By Dave Govier | Pictures by Dave Govier
We don’t normally go to West Malvern twice, but with the normal July venue not being available an alternative venue was needed. The weekend’s weather was set to be warm and sunny so I made an early start to the venue so I could stop at Greggs in Malvern and pick up a bacon bap and a hot drink. That was definitely worth leaving early for.
On arrival, I was there before both Ray Carter and Steve Burrows. Steve was slightly delayed due to a diversion in Malvern. Once everyone was there, the canes were split up and we started sitting out. Fortunately, there is plenty of shade so we were able to miss the worst of the sun sitting out the sections in the morning. This went well and I soon had five section set out so I went to see how Ray was getting on with his half of the site.
We were pleased to see that Ray had set out four really nice sections, quite different to what we had the last time we were at the venue. By now it was early afternoon and Mark Howell and Blythe Garner had arrived as they were camping overnight. We had nine entries, so we were going to run as one group.
Sunday morning, and again I stopped at Greggs for another bacon bath and a hot drink. After scrutineering and signing on, we were good to go. It’s fair to say that on section one gate 3-2-1 gates did cause a lot of talk. Some of which being, can you get along vehicle round and still get it clear? Well, Little Dave was first and he took a slightly different line for his reverse and got a one, whereas when Joe attempted the section he took a slightly different angle with his reverse and was able to get it clear.
Also competing that day was Ben Lawton in a Suzuki, not his 90, Nick and Ryan Vince in Ryan’s blue 88 inch coil sprung V8, and Mark & Blythe in the Suzuki. We had another entry which was James Price and he was driving a Haflinger. Some of the longer standing club members may remember that our president Charles used to trial Haflinger many years ago. I believe Bruce Harris also owned one as well. The one that James Price had bought with him was particularly beautiful and he restores Haflinger for a living.
Then after section E was completed, we had another retirement when Ray Carter noticed that he lost all these transmission fluid from his auto gearbox! So after five sections, this left us just with four drivers, Nick and his dad Ryan in his 88, James Price in the Haflinger and Ben Lawton in his Suzuki.
It’s nice to see that although they had vehicles that were broken, both Dave and Joe, Mark and Blythe all stayed for the afternoon to watch the sections. All four remaining drivers cleared all of the afternoon sections.
So this did mean that there wasn’t a lot of adding up to do for the final scores, as both Ryan and his dad Nick had cleared all the sections, and Ben Lawton had only scored one point on the first section. James Price in his Haflinger only scored two points on the second section. They said it was their first event and they had a lovely time. It was also good to see that Ryan’s Dad Nick – having been at Hatton a few weeks ago – they had travelled back up from Wales to do another event with us. Thanks for your support.
Thank you to everybody who took part, our next event is at Park Farm in September. Hope you all have a good summer.
