Report on the HSCC Historic Sporting Trial – 17th August 2019 – Hertfordshire.
On a bright summers day competitors and officials met at Frank Lyons farm in Hertfordshire for the running of the seventh HSCC Historic Sporting Trial.
48 competitors entered the trial, 16 of whom are HSCC members. As usual it was a great social event with the new HSCC CEO Andy Dee Crowne and his wife joining us for the day. An unexpected treat was the sight and sound of a Lancaster bomber flying low over the trials site.
On the previous day Clerk of the Course Ian Wright set out 6 challenging sections which, with the heavy overnight rain became very difficult. An unfortunate consequence was, as one competitor put it, the majority ended the first lap with scores resembling a respectable innings at a cricket match.
Mitch Wood took control of the Historic class when he skilfully coaxed the Wolfe Cannon out of a deep hollow forming part of Section 1 for a clear. Stuart Roach and Steve Jones were the only other Historic class competitors to negotiate the very tight turn at the 7 gate before the drop into the hollow. In the Post Historic class Steve Courts was the sole driver to clean the section followed by Josh Veale who was driving a well-known Kincraft in the Invitation class.
Andy Wolfe, Paul Faulkner, Mitch Wood and Dave Wall were the most successful Historic drivers with clears on the twisty but dry Section 2, whilst on the muddy bank which made up Section 3 it was Mark Howse and Josh Veale who went clean, the best result anyone else could achieve was a 5.
Some distance away Section 4 was extracting high scores, the most successful in the Historic class being Clive Tizzard on 4. Unfortunately he later hit a tree and had to retire the Cannon he shares with Jim Chapman. In the Post Historic class James Alexander had a good climb to reach 3.
The steep ups and downs forming part of Section 5 were particularly difficult for most competitors with only Mark Howse and Tim Barrington not losing any marks. Many lost 8 or 9 but the stars in the Historic class were James Duke and Mark Busfield with scores of 2. Other notable climbs were achieved by Hans Ciers and Lionel Birch who reached 3.
The final hill on first lap took marks from everyone apart from Neil Davies who cleared the section, a remarkable achievement in his 1098 Post Historic Cannon. Hans Ciers had a great drive to reach the 1 marker whilst the rest of the entry dropped 4 or more.
For the second lap the sections were eased and as the ground and bracken dried out the scores reduced accordingly. On the final lap newcomer Matt Johnson showed his potential by posting the second lowest Historic class score in his newly acquired Cannon.
The winner of the Post Historic class was Mark Howse 29 marks ahead of Tim Barrington whilst in the Historic class Mitch Wood was 26 marks in front of Andy Wolfe.
Report by Martin Halliday. Photos by Charlie Wooding. www.charliewooding.co.uk
