A Mastery of Preparation yet a somewhat unfortunate start.

Kimber Trial Report – photos below

I was away on holiday in Scotland the week before the Kimber Classic Trial and we were to drive back down on Friday afternoon ready for the early start on Saturday morning.  In order not to be too rushed when we got back I spent some time in the afternoon of the day before our departure looking out the MOT, insurance and club membership card that are all required by the entry takers.  All jolly thoughtful and well organised you may think—the only snag was that the brokers hadn’t sent me the new insurance certificate and the MOT had run out along with the tax—the heart rate increased somewhat.

A ‘phone call got me an e-mail attachment of the scanned insurance forms so that was a good start.  Unfortunately as my MOT postal service had ceased some years before so recently I have had to suffer the indignity of actually preparing the car for the rigours of the test but, unfortunately again, my well schooled local tester couldn’t fit me in at such short notice. So off I went to the last MOT slot in Bath that was traceable on the internet with only time to ‘wind up’ the brakes a bit.  Fortunately the chap who did the test had a sense of humour and it passed !  I zipped of to the Post Office clutching the various forms and had the tax in my hand a good 20 minutes before they closed.  The heart rate began to reduce.

Post holiday we set off from Bath to head for the new Trial HQ at the Lanes Hotel in West Coker (The name Coker comes from Coker Water {crooked stream from the Celtic Kukro}, just in case you are interested). This establishment is a jewel in the crown of the Somersetshire hostelries and would be well worth a visit even if you weren’t entering. We arrived in time for coffee which was delightfully served in a cafitiere with a jug of fresh milk (not that hideous UHT plastic pack so beloved by some lesser establishments)—just the way to start the day.

As we were to be first off we arrived for the arduous scrutineering early so had the opportunity of watching many of the other 40 odd contenders arrive not to mention the phalanx of ‘hangers on’, helpers, marshals etc.  There were but 2 18/80s, a whole 18 MMM (6 each of M types & J2s amongst them), 9 T types, several more modern M.G.s and various Austins, Fords and one each from the Riley & Morgan marques.

To go with the new start we had 2 new hills this year so off we went, 10 minutes late, full of eager anticipation.  Unfortunately the eagerness of the anticipation caused us to drive back and forth looking for the first two special tests but inadvertently missing them (and this despite one of the marshals helpfully standing at the side of the road waving at us….one becomes used to people waving at one so we didn’t even notice him !).  Not the best of starts but it’s only a game after all……in many ways getting the first thing wrong tends to make the rest of the event rather more fun as the need to ‘try’ is done away with so a more flamboyant approach is allowable.

Because of the bureaucratic nightmare of organising these long distance, road linked sections we are not allowed to pass down any particular road more than once.  The result is a dreadful headache for Bruce Weston (who does so much of the ‘hands on’ stuff when planning the route—indeed covering some 670 miles in his TC being nice to all the residents along the way, hacking down undergrowth on the hills, labelling the top and bottom of each section 3 weeks before hand (to warn the local users) etc. etc. etc.) but all this effort does ensure that we drive down some of the more delightfully little used lanes in the Somerset/Dorset borders.  Take for one the ‘Lost Dell’ near Lower Alham Farm (popular with ‘photographers as ‘tis there that the entries charge through ‘Alham’s Splash’—what is it about cars driving through water that is so mesmerising to photographers I wonder).  Well if you navigate the water obstacle, stop astride the timing line you leave the section along a lane and to your left is this delightful valley that looks as if it has come straight out of the Dickensian age—but without children suffering rickets with leg irons to mar the spectacle.

The exits of the sections are often the most interesting as they can mean travelling for some distance along un-surfaced ‘farm tracks’ which have a somewhat less than race track surface uniformity.  The route instructions on these bits advise you to ‘avoid potholes’.  Now does the route scribe suppose one would actively aim at the things ?  It’s a bit like you wife inviting you to ‘drive carefully’ as you depart for work—does she imagine you had the urge to be particularly reckless that morning ?  Actually in a narrow lane driving an 18/80 there are not a lot of options open to you so I was content to try and avoid the deeper ditches instead.

Along with the new sections I alluded to earlier there are some of the more famous—for example ‘Honeypits’ (near the infamous Cerne Abbas Giant, carved into a chalk hillside and of uncertain date—also known as the Rude Man for obvious reasons—see diagram)

This hill was first used on the MCC’s ‘Exeter Trial’ in 1928.  Then there is ’Honeycliffe’ near Lower Wyke used in the first Kimber Classic Trial in 1937 (Honey seems to have been a theme of trialling iin the past).

Then there was the exciting climb up ‘Hell Ladder Lane’ (close to a viaduct used on the old Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway or S&D (which some say stood for Slow and Dirty) that was closed in the mid 1960s after a far reaching study of rail transport by one Dr Beeching who was not known for his sensitivity).

So there we are—after 10 of the most enjoyable ‘sections’ and about 90 miles of stunning motoring between them and a lunch at the accommodating Camelot Inn at South Cadbury we were back at the Lanes Hotel for tea.  How civilised is that ?

Once again this year we enjoyed fabulously dry weather—sunny indeed—but that tends to make the sections more ‘easy’ so much so that some of the more practiced entrants managed a ‘clean sheet’—for results and ‘photos of the event please go to http://www.mgccsw.com/ and for a video try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vh_L5JuIAA. Actually I’m told that if you tap ‘Kimber Classic Trial’ into ‘youtube’ you get lots of stuff out or even tap ‘Kimber Classic Trial’ into your favourite web browser and you get absolute pages of information, pictures etc………

All in all a couple of hundred of the most enjoyable miles covered over the week end (more if I had made the Gala Evening Diner at the Lanes Hotel and Gymkhana and pub lunch at Barry Foster’s  the following day) so why not make a note now that on the 22nd April 2012 you will come and enjoy the fun—entry forms nearer the time on http://www.mgccsw.com/

Gallery

Click on any of the pictures for a full size version