THE exposed Penn Hill trials venue high above West Witton served as the venue for the AMCA affiliated Darlington and DMC meeting on Sunday.

Even the weather was on the kind side of reasonable for 95 riders with two or three sharp showers.

Clerk of the course Nigel Cummins flagged the route, and the ten sections then rode a checking lap and cleared up after the trial ended. The three laps for some of the younger riders and 17 did not make the finish.

Mark Willis won the hard course class from Andrew Brown. Mr A G Bikes was ambushed by Richard Fawcett and John Wallis in the overall count. Gary Thwaite headed the Chapman’s Colin and Barry, on the green course, while Paul Pattison blew out Steven Johnson in the clubman ranks.

Trevor Willans should have been astride a shiny new Repsol Honda 4RT but it had not surfaced so he was forced to dig out his Seeley Honda to get the better of Tony Calvert.

Darlington are hosts again at Fremington Edge on April 27, starting at 11am – note the change of venue.

RIPON MCC officials were under pressure at Winksley on Sunday morning dealing with a huge and unexpected number of competitors that converged on the village for the annual Jack Leslie Ellis Memorial Trial.

The cancellation of the Eboracum trial at Deepdale swelled the numbers. Two competitors drove from Kettering purely to get in some trials time on their build-up to the Scottish Six Days Trial next month.

Malton’s Ian Austermuhle won the trial from Liam Walker and Thomas Hick.

Ripon’s Glen Scholey rode his 30-year- old air cooled Yamaha to victory in the Clubman A category.

Barnsley’s William Wood won a tiebreaker decider in Clubman B from Mark Chippendale.

A total of 95 competitors rode the two-lap 20-section course. It was slightly new look Ellis trial. Gone is the watering hole known as the Drovers, close to old favourite Wards Farm. A leaking gas tank cremated the famed Tom Ellis refueling point. The 50-50 Clubman A route tracked the championship course while the Clubman B ride was easier.

The rock slabs at the 16th were as hard as ever. “Austy”

fived on lap one but cleaned on lap two. Walker was on four up to the 15th and added another two while went on his way on eight. Scholey, Katy Sunter, Paul Dennis and Andrew Jackson provided tidy cleans.

The Clubman B field had an easy ride through the sections though Robyn Alderson did have her a feet down on lap two, and many others did.

REIGNING British trials champion Michael Brown won the opening event in the British trials championship on Sunday at Fell Green, Bootle, Merseyside.

His winning margin was a mere three penalties over Cookridge international James Dabill.

The latter rode a poor, by his standards, second lap losing 16 marks. Third place went to Alexz Wigg. Jonathan Richardson got his Beta UK machine home in sixth place. Dan Thorpe, Andy Chilton, Jack Price, Chris Pearson and Richard Sadler all scored championship points.

Guy Kendrew won the Expert class from Ben Sprigg and Joel Edwards. Dan Peace took the Youth class from Tom Hooper and Billy Bolt.

RYAN Voase got into top gear on Sunday at Crook Farm, Wrelton, winning all the group one races and the Castrol Shield East Yorks Centre championship 12-lap final that started Pickering MC’s spring meeting.

Ryan just cracked the throttle open on his 450 Kawaski and left the challengers to sort the rest of the placings out amongst themselves. Graeme Parker chased Voase in every race, to no avail. The Nelson KTM rider loves Wrelton and it’s old fashioned layout.

Pickering are in action again on April 27 at Crook Farm but with the veterans on the menu.

Alan Hardy is the man to contact, or David Brown.