AUGUST TRIAL REPORT

“Pontrhydfendigaid, which country is that then?”

We've had two very different trials in August and September, and as usual they were both very good,

and difficult. The first was at the excellent Mid Wales Activity Centre at Dolybolion Farm, Pontryhdfendigaid. And for all those who think I had to look up how to spell it, I didn't. When I was a boy telephone exchanges were actually manned by people and long distance calls had to be manually connected and Shifnal to Pontrhydfendigaid was considered long distance. So when my mum phoned her sister she always had to spell this strange, foreign place name to the confused telephone operator, and hope my Aunt Mary answered and not some Norwegian.

So it became a challenge to me to remember how to spell it as well, and I can remember impressing

my Aunty with my command of the Welsh language when I was still in short trousers. It’s still the only

thing I can spell in Welsh though. It's small wonder the locals have abbreviated it to "Bont", a sensible move that will surely continue. Dolybolion Farm is now a busy part of the rally scene with miles of

tarmac and loose tracks around the hills overlooking Bont and the ruins of Strata Florida, but we don't want tracks and roads unless they connect some seriously rough bits, which they did.

The site is perfect for trials with some old stone quarries,a very steep hillside and plenty of good rough terrain. Best of all, there's a tarmac car park, and the day we went the butty van was in action. There's also a good local butcher judging by the quality of the bacon. This place deserves to be a regular fixture on our winter schedule.

So what had Tim Mackley and Chris Spittle got in store for us? Ten excellent sections was the answer. And with only ten drivers we ripped through them at a leisurely pace in lovely sunshine, it was one of

those days where we didn't need to rush so we didn't. I can't remember all the sections and action now, so this is the overview. We started at the top of the hill in a quarry with a mixture of loose and natural stone, and the scrubby grassland. I remember this section because I floored the Flyer to get over a

stone ledge and split a tyre open. So it was a ride back down to fit the spare. That was the start of my bad day, I'd been 'tinkering' with the Flyer in the previous week, retarding the timing and modifying the carburettor to open the second choke sooner. It seemed ok up the church steps, but Welsh hillsides

are different and it was actually worse to drive than before. I also had to bolt the front prop shaft back

on at lunchtime. 55 points at the end of play was somewhat frustrating. So, the first job before going to J.P.R.'s was to return the timing to somewhere near what Subaru recommend, which worked wonders.

Malcolm Whitbread, with Hannah in the passenger seat giving advice, had a very average day with a

final score of 30, which considering his usual performances in the past driving his own machines

wasn't one of his better days. Malcolm was enjoying the trial though, and said he intended to hang on to the trialer and come to more events. He turned up at J.P.R.'s with a Daihatsu having sold the trailer he

drove at Dolybolion. If you mention pound notes to Malcolm he'll have them out of your wallet before you can blink!

Local boy Simon Crowe was the star of the day and drove the oil burner to a very impressive total of 7 points, usually in a cloud of black smoke as he powered the tdi up the steep climbs. I drove that trialer

at Crug a few years ago and initially it feels strange to sit centrally and straddle the gearbox, but it's actually a very good place to be and Simon certainly has the measure of it. Once again it's a testament

 to Land Rover as it uses a mixture of easily available parts to good effect, but it also needs someone

to get the best out of it as Simon does.

In the same motor and close behind Simon was Marc Price who's currently begging drives while the Scrapsu is undergoing extensive and top secret, modification at an undisclosed centre of engineering excellence. Watch this space ( and the Forum ) for sneak pictures by our ace reporters in the field.

Marc was close to Simon's score all day long, but finished with 12 points and second place.

The only person having a worse day that myself was Huw Wozencroft who broke some oily bits on the second section, which was a shame as Huw is a good driver who will surely begin to challenge the established drivers in class four before long.

Les Davies was once again giving the Minx an airing, and whatever the Minx can do Les gets it to do - until the poor old thing breaks, as it did on section 5 so Les also joins the list of people having a bad

day. The Minx, as you can probably tell by its well used look, has had an illustrious career as a trialer

but I think it's fair to say that Les is far more capable than the old Series One, as he proves by getting

the Minx into places it was never designed to go.

We hadn't seen Dafydd Morgans for a while, and he's another driver who's not afraid of having a 'big

go' at whatever the CoC sets out. Sometimes it works as well, Dafydd generally gets his motor to the section finish, but touching the canes scores points. He had some good sections, but not enough to get his score under 46 points.

With Chris as CoC the smallest class,  five, was left to Jo Willet, Tom Jewell and myself, which given

my crap performance meant that Jo and Tom were fighting it out. Which they were until section 7 when the dead heat was broken by Jo scoring 9 and Tom 3.

The last section also saw Jo loosing another 5 points giving him a total of 34 against Tom's 20 points total.

Angus Hornby was victorious in class four with a very decent 40 points, proving once again that size doesn't matter. Even though the complete back bodywork has been chopped of the Range Rover, and he has very little regard for the shape of the front body panels, it's still a big old motor. Angus has done some good modifications to the suspension  which makes a legendary off roader even better, but decent mod's and superb capabilities are no good without a good driver, which Angus is.

I've said before that I could sit in the next field and listen to a trial because I enjoy it so much, and I

believe that's true for so many of us. Even if we have a bad day,

retire early or just drive like someone swopped our arms over, we still have a good day out and enjoy watching others drive like gods. Someday it will be our turn, so we need to see how it's done.

Many thanks to Chris and Tim, and everyone else who helped along the way.