Photos by www.charliewooding.co.uk Words by: Martyn Halliday

Stroud and District Motor Club received a great entry of 46 competitors for their 4 th Cotswold Historic Sporting Trial held for the second time on land owned by Richard Rowe near Wotton under Edge on the 11 th November 2017.

Six hills had been set out the day before but, during the night it rained heavily leaving the field exceedingly wet and muddy making the trials sections very difficult. Although it was still raining at the start, the rain soon stopped leaving an overcast damp day which did not allow the ground to dry out.

It was decided to run 2 laps in the morning, stop for lunch and then have a final lap. Being Armistice Day the trial stopped at 11am to observe the two minutes silence. The site consists of a sloping field the major part of which has a plateau two thirds of the way up after which the ground climbs more steeply.

To make long sections it is necessary, due to the terrain, to have the section start below the plateau, climb onto the plateau and continue to the final part of the section on the steeper gradient. Due to the conditions cars struggled to even reach the plateau
and many high scores were recorded.

The sections were eased for the second and third laps but the ground was so slippery the scoring remained high particularly on Hill 6. There were four new cars and even more new drivers having their first outings in historic sporting trials. For them it was a baptism of mud but, to their credit they all finished and said they enjoyed the experience and want to come again.

Historically, the most interesting car was the Eric Jackson “Goldfinger” Cannon which looks remarkably original and is one of two Cannons owned by Dean Yarranton. Dean was unable to join us at the HSTA Inaugural Trial in 2012 as he had a stroke so it
was good to see him back in the car passengering and giving advice to his friend Ifan Davies. His other Cannon was driven by another friend Phil Jones who was competing for the first time. In Post Historic, Mark Linstone was having his first drive in a Deacon and Tony Dawson went well in his newly acquired Dingo.

At the end of the event the Historic class was won as usual by Ian Wright on 61 but the performance of the day in that class was by Nigel and Jane Bennett who, in such difficult conditions, were only 4 marks adrift in on 65. However, there was a surprise change in the usual order in Post Historic when Andy Gowen, driving in his first historic sporting trial in a car he had only seen that morning, with current BTRDA Gold Star trials champion Josh Veale as passenger took the class win on 48 from Richard Rowe on 50.

In all a good hard days sport in line with the tradition of the Stroud club.