The Sporting
T S I L C Y C R O T MO
..published monthly
orting motorcycling
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November 2019
Enduro, Grasstrack, Motocross, Road Racing, ing,, Speedway, Sprinting and Trials news
CONTAINS OFFICIAL EVENT ENTRY FORMS
The Sporting
MOTORCYCLIST
is published monthly and is available through your Clubs or by direct subscription
Editor (ACU Southern Centre) John Bramall
16 Gifford Close, Fareham, Hampshire, PO15 6PJ T: 01329 823282 E: johnbramall246@btinternet.com
Editor (ACU South Midland Centre) Bob Twigg
2 Harwood Close, Welwyn Garden City, Herts, AL8 7SN E: bobtwigg@ntlworld.com
Editor & Advertising and Distribution (ACU South Eastern Centre) Andy Wood 30 Westways, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 6AA Tel/Fax 01732 865380
E: anmarprintingservices@gmail.com
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Anmar Printing Services, Edenbridge, Kent
NOVEMBER 2019 VOL. 19 ISSUE 11 PUBLISHED ON THE 1ST OF EACH MONTH
All material for TSM should reach the editor by the tenth day of the month preceding publication.
FROM THE EDITOR'S CHAIR ď Ž By Bob Twigg
It was a very sad time for Kenton and Kingsbury members and the South Midland centre when Bryan Messenger passed away in late September. As you have probably read before today Bryan was a very prominent force in P65 motocross, enduros and trials. He modified many Brit' bikes to make them more competitive. He was the centre T and O champion in the 70's and 80's. This brings me to the subject of time and observation trials which have died out in the South Midland centre. Hands up all who have ridden in the Mid Bucks T and O at Brill! The club was I believe the last club to run one in the centre. In January you can imagine the conditions at the Brill "scrambles" track, often a nice coating of frost or ice to trap the unwary. The first lap of these events always seemed easy (well to me), but after a few more laps the body (or just mine) tended to flag a little. Many of the centre clubs ran the power sapping T and O's, I remember the Cambridge Matchless club ran one that included a blast down a concrete road near a farm house, a welcome rest for me but I would usually be overtaken by the "fast boys" like Bryan. The nearby Cambridge Centaur club ran one at Eversden Woods, what a course if it rained, slip sliding away! I was talking to a rider the other day and he commented that the "ace" riders don't seem to get as tired as the "lesser lights" . We concluded that if you don't have to keep picking your bike up you don't tire so quickly! The "stars" are usually feet up. It is now very nice to see a big entry of very young riders in our centre events. They are really keen, mostly on super quiet Osets or 80's, thanks must go to many of the Mums and Dads especially the Hanvey family and Nene Valley for encouraging them, keep it up. There are several "older experts" who have offspring riding and improving fast as well, future centre champs? To all riders in all disciplines, enjoy the Winter, speed merchants may be doing their bikes up, but I can recommend trials to keep your fitness going! All the best, Bob. Contributions in this issue: Alan Turner, Neil Emmott, Bob Twigg, Mike Wiseman, Luke Russell & Gareth Bemister, John Eckhart, Alan Clarke, Richard Dowland, Ken O'Brien, Mick Auger & Richard Thomas, Mick Clarkson, Terry Golds, Jamie Clarke, Nick James, John Bramall
Cover Photo: Kevin Plummer Photo by: Gary Dowzall slider.photography
Would you like to contribute? Please send to the editor, contact details on page 3.
Post reports about what is happening with motorsport in your centre.
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C
O N T E NTS
Speedway
Kent Kings Season Review Ted Hubbard (1949 - 2019)
Chairmen South Eastern: Roger Brown Tel: 01273 563931
Grasstrack
2019 South Eastern Grass Track Grading Points A Flying Finale A Fraught Finale
Centres Officials
South Midland: John Coles Tel: 01865 361735 20 26 30
Southern: Bob Hewson Tel: 023 9259 2919
8 9
South Eastern: Peter Burrell Tel: 020 8300 5572 40 Annandale Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA15 8EL email: pj.burrell@btintternet.com
Trials
Open Harvest Trial 5 Oxford Ixion 'The James Challenge Trophy' 10 Goodwin Gears Up for the Southern Experts Sidecars 12 South Midland Classic Trial 2019 16 S Centre Trials Championship 18 South Midland Meteor Group Trials Championship 2019 18 South Midland Centre Youth Championship 2019 21 Jack Thompson Classic Bikes Trial 21 Trials Clerk of the Course Seminar 25 The Alan Sansom Charity Shield 41
Secretaries
South Midland: Terry Golds Tel: 01582 455714 Mobile: 07747 855264 21 Buckingham Drive, Stopsley, Luton, Beds, LU2 9RA email: terrylgolds@ntlworld.com Southern: Chris Fletcher Tel: 01256 242214 1 Fairclose, Whitchurch, Hampshire, RG28 7AN email: chris-fletcher@tiscali.co.uk
Permit Secretaries South Eastern: Inquiries to Peter Burrell South Midland: Ian Reynolds Tel: 0208 9079856 Mobile: 07803766314 186 Regal Way, Harrow Middlesex, HA3 0SQ email: reynolds.russell@virgin.net Southern: Claire Ballard Tel: 0118 981 2595 26 Droxford Crescent, Tadley, Hampshire, RG26 3BA email: ballardclaire@hotmail.com
Benevolent Fund Representatives South Midland: Dave Porter Tel: 01582 651189 22 Belper Road, Luton, Beds, LU4 8RG Southern: Terry Graves Tel: 02380 643503 13 Locksley Road, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO50 5DX
Regulations Trials
Eastern Fourstroke Assc., 17th Nov 6 Berkhamsted, 9th November 6 Nene Valley, 17th November 13 Normandy, 17th November 13 Wycombe, 17th November 14 Sidcup, 17th November 23 Kenton & Kingsbury, 24th Nov 29 Bridport & Weymouth, 1st Dec 29 Hillingdon & Uxbridge, 1st Dec 34 Sidcup, 1st December 34 Gravesend Eagles, 8th December 39 North East London, 8th December 39 Sittingbourne, 8th December 40 Witley, 8th December 40 Thames, 29th December 43 Waltham Chase, 31st December 43 Entry Forms 7, 15, 22, 28, 35, 38, 42
South Eastern: Hazel Collins Tel: 01189 421534 14 Brookside, Calcot, West Berks, RG31 7PJ
Rights of Way Officers South Eastern (Sussex): Bevis Billingham Tel: 01243 585128 182 Elmer Road, Middleton on Sea, Bognor Regis, PO22 6JA South Eastern (Kent): Steve Neville Tel: 01797 458939 26 Donsmead Drive, Northiam, TN31 6EQ South Midland: Chris Hurworth Tel: 01494 446198 23 Cambridge Crescent, Totteridge, High Wycombe, HP13 7NE Southern: Martin Down Tel: 01264 365084 18 Barcelona Close, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 1JQ. email: martin.down1@gmail.com
Open Harvest Trial ď Ž By Richard Dowland
Bathed in glorious late summer sunshine, the small hard working group of Wickham club members ran their regular yearly Harvest Trial at Whitepost Farm near Cowden. Like other trials the Harvest in days gone by used to be a road based event which ran in a loop round through Sandfields Farm and onto Forest Row and back. Indeed current club members Andy and Kevin Ely's father was involved in running this trial many years ago. Today the trial has no roadwork involved and is contained on one plot but what a cracking bit of land it is, with a mixture of tall climbs and descents, streams and even some rocks and gullies to give a nice variety of "going". This year the club had introduced a yellow Sportsmen's route to try and encourage less experienced riders and tried to make the red Novice route less demanding than in previous years. The trial was a round of the South East Centre Trials Championship though, so it had to be a bit of a challenge. Despite an early tumble which required some hasty repair work to the front brake of his GasGas, Tom Moss did well to lose just 30 marks on the Elite route. His final lap would have been clean but for a maximum on section three, a long, uphill, rocky gully which wouldn't look out of place ‘up North'. Usually riding
the Elite route Simon Bird rode the Expert route as he is still mindful of a painful shoulder injury and was a clear winner losing just 9 in total. There was a tight tussle for runner up spot however between on form GasGas rider Matt Godden and Nick Dowland on a 4Rt Montesa. Both had laps of 8, 6 and 3 to tie on 17 but Matt got the nod by way of most cleans. Two old campaigners Michael Stiles (23) and Mike Marshall (34) took the top two spots on the intermediate route and on the same route Martin Stevens lost 17 in the over 40's class. Novice winner Ian Wakeford's 12 marks lost was comfortably ahead of runner up Ashford's Jack Taylor on the red route but is was close for the over 50's novices as Kevin Miller pipped John Bird by a dab 11 marks to 12. Some great riding in the intermediate Youth category saw national runner Sarah Bell take her Beta to a fine win, losing 35 which would have been good enough for third in the adults. A close battle for second between Mason Meadows and Daniel Dabreo was settled on the very last section of the day where Daniel got a maximum and Mason rode clean leaving the scores 47 to 50 in Mason's favour. So that was the Harvest trial done and dusted for another year, a great day with lots of happy faces at the end. If you
are a trials rider of any ability why not mark next year's date for the Harvest I your diary and ride a great traditional trial on a unique, natural piece of trialling ground. Elite Tom Moss Jack Stiles Expert Simon Bird Matt Godden Nick Dowland Tom Sawyer
30 85 9 17 m/c 17 62
Intermediate Michael Stiles Mick Marshall Chris Hogben Michael Hollyer
23 34 39 44
Intermediate Over 40 Martin Stevens Mark Smith C Dawson
17 23 28
Novice Ian Wakeford Scott Wilson Jack Taylor Russ Heart
12 31 36 54
Novice Over 50 Kevin Miller John Bird Geoff Muston Mark Teal
11 12 18 25
Youth Intermediate Sarah Bell Mason Meadows Daniel Dabreo
35 47 50
Youth Red Novice Fletcher Ely
95
Youth Yellow Sportsman Ethan Dowland Talon Nutbrown
41 55
Take part in discussions about motorsport in your centre and post reports for publication. facebook.com/thesportingmotorcyclist 5
Kent Kings Speedway Season Review
ď Ž By Neil Emmott
Kent Speedway's season was a real mixed bag of some low and some real high points. It all got underway in April with an away defeat at Plymouth, but that was soon followed up with a home win in convincing style over one of the league tips for success Belle Vue. The Thurruck Hammers were the next side to visit central park and the meeting was a close run thing ending with Kent losing by a single point. The season got under way in earnest with the start of the National Trophy campaign which resulted in Kent winning their first silverware on Monday June 3 2019, a historic date to be etched in the history of the Kent Club. Next up in the busy season for the Kings was the National League Fours. Kent were drawn in the second group along with Belle Vue, Plymouth and Mildenhall. Kent got through this semi-final stage to be faced with Mildenhall, Stoke and Isle of Wight in the final. That didn't go to plan and Kent were last after losing Captain Rob Ledwith to injury that would see him out for a number of weeks. Attention then turned to the National League campaign and the Kings kept plugging away in picking up some valuable away wins. With more injury woes hitting the team, Manager Chris Hunt was forced to bring in some fresh legs, Jacob Clouting came in to
cover for Alex Spooner while Jake Mulford was drafted in as cover for Nathan Ablitt who had decided to give the rest of the 2019 season a miss. Also Jordan Jenkins had decided to take a break from the sport for an short period of time. Then the Kent Kings' season started to take a turn for the better, Drew Kemp was crowned the Under 19 British Speedway Champion in August, and at the end of the same month Kemp and Anders Rowe lifted the National League Pairs title. This was the second time a Kent Speedway pairing had won the title after Ben Morley and Danny Ayres had lifted it a couple of years before. September saw the welcome return of Spooner and Jenkins but the British Summer started to play havoc with the fixtures with many a rain off hitting the programme. September also saw the running of the annual Laurels Championship, the Laurels was first staged in 1939 with every winner since then lifting the coveted WJ Cearns Shield. Luke Bowen lifted the shield in its 80th year in an eventful evening at Central Park. This win was made more surprising as Bowen had retired at the end of 2018 following injury and only rode a handful of meetings in 2019 before lifting the title. The weather continued to play havoc but the Kings qualified for the National League Play-off finals where
they would come up against Belle Vue in the semi-final. The Kings went down 47-43 in the opening away leg but overturned the Aces at home in the return leg by 53-36 (96-83 on aggregate) meaning the Kings awaited to learn of the Final opponents. Leicester who finished top of the league were to be Kent's opponents in the final, one which was again hit by more than one rain-off. Eventually the opening leg was staged at Leicester on October 16 and the Kings were heavily defeated by the league favourite by 59-31. There was a brief intermission in league racing for the staging of the National League Riders Championship and Kent's Anders Rowe took full advantage of it by lifting the crown with Drew Kemp second, a very successful evening again for the Kent duo. The second leg of the Play-Off final was scheduled for Monday October 21, but again rain in the Garden of England put paid to that. So as TSM went to press the second and final leg was rescheduled for the week beginning October 28 with Kent having the highest of mountains to climb to overturn the 28 point deficit. Nothing is impossible in motorcycle sport as you all well know, and everyone will be hoping that the sun shines on the Kings when the second leg, and final meeting of the 2019 season finally gets underway. The result will be reported next month.
Results and fixtures: Date Opponents
Competition
Home/Away
28th September
National League PO SF
Away
8
Belle Vue
Result
Postponed
30th September 3rd October 4th October 7th October 14th October 16th October 21st October 28th October
Belle Vue Belle Vue Belle Vue Belle Vue Leicester Leicester Leicester Leicester
National League PO SF National League PO SF National League PO SF National League PO SF National League PO Final National League PO Final National League PO Final National League PO Final
HOME Away Away HOME HOME Away HOME HOME
Postponed Postponed L43-47 W53-36 Postponed L31-59 Postponed
Gates open 17:00 with an 18:30 start unless stated.
Ted Hubbard (1949 - 2019)
Kent Speedway is sad to hear the news of the passing of Kentish Speedway racing legend, Ted Hubbard on Saturday 19th. October aged 70 years after a courageous fight against liver cancer. Ted was a Man Of Kent, born in Lydden and made his racing debut in second halves at local track at Kingsmead in Canterbury in 1969, going on to star for the local side the Crusaders for whom he rode between 1970 and 1974. Known as 'Hurricane' Hubbard, Ted rose up to being number one for Canterbury and on his Division Two (later National League)
Riders' Championship debut at the famous Wimbledon track in '74 he finished runner up. He was to make the rostrum in the NLRC on two further occasions in '76 and '79. By this time he was a Rye House Rocket having left Canterbury in 1975 to ride under Len Silver for the Hackney Hawks in the top division British League and moved onto Len's NL side in Hoddesdon also, from '76. In 1980 Ted returned to his roots at Canterbury before one last hurrah back at Hackney and then retiring to run a successful wholesale potato farming business back in his native
Kent. Ted later served as Team Manager for the Iwade-based Sittingbourne Crusaders. He remained a regular at Speedway and Grasstrack in the county and was here (along with many other Kentish legends) at our opening meeting in 2013 where he watched proudly as his grandson Kai led the parade as meeting mascot. We send our condolences to his widow, Jeannette, surviving children; Jason and Nicola; grandchildren; Hanna, Jay, Kai and Hari and great-grandchild, Oscar and to the rest of the family and his many friends in and out of the sport. 9
South Midland Classic Trial 2019 By Mick Clarkson Photos by Gary Dowzall slider.photography
Paul Meader
The South Midland Classic Trial at Colliers End Herts attracted a record entry of over 100 riders. The three lap five mile course which included fifteen sections per lap was deliberately set out on the cautious side due to the predicted heavy rain, however the rain did not come until the end of the event so as a consequence the scores were low which meant that the Special Test was needed to separate the rider’s positions. The only clean sheet on the British Bike Hard Route was Kevin Hood who just pipped Chris Collins, Nick Baker, Thomas
Kevin Hood 16
Bartrum & Clive Dopson who all had a single dab. Nick Baker riding his father’s Triumph Cub took the Jackie Rees Trophy for the best ride on a Triumph. Richard Allen took the overall win on the day & came out on top in the Special Test with the fastest time riding in the Twinshock Hard Route Class just taking the win from Dean
Easier Route was won by Paul Meader who took the win over Brian Ayres who had a single dab. British Bike Winner Hard Route Kevin Hood (250cc Royal Enfield)
0
Best Triumph - Hard Route Nick Baker (200cc Triumph)
0
Twinshock Winner Hard Route Richard Allen (163cc Gori)
0
British Bike Winner Easier Route Kevin Plummer (185cc BSA)
0
Twinshock Winner Easier Route Paul Meader (325cc Bultaco)
0
Richard Allen Devereux by 0.10 seconds. Also with a clean sheet in that class was Steve Monk. The British Bike Easier Route also recorded clean sheets for five riders, however it was the
same result as last year with Kevin Plummer taking the win over Mick Clarkson. The other three cleans were James Cammack, Richard Woodfield & Roy Haines. The Twinshock
Nicholas Baker
What is your club doing? We would love to hear from you. Share your news with our editors, contact details are on page 3 17
The Sporting
MOTORCYCLIST
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The Sporting Motorcyclist Contains: Entry forms and regulations for Motocross, Trials, Enduro, Grasstrack events Information on the management of the sport in your centre Previews and reports on events
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