STONEGATE 27th July 2003111

Round nine the penultimate event of the Bexleyheath and District MCC clubman championship took me to the slippery slopes of Stonegate for what was to be a really challenging trial and it was all my doing. I arrived early at Stonegate to lay out an expert route which incidentally I haven't done for quite some time because Rob and Gary "Toni & Guy" do it to themselves, sorry do it themselves. So, walking around each section putting a couple of whites here and white cards there I thought it was going to be a easy peasy trial "wrong" a white card here and a white card there with the ground damp is a recipe for a hard day. Lap 1 costs me bucket loads of marks and struggling like a sperm whale trying to out perform a dolphin at sea world my performance was crap. Sections four would have needed Dougie Lampkin to clean it, but hey I like a challenge and its no big deal as I laid the white route out I can change it for lap two. Lap two transcended to a jiggle here and a jiggle there with the cards, a nice cheshire cat grin on my face as I cleaned each section time and again finishing the trial quickly gave me the opportunity to pursue my favourite past time "verbal diarrhoea", every rider to pass through section six got the treat.

So how did the trial go? Well section one was a breeze perhaps a little windy but I cleaned it on every lap, sections 2-8 were no harder then trying to get ed to a trial "bloody hard going". It was section 9 running the wall of death and all my doing that was going to be one of the two gem sections on the day. Section nine was down by the river and commenced with a slow but controlled ride between two trees then drive across a bank and you better not stop or your dead meat then up between another couple of trees and you was at the wall of death. Wall of death? Yes, selecting third I drove hard across the face of the slope with a frightening drop to the right, if it went wrong it would mean a visit to A&E at the local hospital, loads of bottle but no skill required, I love these type of sections they really make a trial for me. Section 10 was a blast and go section which I loved, the section started with a drop into the river riding along missing the hidden rocks invisible to the eye jolting the bars violently left and right and breaking your wrists in the process, a blast right up a bank and turning the same time to get me back down into the river, along a bit further and the same again but on the third time it was a nasty exit out of the river, up I went clean "there's talent for yu" turning sharp left over a large pile of logs and driving up a slippery bank for the final ringing the guts out of the Scorpa for a flying finish.

Big thumbs up to Dennis, Roger and the landowner.