Bootle and Lakes combined
Two Centre Championship trials took place over the Bank Holiday weekend of May 26/27 and were so totally different the question asked. was how could two events for the same championship be so different when the level could normally be expected to be of a similar level.
The Bootle SC kicked off the weekend with the postponed from January Fell Green trial and proved to be extraordinarily difficult with large scores amongst the disappointing entry of just 30 riders of whom seven retired.
Then on Monday it was the turn of Lakes GTRC for their annual round at Redscar, Underbarrow where the entry was a healthy 62 riders and where the scores were generally low and there were no retirements.
It’s not the job as an independent source of reportage to make comment except to say it’s up to the riders to make their own decisions in the future.
One governing factor over the two events is that the Hard course winner and the Clubman course winner on each day was the same two riders, Tom Swindlehurst with scores of 46 and 2 and Simon Brice with a Sunday score of 35 and a clean sheet on Monday.
A heavy shower midway through the Bootle trial certainly made some of the sections more difficult, particularly the final hazard, Avalanche, which had a significant number of cleans over the Clubman line on the first lap (of 4) but then didn’t see a clean from any clubman rider until Angus Maguire managed the only clubman clean of laps 2, 3, and 4 right at the end of the event. The Hard line for the Green course and Hard course riders was rougher but seemed less slippery and perhaps the whole width of the section could have been used for the entire entry.
And sections at Kaiser Bridge had been included, which at any time are notoriously slippery and which caused Nick Shield to retire after taking a very heavy tumble and also caused the retirement of Mark Barrow who drowned his bike.
The Lakes offering at Redscar had been set out on the easy side for heavy rain had been forecast, however, whilst the early morning saw some heavy showers, once the trial began the day proved dry and even warm at times which certainly helped the event to be completed by 1.30pm, a significant difference to the 3pm finish at Bootle the previous day.
Full results of both trials are on the results page from the home page link and Erick KItchen has promised pictures soon.