Richmond Motor Club, annual Blue Bar Trial, Horsehouse. Saturday/Sunday.

Again the annual Blue Bar Two Day Trial in Coverdale was a total success from Saturday morning until late on Sunday afternoon. For the thirty second event one hundred and thirty competitors wheeled out old and new machines with young and old riders. Nineteen over the age of forty, another twenty eight over fifty, plus ten over sixty and three real characters well into their seventies. Riders travelled from Aberdeen, Portsmouth, Kent, Lincoln and East Anglia to compete. Former national sidecar champion Robin Luscombe won the coveted Blue Bar Trophy riding his fifty year old Triumph Cub to overall victory. Only twenty two riders dropped out, some due to mechanical maladies and some with wseary bones. For the record Paul Lowther and Mike Rapley got their Yamaha and Bultaco machines home to take first and second places in the over seventies category.. The chief architect of the event, Steve Lambert, claimed the Over 50’s class on his rebuilt Yamaha TYZ which was bought as farm bike to round up sheep and cattle. His planned ride on a 300cc Fantic was shelved and the machine handed over to his teenage age son. Sam. Coverdale farmer Dave Suttill rode his Montesa well enough to take the over 40’s class although his description of his performance cannot be aired in public, suffice to say in polite terms ‘not very well.’ Heavy goods driver Will Reynolds was on a mission but a chain mishap doubled his score in the final section and cost him the Twin Shock class victory. Will’s comment was‘That’s life’. Skeeby’s Allan Richardson sampled a Triumph Cub for the first time and finished fourth in class. The format was a repeat of the previous years with two twenty section laps on each day. The River Cover was low enough for spectators to walk across and the majority of the sections dry to almost dusty. Paul Weatherill marked out thirty eight sections in sweltering heat on Friday along with Steve Lambert and Dave Suttill. The organisers thank landowners Geoff Lambert, Ron Suttill, David Brown, John Simpson and the residents of Coverdale and also Mine Hosts of the Forresters Arms – Lyndsay and Keith.

Guisborough & D.M.C. 3rd Summer Series trial, Stainacre, Saturday.

Guisborough rider John Banks grabbed his second win in the third round of Guisborough club’s Summer Series Championship held at Rigg Hall Farm, Stainsacre on Saturday night. There proved plenty to go at for expert and Intermediate classes in and around the stream and wooded area of this venue. Every rider in double figures apart from Jack Dolan who produced ride of the night but it still wasn`t enough to stop Leaholme`s Carl Kirkbride from winning the Intermediate class.

Whitby`s Mike Noble, again in great form, cleaned the first five section before losing five marks on the sixth, where only Lee Darrell and Greg Hargreaves cleaned every lap. The hard and easy conducted course proves popular for the beginners and Dexter Hind kept his nose in front of the home grown talent of Holly Dixon by just four marks. Harry Blackwell put a stop to Harrison Skelton`s winning streak on the harder route.