Rockshocks Classic Trials Championship Round 3: Sedbergh MCC 20/05/2023
Report and Photographs by John Dickinson
Following the two opening rounds, courtesy of the Congleton and Huddersfield clubs, the 2023 Rockshocks series remained in the north for rounds three and four with a visit to Cumbria for the first weekend double fixture of the year.
First up, on Saturday May 20, was the revitalised Sedbergh club who were able to run on Mike Batty's fabulous piece of land at Bowston, near Kendal, which attracted just short of 80 entries which is good for a Saturday.
The day featured a civilised 12 noon start, allowing those who were travelling some distance to maybe have a later set-off time.
Carl Batty proved a perfect Clerk of Course as he not only knows the venue intimately, as a regular Pre-65 competitor he understands exactly the sections to set for Experts and Clubman.
The weather proved the unknown quantity as after weeks of indifferent weather the sun suddenly burst through for the hottest day of the year by a long way! This meant that the rocky outcrops on the high fell were bone dry offering plenty of grip although the dry grass between the rocks polished-up and caught several riders out as they spun to a sudden halt.
There was still some water in the long, climbing beck though and it was still very slippery early on and the small Expert entry, which started in the beck at the bottom of the valley, weren't too keen to be first!
Of the 20 sections, lapped twice which is the Rockshocks norm, the last was probably
the most feared, being a short, sharp, steep climb up through the trees close to the
paddock which required total commitment.
Starting with the Experts, Roman Kyrnyckyj used the Honda TLM260R to best effect
to take maximum points in Air-cooled Mono from Patrick Edwards.
Experts Twinshock was the usual Honda v Fantic duel and it was Miles Jones on
the four-stroke Honda just putting it over Fantic mounted Will Tolson with Richard
Webster a close third.
The final Expert group, Pre-75 Britshock, Carl Batty used his well travelled Villiers to hold off the Bantam of Paul Dennis with Chris Garlick third on his BSA four-stroke that was not running very well at all. This left Robin Luscombe and Matt Spink to complete the top five.
In the Clubman class, Martin Gilbert made his long trip from Devon pay dividends with max points in Air-cooled Mono on his nicely turned-out Fantic, but Steve Williams and Pete Blowers had to be separated on a most cleans tie-break after both finished on 12 marks.
Clubman Twinshock was by far the biggest class with around 30 hopefuls but it was a Honda TL lockout for the top three with Derrick Edmondson, Mark Barrow and Anthony Seales finishing in that order. Series regulars Derrick and Mark both finished on just three marks, the verdict going to Eddy 38 cleans to 37. Occasional rider Anthony dropped eight with local rider Jonny Clark the only other rider in single figures on nine.
This leaves just Clubman Britshock and it was former Northern centre trials
champ Chris Myers mounted on the little four-stroke twin cylinder Triumph
Tigress engined Tribsa who took the series points from Darren Walker and
Yorkshire's Ian Myers third on his shiny Cub.
