email: patricia.kent@yahoo.co.uk

Ash Trophy

 

2010’s Ash Trophy will go down in the Group’s History as a very successful one. John Pickles did a great job of organising it and we had a fantastic turn out with 15 vehicles/teams competing. Of course it always helps when the weather is on your side, and the sun blazed down all weekend!
You can see that we have a few younger ones that are eager to get in on the action!
One day even JP will be big enough to drive a full sized motor!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning saw all the teams through scrutineering and ready and eager for the competition. First up was navigation. The competitors were given 24 Grid References on a sheet of paper and it was their choice how they tackled it. Some patiently mapped out all the points on their maps and others decided to opt for a head start and shot straight off. At each of the locations the teams had to find an answer to the clue on their sheet to prove they had been there. In addition there were some photographs to spot en-route for bonus points. Covering all 24 Grid Refs would have you doing a round trip of 70 miles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday afternoon we moved onto the ‘alternative’ trials, which were called ‘Blindfold’, ‘Unseen’, ‘Log’ and ‘Floor paint’. These were an ‘alternative’ to the normal type of trials driving we do, which is predominately dominated by the little nimble Suzuki’s, so to level the playing field for all the competitors JP’s dark mind came up with these ….. aimed to make the drivers and co-drivers work as a team and test their communication skills … it worked! (JP claims these were master minded by Brian of Club Off Road).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Wood dominated the ‘unseen’ speed section in his V8 Bowler where as Shona, Simon B and Alan took control of the ‘blindfold’ section.
(some said that Simon B actually drove better with the blindfold on!!!).

In respect to driving the logs, Trevor’s face say’s it all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before being able to rest for the evening a general 4x4 quiz was completed … just to test every aspect of the drivers!
Barney then showed everyone how to eat a burger the size of your own head! Well done Barney Boy!!!

 

Sunday saw the vehicles having their winches tagged, so that they couldn’t be used without the team taking penalty points. The teams were then let loose to mark up their maps with the location of 27 punches and then set free on the site to find 29 punches! Yes, sneaky J.P informed us there were a further 2 out on the site to be found. If you filled all of your card you headed back to J.P to get another and start all over again. Even without a co-driver Simon Lee was the only competitor to get onto a 3rd card, which he got quite close to filling! (despite claiming to be a broken man!) Throughout collecting punches the teams also had 3 special stages to complete. One being a safari run to spot a number of animals hiding in the woods. The second tested brain and vehicle control, driving and reversing though as many gates as possible within 3 minutes in a random order controlled by the marshal. The 3rd required the driver to manoeuvre in and out of garages without hitting anything, of course this was against the clock!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day all the scores were added up and the entrants eagerly waited to find out their overall position.

3rd Place went to team ‘Tomo-Hawk’ (Steve Hawksworth and Peter Thompson).

There was a tie for 1st Place, between Simon Lee and Jonathan Wood. The winner was decided by adding the time of the 2 speed sections, the ‘unseen’ trial on Saturday and the garage section on the Sunday. This went in the favour of Mr Wood by just 11 seconds!

The highly esteemed award for ‘Spirit of the Event’ went to Nick and Luke Jones. This award is given to the team who are considered to have battled on in the face of adversity, got lost, refused to acknowledge defeat, helped fellow 4x4er’s, wowed the crowd or generally provided the most entertainment. In this case it was widely considered that Luke had done an excellent job of keeping his Dad in check!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well done to everyone that took part - as you all made it a great competition.

A fantastic job was done by JP and all the marshal’s - Well done lads!