Those of you who were at the ACTC Dinner on 16th March, and were lucky enough to have been watching the video at the appropriate time, may have spotted an essential item of trials trivia, probably without even knowing what it was or why it was significant. The short clip showed at least one car…
Category: Sections
Trials Trivia #6 – Higher Rill
This is, I’m afraid, one for the real historic trials sections nerds. Back in May 2022, Jonathan Toulmin and I were trying to confirm the location of a photograph, taken on the 1939 Exeter Trial, of his father, Maurice Toulmin, in the Cream Cracker MG TA Reg.No. BBL 78. It was noted as Higher Rill…
Where is it? – #6
UPDATE – 29 August 2023 This photograph is now confirmed as Eric Kay (of Cheltenham), with Howard Homer as passenger, on Lyn Hill (near Barbrook, North Devon). The photograph was taken on 16th April 1949 during the MCC’s 29th Land’s End Trial. I have to thank Roger Wrapson, of the Riley Register, for the information…
Some historical notes on the route of the 2022 Edinburgh
Readers might be interested in some of the history behind the sections to be used for the 2022 MCC Edinburgh Trial: Haven Hill. First used in 2005 and used every year that the Edinburgh has run since then. It replaced Agnes Meadow (used 1994 to 2003) and/or Wigber Low (used 1999 to 2009) as the…
Classic Sections – Leckhampton
From the JES (Jesus) Jones collection with thanks to Mike Dalby and Bryan Ditchman. Leckhampton is interesting for two main reasons: it caused a sensation when first used for the 1935 Colmore Cup, as described in detail by Austen May in Wheelspin; and it is right on the outskirts of Cheltenham and probably closer to…
Classic Sections – Ibberton
From the JES (Jesus) Jones collection with thanks to Mike Dalby. I’d long wondered about the location of the wonderfully atmospheric picture on Page 161 of Bacon but it wasn’t until August 2007 that Bryan Ditchman positively identified it as Ibberton Church Hill. (There is another picture of Ibberton on Page 106 of Bacon.) Shortly…
Classic Sections – Dane
MG Musketeer team captain MacDermid climbs Dane, probably on the 1937 Wye Cup Trial. Photograph taken from page 48 of Thomas. Dane Hill in Kent is hardly a well-known PreWar section, so why does it feature here? Solely because Brunell took some photographs there, in 1937, which have been famously mis-attributed. Data County OS 100km GR Entry…
Really Classic Sections
Back in December 2012 I prepared a list of the ten trials sections in longest continuous (or almost continuous) use for major trials, intending it to be used as one of Michael Leete’s Classical Gas Christmas Quiz questions. As it turned out, Michael found some better questions, but I thought people might be interested in…
The Guitings unravelled
The area around Guiting Power and Temple Guiting, on the Cotswold Hills between Cheltenham and Stow-on-the-Wold, was criss-crossed by the three main trials that used the North Cotswolds – the SUNBAC Colmore and NWLMC Gloucester Trials pre-war, and the Falcon Guy Fawkes Trial in the 1950s to 1970s. After discovering Kineton, my attention turned to…
Classic Sections – Kineton
The Woodalls, Bertie (driving in the cap) and Victor (passengering in the fedora), in Victor’s Wolseley Ford special at the start of ‘New Kineton’ on the 1939 Colmore Trial. With many thanks to Simon Woodall for providing both the original photographs. Although Juniper might be considered a very obvious candidate for the first in this…