Tom’s Torver Triumph

The second half of the Northern Centre Championship for 2021/22 (it starts in November and ends in October) opened with the Barrow club’s Zeke Myers trial at Torver Common on the first Sunday in August with a fantastic entry of 76 riders, which to some extent allayed the fears of many that trials had lost its popularity.

With 13 riders tackling the hard course, a further 18 on the Green course and the remainder on the Clubman course, there was a good spread of activity and rider ability in this event, traditionally set out by the Myers family, Chris, Mike, David and Sam with their respective partners usually involved in some way.

Torver Common is only used once per year, so never gets worn out and provides some great sections , mixing streams, rock outcrop and twisting climbs for an impressive variety.

Tom Swindlehurst 

Tom Swindlehurst returned to his winning ways with victory over the Hard course by 12 marks from Tom Middleton and then Ben Cornthwaite on 56. To achieve three cleans on any of the 15 sections was difficult and it was the sixth, ninth and final section that proved the most difficult hazards. The double rock step on section 15 was only cleaned by James Postlethwaite on lap one when the rain shower made the slabs worse than when they were dry and later in the day a few more cleans came from Swindlehurst, Ross Bainbridge and Postlethwaite again.

Jack Dixon

Young Jack Dixon took the Green course win by the narrowest of margins, just a single mark from Robert Shuttleworth who is a frequent master of the 50/50 route with Andrew Payne in third a further 8 marks behind. The Green course riders only tackled 3 of the sections on the hard route and they proved very difficult for the 18 class riders.

Centre trials recorder Anthony Hayhurst (lead picture) lost 14 marks to win the Clubman class from the club trials secretary with Ben Hanson  third. The clubman course proved to be quite testing with some difficult sections, but all riders through the field managed a number of cleans to ensure they went home happy after a great trial in the heart of Lakeland.

Full results are on the Results page and Eric Kitchen’s pictures are now uploaded into the Gallery.