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 (1406 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