Edinburgh 2002

Start at Moto Services Tamworth	There was plenty of room at the official start, perhaps too much room, too spread out, because it was completely devoid of atmosphere! Scrutineering was rather cursory, MOT certificate and reversing light and that was that! John Parsons was in a bit of trouble with his ex David Thompson VW Buggy and he had to rewire the feed on his to get it to work. JP has completely re-vamped his car, modifying the rear end to reduce the overhang and fitting a 2.1 Litre Type 4 engine from Jim Calvert of Stateside Tuning. To go back to the reversing lights the scrut was clearly aware, that many competitors would be reversing back down Bamford Clough in the dark!
Agnes Meadow	The run to Agnes Meadow was about 50 miles, punctuated by the steady flash of the many speed cameras on the main roads! Competitors reckon this section is a pretty gentle warm-up but Peter Mountain greeted yellow and red car competitors with the news that they had a muddy deviation off to the right immediately after the start. This sent everyone scurrying for their tyre pressure gauges as the route and surface were un-known. It was certainly a shock but I don't think it was too difficult apart from the danger of getting cross-rutted on re-joining the main track. It did catch out a few though, including Pete hart and poor old Reg Taylor. The run out of Agnes Meadow is a nice long green lane. There appeared to be a little local trouble at the exit onto the tarmac road by the "repaired barn" as there was a very irate local woman running around with a torch, writing down car numbers.
Wigber Low	Cars had the usual holding control before to prevent queuing on the main road. It was a nice still night and the quietness was punctuated by the occasional music of British single's as the bikes passed the foot of the section on their way from breakfast to Clough Wood. The section is a nice one for the night, interesting but not too difficult, although the loose rocks may have been a bit of a shock to the low slung class 0 competitors.
Bentley Brook Inn	The car park was as cramped as ever but the breakfast was good and the service friendly, shame about the toilet! It started to drizzle here making competitors a little fearful about Litton in the early morning.
Clough Wood
	John Parsons on the start line while he waits for Simon Robson to clear the hill. John is probably contemplating the fact that he has already used two litres of oil!
	No real problems here as everything was nice and dry. It was a bit rocky but class 0 were spared their under-sides on this one.
Ballcross	Marshal John Blakeley reported that things went pretty smoothly apart from the Renault Meganne Scenic (unbelievable1) in class 0 and even the Mini got up.
Litton Slack
	John Parsons was the first car to clean Litton and is seen here just about to change into 2nd.	Stephen - The Man in Black - Bailey gave it everything but smoked to a halt at the tricky area around the A boards.
	Ian Davis was marshalling here with family and friends. As a car driver Ian doesn’t get to watch the bikes very often and was impressed by the different techniques employed by he riders. However, it was John Beaumont in the rear engined, A series Reliant, that was the most spectacular, clearing the hill going from one lock to the other to the applause of the crowd. It was pretty moist for the bikes and there was a lot of grass, which they didn't clear away. This made things pretty difficult for the first 50 or so cars and nobody got up, including aces like Arthur Vowden, Brian Partridge and Dean Partington, until John Parsons blasted his type 4 Buggy to the top. John was soon followed by Jeff Buchanan in the ex-Greenslade Reliant and Stuart Harrold and ACTC Championship Secretary Chris Phillips. Suddenly the grass and mud was gone and the rest of the entry mostly sailed serenely to the summit! Quite a few of the early cars failed within 50 yards, mostly because they didn't build enough speed of the start. Dave Nash and Neil Bray were one of the many to stutter a stop on the lower reaches. Amongst the early numbers Pete Hart made a a spirited attempt, storming past the A boards, but didn't quite have enough momentum after jumping out of the ruts at the tricky part next to the tree on the left. Sadly this caused problems and Pete and Carlie had to retire. This part of the hill caused problems  for quite a few others, including Simon Robson in his Liege and John Bennett in his smart class 4 Renault. Both David Turner and Philip Mitchell stormed up in their blown Beemers. Tony Branson was running near the back of the field and reported that the section had really dried out and Tony had a trouble free assent in the Marlin he had driven down from Northumberland to the start.
Putwell 1	There was certainly a bite on this normally easy section as there was a huge hole just after the start and the re-start was strategically positioned just before. David Turner was spectacular here with daylight under all four wheels as he went over the bump. It certainly put a load on transmissions and Ed Nikel had something break, shattering the case of his Imp, leaving Ed and his brother the worry of getting back to his trailer at Tamworth. Simon Robson had problems here as well as bouncer Matt couldn't avoid his feet knocking off the battery cut-out switch in the passenger’s foot-well. Richard Tompkins got away OK but stopped before the section end boards. This was Richards first event with a new engine in his Imp which was fluffing a bit on it's twin 40's as Richard hadn't had enough time to tune them properly.  Another to have trouble was Michael Leete whose brakes completely disappeared in the queue. They came back again but this was to be a worry on the road sections for the rest of the day. In class three Peter Thompson couldn't get the Opel away but he dropped back a little, still within the box and pulled away without any problems.
Putwell 2
	(left) Jim Scott discussing how high Dave Turner managed to fly the blown BMW on Puutwell1 (right) Colin Perryman and Stuart Cairney flag an un-identified Escort away from the Putwell 2 re-start in front of a majestic back-drop
	Class 4 drivers Jim Scott, Colin Perryman and Stuart Cairney were marshalling here. The re-start wasn't too difficult but quite a few car drivers ran out of steam on the rocks above it as they got slipperier as the day went on. David Childs struggled here in his Pop and was pushed up by Stuart Cairney who was his passenger more that 30 years ago. Even the class eight’s found the re-start area was rough this year and Stuart Harrold was one amongst many who thinks major repairs are needed. (see bottom for a correction)
Haydale	Nothing to report on this one.
Highcliffe
	Mike Pearson and Arnold Lane emerging onto the road at the top of Highcliffe
	Nice hill with no particular problems.
Great Hucklow
	Mike Telford waits to give the "Tucker Nipper Special" a chance to do it's stuff on Hucklow
	On the start line the hill looked innocuous enough. The route instructions said there was a re-start for all classes but made no reference to whether the section was going straight out onto the road or deviate left up the bank. Most people guessed correctly, up the bank it was. In recent years this steep little deviation has been very muddy, a little bit rough and not much grip and the only way to get up has been to storm it. This year it was very rough, bone dry and loads and loads of grip. The only problem was that by the time you found this out you were at full tilt on the storming technique! This causes loads of damage to the four-wheeled brigade. Dave Haizelden suffered major damage to his offside front suspension and waved goodbye to his Triple. Dave Nash didn't get over the hump as he was just not going fast enough but at least he didn't damage the car. Simon Robson's Liege hiccuped and he didn't make it either . The top of the hill rang to the sound of club hammer against wheel rim as many drivers tried to straighten out the damage, including Michael Leete, Fred Gregory and even Stuart Harrold with 18 psi in the tyres. Sadly, Derek Reynolds and Fred Mills had more serious trouble, when the transmission on their Volvo failed and they were faced with the problem of getting the car all the way back to Cramlington in Northumberland.
Bradwell Edge Holding Control	After Hucklow the wreckage wound it's way up onto the moor the Bamford holding control at Bradwell Edge. The wait here got longer and longer as the day went on and at the end was more than two hours. At least it was one long straight crocodile so there wasn't all the hassle of queue jumping at the defunct Marquis of Granby. The problem at Bamford was not only that there were a lot of failures, they were mostly right at the top. This meant a long delay while competitors reversed down to the lay-by. With the high failure rate the marshals were reluctant to let more than one car on the hill at a time. All this meant that on average cars were taking an average of two or three minutes on the hill with the inevitable delay.
Elmore Special test	There was a nice simple special test on the descent down to civilisation, followed one of the roughest tracks I have ever been seen on a Classic Trial. Ruts, boulders it had the lot. Pity any low slung cars coming down here!
Shatton Moor Special test	This was a Class 0 only affair. Presumably, so they didn't have to go down the track following The Shatton Moor Special Test?
Bamford Clough	The old hill was in fine form, stopping loads of people and causing the inevitable delays. However, Bamford is worth all that for the challenge. For those of you who have never seen it I will explain. The section starts at the end of a tarmac road and goes up a gentle dirt track, overhung by trees. There is a 45-degree right hand corner, then the trees peter out and the majesty of Bamford lays before you, provided you look up to the sky thast is! It's now straight as an arrow, very long and gets steeper and steeper till when you get near the top you can hardly stand up. It's also pretty rough, mainly where over the years the MCC have repaired the holed with concrete. The problem is that spinning wheels and the weather keep eroding the bits immediately before and after, causing even more holes. The challenge this year was such a big hole just where the gradient starts to steepen. All but the most foolhardy backed off to some degree here, loosing momentum and as Bamford is all about momentum that's where the trouble started. Yes they kept going, but not at enough speed to crest the steep humps at the top, where many failed with "wheels a spinning". Light cars were at an advantage as they could slowly build some momentum after the horror and Mike Pearson trickled for a clean, Simon Robson did to. Dave Nash stopped and got going but the marshals gave him a clean. John Parsons stopped as well, when his feet slipped of the pedals, but the marshals obviously preferred Skoda's to VW's and gave John a fail. Stuart Harrold thought Bamford was very rough but had the right power to weight ratio so could re-build his speed after lifting off for the bumps. David Haizelden was right at the back of the field, limping along in the dark after the damage suffered on Great Hucklow. Sadly the lights failed and Dave didn't see how deep the holes were at the top, finishing off  the nearside wishbone, shock absorber. The impact also removed the steering rack from the bulkhead and pushed the chassis leg back; leaving Dave with a major job to get the Golf repaired in time for the Ebworth Chase. When Dave got the car home he found the near-side chassis had moved back by 30mm and both the inner sills had moved upwards and been crushed. Dave also reported that the near-side door wouldn’t open and the offside door "you can reach inside without it being open". All this was to no avail really as no cars in classes one or four cleaned Bamford so it didn't count in the results for them! Both Great Hucklow and Bamford were pretty rough for the bikers and even John Lees found them a bit of a strain on his arms. John reports that they kept catching up with class 0 and were allowed to jump in front of them at he foot of Bamford.
	Simon and Matt Robson on Haggside - Perhaps for the last time?	Michael Leete and Mike Hayward rounding the first hairpin (picture by Derek Hibbert)
Haggside	Haggside was a bit of an anti-climax after Bamford, although enjoyable none the less. It had the usual re-start, just after the first corner, marshalled by Peter and David Manning and George Nixon. They didn't have to many victims this year (remember when David Alderson lost his triple) as you could stop well before the step and take a run at it. They had company for much of the event, one of the Rangers. As an individual he was very pro-motorsport but he was along to observe and submit a written report to the hierarchy on the event and in particular how much damage was being caused to the track. Apparently, as pro-motorsport as he was, it was going to be difficult for him to turn a blind eye to the holes being dug on the re-start and the powers-that-be are likely to deny us the use of Haggside in the future.
Poachers Arms Hope	The hours "lunch halt" was at the end of the trial and it was supper time for the late runners as they arrived here in the drizzle as they were more than four hours behind their scheduled time. Fortunately the marshals showed a little pity and cut the hour down a bit for later numbers, who then missed the excellent food in the pub!
Peak Pasture	Class 0 only section
Hassop Common Special Test	After a road run through Grindleford it was up into the hills for a special test, with the start, marshalled by fellow Gasser Jonathan Laver, amongst the quarries. This was where the trial ended for the cars as the remaining sections were cancelled.
Black Harry	Only the bikes had a go at this one which probably disappointed the marshal's who apparently "doctored" the section with material from an adjoining wall, incurring the wrath of the "powers that be" Goodness what will happen to the perpetrators. I believe that when this happened on Clinton a few years ago the guilty parties (who if memory serves me correctly included Graham Marshall) were banned for a while. Now looking at my program the Chief Official is down as, no I better not say, take a look for yourself!!!
Overwheal
Calton
Bull L'Th Thorn Inn, Flagg Moor	The finish was moved away from Buxton this year so there could be a club supper which appeared to go down well with participants, although because there was no accommodation available many gave it a miss and enjoyed the Buxton nightlife. There wasn’t much time for the later numbers to dress for dinner though, as it was well past 8 o'clock when they staggered home. Popular opinion after the event was that the event was far to rough and that Bamford, Hucklow and Putwell all need major repairs before they can be used again and this may well be beyond the resources of the MCC. Haggside should be included in this list but it looks as though we might not be allowed to use it anyway.
The Next Day
	For those of you that looked out for, but didn't find me, this is what I look like! (I think the cartoon is a good resemblance! Michael Leete takes his own picture while Mike Hayward attends to the tyres on the Broad Walk in Buxton before the drive home to Bedfordshire.

Erratum:-

After publishing this I had an interesting e-mail from Stuart Cairney ....Enjoyed reading the Edinburgh report, one minor correction - on this occasion David Child was driving his Pop based special (the one that looks like an estate car, reg DMP 10 I think, ex Mike Furse? (Note from Michael - Yes this is right. Mike did own this car which he affectionately called "Dump" I wrote about this in the Falcon version of Classical Gas and it's on my list of stuff to publish on the web when I get the time). I believe he still owns the Pop which, I assume, was being driven by one of his mates.Incidentally the guy I used to bounce for was the late John Simmons-Hodge who owned the Pop prior to David Child.