Chilly Tallontire
Many times in the past the riders who ventured into the deep fells of Cumbria for the Bassenthwaite Club’s Stanley Tallontire Memorial Trial midway between Mungrisdale and Caldbeck will have found the ground frozen solid with the passage of wheels quickly icing the grass covered slime between the partly buried rocks. But not this year as whilst it was mighty chilly with a cold wind blowing across the hillside, the sections were ice free, but still very slippery in many places.
Limited to an entry of 75, a few non-starters reduced that number to less than 70, well within the requirements of the local authorities., with the split being ten on the hard course, 15 on the Green course and the rest tackled the Clubman route all over 4 laps of 10 sections, the lap length being about 5 miles.
It was hardly surprising that Darren Brice finished top of the Experts as he remains one of the best riders to have come from the Cumbria, Northern Centre. Brice lost just 4 marks with Stephen Dixon next on ten with Dan Gaskell third on 12, beating his dad Richard by 3 marks.
Philip Alderson
Philip Alderson and Stuart Blythe travelled into Cumbria from Yorkshire for this well respected trial and took the top two places over the Green course, a mix of the hard and Clubman sections. Alderson is very much one of the older statesmen of Yorkshire trials but he can still challenge the sections and his win on 11 lost was 6 fewer than Blythe’s score of 17. Colin Chapman from the north east was third, someway adrift on 32 whilst downhill mountain biker Adam Brayton showed he can ride a powered machine with fourth spot.
John Holland
Kevin Henderson and Simon Brice battled it out for the top Clubman class rider on 17 and 19 respectively with Edward Berry third on 25. John Holland regularly travels from his Lincolnshire base to take on Cumbria’s best trials and this time brought his very tidy TY 250 Yamaha to tackle the sections. On 25 marks, he lost the same as Ben Hanson who pipped him for fourth place whilst Phil Fallows, who rides very infrequently finished in a fine seventh, somewhat ahead of his brother Ryan who was still well within the top 25 riders. All credit too, to Cameron Batty for finishing a real man’s trial in 19th place despite being just 9 years old, managing for the first time to beat his Grandad on an equal footing.
Observers faced a chill wind through the day, fortified by a delicious flask of curried parsnip and apple soup.
Full results are on the results link and more pictures are now available in the Gallery.