THE 86th Travers Trophy Trial, organised by the Newcastle and District Motor Club, took place last Sunday.

Starting from Allenheads, in Northumberland, the final S3 round of the year took in 40 sections in both the Wear and Tees valleys in County Durham.

Ninety entries were taken, but one notable non-starter was James Fry, who has completely dominated this year’s series and had been uncatchable since clinching the title last month.

The favourites for the win were past winners Richard Sadler, Guy Kendrew and Dan Thorpe, who would no doubt be pushed by Jonathon Richardson, while there was a similar number of likely candidates for the clubman route.

In the end, the clock decided the championship course winner after Sadler and Kendrew both signed off with 12 marks to their names. After being held up in the last section as a rider struggled to get his bike out of the rocky climb, Kendrew had two marks added on time to scupper his chance of a second win at the event as he handed the glory to Sadler.

Stephen Bennett claimed the win on the clubman route and will look at his two fails in Smallburns and the last section of the day at Sunnyside as his saviour. Joe Hutchinson was another to suffer a maximum at Sunnyside when looking good for a clean, but he did enough to finish in third place ahead of James Harland and Carl Shaw.

DARK clouds cleared and sunshine prevailed last Sunday for Scarborough and District MC's September trial. It included the final round of the southern group championship, but still did not draw the expert riders and it was left to Sherco rider Olly Kendra to ride to his second win on the trot.

Four laps of 10 sections around Low North Park had Kendra fired up and only a couple of fives on the first lap, losing grip on the climb out of four and unlucky to knock a flag out on the huge rock step of six, kept his score whittled down to a mere 20 marks over a very difficult course.

Young Tom Alderson fought hard, but dropped back with double figure scores on the fifth and at the top rocks, although he produced a superb clean on the difficult sixth on the first lap. Class B rider Steve Sanderson hit trouble here and made a spectacular dismount when his bars came loose and he found more revs than he could handle.

Inter winner Mark Harrison was also in inspired form. Riding only occasionally, he blew the rust away to beat Matt Ackerley by six marks, while Alan Williams grabbed the clubman A class win from Mark Taylor by three marks. Taylor's chance possibly slipped away on the final section, losing four marks here to Williams' one.

Russ Casey won clubman B from Glaisdale's Paul Nelson on the furthest clean rule, Nelson casting one away on the sixth. These two held steady as Mark Hardy, Nikita Smith and Mike Kendra mounted a strong challenge for victory, both Hardy and Smith losing out on the last section with two and three lost respectively.

A blossoming youth entry shows it is on the way back due to George McGee's hard work at centre trials.

Results

Newcastle & District MC Travers Trophy Trial, Allenheads. – Championship course: 1 Richard Sadler (Beta) 12; 2 Guy Kendrew (Beta) 14; 3 Dan Thorpe (Gas Gas) 16; 4 James Stones (Sherco) 21; 5 Jonathan Richardson (Sherco) 38.

Clubmen: 1 Stephen Bennett (Montesa) 18; 2 Joe Hutchinson (Gas Gas) 24; 3 James Harland (Montesa) 25; 4 Carl Shaw (Montesa) 28; 5 Glen Quinn (Gas Gas) 29.

Scarborough & District MC Class A/B/C Youth Trial, Low North Park. – Expert: 1 Olly Kendra (Sherco) 20; 2 Tom Alderson (Sherco) 60.

Intermediate: 1 Mark Harrison (Gas Gas) 18; 2 Matt Ackerley (Beta) 24; 3 Gary Collinson (Gas Gas) 30.

Clubman A: 1 Alan Williams (Montes) 7; 2 Mark Taylor (Beta) 10; 3 Mike Noble (MMS) 13.

Clubman B: 1 Russ Casey (Montesa) 1; 2 Paul Nelson (Beta) 1; 3 Mark Hardy (Beta) 2.

White route: Alan Daws (Yamaha) 16.

Youth white route: James Noble (Beta) 13.

Youth B: Zac Collinson (Gas Gas) 31.

Youth C: Mark Myers (Beta) 33.

Conducted hard: Mason Vasey 47.

Fixtures

Tomorrow: East Yorks Centre, annual two-day trial, the Flask Inn, Whitby, 11am.

Sunday: East Yorks Centre, annual two-day trial, the Flask Inn, Whitby, 9am; Pickering & District MC solo and sidecar grass track races, Haygate Lane, Pickering, practice noon, racing 1pm.