Team Trial “Quaiffe Cup”
We fielded 2 teams, The Tenterden Tigers were made up from Joe Millen, Connor and Jack Beck and the 2nd team The Tenterden Todgers were Kev and Emma Morphett with Dave Luck.
This really is a great piece of land with around half of them in rocky streams. This year the sections were a little easier than last year, despite all the rain the previous week, but were still a good test for all abilities. We rode around together for the first lap and it was clear that the sections were going to get harder the second lap.
For Jack this was his first time riding this venue and this event. Over the past year he really has made huge leaps forward and was able to ride all sections well despite only riding for around 18 months. Despite some mistakes we all seemed to ride well for the first lap, soon after the sections did start to get much slipperier but this didn’t seem to faze Kev who has ridden really well all year and again at this trial. There was one impossible section on the second lap, section 14, we all dismounted and then proceeded to watch rider after rider get stuck in the muddy ditch. All the tigers attempted the section but all got beat. Kev then stuck the Gasser into 4 gear turned the bike straight, bounced the throttle off the stop and launched the bike over the ditch half way up the bank the other side, gripped and rode through the end cards for a clean. Not blowing smoke up his trousers but it was the ride of the day on a section which I didn’t even attempt.
Our scores on the second lap were too high to be contenders, tiredness and a hangover (Emma) all took over and we faded fast.
After watching our young Tigers it’s clear we have great potential in the club for the future with continued practice and commitment.