Adrian Marfell Wins Allen Trial on Special Tests

There were 12 clean sheets on this years Allen Trial so the overall winner and three of the classes were decided on the two special tests, both of which put a premium on reversing skills. This played into the hands of Adrian Marfell, with his famous head out the side style, and he emerged the easy winner. OK, the result wasn’t decided on the hills, but this was a brilliant Allen Trial, despite the loss of a couple of old favourite hills. The weather was reasonably kind and the organisers were rewarded by a wonderfully varied entry, including a magnificent old two stroke Trojan.

Everyone's favourite car - Stephen Potter and John Wilton in the Trojan, 2 stroke engine, chain drive and all

Falcon’s Mike Massey Memorial Trophy winners Clive Booth and John Allsop led the field away from the Crown Inn at 8.30 sharp on a mild day. The autumn rain and storms had caused problems though and Pete Hart had to take Big Uplands out of the route, when he found all the water that had been running down the section had washed most of the track away. This was a shame as the trial has also lost Elwell, another favourite, because of resurfacing a few years ago.

Tog Hill was first on the agenda, after a last minute diversion to avoid some flooded roads. This is quite easy these days, since some resurfacing was done a few years ago, removing the big bump that put such a huge dent in one of my new floor pans! Anyway, this one didn’t trouble the scorer as they say, so it was right onto the A420, down the hill and past the Texaco garage. No drink for thirsty motor cars though, as it was all shuttered up, with builders working on a refurbishment.

Bitton Lane was next. This is the one with the tricky re-start, cunningly positioned on a left hand bend where the polished stones evilly glint in the light as you approach, warning of the challenge to come! Actually it wasn’t so bad this year, claiming only a couple of victims, including ACTC Rights of Way officer and Stroud Anniversary Trial organiser, Andrew Brown in his Marlin. The route emerged onto a busy A4175 to skirt the edge of urban Bristol, crossing the delightful river Avon into the town of Keysham. Does this ring a bell with you older triallers? Well, remember when you used to listen to radio Luxembourg under the bedclothes and the music was interrupted by Horace Bachelor with his ad for the scheme that would win you a fortune on the football pools? You sent your Postal Order to "box something or other, Keynsham, that’s K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M". Don’t knock it, you can learn something here on Classical Gas, best value on the Internet, you get what you pay for!

No Big Uplands this year, so it was onto Guys, which didn’t trouble any of us girls who didn’t have to re-start. It put Mike Hobbs into the class six lead though, as his opposition both struggled on the re-start. Ace Beetle fettler Nigel Allen crawled to the five but bead breaker maker John Looker moved hardly at all on those smooth stones. Most of the class seven aces got away OK, including Classical gasser Mal Allen but poor old Tim Lakin stuttered to a halt after a tremendous tyre smoking attempt. It was pretty tough for the class eight’s as well and 12 of the 21 hot shoes failed, including notables such as Adrian Dommett and Stuart Harrold. Perhaps you could have to much power as there were great cleans by Clive Booth in the 1300 Dellow Rep and Iain Daniels in the Rebel TS with it’s little 700cc motor. Clean or fail there’s no way out the top of Guys these days, so it was back down to the start and through the field to the road. The rain showers had started by now and this could be a slip-sliding affair if you weren’t careful.

Different approaches to Guys - (left) Adrian Dommett and Judy Phillips seem to be going their separate ways after failing to bounce their way of the re-start. (right) Eric Wall catches up on his sleep as Dudley Sterry eases of the re-start to glide serenely to the summit and another clean sheet. (pictures by John Salter) Click here for more Allen Trial Pictures

Competitors relaxed a little on the way to Sandy Lane, as this is one of The Allen’s easier hills. Michael Leete stopped to investigate a funny feeling from the back, which felt like a tyre going down. Nothing appeared amiss but this was to re-occur later and looking back was the first warning of a mechanical problem. Did I say Sandy Lane was easy, well not this year? It was quite wet by now and the re-start was very muddy. As there is no bottom to the section it was quite tricky and got more so as the holes got deeper and deeper. Everyone had to re-start here. The classes ones were probably quite apprehensive about this but they needn’t have worried as they could get their driven wheels up steam of the holes and all but Paul Allaway got away. It caught a lot of the rest of us though. Percentage wise the class three’s fared worse and in class two Stephen Potter incurred his only fail of the day in the wonderful Trojan. The hill also spoilt David Thompson’s clean sheet, despite some frenetic bouncing from Hazel MacDonald, enjoying her first outing in an open car.

The Strode section was nice and easy but it saw the end of John Parsons trial when the big Westfield nudged the bank at the end and broke a wishbone on his front suspension. The Allen is not John’s lucky trial as I think it’s the third retirement in the last three outings. A special test followed, just up the track. A blind round a ninety right, through a big muddy puddle, all four wheels over line B then reverse back again. David Heale was fastest, completing the section in an un-believable 17.6 seconds in his Escort Estate.

The re-start on Travers caught the unwary yellows and reds, including Anthony Young, big wheels and all! Martin Jones was struggling with a very sick engine in the ex-Vowden VW Variant Special and had to retire just up the road. Martin wasn’t that surprised as this was a thrown together motor after the pukka job seized up on the last event. The whites and yellows could drive straight through and the section wasn’t too much of a problem if you maintained plenty of momentum over the loose stones and rocks just after the re-start. However, they caused a problem for Neil Bray who blew a tyre, changed the wheel only for that to go flat as well.

Lunch was taken, as usual, at the Chew Valley lake picnic area, where there was plenty of time to relax as the trial was running well to time. Neil Bray soon had his inner tubes changed with the help of Dave Nash, who would be in the Guinness book of records for the job if they had such a category! There wasn’t much else happening on the mechanical side, although the Trojan crew took time out to oil their drive chain.

(left) Adrian and Andrew Tucker-Peake confer on how better that man Haizelden. They got a clean sheet but lost out on the special tests. (right) Mick Workman and Philip Mitchell make a pit stop at the top of Mill Lane. Worky is pumping up, courtesy of the air line provided by the gentleman who owns that house while Phil changes a wheel. Click here for more Allen Trial Pictures

Burledge was interesting this year. The rain had washed all the mud away from the lower reaches, so the rocks were exposed and there was plenty of grip here. Yellows and Reds had a re-start at the bottom of the straight gully. This caused a few problems, particularly for Peter Fear who got penalised for jumping the re-start flag. This is where the ruts started and they were quite bad this year, becoming deeper and deeper towards the top. Apart from the re-start these were the deciding factor. A spectaing Murray MacDonald said that you knew if a car would come out the top by how they went over the big bump on the left hander. Anyone who bashed their bottom here would bottom out their belly up at the top. This was the fate befalling about a third of the entry. Things became more difficult as time went on. The Range Rover towing the failures out of the top was backing down into the section to hook up, and the driver hadn’t been to classes on throttle control, making the holes deeper and deeper as time went on. The other organisational problem on Burledge was that failures that came back down the hill had to go over the village green to get past the queue, which made quite a mess. This was a shame, but there wasn’t much chief official Nigel Moss could do about it without establishing some form of holding control well before the section.

Nanny Hurns was a combined special test and section. Pete Hart taking the opportunity to sub-divide the tricky bit over the bump to help sort a result. The special test bit was very similar to Strode. Forward round a corner and reverse back. Adrian Marfell won the trial here, setting a time of 15.2, nearly a second quicker than his nearest rival. Most of the yellows and reds went clean and so did all the class ones and the Trojan! The three’s, four’s and five’s all struggled and Neil Bray was the only one of the lot to come out the top. This was where some of the results were decided though. John Bell went one mark better than Paul Eamer to claim class three. Colin Perryman got to the two but because he had dropped one on Burledge it bought him level with Giles Greenslade and Jim Scott. The class going to Giles in the Nigel Allen prepared Beetle by being 0.1 seconds quicker on the special tests!

The trial was drawing to a close now. As things were running on time competitors were able to do Mill Lane in the light. Nobody failed but that doesn’t matter. This is a lovely long hill. The locals enter into the spirit and a guy at the top has an airline available outside his house for competitors to pump-up. The section wasn’t kind to Skoda tyres with both Philip Mitchell and Neil Bray knocking out sidewalls on the same rock.

Competitors wound their way through Bath alongside Gods Wonderful Railway on their way to Stony Hill, which started just off the A4. There was plenty of grip but there were a few failures on the restart. Michael Leete’s handbrake had disappeared by now. The problem after Guys had been an early warning of something breaking inside the drum and with no socket cable of undoing a couple of hundred foot lbs of torque Michael had carried on to the sound of much graunching. All this meant the Beetle slipped back on the restart. The section wasn’t kind to Mick Workman in the Ford engined Imp either and he broke something in the driveline.

(left) Mark and Will Rosten-Edwards coming out the top of Mill Lane. (right) Peter and David Manning are elated after John Walker. Click here for more Allen Trial Pictures

John Walker rounded off the day. It was in prime condition, nice and muddy and a glorious thrash. It wasn’t a formality though. The water at the bottom caught out Neil Bray and he stuttered to a halt before the crossroads. Stuart Cairney didn’t fair much better. Stuart went a bit to fast to soon and when the right hand front wheel dipped into a rut the Imp got sucked into the muddy bank and came to a halt just before the cross track. The class eight’s didn’t have too much trouble but don’t say that to Bill Foreshew who incurred a fail with the Fiat engined GVS Mk 2. That rounded off another magnificent Allen Trial. OK with the terrain available it will probably always be necessary for the special tests to sort out the results amongst the super stars. For the rest of us it is a superb event, with everything, apart from the deviation on nanny Hurns, on real tracks and roads. Pete, Carlie, Mark and Tim were rewarded by a truly diverse entry; long may they continue with the event in this format. Well done Adrian Marfell and a special message for Stephen Potter, please bring the Trojan back next year!