Timber Woods Long Distance Trial

Sunday 25th July 2004

The fifth "Timber Woods Long Distance Trial", named in honour of our late Chairman and President. The event attracts 100+ riders on enduro, trail and trials bikes, both modern and pre-1967.

Results

Individual Results

Full Results (Mark Breakdown) Here (PDF)

Full Results (Mark Breakdown) Here (XLS - hosted by EnduroUK.com)

You will need Adobe Acrobat Viewer to view the PDF file

Team Results

Reports

Report 1 : EnduroUK.com report (from here) by Andrew Bartlett

On Sunday 25th July Sidcup and DMCC staged its annual Timber Woods Long Distance Trial which is Round 2 of the South Eastern LDT Championship. The event started and finished from the Sidcup club's Canada Heights Motocross track near Swanley and was a 120 mile long ride through the beautiful North Kent countryside. Along the way there were 10 observed stages which required entrants to ride with their feet up, between Peter Burrell's blue and red markers. At the end of the course back at canada heights there was a timed special stage on a short stretch of the MX track.

David Bathe (Aldermaston Nomads) was the overall winner and therefore winner of The Timber Woods Trophy. Derek Baker was second overall and also Best 'A' Class & Best Over 50.

Mark Worsfold won the 'Spirit of Timber Woods' Award  for the rider who would have put the biggest smile on the face of the late Timber Woods. David Larkin won the special test with a time of 30.3 seconds. ACU Director Roger Brown came 25th overall and won Second Class Award Class B.

Commiserations and get well soon to the two ladies who broke their arms, competitor Nicola Clark and riding observer Sarah Norton.

Well done to Yoshi Adams (Caerphilly MCC) who said to me he was having a brilliant ride, for coming from Wales and also Paul Studley (Broadhembury MCC) from Devon who came fourth overall and won Best 'C' Class.

Peter Donaldson on his Bultaco 250 riding with Les Matton on his BSA 350 said they had got lost, not impossible but difficult with Peter Burrell's CofC Paris Dakar style road book.

I was observing on Section 7 with Dick Dickenson. The section was unique as competitors had to roll through the section and all the way down the steep byway to the road with a dead engine, so as not to disturb the farmer at the byways' end.

This event is the best way to discover the beautiful North Kent Downs and surrounds, don't miss it next year!

The third and final event in the championship is the Witley MCC Long Distance Trial on the 3rd October 2004.

Many thanks to all of the competitors, organisers, helpers and supporters who all made it a memorable day.

Report 2 : From Clerk of Course Peter Burrell

Good day – shame about a few things!

This year’s results show two ‘firsts’. David Bathe is the first rider to win the event twice, his other win being in 2002, and his 2003 Honda is the first currently produced model to modern bike to top the chart.

The day started well, with the organisation before and during the start proceeding smoothly. We had enough observers and they all found the location of their sections. I set off as backmarker and got to Meopham to find Nicola, our Club Secretary’s daughter had come off her Honda and fractured an elbow. A crowd of Sidcup members, including dad Alan was with her until Peter Burton and Transit collected her and bike.

The next problem came after section 5 in Bredhurst Wood. I left observers Andy and Sarah Norton to close up the section and they were going to ride the rest of the route back to Canada Heights. They got as far as the end of the wood before Sarah fell off her bike and broke an arm! Andy summoned an ambulance for Sarah and I arranged for ACU Steward Mike Woods to return to Bredhurst for her bike.

I had problems of a different nature by phone during the day. The Roadbook route after Section 2 was via Meopham Green (fork right at the Windmill) and slowly and quietly past the houses at the top of the Byway. There is a direct route, straight across from the section 2 Byway that we were originally going to use. Householders then told me it was a Private Road and I assured them we would respect this and not use it, so I altered the Roadbook route. However, it appears that some riders did use this short cut and I got a strong complaint by phone. Whoever those riders were, you let our sport and me down. I have to submit the route to the RAC Motorsport Department, the Kent Council Rights of Way Department and Kent Police and get approval from all of them. No competitors must divert from it, with the acceptable exception of using main roads as a direct route to Canada Heights and retirement from the event.

I received a phone call from a person living behind the Byway at Barming (long Byway – turn left at an old bus in a garden). “For four hours I have had bikes going past. You should have told me and I could have done something about it, etc. etc.”. When I got to the location, the complainant’s house must be at least 200 yards from the Byway with a large hedgerow and a field in between. Some people just don’t like us!

It’s the day after the trial as I write this and so far I have not received any follow up complaints – I await tomorrow’s post with interest!

Finally, many thanks to the observers and other officials. They were: Sandra Lavelle (Sec. of Meeting), Reg Playfoot (Scrutineer and Special Test), Vince Proto (course opener), Ron Parkin (starter and Special Test), Shelia and Chris Lillywhite (section 1), Alan and Barbara Brook (section 2), Ian Roscow and Jane Kirkham (section 3), Marge Clarke and Sue Blanchard (sections 4 and 10), Sarah and Andy Norton (section 5), Eric Dadd and Bob Sayer (section 6), Dick Dickenson and Andrew Bartlett (section 7), Jamie Clarke and Matt Sheppard (section 8), Jeff Williams and John Buttle (section 9), Graham Downes (Special Test), Dave Parry and Chris Clark (back markers), Peter Burton and Mike Woods (rescuers of damsels in distress!).

Report 3 : Sheridan Coulter's report (from here on Rides.org.uk list)

Top event at the Timber Woods LDT yesterday some of the easiest to follow markings I have ever seen, but I was crap dabbing everywhere.

The CCM actually worked rather well for a whole day, bar the fork seals leaking from the start, but they are WP forks so I expected that.

Report 4 : Dave Blanchard's report

Orange juice and punctures!

At long last the 25 th of July had arrived and the fifth 'Timber Woods Long Distance Trial' was Go! Go! Go! As our inimitable Murray Walker would have enthusiastically shouted.

Back to its roots full circle, starting and ending at good old 'Canada Heights'. It was a pleasure to have an entry at this popular and therefore over subscribed event.

This year for the first time ever I was leaving my 'Old Faithful' 1938 Ariel in the garage and giving my modern bike a shake down. The last time I rode this modern contraption was in Wiltshire six years ago where it spat me off dislocating my right knee! But it's only a game and all in the fun whilst trying to ride my much more technically advanced 1949 AJS.

The surprise section 1 at the 'Heights' surprised me when I turned left in the section instead of turning right. A painful and embarrassing 5! Never mind I mused, it could only get worse. It did! But first I must make mention of my 'Hero of the Day'. Alan Brook you are a star! No you are 5 star! Your section, with its 2 tables and soft white linen tablecloths was sporting orange juice for every rider who came through. You kindly offered me a drink and as it was non-alcoholic I accepted. Many thanks mate, what a lovely gesture and in the true spirit of the good old days. You are a Gentleman Sir!

Section three gave me another 5, as tight as a Nuns nicker elastic it was, honestly! Do Nuns really wear nickers? Can a bishop out there write in and tell me please? But I digress, so back to the section where I accidentally fell 'end over apex', instantly blaming it on Alan Brook. My theory was that he had laced the orange juice with a drug that quickly destroys your resistance. Mine had deserted me already. I have never felt so bruised early on in a trial. Never mind I thought it could only get worse. It does!

Refreshingly, the sophisticated outline of two lovely ladies on section 4 changed my misfortunes at last. I rode the narrow gully for just one dainty little dab where last year I had crashed and in the process firmly twisted my left leg into the lotus position! Many thanks nice ladies in the shape of Margie Clarke and Sue Blanchard. Did my good luck continue? Did it hell! Listen carefully for I say this only once. I had just left section 4 grinning like a Cheshire cat when I had a speed wobble on the rear wheel. A puncture! How strange, I hadn't had one of those since last year. I told my team members to carry on; I would fix the tube and then call out a skip lorry to get the remains of the bike home. I had to use the middle area of section 4 to practice changing my rear tube. Oh boy! What trouble that was because I was a spanner short of a wheel spindle and had to improvise in the best boy scout tradition.

After a slow tube transplant I decided to continue with the trial. Well I hadn't lost anything had I? 'Cos the air that was in the tube was free in the first place. Topped up with more free air I got a shift on thinking, no way could this get worse. Wrong! Anyhow things were looking better as I had caught up with some funny looking bikes compared to mine at the first petrol stop in Snodland. It wasn't too long after that, that I had to stop to let a horse and rider out of a byway at Detling Hill. I got off the bike and beckoned her through. She smiled and I said to her."What a lovely horse you have" (that always gets em, well it did last time). "Thank you very much" she said and trotted by leaving me wondering how on earth they get into those skin-tight breeches? (I know, I know, I've been here before). And don't the manufacturers make them a fantastic shape too!

Just as I was pulling away two old residents who looked like the hecklers from the muppet show, flagged me down to complain about the bikes. I completely sprang onto their side and agreed that some riders are too fast and they are spoiling it for us good boys. You should complain "I said". Go on; phone Peter Burrell he will scold them right enough. I played the hard done by trick and agreed with them on everything, then they both ended up apologising to me! They told me not to worry and just get on and enjoy myself and have a great day. One up to us grimy old trail/trial riders! Psychology rules, OK!

Well blow me down! I hadn't gone another 300 yards when I met another frightened horse. It was a real athlete it was, tall and handsome with jet-black fur. A bit like the Lindford Christie of the horse world. From the hindquarter view of course. This time the lady rider was accompanied by a young African stable boy who was even blacker than the Stallion! This was the perfect time to eat my Blue Parrot biscuits, (in the red wrapper). Whilst doing the psychological chatting bit with the young horse lovers I decided to offer the horse a blue parrot. "No! No! He doesn't eat biscuits," she said. "Oh he's in training is he". "No he doesn't like biscuits", she replied. Now how on earth do you get a horse to tell you he doesn't like blue parrots? Surely everyone does? Don't they? Can a Bishop out there write in and tell me?

Anyhow I eventually, 'carried on regardless'. Even though the lack of rear suspension had shattered my spine and pummelled my bum. This was partly my fault for leaving my rear tyre hard to avoid further compression bursts. I hammered onwards; sometimes in the wrong direction getting nowhere. Down one track I caught a hanging vine in my right handlebar, this was of the type that Tarzan always uses in his films. I was doing about 20mph and being unwillingly pulled to the right side of the track when the vine eventually snaps! This catapults me over hard left and into a run off area about 8 foot long. Left leg kicks hard at the ground to keep the bike upright and I swear profusely whilst collecting black and blue toes where they rammed the inside bottom of my boot. Oh! And I forgot to say that the vine pulled the front brake lever back cutting my middle right finger and made that turn blue as well. But it gets worse!

Still hammering on I seem to be getting 'somewhere' when all of a sudden the front wheel gets into a speed wobble. Oh damn blast and confound it! It’s a front tyre puncture now! I haven't had a puncture for at least two hours! How strange. But luck was at last with me because I had no sidecar fitted. So another punctured tyre to be was cleverly avoided, or so I reckoned! Young Alan Clarke stops to offer help. "No thanks mate I am expert at this, in fact I am thinking of taking it up full time you know" I said. He then made a comment on trials riders running tyre pressures far too low. Read on young Alan and find out what caused them! New tube in and just sling some more free air in the rear one for luck. Onwards and homewards I hammered when an almighty bang came from the rear. That’s the rear bike frame. That’s it! I've only gone and broke me frame haven't I? A lonely voice from the sixties speaks in my head. Ignore it man, just keep going with the aching back the aching arms, neck, wrists, ankles and toes. Not to mention the nether regions. That bump was the last straw that broke my camel back-pack. I knew something was awry and on further analysis I found that the solid iron three sixteenth rivet on the left seat frame had completely sheared through with the force that my bum had contacted it during what seemed like an earthquake to me. The rear mudguard has got a helluva crease in it now. You modern bike riders wouldn't have even felt that bump! But it cracked my backside in two. Clear for all to see at my next full moon! Now enough's, enough mate! I was just too late to do section six. Tired, unable to even read a simple road book I begged Peter Burrell to direct me to the nearest tarmac because I wanted to go back to Sidcup for a rest.

At the bottom of Wrotham Hill a superbiker was laying in the road not looking too super. His two mates looked concerned as the ambulance men put him on the drip. That’s three drips I counted. The ambulance was blocking my road and all I wanted was for them to get out of my way cos I was tired and I wanted to go to bed.

When I arrived at the Heights I finished the last section for a dab. I queued up for the special test which is really good at this event. I had let some of the excess air out of the rear tyre and blow me down with a feather, the valve core stuck part open and it went flat just before my turn. Pump out and quick as a flash that free air was back in again. Continued queuing pointing down a slope and blow me down again the petrol level was so low that it ran away from the petrol tap and of course the engine stopped! I finally made the special test start line. Go! Go! Go! The man shouted. I did whilst trying to kick my right footrest down before the first turn. I must have looked a site hammering up the track waving my right leg about like a demented Saturday afternoon footballer with two defunct inner tubes loosely strapped onto the rear carrier. These were flapping in the breeze like two Octopuses who had just hitched a ride to hell!

As Colin Edwards the 'World Superbike Champion' would say, I had rode my butt off more than ever man and finished nowhere! Why do I do it? I dunno! But my mind and back are bent towards a more modern bike in the near future.

So next year at the 'Timber Woods Trial' this young mans fancy will turn to thoughts of spring! That’s rear ones of course!

I have one consolation and that is knowing that my two punctures were caused by thorns or maybe nails or barbed wire but it was pinholes to the uninitiated.

Photos

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 1

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 2

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 3

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 4

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 5

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 6

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 7

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 8

Jamie Clarke (Section 8) - Page 9

Mandy Seldon - Page 1

I suspect EnduroUK.com (Andrew Bartlett - section 7) may have some photos in the future (try here).

Clerk of the Course, Peter Burrell, may even have some photos.

Regs

FULL

Date

Note the change of date from 18th to July to the 25th July - this is to avoid a clash with the Carshalton Enduro on the 18th, but we've only been able to do this since the World Superbikes has moved.

Location

Back to Canada Heights.

Road Book Holders

A bit of discussion on on the Rides List.

I've been told that "Halfords do a map-holder for less than a tenner that velcros to your handlebars - designed for maps but holds A4 no problem. You do have to stop and change pages so it's not as good as a 'proper' roadbook holder, but then not as pricey as them either" by Adam Buttery on the Rides List.

Liam Humberston says this :"You might want to try one of these. I used one for the Northumbrian rally, still have to change pages, but it's still an improvement over the loose-leaf map holders: Follow this link

Liam Humberston also says this :"For anyone unsure whether to do it, the Timber Woods LDT is a top day's trail riding in some lovely countryside. Not to be missed, makes me wish I still lived in the south east." - well what better kind of recommendation can we get?