It was sunny, how do I know that? Because after having my bike blocked in my garage by my roofer putting the scaffolding in front of the door I volunteered to observe. No I didn’t enjoy the sunshine from the side of a section, I enjoyed it by the side of the road waiting for a recovery truck to pick me up so sorry guys. I did offer and I was on the way honest! and Im gutted I didn’t get to see that wonderful Morgan 3 wheeler!

So back to the event. With entries now being capped to maintain safety and limit queuing (as in the last year or so certain dates and venue have seen in excess of 120 riders turn up which whilst wonderful for the club can bring its own new set of challenges), the 82 riders were spread across 30 Pre 65’s, 20 Twinshocks, 16 Air Cooled Monos and 18 Modern Monos.

It was great to see 7 riders in the Beginner/Novice class and at the other end of the spectrum we had 10 Experts. Filling in the middle classes were 33 Clubman and 34 Intermediates.

Paul Owen – Pre 65 / Intermediate

Back to a great venue.

Section 3. Looked easy with a climb up a bank to a very tight right turn but the rear wheel was on wet tree roots and always caused me a dab before a slippy off camber ride out to another slippy root to the out gate.

Section 6. Looked a simple climb up and down a bank 3 times. But again the roots became bare and slippy at the top of the bank and a rock at the bottom of the bank stopped you getting on the power and caught lots out.

Section 8. A simple ride to a right turn and down to a fallen tree. A basic hop over it and carry on down to a left to the bottom and a climb out the the exit gate. But the fallen tree took lots of points off the riders and a few were eating dirt. Sometimes the easiest of things are the hardest.

Top trials by a great club as normal !

Mark Newman – Twinshock / Intermediate

Well first of all I want to thank everyone from the club for all there hard work again putting on a great event as always and to the observers who without them we wouldn’t have an event..

and to wish Gordon a happy birthday …your a star ..

Anyway a quick sum up from me as I’ve been a tad busy this week. I know its hard to believe. I had set myself a difficult task riding a bike am not used to, an Ossa 250 Gripper, the characteristics of the bike being totally alien to me but I spent the first lap and a half just learning to ride it and I dropped 5 after 5, in total about 30 marks but things did improve and I finally finished on a total of 39 which seems a lot but as I said things did get better..

I found most of the  sections very challenging, is it me or have we moved up a notch on the difficult scale ? I didn’t find any dangerous but I just couldn’t get to grips with section 3, up a steep ramp with a couple of feet to turn right or run into the wall. I never cleaned this.

But I’ve got to say Rogers section I had a 5 first time through but then banged to control the Ossa power and really enjoyed this challenging but great section. I had lots of slack dabs most unnecessary.

This venue is great and the tree lying down on Harry’s section usually causes all kind of problems but the Ossa floated over it to my surprise so much a handful of front brake caused the front to tuck on me and I face planted the dirt. I did see loads of riders struggling to get over it, stopping dead on it or flying into  the thick bush at the back of it but low and behold I cleaned it the next 3 times through it once I’d calmed down with the throttle, and this turned out to be one of my favourites.

It’s great that this club can keep putting on super events and long may it continue. Many thanks again 

Mat Duff – Twinshock / Novice

This is my first event report so go easy. Arrived at Pen y Graig quarry with my Fantic 200 and greeted by the friendly parking Marshall who quickly directed me to a parking spot, bike off loaded, quick brew/chat, signed on, briefing and off we went.
This was only my second trial and I did think about going on the yellow route but I wanted make sure I was fully happy on the Fantic as its a recent purchase and wanted to build my confidence so I entered the white route.
My favourite sections were:
Section 4: Enjoyed this as it was one of the longer sections (on the whites) and it had a nice few turns and things to get around, one of the slower sections which had me trying different gears each time I entered but I finally found the Fantics sweet spot after a few laps around.
Section 5: Enjoyed this as it was a challenge avoiding the mud bath at the bottom of the short incline into the section, also a few difficultly placed rocks to avoid in the middle of the section which caught me off guard the first time around and then gentle a climb out.
Section 9: Enjoyed this as again it was one of the longer sections with a fairly tight turn around a tree and then a nice climb out the section
All in all a great day, great set up, great people and nice to see a good number of little Fantics out and about.
Looking forward to the next one and riding on the yellow route

Many thanks to the observers and organisers.

Stephen Harding – Modern Mono / Clubman

As usual a huge thanks to all the aqueduct team for putting on such a great event again, a big thanks to Russ and Mark for spending their Saturday setting up the sections and all the the observer’s for giving up there Sunday without whom it wouldn’t be possible to have such a great event.  The day started at the farm yard and as everyone was getting parked up we had a bacon butty off Chris deburger as usual and a decent brew and as we were looking at the array of well prepared bike’s there was the sound of a Morgan pulling up in to the yard and it did attract some attention, (nice bit of kit that ), then 11 o’clock start and  pre event instructions from Russ and then a ride down to the quarry for the start. 

So here are a few of my favourites of the day.

Section 1: David on watch, you start off from the bottom of the quarry and through the start gate up a bit of a slippery stony slope, up a bit of a bank then a right onto an off camber right trying to avoid the tree then climb a bit more and drop back down to the right again and then a bit of a steep drop back down and out of the section.

Section 6: Paul on watch, you start off from the main track and a steep drop down and over a bit of a bump and drop straight into a bit of a deep mud bath. So then you had to come out the other side and up and keep left before a tight right and drop back down into the mud trying to avoid the large rock whilst turning left past another muddy slippy rock and tree stump and out of the section. aA good section this one , I only managed to clean it once.

Section 10: Mark on watch on this one. You start off from the top of a steep bank and drop down into the section through the start gate and down a bit of a loose gravel slope then a bit of a left up an off camber bank and then a really tight right past a tree and keep the brakes on, Then a bit of a tight left round another tree  then right and out.

Overall I had a great day, I managed to clean 3 sections, could have been more but that’s how it goes, big thanks to everyone involved and can’t wait to see you all again at the next one. Cheers aqueduct team once  again. 

Before we move into the usual stats, we have to close by once again say a huge thankyou to the club team for all of the effort they put in over the preceding months to make this happen, the observers for still taking the time to support and the land owner as always.

Top Places

Pre 65

• Expert – Jim Hough, Triumph (9); Chris Gascoigne, BSA (10)
• Intermediate – Paul Owen, BSA (12); Carl Winstanley, BSA (17); Keith Gardner, BSA (19)
• Clubman -Paul Brimelow, Cotton (0); Peter Cockins, BSA (3); Phil Clarkson, Triumph (3)
• Novice – Terry Lloyd, Triumph (2)

Twinshock

• Expert – Richard webster, Fantic (12); Ian Jones, Fantic (31)
• Intermediate – Tim Cuffin, Majesty (8); Craig Haworth, Fantic (30); Steve Sherwin, Yamaha (32)
• Clubman – William Leigh, Yamaha (6); Perry Tattum, Fantic (6); Will Birkin, Honda (8)
• Novice – Oliver Barker, Bultaco (0); Matthew Duff, Fantic (1); Andrew Liverseed, Beta (17)

Air Cooled Mono

• Expert – Chris Garlick, Gas Gas (10); Peter Ruscoe, Gas Gas (17); Kev Ellis, Yamaha (55)
• Intermediate – Jerry Hawker, Gas Gas (5); Robin Foulkes, Gas Gas (5); Paul Young, Gas Gas (5)
• Clubman – No riders
• Novice – No finishers

Modern Mono

• Expert – Shaun Mountford, Beta (43); Hayden Rainford, Montesa (53); Zain Pughe-Hutchinson (79)
• Intermediate – James Brooks (1); Paul Hornsby, Vertigo (3);Paul Hempkins, Gas Gas (22)
• Clubman – Jason Hanmer, Sherco (7); Sean Halstead, Montesa (17); Kaan Pughe-Hutchinson, Beta (21)
• Novice – Tony Williams, Scorpa (8); Jay Manmer, Oset (19)

Observer List

1 – Dave

2 – Elwyn

3 – Dave Lovell

4 – Russ

5 – Paul

6 – Steve Bee

7 – Roger Kenyon

8 – Harry Edwards

9 – Gordon

10 – Mark

Stats

Bikes Classes

• Pre 65 – 30
• Twinshock – 20
• Air Cooled Mono – 16
• Modern Mono – 18

Route Classes

• Expert – 10
• Intermediate – 34
• Clubman – 33
• Novice – 7

Bikes

Pre 65

• AJS – 1
• BSA – 11
• Cotton – 3
• Francis Barnett – 1
• James – 1
• Matchless – 1
• Starmaker (Drayton) – 1
• Triumph – 9
• Villiers – 2

Twinshock

• Beta – 1
• Bultaco – 2
• Fantic – 9
• Honda – 3
• Majesty – 1
• Montesa – 1
• Ossa – 1
• Yamaha – 1

Air Cooled Mono

• Aprilia – 2
• Fantic – 1
• Gas Gas – 7
• Honda – 1
• Yamaha – 4

Modern Mono

• Beta – 2
• Gas Gas – 4
• Montesa – 3
• Oset – 1
• Scorpa – 1
• Sherco – 2
• TRS – 2
• Vertigo – 2