Sixty-two riders entered the 2018 Red Marley Trial on Easter Sunday, sponsored by Villiers Services although , for various reasons, only forty-eight completed the fifteen sections three times.
Credit and thanks must go to Andy Hunt and Joe Owen who plotted the testing two route course that saw every section but one cleaned at least once although the hard route on section five was mastered only once and that was by Nathan Jones.
Dave Thomas on the very tidy 500 Ariel drops into the stream at section 6
No one could quite clean the slippery tree roots at section eleven, Ben Millichap making the best performance here with three separate dabs on his way to the overall victory by fourteen marks from Chris Chell in second place with Nathan Jones third just three behind Chris.
Five marks further back was a tie between Kevin Taylor and Tom Hibberd who both lost fifty marks.
Only three riders contested the B class for unit construction machines on the hard route, Mick Flanagan and Pete Reed rode Triumph Twins and Joe Chell was on a BSA B40. Mick took the class well ahead of Pete with Joe only four marks behind in third.
Class D for pre-unit machines and Class R for rigid framed bikes each attracted only two competitors, Chris Tett riding Jim Pickerings 350 Royal Enfield convincingly headed John Jacka on his Matchless and Andy Abraham finished twenty-three marks better than Keiran Abraham, both mounted on Levis machines. Keiran’s bike was built in 1936 and Andy’s almost modern being a 1949 model.
By far the best supported class was class C for clubmen riding a somewhat easier course and Nigel Tomkins was the clear winner taking his BSA Bantam round the 45 sections for a loss of only six marks, the previous years winner, Jim Teague finished second nine marks behind and just two ahead of Phil Goodwin on a very tidy 250 Wasp.
In fourth place just two marks behind Phil was Merv Powell having a very commendable ride on his big 350 Matchless.
Results
Class A up to 250
Ben Millichap (Bantam) 28, Chris Chell (BSA 250) 42, Nathan Jones (BSA 250) 45, Kevin Tayl or (Drayton C15) 50, Tom Hibberd (BSA 250) 50, Paul Munslow (Bantam) 65, Laurence Alden (Bantam) 66, Andie Swift (Sprite) 69, Steve Gollings (Drayton Villiers) 78, Jack Hibberd (BSA 250) 86.
Class B 0ver 250 Unit
Mick Flanagan (Triumph 500) 76, Pete Reed (Triumph 350) 101, Joe Chell (BSA 350) 105.
Class D Pre-unit
Chris Tett (Royal Enfield) 66, John Jacka (Matchless) 119.
Clubman any cc
Nigel Tomkins (Bantam) 6, Jim Teague (Drayton C15) 15, Phil Goodwin (Wasp) 17, Merv Powell (Matchless) 19, Kevin Walker (Cub) 23, John Sander (James) 24, Gerry Minshall (James ) 30, Mick Clarkson (Bantam) 33, Paul Robinson (BSA B40) 34, Roy Jones (Sprite) 37.
Report: Pete Dawson