As usual the venue for the event was kept a secret until a few days before the weekend, as was the format of the competition and although the components that make up the challenge have tended to follow a familiar pattern over recent years there is always a twist just to keep us on our toes. Jonathon does a great job of introducing elements from the national winch challenges he goes to.

Job number one is to get to the site furnished only with a 6 figure grid reference and OS map number to guide you. To be honest, I nearly didn’t get that far this year as a phone call to my planned navigator 3 or 4 days before the start left me without a co-pilot. The situation was soon resolved following some frantic ringing round and I was pleased to have a former trophy winner on board. Gareth Newton knocked me into second place back in 2002 at Chirk when he quietly and calmly sneaked into the top spot without even looking as if he was trying(He must be good?).

However, I began to wonder about my choice as I waited for him to join me at the campsite on the Friday night when he struggled to find us despite having the OS map and reference and also written instructions with distances to guide him. Admittedly he was driving my 90 which doesn’t have a milometer but he’s supposed to be good at this kind of thing?

I needn’t have worried and he has to be credited with a faultless performance over the weekend even though he hasn’t been at the cutting edge of off-roading for around 18 months. (But he’s back now?).

The start on Saturday morning was preceded by scrutineering and then a prologue which was a new addition and served to set the starting order for the first part of the challenge. The Navigation exercise is conducted on the public highway and involves visiting points on a map given only one reference at a time to guide you to your next destination. The number of destinations is unknown and you have to decide when to head back to the start/finish checkpoint before you run out of time. It was here that I made a huge error that almost cost me the top slot. When we found our 9th point and got the reference for the 10th (and final) position, I made a mistake while plotting it onto the map and placed it 7km east of the true position and almost in the centre of Matlock. Given that time was almost up we made the joint decision to head straight back to camp as the risk of being held up in the Matlock traffic was too high and we would only just have had enough time if it was a perfect run (i.e no traffic and instant success at locating the checkpoint). Ironically we later found that we had driven within about 50 metres of the true location and had I not been a complete buffoon at map marking we could have spent about 15 minutes searching for the stencil to prove we had been there.

Once back at the site there was a short break to recover and have a bite to eat and then it was back into the fray to compete in the afternoon’s trialling session. As usual the standard of course was high and although many of the sections looked horrific, those competitors that kept their wits about them were rewarded with high scores. Jonathon showed his cruel streak by setting out one section to be driven in reverse. It does speak volumes for the abilities of Glossop 4x4 members that such good results were achieved almost across the board. Luckily for me it was at this point that I started to pull away from co-conspirator, Gareth as it always worries me that my navigators may actually beat me in my own vehicle.

That night around the camp fire a close poker game of bluff and double bluff went on between the competitors as each tried to analyze their chances and work out where they stood on the leader board. The organisers’ strict insistence on revealing nothing until the very end keeps everyone on their toes and means no-one can afford to relax until the clock stops on the Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday morning the weather looked like it was going to spice up the game and add some rain to the mix. The site we had previously trialled on and would now be searching for punches could become treacherous with enough water as the combination of wet clay and steep hillsides means only one thing, a lot of cars at the bottom. Fortunately it was a brief passing shower and normal conditions resumed in time for battle to recommence. Doing the punches is probably every competitor’s favourite part of the challenge as it is here where you choose what to drive and what to walk away from. The rewards for heroism are high but so are the penalties if it goes wrong. Time is limited to just a couple of hours, so if you spend an hour extricating yourself from a bottomless ravine after reaching the hardest punch, chances are that your fellow competitors will have scored 4 times what you have achieved in the same time by picking off the easier punches.

Just to add a new dimension to this years event there was 2 special stages to do in addition to the normal punches, one voluntary and the other compulsory. The compulsory section was a test of brain power as much as driving skill as you had to drive through 4 sets of gates in a cross entering the cross from each direction (like the points of a compass) without going through any gate more than once in the same direction? Got it, now do it AGAINST THE CLOCK. The other voluntary section was a challenge to drive along a defined course without leaving the course and with no other vehicle allowed within the boundary of the course, and winching would definitely be required at certain points (either your own winch or an assisting competitor from outside the boundary).

Once I had got as many punches as I could find I decided to have a look at this voluntary section as I had around 20 minutes left and thought it looked possible even though the last person to try it looked as though they had been stuck there considerably longer (you don’t really have time to watch how the others are getting on). Thankfully we put in a near perfect run, driver and co-driver worked in unison and the winch ran faultlessly. We then dashed back to the finish checkpoint with a couple of minutes to spare.

All that remained now was the wait as the marshals totted up the scores to see how it had all panned out. Even as the scores were read out I didn’t think I had done well enough and Saturdays unforgivable error would surely cost me the event. Even as second place was announced and I still hadn’t heard my name I didn’t believe I could be the winner (I really considered it possible that I had been disqualified for some reason). But there it was I had won the Ash Trophy for a second time and thanks to that last gamble of doing the high scoring special stage I had just managed to clinch the title of best all round driver 2005.

Thanks must go to the organising team for giving up so much of their own free time to allow the competitors to enjoy such a fantastic weekend. Having sampled a top notch national event in the past I can honestly say that our “little” club event has it all and matches what the other big boy winch challenges provide.