Summer’s on the way...

But it is of course no laughing matter, especially for hard working organisers.

 

Cancellations are at worst a bit of a nuisance for competitors. Usually they are pre-warned and can stay at home. Worst scenario is a wasted journey.

 

For the organiser, a cancelled event can represent an entire year of unpaid-for part-time work. Or for a professional promoter it's work which somehow still has to be paid for! 

 

Our sympathies go to those who spend their time for our pleasure. Then the rain washes all that hard work away. It must be devastating.

 

Yes, it rains in this country and running an outdoor event is always something of a lottery. 

 

Many country events have got the chop. But motorcyclists are a hardy lot and can take a few weather related blows on the chin. It would be a rare year when the odd motocross isn't cancelled.

 

What's different this time is the number of trials being cancelled. Trials isn't held on a track that can be destroyed or become impassable. Trials are run on bits of land that are pretty much useless for anything, apart from riding motorcycles on. 

 

At least they are ‘Oop North'. So to have a list of trials cancelled each week because of "the weather” is a completely new phenomenom.

 

It isn't just the land of course, many events are cancelled because car parks are water-logged and no-one wants to upset landowners by trashing their fields.

 

Winter trials often go ahead because riders are left to find their own parking spot, on grass verges or in lay-bys or stuffed in ditches or wherever. 

 

Only the rider and his bike are required at the start and how you get there is your problem – not the organisers. 

 

If everyone rode their bikes to events, as in days of yore (yes, I have done this!) that would alleviate one potential problem.

 

There's the rub. How many people these days really do have a motorcycle licence? And a road legal bike? And insurance to match? 

 

I don't think I really want to know the answer to that. Which is why the vast majority of trials now take place on private land and the machines are transported in vans. Which in turn require somewhere to park. Which is just one more reason why so many events have been cancelled.

 

I rode trials for 20-odd years in the northern centre, through horrendous wet winters and snow and ice and wind and fog. And not a single event was ever cancelled because of the weather.

 

Not to worry, now that the final hosepipe ban has been lifted we can surely look forward to a nice long heatwave...