Not a bad Brice!
By TMX Archives on 5th Mar 08
WESTMORLAND MC staged its prestigious Milnthorpe Cup Northern Centre Trial on Sunday and the event followed the traditional trials format of a single, large, road-based lap and with its base in the Lythe Valley, near Kendal, and is a trial that is about as good as it gets
The club was, thankfully, inundated with entries with the result that the allowed entry was filled and
several hopefuls were turned away.
The entry was full of quality as well as quantity with riders making the effort from surrounding centres such as Crawford Carrick-Anderson and Grant Adamson from Scotland, Paul Lowther and Bri Hutchinson from the north-east plus the likes of Eddie Aitken, Stu Blythe, Roger Williams from ‘east' of Cumbria and loads from the North West centre including Shaun Morris who was making a welcome return to trials since his serious eye injury sustained last year.
And Shaun only just missed out on making it a winning return, only losing out by a single mark to
former British Experts Champion Darren Brice who has been on unbeatable form in 2008 since switching to a Scorpa, winning most Northern centre trials by a country mile.
Morris actually only drop-ped a single five, on the slippery off-camber at Brianbeck which took the entire field for a maximum. Bricey fived this, then took another two sections later when his footpeg snagged a tree root – and he wasn't happy!
Earlier on in the event, in Hollins Wood, just after Cartmel Fell, Shaun and Nigel Birkett were the only riders to better threes when they negotiated another off-camber hazard for a dab apiece.
With Brice and Morris away, it was up and coming Jonny Walker who took a safe third in the Experts.
The Green course enjoyed by far the biggest entry and it was Nick Shield who just held off Yorkshire visitor Stu Blythe in a battle of the Betas, the duo well-clear of the rest of the class.
Meanwhile, on the Club-man course it was a battle of the Montesa 4RTs with Dan Johnson besting Phil Scott by three, again the two riders well clear. In the Clubman Vets, Mike Rapley took a narrow single mark win on his new Beta from arch rival Peter Woof, despite an over the bars excursion in a Winster hazard, observed by Brian Shuttleworth!
MILNTHORPE CUP TRIAL
Lythe Valley, Kendal, Cumbria (Westmorland MC)
Hard Course
Expert: Darren Brice (Scorpa) 14 marks lost, Shaun Morris (Gas Gas) 15, Jonny Walker (Sherco) 28, Stephen Dixon (Scorpa) 35, Richard Gaskell (Scorpa) 40, Chris Dixon (Scorpa) 43 (13 cleans), Nigel Birkett (Scorpa) 43 (11 cleans).
Inter: Oliver Hart (Scorpa) 49.
Novice: Mark Batty (Sherco) 61.
Green Course: Nick Shield (Beta) 8, Stuart Blythe (Beta) 9, Paul Bennett (Sherco) 15, Anthony Hayhurst (Sherco) 23, James Moorhouse (Montesa) 25 (25 cleans), Andrew Wilkinson (Scorpa) (23 clean, 4 x 1, 4 x 2) Gary Bingley (Scorpa) 25 (23 cleans, 4 x 1, 2 x 2), Liam Robinson (Gas Gas) 25. (20 clean).
Clubman Twin-shock: Mike Batty (James) 83.
Clubman: Dan Johnson (Montesa) 15, Phil Scott (Montesa) 18, John Gornall (Gas Gas) 33, Karl Ratcliffe (Beta) 39, Paul Lowther (Montesa) 42, Thomas Bennett (Gas Gas) 44.
Clubman Veteran: Mike Rapley (Beta) 31, Peter Woof (Gas Gas) 32, Cliff Metcalfe (Scorpa) 43, Tony Haddow (Montesa) 48, Jeremy Parker (Montesa) 49, Graham Atkinson (Montesa) 49.
For full pictures, see T+MX NEWS, Friday, February 29, 2008