The 2009 Witley Long Distance Trial took place on October 4th, a day which – happily – had little in common with last year’s rain-sodden adventure.

The event was a great success, even though it had been pulled together at much shorter notice than usual. In total, 110 riders set off on a chilly but sunny day – many of them fuelled by John and Pat’s enormous Len Hutty special rolls! All but one rider made it back under their own steam and Barry Brockman was pleased to find that only one rescue mission was necessary – even though it was at pretty much the furthest point on the course!

While they were out, unsuspecting of what was to come, Colin and his crew were constructing a monster special test which generated a queue nearly out of the field when all the riders came back in. The winner of the special test was John Gilbody, he flew down the field and round the concentric circle and back to the start in only 1:53.8!

Michelle Cutler

The life of an observer was also happier than it would have been in 2008, and though I had reluctantly decided to give riding the event a miss this year, it was little hardship to ride through Hampshire’s picturesque countryside to Froxfield near Petersfield, where Andy Hewett and I manned one of the ‘dead-engine’ sections. Unfortunately the section of byway we were using for this had been resurfaced the previous week, making it impossible to set up much of a challenge to the riders – though they didn’t seem to mind. Few failed to achieve a clean, though in fact the whole course was dry enough to ensure very low marks lost throughout.