MegaPhone May 1988.pdf (2.05 mb)

 With the Summer Series being relaunched again this summer I thought it fitting to look back at the series from 1988. A time when we used to ride our bikes to trials!! (well those travelling with Glenn Smith had to). The first thing you will notice is that 56 riders took part in 1988. Lets hope we can get back to those sort of numbers again this year.

To see the May 1988 Megaphone in full go to our Megaphone Page. 

PUAHA VALLEY TRIAL

Final Round Summer Series

March 1988 

I don’t know who first called Puaha Valley Misery Valley, but true to form it rained again.   On the Saturday when Rob McKay and I pegged the Intermediate and Experts sections, while Paul and Roger did the Clubmens, it was a beautiful day.   The sun shone, the air was just cool enough for pleasant riding, the weather report was for similar weather the next day, and all was right with the world.   Wake up the next morning and the sky out to the south west is grey.  Before we get to Lake Ellesmere the windscreen wipers are on.   Oh woe! 

However it only drizzled until about lunchtime and although it remained overcast and a bit cold it wasn’t as bad as the last time I rode at Puaha when we got drenched.   And though it might not have been a great day weatherwise superb sections more than made up for it.  (I;m not biased). 

By 10.30am everyone was there and rearin’ to go.  Well – nearly everyone.   A few familiar faces were missing and didn’t arrive until later.   Some claim about a car blowing up and having to ride their bikes to get there.   If it was you Glenn I’d put the car on the trailer and tow it out with the bikes next time.    

Although we tried to find some new places to put sections I found out later that at least some we put in were in places that had been used before.   Great minds think alike I suppose. 

There is plenty of potential at this stage though and we’ve barely scratched the surface yet.  I gather that Neil Manson, the owner of the property, is happy for us to use the property pretty well anytime we like to and it deserves further use.   Perhaps we could just provide umbrellas. 

I can’t really comment on the Clubmen sections as I didn’t get a chance to see them being ridden but judging by the results they can’t have been too demanding.   Everybody lost some points though so they can’t have been too easy either.   The Clubmen sections were all around the first couple of hundred yards of the track so that spectators didn’t have to walk too far and the riders seemed quite happy with this as well.   It obviously helped them complete their four laps reasonably early. 

The Experts and Intermediates did get to ride Clubmen sections 5 and 10.   These were the Expert and Intermediate 9 and 10 and were included to give your confidence a boost after doing 5’s on the other 8 sections.   It wasn’t expected that Expert or Intermediate riders would lose any points on these two sections and as far as I know none did.  (I won’t embarrass Ian Findlater by mentioning the fact that he lost a point section 9.   After all Alan Honeybone didn’t embarrass him by refusing to read out Ian’s tally of points at the end of the day.  He did tell us that Ian was last in the Expert class – how embarrassing).   

The other 8 sections were mainly in the creek bed and mainly rocky.   The rain made them perhaps a little harder than we had intended but I think all of them were cleaned at one time or another.   That’s more than can be said for the bikes ‘cos some bloody fool put a section right through a bloody great mudhole.   What sort of jerk would do that?    It must have taken me at least a half hours scrubbing to get the muck off my bike when I got home. 

The sections would have been easier if Rob hadn’t insisted on making them harder.   At least that’s what I told Alan who told everybody else and Rob got all the blame.   Alan even gave me a bottle of wine for having to put up with Rob mucking up all my good sections.   Well I think that’s why I got the wine.   I wasn’t going to pass up a bottle of bubbly by asking too many questions.   Anyway here’s a tip for those putting on a trial.   Make it a real shitty one, blame it on someone else, and they give you a bottle of wine.   Good system eh! 

Generally I think the sections were demanding but rideable and not dangerous to anything other than your pride.   There did seem to be a lot of wet bums around and I presume that at least some of these were the result of sitting in the creek.   I know that three of mine came that way.  I don’t really think that there was enough rain for anyone to claim that as the reason for their wet bum.   How else can you get one? 

The gutza of the series went to Derek Scott but I didn’t see it.  (Derek, being the true sportsperson that he is, realised that his gutza wasn’t a patch on any of Ian Findlaters and presented the prized trophy to Ian at the Akaroa trial).   I think there should be a new rule which says that if someone is going to do a spectacular crash they should notify the other riders in advance so that we can all gather round and gaze in wonderment.   Too many of these great moments are lost for all time because the gutzee stages his performance in solitary splendour or in front of just a few special friends.   C’mon fellas – don’t hide your gutzas under a bushel.   The world needs your expertise.   Today’s gutza is tomorrow’s legend.   When we are old and grey (alright older and greyer) your exploits will be recounted around a thousand campfires and your grand children and great grandchildren will listen with awe and wonderment to the performance once provided by their ancestors.   Keep your gutzas in public. 

At the end of the day it didn’t seem important who had won (that’s because I didn’t)!    I hope everyone had a good day – I did.                                                                            

DON CLARKSON   

PUAHA VALLEY RESULTS              

EXPERTS                                       CLUBMEN
Tony Cameron       46      1^st          Greg Barnard        9        1^st     

Murray Waters      70      2^nd          Paul Newman        13      2^nd

Mark Chapple        79      3^rd          Gary Busch           21      3^rd

Glen Smith            80      4^th         Peter Barnard        29      4^th

Alan Honebone      111    5^th          Grant Daniel          34      5^th

Derek Scott           117    6^th          Aaron Chapple       43      6^th

Trevor Buckler       119    7^th          John Fausch         45      7^th

Shane Brons          145    8^th          Richard Shirlaw    50      8^th

Ian Findlater         137    9^th             Craig Summers      53      9^th

                                                 Cyril Murray          63      10^th     

                                                     Tony Holland         122    11^th

            INTERMEDIATES    

John Philp             54      1^st

Jeff Grant              69      2^nd       GREYBEARDS   

Rob McKay            72      3^rd         Peter Chapple        16      1^st

Don Clarkson        77      4^th         Roger Henderson   17      2^nd

Paul Jackson         80      5^th         George Garbutt      22      3^rd

Jeff Hayward        81      6^th          Graeme Johnston  23      4^th

Darren Johnston   88      7^th         Ken Andrews        72      5^th

Kendal McDonald  89      8^th         Errol Norriss        117    6^th

Murray Dalzell       107    9^th       

 SUMMER SERIES ROUNDUP       

                           TEDDINGTON GREENDALE GREENWOODS PURAU PUAHA TOTAL 

EXPERTS   

Murray Waters     20     20     17     20      17     94    1^st

Derek Scott          13    17      13     17      13    73    2^nd

Trevor Buckler      12    14      12      15    12     65    3^rd

Alan Honeybone   14   15        9        -      14    52    4^th

Glenn Smith         16    -        14      -      15     45    5^th

Mark Chapple       -       -        15     14    16     45    6^th

Shane Brons        11     -       11       11    11    44    7^th

Tony Cameron      -       -        20       -       20   40    8^th

Ian Findlater         -       -        10     12     10    32    9^th

Terence Courtney 17    -        -         -       -      17   10^th

Pete McGrail         -      -       16       -         -     16   11^th=

Alan Oliver            -       -     -          16      -      16    11^th= 

INTERMEDIATES

John Philp            20   15    17     20   20   92    1^st   

Jeff Grant             15    16    14    17   17   79    2^nd

Rob McKay           11    13    16     14   16   70    3^rd

Paul Jackson        16   17      -      15   14   62    4^th

Kendal McDonald 13   -      20     13   11   57    5^th

Don Clarkson       13   -      15    12    15   55    6^th

Darren Johnston   9  12    11      -     12    44    7^th

Murray Dalzell      12   -     12   10    10     44    7^th=

Jeff Hayward          -    14    -    16     13    43    9^th

Mark Chapple       17  20    -     -        -      37    10^th

Hadrian Roberts    -     -    13   14      -     27    11^th

Francis Helps       14   -     -     -       -      14    12^th

Murray Baxter      -     -    -      11     -      11    13^th

George Garbutt    10  -    -       -       -      10    14^th

Ken Aird               8    -    -      -       -       8    15th

CLUBMEN 

                TEDDINGTON GREENDALE GREENWOODS PURAU PUAHA TOTAL

Greg Barnard       20       -      20     16        20           76 1^st

Aaron Chapple     13       17   15     15        13         73 2^nd

Paul Newman       8         12   17     17        17         71 3^rd

Gary Busch          17       17    -       10        16         60 4^th

Richard Shirlaw   11       10   11     15        11         58 5^th

John Fausch        10       12   10     13        12         57 6^th

Peter Barnard      12        -     13     14        15           54 7^th

Craig Summers     7        10   13     12        10         52 8^th

John Hewitson     16      15    16      -          -           47 9^th

Hadrian Roberts   14      20     -       -          -           34 10^th=

Craig Thompson    -        -        -       20        14           34 10^th=

Peter Bayer          17      14      -        -          -            31 12^th=

Cyril Murray        -         -        7       12          9           28 13^th

Tony Holland       -         -        6       11          8           25 14^th=

Guy Rider            10      -        15      -           -            25 14^th=

Jean Scott             8      8        9       -           -            25 14^th=

Don Hewitson       6      7         8      -           -             21 17^th

Brett Kerr            15     -          -       -           -             15 18^th

Eddie Ridgen       -       13        -      -           -             13 19^th

Norm Whyte         -       -         10     -           -             10 20^th

James Fairhall     9      -          -       -           -               9 21^st=

John Porter          -      9          -       -           -              9 21^st=  

Greg Mules           -      -         -        9           -        9 21^st=           

GREYBEARDS 

Peter Chapple       20   20      15     20         20           95 1^st

Rodger Henderson16   17      20     17         17           87 2^nd

Errol Norriss          15   15      14     14         13           71 3^rd

Graeme Johnston  17   16      16      -          15           64 4^th

George Garbutt      -      -        17     16         16           49 5^th

Ken Andrews          -      -         -      -          14           14 6^th   

The Training Days with Karl Clark will be held this Saturday/Sunday at Glenelg Spur.

The format for Saturday will be the same as the training day held with Jake last year. On Sunday we will combine the training day with the first round of the summer series. It is envisioned to ride 2 rounds of the trial then break for lunch and some more training. After that ride the final 2 rounds of the trial and put what you've learnt into practice.

Once again Brendan Wadsworth will be there as well and will have his van laden with spares and accessories for you to purchas.

This promises to be another excellent event so don't miss it.

Check out what Karl and the Nelson Club have been up to this month. Go to http://www.trialsnz.com/Default.asp?Page=287

Where: Off Maugatokutoku Valley Rd, Paraparaumu, at the vehicle entrance to Wellington Regional Park, parking will be the same area used as the national 3 day. 

When:  Saturday January 30 2010 9:30 sign on (sharp please), camping available onsite from Friday night through to Sunday.           

Cost: $30 per person (half price for Juniors/pensioners). 

What is the JRL:  The JRL is a non-speed roving trial done in groups together.  The duration of the ride will be 6 hours plus so everyone gets a good ride.  The aim is to get everyone around in their respective groups of all abilities. 

This year a BBQ meal after the ride on Saturday and left overs for breakfast Sunday will be supplied, BYO refreshments. 

No running water on Site so please bring some drinking water with you. 

Any questions please contact John Lawton on Ph 04 297 0240

or Kevin Tither on 04 904 1760

or E-mail Carl Robson @ csrobson@clear.net.nz