Boxing Day @ Bixhead Trial 2021

Final Results

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Info

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Ben's Press Report

After a Covid-enforced break of one year, the annual Boxing Day Trial returned to its usual venue in the heart of the Forest of Dean and more than 80 riders turned out for 3 challenging laps of up to 12 sections.

In-form Tom Moss conquered the woodland and quarry venue with apparent ease, well ahead of Henry Bendall, who made a welcome comeback on the Expert route. Tom cleaned every section at least once, bar one – section 8 on the far side of the course. Henry managed a pair of cleans here, the only cleans on this section.

The Clubman/Expert route was more closely contested, with a handful of marks covering James Gammons, Ian Wakeford and Matthew Christopher – the latter’s first lap for six marks lost was the best lap of the class.

Ashley Greedy clocked up 27 cleans on the Clubman route, to Steve Grindle’s 23 and that proved the difference. Steve’s brave approach to use speed and avoid locking the brakes on the very slippery and steep downhill entry to section 11 saw him record two cleans before a three there on lap 3. A five on section 7 in the old heart of the quarry ended his charge for the win. Ashley didn’t record a five all day and cleaned every section at least once.

Nick Greenhill was the only rider to keep every lap score down to single figures to take the Sportsman Plus route win, and the evergreen Alf Bendall was a clear Sportsman route winner.

A feature of most ACU Western Trials is a conducted route for younger riders, many who benefit from the expertise of the ACU Western Youth Development Squad. Ellyn Welch and Milly Tillings battled it out on the hard route, gaining valuable experience. And four riders took to the standard route, learning important trials skills. Riley Nixon was a clear winner on this route.

At the riders briefing, Clerk of Course Darren Thomas asked riders to remember Julian Bishop who passed away just before Christmas in 2020. With the support of his family he was a mainstay of the event’s success for many years. His family continue to be heavily involved with organisation beforehand and on the day, and three of his grandchildren rode too – a fitting tribute to a much-missed cornerstone of the West Glos & Dean Forest club.

The Awards:

• Expert Route
• Premier: Tom Moss, Montesa 300, 24 marks lost
• First class: Henry Bendall Gas Gas 300, 65.
• Club/Expert Route
• Best performance: James Gammons, Gas Gas 300, 36.
• Club Route
• Best performance: Ashley Greedy, Beta 300, 12.
• Youth B: Jamie Laverton, Beta 125, 65.
• Youth C: Edwyn James, Beta 80, 66.
• Sports Plus Route
• Best performance: Nick Greenhill, Beta 250, 25.
• Over 50: Steve Wallwin, TRS 250, 37.
• Youth B: Roan Delaney, Gas Gas 125, 54.
• Youth C: Aaron Watson, Beta 80, 68.
• Sports Route
• Best performance: Alf Bendall, Gas Gas 250, 15.
• Youth B: Tyler Burnell, Gas Gas 125, 24.
• Youth D: Zach Ellway, Oset 20R, 65.
• Youth C: Harry Bishop, Beta 80, 107.
• Conducted Route
• Hard course: Youth D: Ellyn Welch, Oset 36v 20 Lite, 50.
• Standard course:
• Youth D: Riley Nixon, Oset 20 R, 11.
• Youth C: Dillan Jefferies, Gas Gas 80, 68.
• Youth E: Eddy Tillings, Oset 16, 76.

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Video

Our Press Officer Ben's compiled video clips.

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Snippets

A new innovation for us was allowing Day Licences thanks to ACU making everything available online. One of the benefactors was Adam Cook Pictured below, who was talked into riding his first trial. Nice mates suggested he enter Club route on Boxing Day! At Bixhead! The old Hangover award for 'most marks but still finished' would have been his to cherish if it weren't defunct. Adam said he had a good go at everything he faced and despite the 5's enjoyed it enough to have another go but on the a lesser route. Great attitude, we'll enjoy riding with you in the future.

What an impressive ride from the young guns coming up from the ranks of our centre's YDS training squad. To get the smaller wheeled 80's and that Electric TRS around a venue like this in conditions like this is pretty epic. And if you look at the scores from the conducted routes you'll realise they didn't have an easy day either with an average score even higher than the adult Experts!

Thanks to those riders who pulled their entries when they thought they might be a risk and we hope you all pull through ok so we can see you later in the year, if and when we get the events, of course. ACU Western are planning Trials Championship rounds!

That Xmas day rain sure soaked into the leaf mold didn't it. With Darren and Ben pulling section 11 for the Sports riders, for the rest of you it seemed just as challenging getting back up the hill for you as it was with the section. There was a lot of 3rd gear action going on! Watch out for Ben Falconer's Vid clip compilation above to see how the Experts approached those ends cards (or Not!).

This trial has been kept alive by the Bishop Family for more years than many can remember. Last year we sadly lost the Male head of the family, Julian. The female head, Clare, was, as always doing more than her fair share running section 2 today. I'm impressed what a good job Julian's done on training the whole of the family as I've seen the paperwork and IT side handled well and course preparation, section planning and marking being assisted and handled by the grandchildren too.

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Gallery

All shots by Colin. And thanks to having enough Observers I was allowed to swan around with the camera for a change!

If any riders/parents would like full size shots emailed to them then please ask (We took loads more than shown, 130ish.) admin@wgdfmcc.org.uk

Sports route Adult winner Alf Bendall	FoD 'Rock Bites Man' Ouch says Viv Jones
Andy Hayward hasn't installed the optional extra hinge!	Steve Grindle tried the same approach but never bettered a dab
Danny Laverton fights for grp to exit S11	Steve Walwin checks if the new bike will rev out yet
Andy Hayward cleans his jets	Fred Bish about to avoid the shin cracker in S4
Jack Taylor opts for the S bend method on S4 while eventual winner Tom Moss considers the direct Step approach that Henry Bendall has just tried.	Andy Ridley tries to avoid scratching the moss off
Adrian Gwynne gets his 2nd clean on Clare Bishop's section 2	Nathan Christopher keeps his feet up for now
Mark Christopher looks like he's sharpening his skill ready for the 2022 Wyegate Trial	Adam Cook on a very determined attempt at his first trial
Harry Bishop had 3 cleans here	Nick greenhill won the Sports Plus route
Kyle proctor drops in to Tony Falconer's section 1	Carl Mapes couldn't avoid the front end washing out on the loose rocks here
Ashley Greedy smoothed out this turn every time and was Best performance on the Club Route	Paddy Delaney on the interesting TYZ Yamaha
Good to see Shane Gunn back out and riding well	Roan Delaney without his usual speed blurr!
Phill Gardner hopes the fog will hide those few dabs!	Wayne Geary eases the Scorpa through S4
Jamie Laverton pulls off best youth in the event	Zed McMeekin had to pull out later
Merv Morgan tries in vain to shake enough rain drops down our press officer Ben Falconer's neck!	John Jones rounds off a tough day with a clean on Merv's

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Section Statistics

Section	Score Incidence						Tot
No.	0	1	2	3	5	10	Marks	Avg
Expert
1	5	1	3	4	11	0	74	3.08
2	1	5	4	10	4	0	63	2.62
3	15	3	2	2	1	0	18	0.78
4	1	0	0	15	6	0	75	3.41
5	11	7	1	3	1	0	23	1
6	12	6	1	2	2	0	24	1.04
7	6	4	2	4	8	0	60	2.5
8	3	7	4	8	0	0	39	1.77
9	2	3	3	11	3	0	57	2.59
10	8	9	2	1	1	0	21	1
11	2	1	0	3	15	0	85	4.05
12	4	4	3	9	0	0	37	1.85
Rte Tot:	70	50	25	72	52	0	576	2.14
Club/Exp
1	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	5	5	3	7	1	0	37	1.76
3	6	7	1	4	3	0	36	1.71
4	10	7	3	0	1	0	18	0.86
5	3	4	2	7	5	0	54	2.57
6	5	8	2	3	3	0	36	1.71
7	0	1	0	4	16	0	93	4.43
8	0	2	1	13	5	0	68	3.24
9	20	0	1	0	0	0	2	0.1
10	16	0	1	0	4	0	22	1.05
11	5	5	4	6	1	0	36	1.71
12	20	1	0	0	0	0	1	0.05
Rte Tot:	111	40	18	44	39	0	403	1.6
Club
1	26	12	12	17	11	0	142	1.82
2	4	13	8	26	25	0	232	3.05
3	11	25	17	15	9	0	149	1.94
4	10	12	14	22	23	0	221	2.73
5	12	36	13	12	3	0	113	1.49
6	38	21	7	7	1	0	61	0.82
7	7	3	13	14	43	0	286	3.58
8	38	10	5	22	6	0	116	1.43
9	47	17	6	5	4	0	64	0.81
10	37	20	9	9	3	0	80	1.03
11	5	4	10	35	24	0	249	3.19
12	51	11	3	6	7	0	70	0.9
Rte Tot:	286	184	117	190	159	0	1783	1.9
Sports Plus
1	40	1	0	0	1	0	6	0.14
2	21	16	4	1	0	0	27	0.64
3	2	11	7	16	6	0	103	2.45
4	1	4	6	15	16	0	141	3.36
5	27	10	3	2	0	0	22	0.52
6	18	6	4	7	7	0	70	1.67
7	15	5	8	8	6	0	75	1.79
8	30	7	1	1	3	0	27	0.64
9	16	3	10	4	9	0	80	1.9
10	37	2	1	0	2	0	14	0.33
11	0	1	4	13	24	0	168	4
12	32	5	1	2	2	0	23	0.55
Rte Tot:	239	71	49	69	76	0	756	1.5
Sports
1	30	1	0	0	1	0	6	0.19
2	18	3	3	2	3	0	30	1.03
3	18	1	3	0	6	0	37	1.32
4	5	0	2	6	13	0	87	3.35
5	17	3	3	11	1	0	47	1.34
6	19	4	1	7	3	0	42	1.24
7	6	6	3	2	17	0	103	3.03
8	17	2	5	2	8	0	58	1.71
9	7	11	5	5	5	0	61	1.85
10	12	7	2	5	1	0	31	1.15
11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-
12	16	5	1	8	1	0	36	1.16
Rte Tot:	165	43	28	48	59	0	538	1.57
Conducted Hard
1	2	1	2	2	1	0	16	2
2	3	4	1	0	0	0	6	0.75
3	1	0	1	4	2	0	24	3
4	0	1	1	5	1	0	23	2.88
5	1	0	0	6	1	0	23	2.88
6	0	0	0	8	0	0	24	3
Rte Tot:	7	6	5	25	5	0	116	2.42
Conducted Standard
1	2	0	1	7	6	0	53	3.31
2	6	1	2	6	1	0	28	1.75
3	3	0	0	8	5	0	49	3.06
4	5	1	0	9	1	0	33	2.06
5	3	0	1	11	1	0	40	2.5
6	8	0	0	3	5	0	34	2.12
Rte Tot:	27	2	4	44	19	0	237	2.47

Club Stats

Club.	Qty
West Glos & Dean Forest MCC	29
Gloucester & Cotswold	7
Swindon + District MCC	5
Merthyr Motor Club	4
ACU Limited	4
Llandrindod Wells & District Motor Club	4
Kingswood MCC	3
Zona 1	3
Bridport & Weymouth MCC	2
Dudley & District MCC	2
Wilts Border MC & LCC	2
Horsham & District MCC	2
Stroud Valley AC	2
North Berks. MCC	2
Thames MCC	1
Vale of Towy MCC	1
Normandy MCC	1
Malvern	1
Reigate & Redhill North Downs MCC	1
Fast Eddy Racing Ltd	1
Eastbourne & District MCC	1
Earl Shilton Trials Club	1
RHL Activities Ltd	1
Devonport & District MCC	1
Cheltenham Home Guard MCC	1
Stratford on Avon MCC	1
Leamington Victory MC & LCC	1

Bike Stats

Make.	Qty
Beta	26
Gas Gas	18
TRS	14
Montesa	8
Vertigo	7
Oset	6
Sherco	3
Yamaha	1
Scorpa	1