I hadn’t expected a lay-on in bed this morning but that was the case as the Launceston Trial has had to be postponed due to storm Ciara, never thought I could have been grateful to a storm. In view of the potential dangers of standing in a woods with large trees swaying in the wind the club had to make a decision and let’s face it no one wants be put in a dangerous position , marshals are hard enough to get as it is without any extra concerns of trees landing on them or on the competitors. The date has now been moved to the 15th of March so anyone who was for whatever reason unable to compete or marshal now has a second opportunity.

Now it’s time for me to hand you over to our President Robin Moore

Historical Notes (Part 5)

The very early days of club activities would have taken the form of organised social runs. Those seeking a greater challenge may well have been attracted to timed speed trials which were often held on the public highway in the 1920’s, before being banned following a fatal accident to a spectator at Kop Hill Climb, near Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire.

The nearest to Launceston for this type of event was a venue close to Brentor Church, as there is a stretch of road that proved ideal for the purpose. If the memory of these speed trials held there on what was called the Brentmor Straight has faded, it is the complete opposite for the familiar landmark of Brentor Church. Built-in isolation atop a high pinnacle of Dartmoor granite it is visible for miles from all points of the compass and was indeed a bearing for ancient mariners as they set a course to enter Plymouth Sound.

Just half a mile to the south of the church, the road runs dead straight for two miles in a southerly direction to Tavistock, and it is this stretch of the highway that the events were held. It is reputed the last speed event ever to have taken place on a public highway in this country actually took place at this venue.

If you drive this stretch of road today it is not difficult to imagine the thrill derived from these intrepid pioneers taking part, or for that matter the inherent danger. The road surface would have been very much inferior 100 years ago to the standards of today, and machines much more of a handful to keep in a straight line at speed, heroes and heroines come to mind.- but true pioneers of our sport,- definitely.

100 years later we are gearing up to celebrate the centenary of our club and diligent research is revealing a vast amount of history. Who knows, but it would be great if something came to light regarding the speed trials at Brentor, and maybe a record of one of our members of that era having taken part.
RHTM (to be continued)

Centenary Year 2020 Events Calendar

• Presentation of Awards with Hot Buffet and Films 7.00 for 7.30pm start     Trethorne     28/02/2020
• Launceston Trial Classic     Lewdown Area     15/03/2020     C
• Northgate Sporting Trial ASWMC Round     Ashleigh, Lifton     29/03/2020     C
• AGM 8.00pm     Blue Lion, Lewdown     02/04/2020
• Spry Sporting Trial     Trevilla Farm, Marshgate     06/06/2020     C
• Motor Traders Car Trial     Waterloo Farm, North Petherwin     05/07/2020     C
• Centenary Parade     Launceston Castle Green     01/08/2020
• Testing Production Trial     Cannaframe     09/08/2020     C
• David Ayers Sporting Trial MSUK, ASWMC & BTRDA Round     Trevilla Farm, Marshgate     13/09/2020     C
• Tamar Classic Trial, ASWMC & ACTC Round     East Cornwall, West Devon     18/10/2020     C
• Ron Beer Sporting Trial     Ashleigh, Lifton     22/11/2020     C

One of the forthcoming events coming up soon is the Club AGM which as already listed is at The Blue Lion, Lewdown. This is your chance to see and have a say at what goes on in the club, what with all the planned activities to celebrate our centenary you might just be privy to knowing what these plans are, you never know you might just want to get involved in them.

Planet Gears No this is not some inter galactic constellation but what hides in your back axle (assuming you have one). You may have read in the last newsletter that I managed to break these in the Dellow, I have been looking into getting some of these re-manufactured. Bearing in mind any used ones available will be at least sixty years old and of questionable quality and that as they really are getting harder to find it seems the logical thing to do.

If any of you out there run a “Ford Pop” or any of the specials derived around their running gear i.e. Buckler, Dellow, Fairthorpe, Canon or just homebrew special this should be of interest. Cost is not going to be cheap, but the more people wanting some the price falls, at the moment the price is somewhere in the region of £325.00 a set (2), but as I say a bigger quantity order would reduce the price.
Whilst on the subject of re-manufactured parts I know of at least one other person looking at getting half shafts made and someone else investigating Crown Wheel and Pinions, all for the above-mentioned vehicles, so if this is of interest get in touch with me.

All for this month J.T. Contributions to billjan299@gmail.com

The regulations and entry forms for the Launceston Trial 2020 are now available to download below.

Launceston Trial 2020 Car Entry Form (4886 downloads ) Launceston Trial 2020 Motorcycle Entry Form (4776 downloads )

Launceston Trial 2020 Car Regs (4913 downloads ) Launceston Trial 2020 Motorcycle Regs (4852 downloads )

As with last year, the online entry system is available for this event and can be accessed here www.lncmc.co.uk/online-entry/. Postal entries are still welcomed.

This single venue classic trial for both motorcycles and cars is held in Lew & Eastcott Woods, Near Lewdown (approx. 10 miles from Launceston) and will take place on Sunday the 9th of February.

January Newsletter

Our latest Newsletter can be read here

We have decided to extend the deadline for Online Entries on this years Tamar Trial until Midnight of Sunday the 13th of October.

The online entry forms can be accessed here www.lncmc.co.uk/online-entry/.

The Trial takes place on Sunday the 20th of October.

We are also in need of Marshalls for the Event

If you would like to Marshall please contact Mike Wevill by calling 01566 784451 or send an email to mike@lncmc.co.uk.

We are in need of Marshalls for this years Tamar Trial. The event will take place on Sunday the 20th of October 2019. If you would like to Marshall please contact Mike Wevill by calling 01566 784451 or send an email to mike@lncmc.co.uk.

Entries Are Still Open

The regs and entry form for the Tamar Trial 2019 are available to download.

Entries close on Tuesday the 8th of October 2019.

As with last year, the online entry system is available for this event and can be accessed here www.lncmc.co.uk/online-entry/. Postal entries are still welcomed.

Tamar Trial 2019 Car Regs (4606 downloads ) Tamar Trial 2019 Motorcycle Regs (4308 downloads )

Tamar Trial 2019 Entry Form (4495 downloads )

Exmoor Targar Rally

Keith Emery has asked us to publish a marshall request for the Exmoor Targa Rally. His request can be found below;

EXMOOR TARGA RALLY Saturday 26th October 2019

Tavern, Burnham on Sea and Minehead Motor Clubs are again joining forces to run the Exmoor Targa Rally on Saturday 26th October 2019 in the beautiful Exmoor National Park area. The format of the event is to run 10 tests, 5 in the late morning/midday comprising of three loose surface tests in the forests and then two tarmac tests on the Porlock Toll Road. After a lunch break the route and tests are repeated with a few minor changes to the tests.

We are therefore looking for Marshals for the forest tests in the Croydon and Knowle forests and on the Porlock Toll Road tests. All types of Marshal roles are required, Start/Finish crews, Passage Controls, In Test marshals and Radio Crews so we can cater for your own preference.

The first car will start the first test at 11.20am (so you won,t need to get up at silly o’clock) and the last test is due to finish at 6.30pm.
On each loop the Croydon test will run twice consecutively and the Knowle test once followed by the two Porlock tests. There will be a gap of at least 1 hour between the morning and afternoon loops.

We have a full entry of 70 crews with more on the reserve list so we have plenty of crews to keep you busy/entertained. Even if you have never marshalled on a Targa Rally before I am sure you will have a enjoyable day.

If you would like any further information please feel free to contact me via my details below.

So finally please let me know if you are available to help for all or even part of the day.

Many Thanks in advance.

Keith Emery
Chief Marshal

keithemery88@yahoo.co.uk
07846372622

https://www.tavernmotorclub.co.uk/exmoor-targa-rally.

Camel Vale Motor Club 16 point Challenge

Camel Vale Motor Club are running a 16 Point Challenge on Sunday 13th October 2019 with all profits going to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Regs and Entry Forms can be found by following this link https://camelvalemotorclub.co.uk/event/16-point-challenge-catter-oct-2019/.

Welcome to the September offering of your newsletter which puts us firmly back into the trialling season. The recent Testing trial at Cannaframe had a reasonable entry of 11 and the weather was kind to us, just as well as this venue doesn’t have much there to stop the wind and rain blowing straight across the moors from Bolventor, any lost hats land in New York. The Invitation Trophy was won by John Sandercock, the Motorcycle trophy by Steve Urell.  There was serious competition in the “Ruby” household with Zak winning the Junior award and Ashley the Novice award. Thanks go to the marshals and to Nigel Cowling and Mike Wevill for putting on the event.                             

Coming up on the 15^th of this month is the Davis Ayers Sporting Trial which is a championship round, a good entry is expected at Trevilla Farm, Marshgate by courtesy of David Langley, and a chance to see some top notch cars taking part. Yes Mike Wevill is waiting for your call to marshal 01566 784451, we need lots of marshals so please do call him, no marshals = no event !

The Tamar Classic road trial takes place on the 20^th of October, Pete Cooper and the gang have a completely new route this year which is always refreshing to hear, I think there may be a few different hills being used so competitors won’t be able to be complacent.

Torbay Motor Club are running a charity “tour of the hills event” on the 22^nd of September, it appears that this is a road event,  entries are limited to 30 so don’t delay if you wish to enter e mail pr@torbaymotorclub.co.uk

And now it’s over to our club President Robin Moore.Historical Notes Part 1

With the advent of the internal combustion engine it was only a matter of time before the application became widely applied to the various forms of road transport. Incidently  this led to feats of endurance and competition. It’s fair to say that the heyday of the participation and active support by the manufacturers , was the period between the two World Wars. Sales success being reflected by good showing in the various competitions on offer, none more so than Reliability Trials.

It followed that clubs were gradually formed all over the country in order to bring this form of competition to a burgeoning public appetite for the sport. For the most part, motor clubs were formed initially as motorcycle clubs before motor cars began to feature with a more affluent society. Even so, it was a small percentage who were able to indulge the sport, whilst for the multitudes it provided wonderful entertainment, and for the local inhabitants who resided near a ‘section’ it provided a free grandstand for several hours viewing for all ages.

For the major west country events it became a red letter day for many a young lad to sit atop the Castle wall to watch competitors toil up to Launceston town centre on the gradient from Newport. Armed with a pack of sandwiches and a bottle of lemonade the world was theirs for the day. For many it was the chance to record the many different makes of car or motorcycle, rather like a form of train spotting, such was the chance to see a much greater variety of manufacturers offering than on a normal day.

A number of those watching would themselves in the fullness of time become enthusiasts and competitors. One such person was the late Frank Martyr who became very much a Riley man. Some may recall him campaigning his red Riley 9 Special, at one time a regular on the M.C.C. Lands End. I believe this car survives, I don’t know, but would hope that it languishes somewhere safe and may be seen again in the future.

RHTM.                                                                       (to be continued)

I spent a couple of pleasant days this week in the Malvern area, I didn’t have time to visit the Morgan factory but did manage to collect some spare parts for the Dellow from the Small Ford spares warehouse. The building also houses other familiar names to classic car enthusiasts such as Paul Beck, The Complete Automobilist, Vintage Supplies, etc. The stock there was surprisingly large and it occurred to me that whilst these places are not major employers they do contribute to the overall work/employment ethic and there must be hundreds more small enterprises just like this one, not necessarily for car spares but interests of all sorts, whether it be motorcycles, model train supplies, whatever. With sufficient following hobbies create jobs. (A bit deep really) All for this month.         

J.T            

Contributions gladly accepted.                            e mail billjan299@gmail.com

 

We now have the results for the Testing Trial 2019. Apologies for the delay.

Testing Trial 2019 Results (2652 downloads )

Thank you to all competitors, hope you enjoyed the day and a special thank you to the marshals.

Marshals will be required for the David Ayers Trial on September 15th and the Tamar Trial on October 20th and any assistance will be appreciated.

Mike Wevill [ 01566 784451] and Nigel Cowling.

I’m a little late this month due to various other things going on, being retired is supposedly going to give you more time but for Vivien and I it just means that we get persuaded into doing lots of other things, retirement is certainly not boring.

Last month saw the Club running the Motor Traders trial at Waterloo Farm with thanks to John Werren for letting us use his land. The overall winner of the event was Jason Daniels which was for Jason a bit of a comeback win having not been as active in trials as he used to be. I suppose you could say the overall loser was Simon Oates, as he wasn’t actually competing he donated two cars to be driven in the event , one finished and one blew a head gasket and didn’t finish, but it was very kind of Simon to offer the use of the cars. Many thanks to Simon and Nigel for their hard work in putting on the event and to the marshals who turned out armed with plenty of sun bloc.

Our next event the Testing Trial is this coming Sunday the 11th at Cannaframe , a basically low key event but still manages to bring out the competitive edge in most of those taking part. The venue will be marked from the A30 as you travel from Plusha towards Bolventor.

The David Ayers Sporting Trial is next up on the 15th of September, the venue is Trevilla Farm , Marshgate by kind permission of David Langley. This is a round of the BTRDA championship and usually attracts a good entry with some top notch cars taking part, so a good number of marshals will be needed, if you are able to marshal please contact Mike Wevill 01566 784451 or email j.wevill@btinternet.com go on contact him and make his day.

I would like to now welcome our club president Robin Moore back as a contributor.

The cartoon needs no explanation, it is taken from my archive collection of material :- in this case from the Sports Car, incorporating “Brooklands”. Vol 2 No 20 , November 1936. This was the original official journal of the MG Car Co Ltd and the MG Car Club. The 1930’s was the hey day of super charging small sports cars.

The cutting from a recent C & D post I thought very interesting especially the first sentence, which I must say I have some sympathy with – How times have changed!

The paragraph mentions the play presented in the barn @ Kelly, again of historic interest, the strong connection between the family and our club over many, many years. The M Kelly mentioned will be Warin’s father whom I knew well as I met him regularly at our committee meetings in my early days with the club in the 1950’s.

RHTM

There’s not been a lot happening in the garage over the last month with various other things taking precedent. At the end of July I took one of my scooters to a national show in Derbyshire, and this last weekend it was the Tresmeer Village Fete at which a few of the locals took some interesting vehicles along to, hopefully adding to the day’s entertainment whilst we all dodged the occasional shower of liquid sunshine.

All for this month

J.T.

billjan299@gmail.com

Once again a new month appears and I have to think of how to fill the space on the page especially as there is a bit of a lull in the competition events within the club. As I am sat here typing this I have my nestbox camera monitor switched on and looking at four newly hatched baby Sparrows, yep it’s Spring, the babies have barely hatched and the parents are already feeding.

Club Annual General Meeting, this was held at Tresmeer Village Hall on the 4th of April, it would be nice to say that we were bursting at the seams with volunteers for all the posts of office but no one would believe me anyway. We did however manage to vote in a new Chairman and Secretary so that was a bit of a result. Peter Cooper is now the new chairman and Andy Prosser is the new secretary, contact details for them can be found on the club website. Thanks to both of them for stepping forward.

The club owes a big thanks for outgoing Chairman Warin Kelly and to the outgoing Secretary Pat Gomm, these two people have been the mainstay of the club for more years than they probably wish to admit, to say that we are grateful for all their years of hard work is an understatement. So once again Thankyou to both of you!

The Motor Traders Trial is due to be held on July the 7th at Waterloo Farm , North Petherwin. Regulations for this should be out soon, I will probably have more details for you in the June newsletter.

Thoughts and pre-planning is under way for this year’s Tamar Trial in October, it seems a while off but it will probably come around all too soon, and there will be other events in the meantime.

I attended the Dellow Register AGM last weekend so we gave the camper van a wash and made a weekend of it in the Cotswolds, a very lovely area of which to be honest I knew little of so it was good to have a look around, one of the things I gleaned was that I can’t afford to move there. Whilst away the home rugby team the Cornish All Blacks were in a play-off match for promotion to the next league. Nigel Cowling sent me a text at half time of the score, we were losing 0 to 19, then he sent me another at full time and we’ve won 33 to 22, I would love to have heard the mid match team talk !!

In the garage I have added to my collection of scooters with another Lambretta, this time a model Lui, this boasts an earth shattering 50 cc’s and three gears to choose from, not that it shattered much riding around my yard.

Over the Easter Weekend Mike Wevill and I did the Lands End Trial in the Dellow, to say it was a contrast to the previous year is an understatement, last year we drove through heavy rain, snow covered hedges and flooded roads.

This year we were followed by a beautiful full moon on the night run and glorious sun in the daytime, I’ve never done the Lands End in such warm temperatures, you would think we would be grateful but it brought its own problems with intermittent fuel vaporisation. When we got to Perranporth Roger Bricknell suggested putting a wedge under the rear of the bonnet to increase air flow. Top man, this actually made a difference and we romped up Bluehills 2.

When we got to the finish Mike and I were congratulating ourselves in that we had a clean sheet barring one possible misdemeanour, just over a week later we got the results and we are relegated to the “also rans”, you know what they say about counting chickens. On the positive side the supercharger worked well.

Our Club President Robin Moore wrote a very interesting article (see attachment) on Ruses Mill which was printed in the letters column of the Cornish & Devon Post newspaper, a real piece of motoring history, well done Robin.

Some of the notable results of the event

Class C Dave Craddock, Best in class
Class D winner Simon Urell/Julie Williams
Class 7 Winner Peter Tudor
Class 4 Winner Dennis Greenslade
Class 3 Winner Andrew Martin
Class R Gold Ray & Rosemary Goodright
Class R Silver Andy Smith & Joe Caudle
Class R Silver Simon Oates & John Werren
Class O winner Motorcycle Phil Hingley, despite breaking down three times on the way to the start. His brother Ian had the misfortune of breaking down at Barbrook at silly o’clock in the morning and had to wait 12 hours for recovery.!! Although the kind people in the filling station did look after him with cups of tea and a comfortable chair to sit in.

Not quite the same hospitality at the start venue car park at Plusha! I was somewhat disturbed to hear that some competitors who parked their vehicles overnight were hit with heavy fines/penalties. It seems that these were picked up on the security cameras and dealt with somewhat harshly.

I suppose it is a question of were they warned of this in the final instructions, the galling thing is that they most probably spent money in one or other of the two establishments there.

All for now J.T.
E mail billjan299@gmail.com

Hill climbs at Ruses Mill From Robin H T Moore: THE Post, dated March 21 printed an image of a Bugatti climbing the hill at Ruses Mill in Launceston, whilst taking part in a competitive event. So much has changed over the last 90 years, that at a glance 1 questioned where or not the photo depicted was actually of Ruses Mill, for I have known this place for over 60 years, and in my time has always had a metalled surface.

I contacted Barrie Kiuton, archivist of The Motor Cycling Club (MCC was founded 1901) and also checked records from my own collection, and I am able to confirm the venue as Ruses Mill, first used by the MCC as part of the Land’s End Trial of 1930 when the picture was taken.

Ninety years ago the surface of the hill was nothing more than a rough muddy track making it difficult for motorised vehicles to find enough grip to maintain forward motion, This caused a problem for many competitors taking part in this 1930 event. Failing to maintain forward motion on a nonstop ascent incurred a penalty.

Competitor number 365 as depicted was one of the those that failed Ruses on that event: The car appears to be a Type 44 Bugatti entered by Col 1.M Giles of the Bugatti Games club, Col Giles was a regular competitor in the MCC events, including their timed high speed trials held on the outer circuit at Brooklands, where he averaged 84.41 mph in the 1931 event, In one such competitors, Giles actually beat Lt Col, Goidle Gardener of At one time Col Giles became interested in the 1913 chain-driven five litre Bugatti which Miss Guy Cummings had driven in sprints. This famous car known as “Black Bess” is persevered to this day.

The Motor Cycling Club’s three long distance reliability trials, The Exeter to Edinburgh Land’s End, (classic trials as they are now known) still take place annually, attracting large entries. The Lands’ End taking place this Easter will once again see Ruses Mill included in the route for some of the classes to tackle, maintaining tradition and the heritage of this event.

The Motor Cycling Club have always enjoyed the goodwill and support of the residents, family community and the parish council of this annual invasion of motor sport enthusiasts, maintaining the history and containing enjoyment of many persons, particularly those taking part. In conclusion, readers may be interested to know that for the 1930 Land’s End, Ruses Mill was the first hill to be tackled after the Launceston time check, and where competitors were allowed a one and a half hour lunch break, having parked their vehicles in the Guildhail Square, the first competitor being due at 10am. The route car stated: Proceed without waiting to Guildhall Square. Park as directed. Sign and lunch at Town Hall. Control from timing point to start after lunch. Well there’s food for thought.

Camelford

The regulations and entry form for The Spry Trophy Trial 2019 are now available to download below.