Rockshocks Classic Trials Championship Round 6: West of England MCC 18/06/2023
Report and Photographs by John Dickinson
The second half of the Double Devon weekend was thanks to the West of England team and held at Paradise, Horridge Meadow, Halsager Cross near Ashburton. Just like Saturday's venue, this was also deep in the Devon countryside, lost in the leafy, narrow lanes the county is famous for.
The course, from the picturesque start field, again disappeared immediately into the woods where the course meandered taking full advantage of the very slippery stream and steep bankings. The weather, thankfully, wasn't as hot as the previous day but the threat of thunderstorms or heavy rain was present.
With a 10.30am start and many competitors looking to get a flying start for their journey home of - in some cases - several hundred miles - there was no hanging around from the 50-odd contenders and all classes were straight on the move from their four starting points on the course.
Beginning again with the Experts it was all change as Ian Peberdy slipped from top to bottom over Saturday's result while Roman Kyrnyckyj and Matt Spink, making it a Honda TLM260R one-two and Beta mounted Liam Atkinson, all moved up a notch to fill the podium!
Twinshock Expert brought up another maximum Championship points haul for Will Tolson who revelled in the conditions posting the only single mark score on the Hard course, just seven marks as the Fantic rider made a tricky course seem easy leaving Andrew Cundy and Mark Datson in his wake to scrap for the minor placings, Andrew just shading his rival by a single mark.
Paul Dennis and Dave Sherlock swapped places in the Britshock class with the Yorkshireman
prevailing this time round with an eight mark advantage while Tom Bartrum made it an all
BSA Bantam podium.
Moving on to the Clubman we had an interesting finish in Twinshock with three riders all
finishing on three marks lost - and all declared joint winners! This is because as the class
was split over several starting points it was not possible to work out Furthest Clean.
Of the trio, Chris Tolson and Michael Platts, on Fantic and Honda, are long-time series
regulars and Championship contenders while Bath visitor Bretton King really enjoyed his first Rockshock outing, on the little Fantic 156, and threatened to enter further upcoming rounds!
Derrick Eddy slipped to fourth on the day while fellow Honda TLR rider Mark Barrow was handicapped by a snapped footrest early on but continued with a makeshift Molegrip 'peg'!
The Britshocks also saw a tie at the top between two
very different Triumph twins, the
whispering little 250cc Tigress engined Tribsa of
Chris Myers and the rasping 500 of
Jim Ashford, Chris just getting the verdict
(as both started at the same section).
Martin Matthews bagged third on his 250 Francis Barnett as four- stroke BSA mounted Darren Walker shaded Saturday winner Nigel Greenwood for fourth, Nigel's score blighted by the slippery streams on the first lap.
Air-cooled Mono again saw local man Martin Gilbert on top form dropping just a three, on the opening lap at the eleventh sub, and a couple of dabs for a total of five on the Fantic.
Completing the podium were Mark Whelan, on a very tidy Honda RTL in
classic 'factory' Rothmans livery and Paul Atkinson on his GasGas.
Massive thanks to all the Devon crew, especially Kailee for all her hard work, for a super weekend's sport.
