Disciplines

Clubs

The final trial of the Northern Ireland Sporting Trials Championship was held at Simms’s farm

near Poyntzpass on 07/04/18.

After a week of very wet weather five hills were set up on Friday. Clerk of the Course Tom

McKinney considered that 2 sections used in previous years were too dangerous to use

(previously, with similar wet conditions 2 competitors had ended up in the small river at the base

of the 2 hills in question). Therefore 5 sections had been set up on the south facing part of the site.

Saturday turned out to be a fine dry day and at the drivers briefing tyre pressures were set at 4 psi

for Class A and 3 psi for Class B & C. Pat Pennyfeather and Morgan Evans were very welcome

guests from the South of Ireland Sporting Trials fraternity and were quickly press ganged into the

passenger seat of cars driven by Trevor Aston and Peter Frost.

At the beginning of the trial it was hard to believe that most competitions were able to trickle the

sections and Trevor Aston had dropped no points at the end of the first round, but conditions were

soon to change and blasting was required on most sections thereafter. So, at the end of round 1

Trevor Aston was leading from Mervyn McKinney, David Webster and Geoffrey McKay. An

uncharacteristic mistake on hill 1 left John McKinney languishing in 9th position on 7 points.

On round 2 Class B competitor Graeme Jennings equalled fast recovering John McKinney’s loss

of 3 to more into 2nd position in class, behind David Webster on 6. Mervyn McKinney had a

horrid 2nd round having gone the wrong way on hill 4 ending with a score of 15. Trevor Aston on

5 continued to lead Class A.

Round 3, and an 8 on hill 5 saw Trevor’s Class A lead disappear. Impressive rounds from Harry

Barr and John McKinney left both leading their respective classes. Michael McBratney on 18 had

demoted David Webster 19 to 3rd in Class B.

Round 4 and on a loss of only 3 points for Mervyn McKinney saw father and son tied on 26

points, the nod going to Mervyn with 11 cleans to John’s 9. Class B was equally close with

Michael McBratney and Harry Barr finishing on 27, this time Michael with 8 cleans to Harry’s 7.

Alistair Morrison, and son Jacob were the only entrants in Class C and finished with a creditable

score of 82, 5 points in front of a misfiring (the engine that is) Peter Frost.

A big thanks to the landowner Alan Simms for allowing us to play on his land despite the wet and

slippery conditions.

Posted by PMcCollum on 11/12/2019; Last updated by PMcCollum on 11/12/2019