Things are looking up!
By TMX Archives on 27th Feb 08
We thought we were having a lean time on the world trials scene then we end up with not one but TWO world rounds for 2009...
We thought we were having a lean time on the world trials scene – then we end up with not one but TWO world rounds for 2009...
WELL, the good news this week is that it looks like Britain will be going from having NO World Champ-ionship trials in 2008 to a pair in 2009! The FIM has just released its Provisional list of dates for next season (see page 3) and good old GB has dates and venues for both the World Indoor and Outdoor trials series.
After L and M Events – better known as Martin Lampkin and Jake Miller – pulled the plug on the outdoor series after running three incredibly successful World Trials at Hawkstone Park in 2005, 2006 and 2007, it looked like we were in for a lean time on the home front. But up to the plate has stepped multi British Trials Champ Graham Jarvis who has been rewarded with a May date for 2009 at a brand new venue in northern Cumbria!
Yes, May 2009 is a long time off, I know, but it is something to look forward to and I'm sure that plenty of people will have plenty to say about the venture on the run-up.
I would imagine one of the biggest perceived drawbacks is the venue's northerly location, just south of the Scottish border. But that shouldn't really be an issue. There have been plenty of British rounds across the Pennines in Yorkshire, through the years, at places like Pateley Bridge and Raydale, near Bainbridge and they were certainly well attended. And Raydale, down a three-mile lane dead-end deep in the Dales, is about as inaccessible as it is possible to get.
It didn't stop the Wetherby club staging some cracking World trials there though. By comparison, the proposed 2009 venue, situated just ten-minutes drive off the M6, shouldn't pose too many problems to anyone. I leave you all to come up with your own thoughts.
Meanwhile, if all goes according to plan, it looks like the Sheffield Indoor will spearhead the 2009 World Indoor series! There is quite a bit going on behind the scenes at the moment regarding the Indoor series, so I'll leave it alone for now but the 2009 calendar could see a much-needed shake-up. A lot of things are up in the air at the moment but from what T+MX understands, the FIM is fully open to take suggestions on board, especially from established promoters and it could be quite an exciting time. Neil Crosswaite is very keen to keep the unique Sheffield running order that has been established over just two years – and there's a chance that the system might even be adopted for the series – although it must be emphasised that nothing concrete has been established yet.
Sheffield has shown that it certainly doesn't need World Championship status in order for the event to thrive, in fact if anything it is the other way round!
Having attempted to watch the Granada round of the current series last week, I must say the TV coverage would benefit from a swift kick up the derriere. The editing is so basic that there is never any sense of drama while the commentary is virtually beyond parody. It was so bad that I turned the sound down. To be honest, the only reason I turned on was a morbid fascination to see the Toni Bou crash. I'm sure you all know just how nasty it was and I flinched as he suffered that horrible face-plant.
Bou is universally accepted as the best trials rider in the world, possessing absolutely fantastic control, yet even he could do nothing when it all went wrong.
It just goes to show that even the best can be caught out.
Going back to that sport commentary thing, like many people I watch quite a bit of Eurosport and most of the sports, even the more oddball and minority events, appear to have commentators that have a fair bit of knowledge of what they are talking about. I say ‘appear to' because, as someone with little knowledge of their sport I suppose that I don't actually know whether they are
talking rubbish or not!
Turning that on its head, it follows that viewers, drinking their six-packs and watching the Indoor Trials from a position of blissful ignorance (in exactly the same way as I watch extreme snowboarding) they probably hang on the commentator's every word. Because they have no reason not to!
I tell you, next time the snowboard commentator dude yells at me that Tibor Zzlassittchz, or whoever, is performing an "Inverted Alley Oop Fakie”, I just won't believe him. How do I know he's not just making it up – like the trials guy?