issue 21 - kdmc bulletin april 2015

KDMC Bulletin April 2015 Edition

Committee Members

President: Alan Smith Vice Presidents: Mike Harrison Norman Robertson Jeff Gray Chairman: Jef Sumner Vice Chairman: Steve Henstock Secretary: Jeff Gray Treasurer: Lorna Harrison Competition Secretary: Mike Lawson Membership Secretary: Margaret Mullen Club Development Officer: Vacant Social Secretary : Vacant Equipment Officer: Simon Barnett Bulletin Editor: Barbara Skepper Chief Marshal: Mike Timmins Committee Posts: Mike Vokes Steve Skepper Andrew Lawson Lee Skilling


Welcome to the April edition of the KDMC Bulletin. I hope you have had a great Easter and haven’t

indulged in too much chocolate. Our outgoing president has sent several articles for this edition. We

would like to send our thanks for that and also for his magnificent contribution to the club over the

years. Thanks also go to everyone else who has taken the time to write articles.

Please send articles for the June bulletin to [email protected] by May 29th.

You will find a list of this year’s committee members on the first page and the list of upcoming

events is on the last page.

Barbara Skepper.

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FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Please send all claims for marshal and competition points (including claims for articles) to Richard

Duddell. When claiming points for articles you must send a copy to both Richard and the bulletin

editor.

Thank You from Duncan Wild I would like to thank the members of KDMC for the Claret Jug I was presented with at the Annual Dinner Dance to mark my ten years as your President. As Alan Jolley said, I was in a very select group as I was only the fourth President since we were founded in 1958. It has been an honour to be President of one of the best motor clubs in the country and I wish the club continued success. I would like to thank all the members and officials who have worked hard during my term and now look forward to continued participation in and support to events. Can I also wish my successor, Alan Smith best wishes for his term as President.

FOR SALE 1969 MORRIS TRAVELLER Smoke grey, 1 year MOT, VGC, only 73000 miles, regularly used.

Many original features, converted to unleaded petrol, Stainless steel exhaust, Servo brakes Full Service history, garaged in Cheshire.

£6995

Contact: Sue 01606 883756

mailto:[email protected]


Saturday 16th May 2015

6 Stages in classic Mid Wales forests,

Cwmcelli, Gartheiniog, Dyfi, Llangower & Penllyn

The Plains is our clubs premier forest event of the year and needs a massive amount

of Manpower to run the day and ensure everything goes smoothly. With new stages

and a change of route it promises to be a great day. With the changes brought in

following the Scottish Review we need more people than ever and I am looking for

help to cover the following roles:-

Start and Finish marshals at Welshpool

Marshalling - We need numerous marshals on the stages on the day especially at

Gartheiniog where we have the spectator areas

Marshals to man traffic controls at various points along the route.

Please come along and support the team that marshal on the events you enter.

If you can help then please contact me at [email protected] or ring me

on 07747 620009

Your club needs you

mailto:[email protected]


CHAIRMAN’S CHAT

Well here we go again off into another Club year. The AGM was held on the 16 March and was

pleasingly well attended, 37 members in all, signing in.

The most notable outcome of the AGM other than the various reports, etc., was the election of a

new President, Duncan having finally decided to “take a rest”. However, he is not looking for the

slippers just yet. In his words, he is not giving up custody of the Clubs Photocopier, so will still be

involved and out and about organising events.

Whilst there may well be other articles in this bulletin thanking Duncan for his term of office, not

only as President, but previously as Vice President, and before that on the Executive Committee, I as

Chairman and on behalf of the Club would like to record our sincere Thanks.

For those who didn’t make it to the Dinner Dance or to the AGM, Duncan’s service was marked with

the presentation of a Cut Glass Claret Jug.

I would therefore like to congratulate Alan Smith on being elected to the role of President.

I have just mentioned the Dinner Dance, another successful evening held on the 28 February, and I

believe enjoyed by all present; and missed by those who didn’t make it. I understand that

photographs will be up on the Website shortly.

Moving on, the Club’s competition year is already under way with the first of the Scatter Series

having been held, attracting 10 entries, hopefully there will be a report elsewhere in the bulletin. As

some will know / realise, we are fast approaching the date of our Plains Rally which runs on the 16

March. Les Sharp is back in the reins as Clerk of Course, Graham having stepped down.

Unfortunately, Les has not had it easy with NRW (Forestry) forcing a number of last minute route

changes to encompass their operational activities. Mike Timmins is Chief Marshal for the Plains and I

am sure he would love to hear from anybody who has not yet got a job.

Back to the AGM, notwithstanding my plea’s during the year, there are still a couple of Committee

posts unfilled, don’t be shy, if you feel you could help the Club in anyway please step forward, be it

to fulfil a committee role or assist / run a competition / social event. The Committee has in its

power the right to co-opt a number of members, so it’s not too late. As I have said many times there

are members of both the Executive Committee and indeed our “Event Organisational Teams”, the

Plains Team and The Tour of Cheshire Team, who will have to be replaced at some time, not

forgetting our other events. We need people to show an interest in keeping these events alive.

Finally as I always say, good luck to you all, in whatever discipline of motor sport you compete, but

remember my overriding comment that without Officials / Marshals your event will not run, so if not

competing, turn out and help other events / disciplines.

Regards

Jef Sumner


Below is an article from Peter Boyce on one of our premier events – The Tour of Cheshire.

The New Season Begins

It seemed a long time since the Rally of the Tests last November. In other years I would have been

busy with getting marshals for the Tour of Cheshire, having been an official on the team since its

inception in 2004. A little bit of guilt about landing Lorna Harrison with even more work, but at last a

chance to get an entry. So three days after the Regs were out in goes our entry, only to find

ourselves on the reserve list such is the demand for places on this event. No special favours then!

Fortunately Mike Harrison managed to get an extension to 85 entrants and we got a run. Rich had

done a lot of work on the MGB over the winter, especially in terms of electrics, which had caused us

grief on the Tests and with a dural undershield. It was good to meet up with all our friends and rivals

in Beeston at scrutineering and at signing on before our customary pre event drinks and meal at a

Premier Inn.

Saturday 7th March dawned bright and clear and we looked forward to a good day. The event began

with a fast test at the Beeston Market followed by the first regularity which involved a spot height

very close to but not on the route. Next on to one of the specialities of the Cheshire, a jogularity on

the old Marley Tiles site at Delamere, over 2 miles of scores of tulips at very short intervals covering

several laps, all different, of the complex. Another test on this site included a water splash and some

gravel to set us up for a pleasant coffee halt. Here we received the last route handout, having

received all other regularities either at signing on or on leaving MC1, there being no real plot and

bash on this rally, one reason why it attracts so many novice and beginner crews. It manages always

to be a challenge to the top runners too. Regularity B used map features to take us round the lanes

near Oulton Park and on to a test on the Wardle Industrial Estate, a tarmac autotest. There followed

an hour long regularity from just south of Crewe on to map 127 via grid lines and junctions, some

not as map, and on to 126 towards Shrewsbury. All had been going quite well on the regularities so

far but near the end of this one we met several 4 x 4s coming the other way and lost 31 seconds at

the subsequent timing point. However all is not lost as there is a joker system on this event allowing

you to lose the worst late regularity score. Yet another delay on the next section lost us another 20

seconds, so not such a good regularity for us.

Two fast tarmac tests on the Shrewsbury Livestock Market took us into lunch, a quick fuel top up

and the first afternoon regularity, which involved crossing lots of power lines but which was not too

demanding. Two further tests at Shrewsbury with lots of spectators and then regularity E using the

maze of lanes NW of Wem via a set of map references. Having had plenty of enthusiastic spectators

so far, we hit upon a group of horse riders and a formidable lady on a bike shepherding them along a

very narrow lane. Soon a queue of about ten cars were in line behind them and they were not for

moving over even when there was a big verge where they could. The formidable lady stayed

obstinately in the middle of the road and shouted abuse at the front crews! Eventually we arrived at

the first junction where Will Sparrow and John Brown were manning a passage check. I don’t think

the lady got much change out of John Brown! Anyway, round the next bend was a police car coming

to sort things out and round the next bend was a crowd of enthusiastic spectators having a picnic to

watch us all go by! What a contrast within a half mile or so. In the event this section was deleted

from the results, a wise decision in the light of the mayhem it caused to a fair bit of the field.

One more regularity to go, a tulip section to plot and which led us north towards Beeston and the

final two tests which made excellent use of the space there. At the finish was a very good carvery


meal and the usual “if only” tales before the results were declared final and the awards presented.

Matt Warren and Guy Woodcock had won in the Mk1 Escort with Roger and Leigh Powley second in

the 911. We managed 25th overall and amid some mild barracking were winners of the First KDMC

award! After having been Chief Marshal on this event for what seemed forever, it became clear why

it is so well supported. The distances are absolutely precise as you might expect from Don Barrow

and Nigel Raeburn; the road timing is perfect; the route instructions clear and unambiguous; time to

plot the regularities; and the marshalling really good. Sadly it is likely that the Beeston and Delamere

test sites will be covered in houses next year but I am sure Mike and Lorna will find some new

venues with which to test us.

Next up is our venture on to the continent for the Poppy Rally. We will be joined by Mike and Lorna

Harrison in the TR3 and Duncan Wild and Steve Skepper in the Mini from Knutsford to keep the

KDMC flag flying. More of that next time.

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Here’s an article from Duncan Wild taking in the Tour of Cheshire and the Poppy Rally.

RALLYING IN MARCH Tour of Cheshire

The month started with The Tour of Cheshire. I was Chief Timekeeper and Test Designer for another year. Unfortunately this year we lost the use of Chowley Oak due to construction work. However the old Tarmac factory at Delamere and the cattle market at Beeston were still available although they have planning permission for housing development. Here are a few thoughts on the tests. Friday was spent getting the equipment out to Delamere and Beeston. Jef Sumner, Simon Barnet and I met John Harden from Liverpool Motor Club at Delamere to set up the two tests. I planned some new routes through the buildings so we had to brush the buildings and clear hazards. By late lunchtime this venue was ready to go with about 75 lettered cones in position. Mike Timmins and his crew took on the first test of the day at Beeston. It was a good thrash on the gravel for over a minute. The site has some rough bits and it is getting harder each year to find a suitable route through the broken bricks. Mike had collected a good team to run the test and as I went through there were many familiar faces. Next was Tarmac and the novelty of a regularity test on private land. This allowed us to have four timing points and four passage controls in just over two miles, all taking over 8mins. A fast test followed with asphalt and gravel with a well positioned water splash which fooled crews into missing the hairpin back to the next cone. There was a short test at Wardle where Jef Sumner arrived to find three large trailers on the test. Some careful positioning of the cones allowed the test to go ahead. Next tests were at Shrewsbury Market. Two tests were followed by lunch. Timing was tight and I was pleased to see the last few cars arrive on time so that the marshals could have a brief break before the competitors returned for the second pair of tests before heading North, again with several KDMC members, although this time run by Bolton-le-Moors CC. The final tests were back at Beeston before finishing the event at the Bickerton Poacher. I was pleased with the tests and now look forward to discussing how the trial of test grouping cars has gone. Having just completed the Poppy Rally where they have a similar penalty points system for the tests I can see merit in the system. Thanks to the KDMC marshals who helped, particularly on the tests.


Poppy Rally 2015 Steve Skepper and I decided last year to try something different. After advice from fellow members we entered the Poppy Rally to be held in Belgium in March. Finally the details started to pop through the letter box. We were seeded 22 in the Austin Cooper. Two other KDMC crews entered, Mike and Lorna Harrison in the TR3 and Rich Harrison and Peter Boyce in the MGB. Steve and I stayed with Peter on the Thursday night then left early on Friday morning for the crossing from Dover to Calais. It was an hour’s drive to Poperinge where the event was centred. After scrutineering we set the trip on the measured distance and got our first sight of the minor Belgium roads. There was a practice route which gave us a little more insight into what was to come. This took us towards Ypres and the rally HQ hotel. After signing on we received our route details. The route was defined by lettered points on maps in a map book. The approach and depart details were in the route and test book. We had all Saturday’s route so Steve had a long afternoon transferring all the detail to his maps. We had a break to go to the Menen gate for the daily sounding of the Last Post at 8pm. This was very moving experience in this, the hundredth year since the start of WW1. After a meal the plotting was finished. We started at 09.08 Saturday morning in cold sunny weather. I’m not sure where we went as Steve has the maps, Sufficient to say we had many good sections interspersed with a few hiccups. One of these led to us joining the Poppy Bridge Club. Steve directed me to a footbridge over a river. With Tony Large on the other side we had little hesitation in making use of this narrow feature. That should have been a clue as larger cars wouldn’t have fitted across the bridge. This led us straight into a secret check and the inevitable missed time control. I’ll leave Steve to tell you about the regularities. Mike and Lorna had a fraught start. Their starter motor wasn’t working so they were faced with push starting the car all weekend. As they lined up for the start in Poperinge the TR3 was misfiring. It took some time for the event back-up crew to get the car running properly so they missed the first section of the rally. At coffee they were a very definite last. The first test was on a disused karting track. It was covered in moss and very tight but great fun. It was repeated later. Many of the tests were held on closed roads. They are between one and two miles long and call for accurate driving as any error can land you in the deep ditches at the side of the road. The average speed is kept down by chicanes, tight cones at junctions, stop astride lines or code boards. My confidence grew as the event proceeded and I had some respectable times. There were six minis, all taking part in one class. We finished third in class, with the first two 3rd and 5th overall. As we queued for our first run at one test I was advised by a fellow competitor who had competed his first run that the blind brow was flat out. I believed him and set a good time. Second time round I was brave again only to find a group of cyclist on the test over the brow. Two of the best tests for me were a long slalom outside a speedway track followed by a test using the track. This second test had a tight bit between buildings on the infield before 1.5 laps of the heavily banked track. I also enjoyed the test in Watou town square and surrounding roads. I’ve never autotested on wet cobbles before. When we finished in the square in the centre of Ypres we reflected on an enjoyable event. We improved from a lowly position of 39th at dinner on Saturday to 28th at the end of Saturday evening. This was after a busy leg containing four regularities, incorporating a time control section with many passage control boards. It was three hours long without a break. There were 10 regularities, 13 tests and one test run as a regularity in the first leg. Leg two in the dark on Saturday evening had four regularities. Leg three on Sunday had 5 regularities and six tests. We started at 07.08 with two of the Sunday regularities before breakfast back at the hotel. This was


followed by six tests then the final three regularities. It was very enjoyable event and very well organised with good marshalling. Mike and Lorna recovered from their unfortunate start to finish 36th overall, fourth in class. Rich and Peter were in the top 20 early on and finished 31st overall, 2nd in class. Steve and I improved as the event went on to finish 25th overall and 3rd in class, although thanks to a mini finishing third overall we got a second in class award. Now for some HRCR one day events, starting with the Ilkley.

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Here’s another article from Duncan about a recent Autotest.

Around the Cones After the hectic time leading up to the Tour of Cheshire it was nice to get the ABS out at Curborough where the MSA and BTRDA Autotest Championships got off to a very cold start on 15th March. This was also the first round of the 2015 KDMC Off Road Championship. There were three KDMC competitors. Ian Chapman (Riot), Colin Moreton (Westfield) and myself (ABS Freestyle). Malcolm Livingston had made excellent use of the Curborough paddock and circuit with four interesting layouts. The first test showed that current MSA and BTRDA Champion, Richard Pinkney in his Caterham had lost none of his determination to beat us all again this year. He, like a lot of us had not driven in anger since last September or October so getting the best out of the car was not easy on the first few tests. By lunchtime the order of the day was pretty much sorted although there were some close battles. None more so than between Ian and myself with less than a second between us. On the third round I edged further ahead of Ian only to collect a penalty on the last round. However I managed to hang on to sixth overall with Ian seventh. It was an enjoyable start to my autotest season. The ABS needed some work before the event when I found several cracks in the chassis and had to strip the front end to get at the steering rack to adjust the shims. Now for a more thorough check over. Results

1 Richard Pinkney (Caterham 7) 798.0; 2 Dave Mosey (Mini) 847.1; 3 Paul Fobister (Haigh Special)

850.7; 4 Dave Evans (Blitz) 863.4; 5 Keith Walton (Locost) 882.2; 6 Duncan Wild (Freestyle) 902.1; 7

Ian Chapman (Riot) 903.6; 8 William Keaning (Nova) 927.9; 9 Dave Fox (Mini) 945.0; 10 Anthony

Preston (Mini) 948.9.

Classes; A Mosey; B Keaning: C Pinkney; D Fobister: E Kevin Hardwick (Peugeot 205) 1173.9.

KDMC Members

6th o/a, 3rd Class Duncan Wild ABS Freestyle 902.1 secs

7th o/a 3rd Class Ian Chapman Riot 903.6 secs

16th o/a 6th Class Colin Moreton Westfield 1098.8 secs


This article is from David Goodlad and is about the Makro Preston Autotest.

Bolton-le-moors car club Makro Preston Autotest - Sunday March 22

A dry day greeted competitors at Makro Preston for this combined autotest/autoSOLO event. There

was one test layout for the entire day's proceedings, the main difference being the autotest layout

had 4 reverse manoeuvres and one 360 degree turn in the test.

The autoSOLO had 38 competitors and the autotest had 3; me in the yellow peril Mini UPU 2, Colin

Moreton in his Westfield and Steve Price in his Micra. As we were all in different classes, we were

each sure of a class win, provided we finished the event.

The only demanding part of the test was the first reverse off the line, this could be continued to the

second reverse off a line by a throw over the line without using first gear, otherwise the other two

were simply drive forward over the line and reverse off.

The tests were done in groups of 5 to be done twice, then finally 4 tests done doing 2 laps of the

test. The autoSOLO went first while the autotest competitors either marshalled or rested. This took

about 2 hours so it was going up to 12 o'clock before we got to do our tests. These took place in a

mad flurry of about 7 minutes by which time I felt my right arm was about to fall off. It was non stop,

by the time I finished one test I was on the start line to go again.

This was followed immediately by a spell of marshalling which I was not really ready for, I would

have preferred the rest period to have followed the competing part. My first round went as

expected, I was close behind Colin and a fair bit ahead of Steve with no drama on the test.

The second round was different however; on test 8 as I did the reverse flick over the second line, as I

reversed away I realised the car was firing on 3 cylinders, this slowed me down quite a bit for the

rest of the test. When I lifted the bonnet, number 3 plug lead was nowhere near number 3 plug, the

reverse throw had literally thrown it off.

When we finally got to the final 4 tests which were 2 laps of the test I knew it would be touch and go

if the car would do it without overheating. At the end of the final test, sure enough steam was

coming out of the bonnet on the finish line. Also my right arm felt even more knackered than on the

previous 1 lappers.

Result: FTD Colin Moreton Westfield 988

David Goodlad Mini 1057.9

Steve Price Micra 1252.

The event was a great success as far as the size of the entry was concerned and all the autoSOLO

competitors seemed to enjoy it. However it did show the difficulty there is in combining an autotest

route with an autoSOLO route without confusing the people that are marshalling. A more

demanding autotest route could have been designed on the existing autoSOLO cones, but whether

this would have confused the marshals is debatable.


Finally, Richard Duddell has sent in three articles about the early season scatter rallies.

Scatter 151

“My car has broken” was the message I received from my regular pilot, Russ Smith, about 36 hours

before the first scatter of the season.

“Fixable by Monday?” was my reply.

“No” came back the solemn answer.

So Sunday and Monday were spent with me trying to find a seat with another driver, to no avail. By

Monday afternoon I had pretty much given up thoughts of a night in the Cheshire Lanes, but then a

brainwave. I could get my son, James, to navigate for me. Whilst he had never competed on a

scatter, he has helped me set quite a few over the years and knows the format. Arriving home from

an inter- school basketball match at 6pm he was initially reluctant, but with a bit of chocolate

related bribery and some direction from his mum (“go on, otherwise your dad will just sulk all

evening”) we were soon out of the house.

Talk about baptism of fire – Graham Raeburn had organised the scatter starting near Great

Budworth and with clues on 4 separate maps. I can’t remember the last time we had a four mapper!

I had made a decision not to put any expectations or pressure on James as I didn’t want to put him

off – after he had plotted, we picked a conservative strategy with the main aim being to get back to

that the finish in good time. After about an hour and half we had picked up quite a few one pointers

in the lanes to the west of Knutsford, around Tatton and south of Manchester Airport and James had

even started calling the bends for me. At that point, we found ourselves at the canal at Dunham

Massey looking for a two pointer. As it transpired this was on the canal towpath, and after a look

round I couldn’t find it – parental responsibility kicked in, and I decided not to go too far down the

towpath and leave an unattended 14 year old in a car in the dark, so I gave up on this one. We then

decided to head over to get a couple more two pointers near Higher Walton and Daresbury to finish

the night. A wrong slot in Stretton followed by the closure of the M56 junction that was our route

home meant that things became a bit more full-on than was originally intended on our run back into

the finish and our last 45 minutes of the event had been pretty fruitless in terms of adding to our

points score. Oh well, all good experience and well done to the winners, Alan and Shon, on what was

an excellently organised event from Graham.

Results

1. Alan Smith / Shon Gosling (Ford Focus ST) – 15 pts, 28 error on tie

2. Mike Vokes / Dale Cox (Mini Cooper) – 15 pts, max error on tie (1st Novice)

3. Ken Jones / Charles Hughes (MGB) – 11 pts, max error on tie

4. Andy Williams / James Williams (Saab 9-3) – 10.5 pts, max error on tie

5. Mark Eastman / Matt Scott (Rover 216) – 8 pts, 318 error on tie

6. Richard Duddell / James Duddell (Volkswagen Polo GTi) – 7 pts, max error on tie

Footnote: A few weeks later James and I were out again on the HRCR scatter organised by Shon.

Having had a bit more preparation time we were second overall, only one point behind another

regular KDMC pairing, Oliver and Dale Cox.


Scatter 152

For Scatter 152, I was back on the usual side of the car, as Russ debuted his newly re-clutched Audi

A4 Quattro Estate. For those that remember the BTCC in the 1990’s it reminded me of the Volvo

Estate cars that used to race – wholly unsuitable but very memorable!

Paul Kelly usually has a theme for his event and this was no exception. Ecclesiastical Escapades was a

bit of a give away that we would be probably be visiting a lot of churches during the evening, which

was confirmed when we had finished plotting. Given the nature of the car, and that Russ hadn’t had

it on the lanes yet, we decided to stay on the low ground on the west side of map 118, with the start

and finish being at the Golden Pheasant. We were aspiring to the win, but weren’t sure that it would

happen given the untested vehicle we were in.

The first answer was at the end of Plumley Village, near the new roundabout and after that we

headed over to the western edge of the map, our route taking us north of Northwich, before

dropping down through Whitegate, the edge of Winsford and down to Wettenhall. We continued to

skirt the edge of the map through Nantwich, Aston and Audlem. It got to a stage where everytime

we approached a church we automatically started looking for answers, irrespective of whether there

was a clue or not.

The crux of our strategy was a 4 point clue in Wybunbury. I’m always a bit nervous about high value

clues that only have one answer - if the answer can’t be found then you have blown the strategy for

the whole evening. Fortunately, Russ found the answer to this one on the back of the lych gate

without too much difficulty.

Our route back was broadly northwards, and as we were going along part of the A50 it was at this

point that I missed a slot in Brereton Green which would have taken us to an extra 2 pointer to finish

the evening. We decided not to go back owing to time pressure, which was the right decision as we

would have been past our due time if we had. In the final analysis we didn’t need it and notched up

our first win of 2015 in the defence of the scatter title.

Results

1. Russ Smith / Richard Duddell (Audi A4 Avant Quattro) – 18 pts, 7 ties

2. Graeme Smith / Karen Kisby (Audi A3) – 16 pts, 3 ties (1st Novice)

3. Alan Smith / Shon Gosling (Ford Focus ST) – 13 pts, 8 ties

4. Philip Cheek / David Tucker (Alfa Spider) – 13 pts, 6 ties

5. Andy Williams / James Williams (Saab 9-3) – 11 pts, 1 tie

NF. Dennis Jarvis / Adam Jarvis (Reliant Scimitar) – Headlights failure

Scatter 153

After only a three week gap between this and the previous scatter, owing to the Tour of Cheshire

and an early Easter Bank Holiday Monday , we were back out on Alan Smiths event. Following Paul

Kelly’s lead, Alan had gone for a theme, which this time was “Halls well that ends well”. The event

was based in Henbury near Macclesfield so again it looked like a choice of high or low routes was

going to be the order of the day. A pre-emptive look at map 118 revealed that there are a lot of Halls

or places with the word hall in their name so that gave us no real clues.


After plotting we again opted for the low route. This looked like it offered slightly more points but

perhaps more importantly, we didn’t want to be caught on the top of the Pennines in the torrential

conditions that were battering Cheshire that evening. Russ and I have both being doing KDMC

scatters for 10 years or more and this was the wettest we can remember for a long time. Perhaps a

Safari Rally style roof top snorkel might have been a useful addition to the Quattro, and 4WD was

certainly helpful.

The route we chose took us in a clockwise circle picking up our first one pointers in Gawsworth

before arcing round the eastern and southern sides of Congleton for another four single pointers,

before reaching the 3 pointer just north of Crewe following some tricky navigation through fringe

urban areas. By this point we had about an hour to run, and with a plethora of evenly spaced clues

on the top left quadrant of 118. I knew that I would have to keep concentration to make the most of

our remaining time. Russ, in the meantime was kept busy, and rather wide eyed on occasions, by the

number of lakes that covered the whole width of the road, many of which were over small crests.

Foot off the brakes, steer straight, hope there were no potholes and shout expletives was the order

of the day.

So from Crewe we zig-zagged over 118 with clues between Sandbach and Middlewich, before

heading up to Lach Dennis, back down to Cranage, over to Kermincham (managing to avoid the

official ford at Swettenham), back up to Over Peover and finally picking up the final clue at Marthall

with about 15 minutes to get back to Henbury. After a leisurely run-in we arrived with about 5

minutes to spare.

The drama wasn’t over yet. When the provisional results were posted, we were tied on points with

Mike and Philip Vokes and behind them on tie- breakers, but after a query was lodged we were

awarded an extra half point for a partially correct answer, meaning we just edged it.

After one of the most relentless scatters for years, its now time for the summer recess with the next

one planned for 7th September. Look out for the regs on the website and hopefully we will see you

there.

Results

1. Russ Smith / Richard Duddell (Audi A4 Avant Quattro) – 16.5 pts, 4 ties

2. Mike Vokes / Philip Vokes (Mini Cooper) – 16 pts, 5 ties

3. Dennis Jarvis / Adam Jarvis (Reliant Scimitar) – 14 pts, 0 ties (1st Novice)

4. Sam Self / Dominic Maggi (??) – 12 pts, 5 ties

5. Barbara Skepper / Steve Skepper (Mini Cooper Countryman) – 8 pts, 5 ties

6. Dale Cox / Oliver Cox (MGB Roadster) - 8 pts, 4 ties

7. Mark Eastman / Matt Scott (Rover 216) – 6 pts, 2 ties

8. Philip Cheek / David Tucker (Alfa Spyder) – 6 pts, 0 ties

9. John Lythaby / Shon Gosling (Toyota Celica) – 4 pts, 5 ties

OTL. Steve Briers / Oliver Thompson (Proton Satria) – 7 pts


EVENTS

Below are upcoming events to add to your diary.

Sunday April 12th – Jubilee Historic Rally (Round 2 Historic Road Rally Championship)

Monday April 13th – Marshals Training Night at Golden Pheasant, Plumley

Saturday April 18th – Kick Energy (Round 2 Road Rally Championship)

Saturday April 25th – Aintree Sprint (round 3 Off Road Championship)

Monday April 27th – Grass Autotest 151

Sat/Sun May 2nd/3rd – Berwick Classic (Round 3 Historic Road Rally Championship)

Saturday May 9th – Altratech 061 (Round 3 Road Rally Championship)

Monday May 11th – Pre-Plains evening

Saturday May 16th – Plains Rally

Sunday May 31st – Disgarth Trial (Round 4 Off Road Championship)

Monday June 1st – Grass Autotest 152

Saturday June 6th – G P Memorial (Round 4 Road Rally Championship)

Monday June 8th – Social Evening – Plains & TOC videos

Sunday June 14th – Firefly Autotest (Round 5 Off Road Championship)

issue 21 - kdmc bulletin april 2015

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