Well Hook'ed!
By Barry Robinson on 23rd Nov 07
BRIMHAM Rocks has its famous rocks, Dob Park is in a park and Addingham Moorside is on a moor! The thing they ALL have in common is that they all have exactly the right NATURAL ingredients for a British Championship trials course and are more or less ready for action with the simple addition of a few sections flags, writes Barry Robinson.
OK, the final point above may be a majorunderstatement and every clerk of the course will already be bristlingat such an over-simplification of just what it takes to get a trialscourse right first time.
So, let's set the ground rules here and now. Inreality it takes weeks of hard labour to prepare a Championship trialscourse of the right severity, and not be a either a killer-of-hopes, oroffer a boring time for spectators. And that's when starting with aready to rock venue.
So when London heating engineer Jim Connor and hiswife Elaine embarked on buying and preparing Hook Woods which is inthe, err, woods 25-years ago, with the intent of turning the WestHorsley venue into a permanent trials venue, with British Championshipaspirations, many thought that Jim had spent too much time in the sun,or simply fallen off his trolley.
Without delving into the family tree too deeplythere is a certain lady living in the Yorkshire Dales who is a straightmatch for Mr Connor when it comes to enthusiasm for all things trials.That would be Rhoda Rathmell Jim's sister! Of course, Jim and Elainehave sons Sam and Tim who both have modest' trials experience. To owntheir own course seemed a good idea ...at the time, reckons Jim.
Of course there were British Championship trialsdarn sarf' in the past, like the Hoad and the Perce Simon, even theColmore and Cotswold trials but sadly those halcyon days have long gone.
Now, Jim concedes that Hook Woods will never be anAddingham Moorside but Elaine and he have ploughed 57,000 of their ownmoney into planning, creating, and importing rocks to lay thefoundation to dreams of a permanent trials venue. A phenomenal sum ofmoney but as Malcolm Rathmell said: Jim will probably have exceededthe money total in pure man-hours, by miles!
The problems involved were legion. Lorries gettingstuck, neighbour's fences and hedges flattened by wayward loads. Visitsfrom local authority inspectors and planning officers.
Over the years Jim has faced the whole spectrum of officialdom.
The 2006 Inter-Centre trial really kick-startedHook Woods into National glory, while few know just how many man-hourswent into the 2007 British Champion-ship event. And the guy behind thetrial was recovering from a hernia operation and other medical problemsin the nether regions. Jim should really have been in a rocking chairfor a month, not chasing everything and everyone.
The fact now is that Sam Connor, Johnny Starmer,James Fry, Ben Morphett, Alexz Wigg, Sam Haslam and Mika Vesterinenhave all ridden Hook Woods, as well as many other riders within rangeof the M25. The South East, South Midlands and Southern Centres nowhave a permanent trials centre available, with the right ingredients,and that is a major achievement in anybody's book.
See T+MX News, Friday, November 23, 2007 for full report