Vintage Vines • 1972
ACU INTER-CENTRE
TEAM TRIAL
The one to win – with pride at stake and riding for your centre, I competed on many occasions representing the Cheshire Centre. I felt it an absolute honour to be part of the team. The trip to this event in 1972, held at New House Farm, Burrington near Ludlow in Shropshire and organised by the Midland Centre, was the chance to see all the top riders from the various centres around the United Kingdom in action. Interestingly, at 11 years old with my father Ron as a spectator, I was unaware at the time that John Moffat (a man who would become such a good friend) also attended with his father, Thomas Arnott Moffat, who was the Scottish ACU team manager. As they say, it is a small world, even back then. The teams’ choice was compiled of either the top five riders in the relevant centre championships or, in other cases, the best riders from the ACU British Trials Championship. Having first started in 1932 when the northerners were the winners, the team event hit an all-time high in 1972 with a record 21 centres entering, including, for the first time, invited riders from the Scottish ACU, hence John Moffatt and his father attending with a team from the AMCA who were also first-timers. Of the 22 centres under the authority of the ACU, the only one that had not sent a team was South Wales. Of the five riders from each centre, only the top four scores would be used to find the winning team. Words: Yoomee and John Moffat • Pictures: Malcolm Carling, Alan Vines, Yoomee Archive A fine Spring day welcomed the 105 riders on Sunday the 16th April to the venue found on the edge of the Mortimer Forest, where the organising centre had plotted out a well spreadout course consisting of 35 observed sections on a five-mile lap to be ridden twice. Fortunately for the Clerk of the Course, Mike Winwood and his team, the hills and rivers were relatively dry, and with the sun coming out on the day, the gentle breeze kept everyone dry. The Midland Centre
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had made a bold move by putting the event on private ground for the first time instead of a roadbased competition. The terrain was ideal for trials, as I would find out when I competed in an early ACU Schoolboy British Championship round a few years later in 1977. The landowner, Stan Thomas, was very generous with his land. It contained a wide variety of ideal trials terrain, including exposed hills and valleys with rivers and muddy banks to test the riders. In a nice
touch, found on many occasions in the trials world, Stan Thomas’ family provided refreshments at the start, all homemade, of course.
THE ONES TO WATCH
I still have the programme from the event, and it includes a tick against the riders we were to look out for as the ones to watch. Many spectators had turned out to see the great Sammy Miller in action as he retired from the British Championship
Summer 2022 • Classic Trial Magazine
