By Dave Govier | Pictures by Dave Govier and David Lewis
This year’s Christmas fun day was on the 28th December at Newmans Quarry. As with previous years, I had decided not to set out the day before, but to leave and set out early in the morning to ensure that everything was ready for a 10 am start.
I spoke to Steve Burrows about collecting the canes from his at about 6.30am on Sunday morning and he said he would leave them in the porch. However, on the Sunday morning I had a message from Steve saying he would follow me down and help me with the setting out, so we arrived at site at about 7.15am and it was still dark.
On arrival, we found the gate was locked, so we passed the canes over the fence and started setting out the sections. The landowner, Steve, explained that someone had dumped and set fire to some rubbish on the site, so he had left the gate locked until we arrived. The first competitor to arrive was Richard Keasey. It was nice to see Richard again, who was taking part in his Can Am 4×4 Buggy.
Next to arrive with Dave Burns with his son Sam. They kindly helped with setting out the sections. As with previous years it would be a mixture of fun sections and standard sections. Fun sections being a blindfold forward section, followed by that same section driven in reverse gear. There was also a straight line blind fold section, where you have to guess where the one gate was. If you went too far and drove through the one gate, you scored a 10. Then there was the carry the water without spilling it section and chuck the balls in the bucket before leaving the 10 gate section
Following those, we had three standard sessions.
We had 10 entries, so we split into two groups of five.
Section A, the blindfold standard section had 7 out of 10 drivers clear it. Ryan Vince was extremely unlucky just to pick up a 2 when he brushed the cane with his side step. Rob Russell and Richard Keasey also picked up a five on this section. I think Richard‘s car either wasn’t up to temperature or he wasn’t in low box, which caused his issue.
The reverse gear section which followed was very successful, with the only person picking up a score being Sam Therin and she scored a very respectable 4 points. Everyone else cleared that section.
The carry the jug of water section D is one that everybody seem to enjoy. Then the throwing the balls in the bucket before you drive off from gate 10, section E, caused lots of amusement because the balls used are extremely light and don’t stay in the bucket very easily. This normally leads to plenty of balls all around the bucket and not many in the bucket.
The three sections that were standard sections seemed to be enjoyed by everyone, but gate 6, section H in the far corner of the site had a slight slope and did cause issues for the second group with everybody scoring a six on that section. In my group only Dave Burns and Ryan Vince cleared it, with everybody else also picking up a score of six.
The section that is always the score destroyer was section C. This is the straight line, blindfold section, where you “guess” as to where the one gate is and hopefully stop before driving completely through it. The only person to clear this was Tom Marrion with the other scores averaging between six and three points.
Thanks to everybody who came along and I’m glad that you all enjoyed our Christmas trial.
Equal first on 6 points were Dave Burns and Tom Marion.
A special mention must also go to our President Charles Deverill and his wife Jen, who attended the event, it was great to see them there.
The dates for next year have been sorted and will be on the website soon, so here’s to a good 2026, which importantly it is the Club‘s 40th anniversary.
There are quite a few clubs that never reached that milestone, so well done and thanks to everybody for supporting the club over the years and ensuring that we can continue.
