TRIAL REPORT
MCC - Lands End Trial
25th/26th March 2005
2005 was clearly not a vintage year for the Lands End and, when I saw the Final Results, I was rather relieved that I was several thousand miles away at Easter and had been spared what was apparently a rather frustrating event for Class 7. With so many Exeter 'Golds' it was inevitable that the MCC would want a tough Lands End and that's certainly what the competitors got.
The restart on the very first section, Felons Oak, caught a few of those who wouldn't normally expect to fail; all the Marlins were clean through Stoney Street; Beggars Roost was cancelled; and Riverton was cleaned by all but one Marlin (which retired shortly afterwards). Cutliffe Lane was always a potential stopper and this year, after being 'rested' for several years, it stopped 8 Marlins. Sutcombe, Darracott, Crackington, and Warleggan all stopped a handful of cars but then things started to get really serious.
Despite the problems which some had at Felons Oak and Cutliffe Lane, it was business as usual for most of the front runners who arrived at Hoskin still 'clean', but Hoskin was in wicked form this year with only David Prowse, Mal Allen, and four non-Marlins cleaning the hill out of the 40 in Class 7 that attempted it. One of the problems facing any Clerk of the Course for the Lands End is that all the really difficult hills come one-after-another at the end of the trial and the difficulty of Hoskin is almost impossible to predict until the first cars arrive. So Roger Ugalde had obviously instructed the Marshals at Bishopswood to return to the 2003 restart position [See Trials Scene - June/July 2003] with the result that everyone in Class 7 failed except the two who went on to collect Golds - tell us your secret, David!
The restart on Bluehills 1 was set out even tighter than last year and there were a lot of murmurings that the lower line had been placed at a deliberately deceptive angle - I understand that a good proportion of the 'fails' are people who actually stopped with only one wheel in the box rather than stopping correctly and failing to restart. Whatever, five Marlins managed to clean it. And finally, in the third attempt to 'get a result', the Bluehills 2 restart had been moved further up the deviation and caught-out nearly half of the Class 7 Marlins that attempted it.
There were 27 Marlins listed in the Class 7 Entries and the final awards tally was:
- Gold and Class 7 Award: 1 - David Prowse. David was one of only two Class 7 Golds this year, beating Ray Goodright (Arkley-MG) on the special test times.
- Bronze: 2 - Mal Allen (failed Bishopswood and Bluehills 1) and John Hammill (failed Hoskin and Bishopswood).
- Finishers: 17.
- Retired: 4.
- Non-Starters: 3.
Results:
Photographs:
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