Berkhamsted MCC held their trial on 15th March at their Nash Mills Ground in bright but cool weather. The course was set out to be on the easy side with the exception of the Expert route.
The Experts saw a battle for the win between Gus Oblein and the 2023 Youth A British Champion George Clark. Gus finished on just 2 marks lost, with George on 4; an unlucky 3 on section 6 proving to be George’s undoing. Max Agar’s return to trials saw him put in a brave effort to drop 76 marks, just pipping Sophie Bailey on 81 and Alex Buckle on 82. Sophie will be competing at the top level in both British and world Championships this year. These scores just show how hard it is to set out a route at this level!
On the Intermediate 50/50 Route, Bailey Tibbs went clean, with Jack turner in second on 2 marks lost, followed by Richard Pearce on 7. All quite impressive, as they tackled 5 of the hard route.
It was great to see Josh Quigg riding again after his accident, although taking it easy on the Clubman route and going clean. Simon Clark will not be sleeping tonight after dropping just 1 mark, with veteran rider Mark Elms in third place on 6 marks.
Novice route was won by Ellis Marsh on 2, with Steven Brock second on 40.
Sportsman was won by Gary Horwood on clean, with Graham Burton close on just 1 mark. Third was Neil Siddle on 2 marks, just beating Pete Haines also on 2 with the furthest clean.
The Pre 65 hard route was very close with Seren Walters going clean on her Bantam, with Jason North kicking himself with a score of 1. Seren was getting practice in for her Pre 65 Scottish 2 day trial, and beating the Clubman riders on modern bikes!
Pre 65 Easy was won by Robert Bremner on clean, with Chris Page on 3 and Martin Howlett in third place on 5 marks lost.
Paul Millhouse took an impressive win on the Twin Shock Hard route going clean on his Merlin, with Peter Cook coming in second on 4 marks.
The Youth Yellow route was won by Bradley Sims dropping just 17 marks, followed by Charlie Howlett on 26.
Bradley’s sister Leah ignored the Pink route and went straight to the Green route and finished on 35, not bad compared to the adult Green router won by Tony Goldney on 3.
The Club would like to thank the setting out crew of Martin Greeves, Colin Wood and George Clark. We also had “Nash Nosh” serving food and drinks thanks to Louise and Rachel Shepherd, though I’m not sure that counts as a meal out on Mothers day !
Also thanks to the Secretary of Meeting, Shani Greeves, for getting draft results out quickly.
Big thanks to the Observers: Stefan Walters, Mark Haines, David Stainton, Brett Buckle, Anthony Thomas, Jon Probitts, Rob Turner, Martin Hawyes, Oli Slinn, and Andy Glasgow. And thanks to our car park marshal, Iain Thompson.
And obviously we hope the riders all had a great time !