2019 Tamar Trial

Did we clean Angel Steps? Read on (Photo : Peter Brown)

This year's Tamar Trial was brilliant, just brilliant, tough but tasty and with some very soft centres.

Under the able guidance of bouncer and navigator, Mr Graham Beddoe, I took the Arkley-MG up to the start at Tresmeer Village Hall, Tresmeer being the first of many places that I would visit for the first time despite living here for years.

The sunshines on the Fergusons Liege at scrutineering oustside the village hall at Tresmeer. What a moment - don't Fergusons have four wheel drive?

Nigel Cowling was there to greet us and he said we would be climbing some sections that would be new to us. As this was my first Tamar Trial, this was no surprise, and he said we would be going round the "other way." Many of the sections looked like they hadn't had anyone walking along them for a long time and where the hedges broadened out from sunken lanes young trees were often growing in the middle so we had to wriggle around them.

Gypsy Lane was gentle intro. The route instructions rated this as Roughness Category 2 and it began as soon as we turned off the metalled road between Laneast and Altarnun.

Warleggan, Roughness Category 4.5, was next with a cunningly placed restart line that proved too tricky for everyone except one Class 8 and one Class 7. Paul Merson and Francis Thomas - take a bow!

We couldn't get away but with a little run up we made it up the section. At Wild Boar Lane, the rising sun was in my eyes so I had trouble making out where the restart line was and messed up our chances completely. Again, with a run up we got away but this felt rougher than the 3 given and something banged loudly against the underside of the Arkley-MG as we wriggled up the section.

Watermain Lane had some wild cambers on it, first one way then the other, as well as a restart but I am happy to say we got away.

Lestithawell was a Roughness Category 4 but that probably included the heavily rutted track down to the section. There was trench running down the centre of the lane. A wheel wrong here and we could have tipped over as I believe happened to one of the Beetles. Fortunately, we made it to the bottom alright and cleared the restart on the way out.

Waylands was out first timed Observe Test and that was followed by Barret's Mill, a straight climb without a restart, Roughness Category 3.

Danescombe (Roughness Category 2.5) had a restart, which we managed to clear and then we had the prospect of Tanks Terror, Roughness Category 3.

I had seen videos of Tanks Terror when it featured in the 2018 Tamar trial. Not many people cleared it as it featured a river crossing followed by a diagonal climb over some deep tractor ruts running across the hill. This year it had two very tight hairpins after the river, first right then left and then a straightforward blast up the hill. the little Arkley-MG dug in here and although our wheels were spinning all the way we climbed the hill in a state of euphoria. That was probably the best climb we did.

After that was Angel Steps, Roughness Category 5. Classes 7 & 8 had a restart and we couldn't get away. Our efforts were curtailed by a puncture and we had to slither back down the section to change the tyre without bothering Uncle Adrian who was doing the recovery with his V8 series 1 Land Rover.

By now, a delay had built up. Nobody could say why for all the hills had been well run and there had been few problems. 

The charming old building of Marystow Church hall was our Time Control and refreshment stop, where we had a cup if tea, a pasty and some cake and a nice sit down. 

We commiserated with Ross and Roger Hancock for, although they had cleared Angel steps in style, by the time they got to the top, it was clear that the diff on their Renegade buggy had locked up. They retired but we saw this conspicuous car later on just outside the gates at Lifton Park. Obviously they couldn't stay away.

Simon Woodall had also retired in his buggy with a broken rear torsion bar after Barretts Mill.

Next up were three sections in Lew Woods, all of them Roughness Category 2.5 and familiar to us from last year's Launceston Trial. Lew Wood 1 was probably my least favourite. It's a right hand, right angle turn and then a steep climb over tree roots. we didn't show much improvement but, before its was our go, we had to lend a hand to Mike Warnes in his Honda VTEC powered Smart Roadster.

Mike had once offered to lend Binky and my one of his other trials cars when the Allard wasn't ready in time for the 2011 Land's End Trial. We couldn't take him up on his extremely kind offer but I could take up his tow rope and try and pull him, along with some my other mud brothers.

Unfortunately, Mike had slithered back and off to the right, coming to rest against a tree with his offside rear wheel in a large hole. We tried to pull him sideways at first but his towing eye, designed for a straight pull, snapped off when half a dozen of us too the strain at right angles to the car's usual direction of travel.

This resulted in a big pile of everybody and a great deal of scratching of heads.

Chopping down the tree wasn't option as nobody had a saw and, anyway, the Smart Roadster was  a tree hugger, with both its spare tyres on the boot nuzzling the it lovingly.

At last, Dave Haizelden had a good idea. As the offside rear wheel was so firmly dug in, he suggested pivoting the car around that. We tied the tow rope through a slot in the front wheel and, hauling on that again, Dave's idea worked!

After all that, my effort at climbing Lew Wood 1 was an anti-climax. Lew Wood 2 was a breeze by compariosn and fater helping Mike out again on Lew Wood 3, we ground to a halt roughly where he'd faltered, too. 

I sibsequently heard he had intermittent fuel pump problems, which must have been incredibly frustrating. There were two VTEC powered Smart roadtsers on the trial and I hope to see them do well in the future. They are just my kind of machine.

Lee Quarry seemed very familiar, too. Roughness Category 2.5, this was a forestry track at an angle from the main(!) thorughfare but with a sharp right hand bend soon afterwards and then a stiff climb to a restart box. We got round the bend but didn't make it as far as the restart, which was for Class 8 only. The marshals had us turn around and slither down an exit route running close to the climb up. It was all very well organised.

We lingered a while to hear the V8 roar of the following Marlin but they didn't get around the bend. We heard it roar quite a bit anyway and it sounded bleddy lovely.

We were right behind the Class 7 class winning Dutton of Francis and Phillip Thomas at the special test. The time keeper told us we pipped them on time by one hundredth of a second! Our progress on special tests can usually be described as "gentlemanly" but Team Thomas were having problems with a self adjusting rear brake coming on when it shouldn't do. Not that it seemed to hamper them. They won the class and got away on the restart on Warleggan.

I got a bit confused on the route on Ashleigh, becasue we had to come down the hill and across a marshy bit of sward before hanging a left and blasting over some tree roots and up the field.
I hadn't kept enough momentum going so we foundered on the tree roots. A pedal to the metal approach worked for Matt Facey in his Class 5 BMW 3 series for he got up in some style.

Park Impossible, like Ashleigh a Roughness Category 2.5, was a bit of a disappointment for we didn't get up to the Class 7 restart. In one of the few videos of one of our climbs we sort of hit a bump and bounce badly to a stop. I was hoping to get higher. 

At the finish outside the Frog and Bucket. Mr Beddoe shares a joke with a jubilant Francis Thomas

So we finished at the Frog & Bucket! After various mechnaical and electrical vicissitudes over the year, I was very pleased. We kept our tyre pressures to 12psi, which seemed to work for the greater part. Learning points were to make more notes on the hills on the route cards so that we could later remember which one was which and maybe to put the gas on more, although in some places letting the hweels grip with less revs seemed to work. When the Arkley-MG bites, I need to have the front wheels pointing in the right direction becasue when it grips it suddenly takes off!