The Sporting
MOTORCYCLIST News for social and sporting motorcycling
..published monthly
July 2022
Enduro, Grasstrack, Motocross, Road Racing, 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)
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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JULY 2022 VOL. 22 ISSUE 7 PUBLISHED ON THE 1ST OF EACH MONTH
FROM THE EDITOR'S CHAIR n By Andy Wood
Again we see a good variety of motorcycle events in the weeks ahead. Grass Track racing enthusiasts in the south can look forward to three events over three weekends. Competitors may well be in with a chance to race as the Frittenden club host the ACU British Grasstrack Championships which will also feature support classes. Just one week later the Grasstrack Banter team put on their second event of the year at Owslebury offering five adult solo classes and two sidecar classes. There will also be a chance for youth to take part in what will be a full day of racing activity. The last day of the month the country’s best will head towards the other Frittenden venue at Dig Dog Lane where the British Masters Championship is being run in the capable hands of GTSA Racing. Motocross competitors also have something to look forward to this month, with events for both adult and youth taking place on a variety of tracks. There is no let up in trials activity, with four clubs offering weekday evening events. Events also take place every weekend and of particular note is The Bob Twigg Trophy Trial run by Milton Buzzard on the 10th; Bob of course was Editor of this journal and an all round trials enthusiast. The Barham club will be holding their annual Charity Trial in aid of Pilgrims Hospice and offer a four route course and would welcome entries from both pre 67 and twinshock competitors. The Wessex Plant Hire Trials Sidecar Championship will pay a visit to Kent next month. Competitors will face two laps of an eighteen section course set out in woodland near Sevenoaks in Kent. Organised by the OWLS Motor Club, the event will take place on Saturday August 13th and help with observing is always welcome, you will be guaranteed an entertaining day seeing the country’s best in action Shows are a popular activity during the summer months, offering the chance to socialise for many enthusiasts. Most shows feature displays of modern, classic and vintage machinery as well as trade stands and some often include an autojumble. One event taking place next month is slightly different in that it will include a sprint in addition to all the usual show features. The Heritage Sprint takes place on the 14th August at the heritage site, Betteshanger Park near Deal in Kent. This year the sprint will also feature a ladies class. See info@heritagesprint.co.uk for more details.
Cover Photo: Marc D'Amico part of the winning team at the Camden Cup/Team Trial Photo by: Gloria Moss
Riding, watching or helping there will be plenty to do. Contributions in this issue: Alan Turner, Fraser Law, John Sapsard, Andy Withers, Mandy Frearson, Mike Wiseman, Rob Dyer, Neil Emmott, John Eckhart, Peter Burrell, John Bramall, Andy Wood Would you like to contribute? Please send to the editor, contact details on page 3.
3
George at 90
George and Karen at the Arbuthnot trial
Q By Andy Withers When you're ninety most people would be thinking of putting their feet up, but not George Greenland, at ninety years of age in July he's more interested in keeping his feet up. He's still competing most weekends and sometimes on both days at home or in Europe. Everyone is different and you hear many riders saying "I'm too old to ride" when in their 60's or 70's, but George isn't one of them although he admits riding in some ways is becoming harder. George began riding at the age of sixteen after a chance encounter with a "muddy trials bike" Each Monday on the way home from work he saw a local man (who turned out to 14
The Smallshaw Triumph
be Fred Pendle) washing his muddy bike. The question was why he had to do this every week? Fred said he rode trials, and there was a local meeting coming up if George would like to come along to watch. George was immediately hooked, bought a bike and won his first trophy riding a rigid girder forked 250cc Royal Enfield to the Novice Award at a Salisbury and District MCC trial a year later in 1949. In the early 1950's having bought a 500T Norton George racked up a list of first class and premier awards at local and national trials, first class and premier awards at the Ringwood LC & MCC Committee Cup, a first class at the Perce Simon, two 500cc Cups at the Jack White and a premier award at the Stroud Team Trial riding with Gordon Jackson and Johnny Draper are amongst them as well as top fifty finishes in the Southern Experts. National Service intervened in 1953 which meant riding mainly a 350cc G3L Matchless for initially two years as a despatch rider but also competing in long distance trials. Taking the army tests for the International Six Days Trial (ISDT) George was named as reserve for the 1954 Army team in Wales but was not called upon to compete. Leaving the army George bought a BSA Gold Star for a good price as he fancied one, it was a "reserve" machine for the ISDT although it did have a rigid frame which he didn't fancy. Because of this, BSA threw in a springer frame as part of the deal. Rigid or Sprung he didn't get on with the Gold Star although his wife Maureen rode it between Bournemouth and Salisbury to visit relatives. This was one of very few regrets, as Hugh Viney offered George a Matchless after National Service but he decided to buy the Gold star instead. To this day George is always looking for ways to re engineer machines to make them perform that bit better, he has it down to a fine art. After returning to the Army because of the Suez Crisis he was offered a Triumph Tiger Cub project which his then employer Des Smallshaw had started but not finished due to medical issues. He completed the project and gained great success on the "Smallshaw Triumph", he told me with a big grin that he beat the Rickmans on a special test at the Perce Simon Trial against
their much bigger machinery. George moved to Oxford to work for British Leyland solving design problems with their cars, the Smallshaw Triumph has been photographed inside George and Maureen's new flat. George decided he wanted a bigger machine and Bill Faulkner who had a motorcycle shop in Oxford said he could have an engine from a machine that had crashed, it had a bent crankshaft. Another project followed with George building his own frame for the 500cc Twin, it rode well but unfortunately the frame began to get longer. Returning to Salisbury to live George asked Robin Rhind Tutt (Robbie) to build him a frame for the Triumph. this was the start of a lifelong friendship and shared enjoyment of motorcycles. More trials success followed with the frame being modified several times and George still has about the third version with a duplex frame which was recommissioned and ridden by Neil Clarke, George's test rider and son in law in 2020. It is still very lively and Neil looped it into a hedge in the middle of the club trial. Continued overleaf
Getting some air at Hut Hill 15
South Midland Meteor Group Trials Championship 2022
Q By John Eckhart Meteor Group Championship Recorder
The current positions in the 2022 Championship after the six rounds at S. Harrow, Berko, HUX, K & K, Barnet & S. Harrow. Experts Scott Howlett Lennie Tidd Mark Reason Bailey Tibbs Ryan Tomkins
Club B H NEL SH O
Intermediates Mark George Darren Haines Paul Heron Reynard Norris Mark Elms
FR FR W SH SH
Novice Kai Morris Jim Morris Steve Brown John Daniels Guy Anderson
Youth A Kai Fisher Alex Buckle William Sparks
H H B
Youth B Mason Tidd H Josh Brown SH Jack Cox-Wootton B H Total Kai Fisher MB 75 William Sparks 64 Youth C SH 40 Joseph Baker H 37 Thomas Tidd 37 Jack Cox-Wootton B Jacob Cook MB MB 87 Archie Hudson 72 55 35 30
Pre-Sixtyfive Hard Stephen Clements NEL Martin Kemp SH William Rhodes B
W W SH B H
91 79 60 20 17
Pre-Sixtyfive Sportsman Nick James H Chris Pickup MB Mick Clarkson K&K David Clarkson K&K Chris Page B
Twin-Shock Paul Meader H Peter Cook B Richard Woodfield MB Marcus Haynes MB Chris Page B
109 37 30 20 20
Club Championship Berkhamstead Farnham Royal Hillingdon & Uxbridge South Harrow North East London
Kent Royals
Q By Neil Emmott June 18 Leicester (Away) report will appear in the August edition of TSM. National League (as of June 14th) Team Berwick Bandits Leicester Lion Cubs Belle Vue Colts Oxford Chargers Kent Royals Plymouth Centurions Mildenhall Fen Tigers Armadale Devils 28
Matches 7 6 6 5 3 6 1 4
Points 19 13 9 9 7 3 0 0
Oxford Ixion 40 Milton Buzzard 20 Wycombe 17 Barnet, Hayes & Southall, Kenton & Kingsbury, WMA 80 53 17 17 15
100 49 20 17 13
19 18 15
Club Team Championship Wycombe 100 Hillingdon & Uxbridge 87 Milton Buzzard 75 Berkhamstead 71 North East London 70 Farnham Royal 67 South Harrow 47 Kenton & Kingsbury 30 Oxford Ixion 19 Barnet, Hayes & Southall, WMA
Next Group Trial - Bob Twigg 100 Memorial Trial organised by: 17 Milton Buzzard - 10th July at 17 Mount Farm. Key: 105 B - Berkhamstead 93 BA - Barnet 57 FR - Farnham Royal 52 HS - Hayes & Southall 36 H - Hillingdon & Uxbridge K & K - Kenton & Kingsbury MB - Milton Buzzard 89 NEL - North East London 56 O - Oxford Ixion 55 SH - South Harrow 51 W - Wycombe 20
Forthcoming fixtures: July 10 - Berwick (H) National League July 15 - Armadale (A) National League July 24 - Oxford (H) National League July 31 - Mildenhall (A) National League Aug 5 - Bell Vue (A) National League Aug 21 - Mildenhall (H) National League Aug 28 - Plymouth (H) National League Sept 4 - Armadale (H) National League Sept 7 - Oxford (A) National League Sept 11 - Belle Vue (H) National League.
Speedway Returns But No Luck For The Wightlink Warriors
the blue and yellow of the Warriors, but it was super quick Alfie Bowtell, Connor Coles and Henry Atkins who stole the headlines with their all action attacking style. With two legs of the competition still to go later in the summer, there is still plenty of opportunity for the Warriors to strike back and it is to be hoped that Warriors Alex Spooner will be fit to carry on having hurt his shoulder in a fall late on in the meeting. Connor King Q By Rob Dyer Press Officer Wightlink Warriors Shale Track Racing Club Photo by Ian Groves Sportography Wightlink Warriors 23, Cradley Heathens 35, Weymouth Wildcats 32 The Wightlink Warriors opened their season with an entertaining three team tournament against nomadic clubs Cradley and Weymouth in the first leg of a three-leg tournament for The Michael Richardson Trophy. Sadly, for the Island side success eluded them in this meeting as the all-round strength of both visiting teams saw them take top spots. Warriors team manager Steve Piper can be proud of the efforts of his quartet, but he will be ruing the fact that his charges could only produce four race wins on the night and more tellingly, his riders failed to score in eight of the fifteen races. In a competitive meeting, aided by the innovative handicap system that was well exploited by the visitors, it was good to see Ben Morley and Connor King (pictured) back in
Warriors 23 (Ben Morley 11, Alex Spooner 1, Danno Verge 10, Connor King 1) Heathens 35 (Alfie Bowtell 14, Tom Spencer 6+2, Connor Coles 13, Chris Watts 2) Wildcats 32 (George Congreve 8+3, Jacob Clouting 4, Henry Atkins 13+1, Ben Trigger 7+1) In the development challenge between the Wightlink Wizards and newly formed Wightlink Warlocks, the meeting outcome was decided in the last of the six races as the impressive Arran Butcher and James Laker combined to record a maximum 5-1 win to secure the Warlocks an historic victory. Local rider Kye Elliott, another product of "My First Skid" speedway training school made his official debut, scoring points and making many in the stadium immensely proud of his progress to date. Wizards 17 (Jamie Sealey 3+2, Vinny Branch 7, Sam Peters 1+1, Michael Austin 6) Warlocks 19 (James Laker 8+1, Morgan Williams 0, Arran Butcher 9, Kye Elliott 2). 29
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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 Action photos
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