Team Trial “Quaiffe Cup”

We fielded 2 teams, The Tenterden Tigers were made up from Joe Millen, Connor and Jack Beck and the 2^nd team The Tenterden Todgers were Kev and Emma Morphett with Dave Luck.

This really is a great piece of land with around half of them in rocky streams. This year the sections were a little easier than last year, despite all the rain the previous week, but were still a good test for all abilities. We rode around together for the first lap and it was clear that the sections were going to get harder the second lap.

For Jack this was his first time riding this venue and this event. Over the past year he really has made huge leaps forward and was able to ride all sections well despite only riding for around 18 months.  Despite some mistakes we all seemed to ride well for the first lap, soon after the sections did start to get much slipperier but this didn’t seem to faze Kev who has ridden really well all year and again at this trial. There was one impossible section on the second lap, section 14, we all dismounted and then proceeded to watch rider after rider get stuck in the muddy ditch. All the tigers attempted the section but all got beat. Kev then stuck the Gasser into 4 gear turned the bike straight, bounced the throttle off the stop and launched the bike over the ditch half way up the bank the other side, gripped and rode through the end cards for a clean.  Not blowing smoke up his trousers but it was the ride of the day on a section which I didn’t even attempt.

Our scores on the second lap were too high to be contenders, tiredness and a hangover (Emma) all took over and we faded fast.

After watching our young Tigers it’s clear we have great potential in the club for the future with continued practice and commitment.

Please see attached Newsletter

June 2014 Newsletter

We have our round of the EKTC coming up at Rakins, Hawkhurst on 8^th June so please don’t forget to send your entries in by this weekend so Karen can add you to the start list. Don’t forget to pre enter otherwise neither you individual result or your clubs result will stand for the EKTC Aggregates. Karen’s details can be found in this month’s TSM.

Remember this is a club trial so we also have to provide observers, so if you fancy a few hours watching some silly buggers on their bikes then your help will be much appreciated. Even if you haven’t done it before, it’s really easy to pick up and we can explain the marking process to you beforehand.

Please see May’s newsletter attached

May 2014 Newsletter

With the help of Pete, Colin, Dave and Damps, Mario set a fair route expecting showers as forecasted on the Sunday. It was only at 9am on Sunday we realised the forecasted showers were of biblical magnitude so what was a fair test was made somewhat harder.

The apt name for this land is Clay Hill and the venue lived up to its name. We used the traditional sections for this land but managed to carve them out in reverse order so they felt like new sections and we used our traditional one route section “Rashers Ravine”. Unfortunately the weather on Sunday morning seemed to limit the number of day entries so we only had 42 riders. Those that sped round quickly certainly had the better riding conditions and this reflected in their results, those hanging back seemed to suffer a little but none the less most of the entries managed to complete the trial.

Conditions such as this are either relished by some or, if like me, dreaded…this is why you see such a vast difference in the scores. Most noticeably was Joan Westbrook who dragged he BSA round for 4 laps determined to finish. As most of you know Joan has not had the best of health over the past couple of years so this was inspirational to see. Sarah Bell also deserves a mention, not only riding an 80cc with smaller wheels she is only knee height to Pete Southcott so finds it even  harder to dab when called upon. Sarah won the beginner class so well done.

I would like to thank all those that helped out, mainly the observer as it wasn’t a pleasant day, this includes the lads that gave up their rides to help out. Thanks also to the Landowners Michael and Colin Millen plus our Secretary Damps who managed to get the results out so quickly.

Well done Mario for assuming the responsibility of Clerk on a very difficult day for that job. With so many guys flying around its extremely hard to make some changes to sections during a trial as all riders are on different laps.

Big thanks goes to everyone that hung about after to help clear away, including the Becks and Mr Francis. Another great team effort from the Tenterden Boys. Lets hope we have better weather at our next trial on 8^th June at Rakins.

Please see attached results

Weald Non Expert results 020