No pleasing some folk!
By TMX Archives on 5th Mar 08
You can please some of them some of the time, but you cant' please all of them all of the time, the saying goes, so read on...
WHETHER talking Trials, Motocross or Enduro, we at T+MX don't hear too many grumbles from competitors regarding the events they ride in. As a rule of thumb, the lower the grade of event, the more entries you get and the fewer complaints you get. This is not to say that all low-grade events are perfect, more like the fact that as everyone is simply out for a day's enjoyment on their bike they are prepared to take the rough with the smooth. Basically, as long as they get a couple of hours riding, not a lot else matters in the great scheme of things. You work damned hard all week – you ride your bike on Sunday. End of.
As stated, this all works great right up to the time you introduce the dreaded word ‘Championship' into the regs. In an instant, you turn perfectly normal, long-suffering, wouldn't-dream-of-complaining, best-mate weekend warriors into psyched-up super-pros who will be looking for something to complain about before they have even left home!
"I was eighth, not ninth” or "My son was 14th not 15th – and that means he's lost out on a Championship point and that's not right and what are you going to do about it!” – without pausing to draw for breath is all part and parcel of T+MX on Monday morning. And do you know something? The more expensive the sport gets the more people are likely to complain. Stands to reason really; it is costing you an arm, leg and second mortgage, so you are more inclined to have a go at someone when things don't quite go right.
Even in the quiet motorcycling backwater that is trials there is plenty of disquiet on the various Championship fronts. The trials are too hard, too easy, too far away, too far round, not too far enough round. There are too many classes, not enough classes, etc, etc.
The ACU's answer, and I'm not knocking it (believe it or not, as they are only trying to keep everyone happy) is to introduce more and more classes. And when they run out of these they introduce more and more series... British Championship, Novogar, Classic (changed its name to Traditional this year, apparently, sorry about that) Sammy Miller, etc, etc.
This Monday I fielded several calls from riders who had made round-trips of many hundreds of miles
to the ‘Traditional' Trial Championship round in Cornwall. The general complaint was that there were so many section variations that they were faced with a forest of flags – and on top of that as there was no indication on their riding numbers which class they were in, the format is wide-open for professional misconduct – or cheating, as we don't like to call it!
Now, I hasten to add that the Cornish organisers were not the butt of the complaints, but the system itself. The riders who contacted me were sympathetic with the organisers, maintaining that it is the rules that are wrong.
It all really boils down to the mythical ‘trying to please everyone' which too often translates into very likely ‘pleasing no-one'.
Whatever new class you introduce, the very next week someone will want to introduce a sub-class. This reaches epic proportions when you get into Classics, or
Pre-65s, so I'm not going there.
It ultimately doesn't do any of the series any good. Take last week's Colmore Cup. It was once one of the most popular of
British Nationals. Now, with Novogar Championship, (one of the best series dreamed-up – at least in theory!) struggled to net 80 riders. Yet a similar style of road-based event, a centre trial in Cumbria on the same date added at least a third to that – and was actually well over-subscribed.
I really wonder why some clubs insist on staging British Championship Trials – of whatever denomination – year after year. Trials that are worth their salt will thrive all on their own and I can name many Nationals that do just that. And I can, sadly, name National trials that have disappeared due to them chasing the Championship dream down the drain.
Yes, you have got to admire clubs that strive to rise to National Championship level and they virtually all do so for the right reasons. But there are obviously times when staging Championships defeats its own object and the whole Championship system, in virtually all branches of the sport, has in my humble opinion got something out of hand...