesfield Trials Club ran the 4^th round of the Kelcoat sponsored winter trials series, The Ken Eyre Trophy Trial at the popular Rough Hayes quarry.

Mist and drizzle greeted the riders as they signed on but that didn’t stop 105 riders from turning up to ride 4 laps of 10 sections. As usual there were 3 routes with 2 variations of 50/50 routes, something for everyone.

A dozen riders had signed on to ride the hard route and it turned into a battle royal between riding mates, Mark Reynolds and Mike Roberts. The trial was won and lost on section 4, observed by Mark’s dad Paul. A tight turn over some slippery off cambered tree roots followed by a steep climb exiting over a wall had most riders in double figures for the section. Mike was brilliant to loose only 3 marks on his 4 visits, but Mark went clean on every lap and eventually ran out the winner of The Ken Eyre Trophy by 2 marks. Best youth was Liam Atkinson, getting one over on his mate Ollie Pitt.

There were a similar number of riders on the 50/50 route. Gas Gas employee Andy Hipwell took his muched blinged ’09 Pro to the win over Beta mounted Mark Timperley. Like most, these two struggled on section 4, but elsewhere kept things very tidy. Mike Vennard and Jonny Stewart were the only 2 youth riders to attempt this route and both enjoyed the challenge that the harder sections threw at them.

As always the middle route was the most popular. A mixture of Novice, O/40, O/50 and youth riders vied for supremacy. Yorkshire visitor Hannah Styles showed them all how to tackle the slippery Cheshire sections. Her loss of 9 marks for the trial was a terrific effort. Elsewhere, Adrian Bellis lifted the over 40 award and Andy Foot just snatched the over 50 prize from Colin Lear. Colin didn’t like the rooted climb at section 9, 14 of his 17 marks went there, whereas Andy lost only 2 on this section. In the Novice class Nick Wilford used the bottom end grunt of his 270 Beta to good effect; he finished well clear of runner up Paul Davies.

On the easy route, Harvey Lloyd’s hill climb at section 8 sorted the men from the boys. A steep loose 40 yard blast up a bank would have been ok had it not been for the tricky approach around a tree. Generally it was a clean or a five. Those who could, made it look like tarmac, those who couldn’t gave Harvey a good laugh!!!! Showing you don’t need the latest kit to win, Fantic mounted Carl Braddock made mincemeat of the climb and ran out a comfortable winner of the 50/50 easy route. Riding his trusty Montesa 315 Simon Williams was a comfortable winner of the easy route.

The butty wagon did a roaring trade all day and was still serving long after the last rider had finished.

Thanks go to the section setters and the team of hardy observers.

Results:

Hard route

Expert              M.Reynolds 4               M.Roberts 6     T.Craig 37        D.Watson 44

Youth               L.Atkinson   98

50/50 Route

Over/40           A.Hipwell 19    M.Leddy  27    P.Hallam  31    A.Shaw  33

Inter                 Mark Timperley 22  M Timperley  28 M.Trweek 28     N.Butterworth 39

Youth B           J.Stewart  31    M.Vennard  90

Middle route

Over 40           A.Bellis  14      J.Day  19         T.Williamson  22

Over 50           A.Foot  15       C.Lear  17       A.Sprinks  29

Novice             N.Wilford  11   P.Davies  28     M.Renshaw  37

Youth   A         H.Styles  9       T.Mills  45

Youth B           G.Salt  55         A.Strachen 63

50/50 Easy

Clubman           C.Braddock  18           P.Clark  37      B.Brown  38

Easy route

Adult                S.Williams  19              J.Day  35         M.Stewart  45

Youth               A.Foot 77