VMCC South Durham
BTT 2019
Newsletter Addendum
I need to bring you up to date with some changes (error on my part!)
Change of date
The first and most important is that the Beamish Trophy Trial Awards Night is Thursday 14 November 2019 NOT as I stated in my previous emails and letters. The venue remains the same - Middleton St George Cricket & Social Club, Water View, Middleton St. George, Darlington, DL2 1JQ starting at 7:30pm.
If you know anybody who plans to attend can you please make sure they are aware. If they turn up on the wrong date I may have to buy them a beer and that could get expensive!
Return Trophies
If anybody still holds a BTT trophy from last year could they please get it back to me soon.
Links to revised Results and Trophy Winners Lists.
Revised Results 2019
Revised Trophy Winners 2019
I managed to put No.11 Eric Bushell down as a non-finisher when in fact he did finish and it was No. 12 Jim Plant who didn’t. In my defence I would point out that they were both riding Velocettes (black of course) and had sequential start numbers.
An Excel glitch caused me to miss No.83 Leigh Varley off the bottom.
On the trophy side I managed to miss out the Allenheads Inn Ladies Shield won by the lovely Sally Williams and Andrew Sharp very generously pointed out to me that his Norton 500T could not have won the Ken Blacklock NEMC Trophy for the Best Performance by a 1971-79 motorcycle under 450cc and instead it should be Steve and Summer Wigglesworth (again!)
How Trophies are allocated
A couple of people have queried apparent inconsistencies in the allocation of trophies. I take the view that at the end of the day it’s all a bit of fun and not to be taken too seriously. While wishing to recognize the very real achievement of winning a trophy (in 20 years of riding the Beamish myself, I never won one) I would like to make sure that as many people as possible win an award. It could otherwise be possible for one person to win six awards which would be a bit boring at the awards night, possibly embarrassing if he/she didn’t attend and also doesn’t give other riders much of a chance. Accordingly in each group – main awards and class awards, I work from the top down and award one trophy in that class to the highest qualifying score and if there is a lower trophy for which they also qualify it will go to the next person in the ranking. This means that it is quite possible for one entrant to win both a major and a class award but not more than that. I hope that’s clear.
Missing date-bars
The date-bars and badges have all been posted out but today one was returned by Royal Mail - just the contents - no envelope so I don't know who it was for. If your date bar and/or badge hasnt arrived by the end of this week please let me know.
Photos wanted
If anybody has any pictures or video of year's event I would very much like to hear from them so that we can share them with other entrants.
New Hi-viz
Last year I mentioned that we needed some more high-viz jackets. Entrant Simon Scaife from Richmond very kindly offered to sponsor them through his company Nu-Vech. Of course they finally arrived three days late for the event but they did arrive and we are very grateful. Thanks Simon.
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In total there were 128 starters on the day from a total entry of 150. There were 123 finishers,. Many thanks to Dave Crone and Mike Laidler for providing the recovery.
Friday and Saturday in Weardale were stunning, with unbroken warm sunshine. Sunday morning started beautifully and I began to think that perhaps the weather forecast was unduly pessimistic. Unfortunately it rapidly became apparent that it was unduly optimistic. Light showers indeed! I salute all the riders and all the marshals who braved the downpour.
You may be aware that we felt compelled to move the lunchstop from our traditional venue at Allenheads as another club has taken to running their event from there and there is no way that the limited parking could accommodate two events. We opted to go to Nenthead and have been made most welcome by the community. There is ample parking space and despite the atrocious weather the ladies manfully prepared delicious burgers and offered superb cakes.
The change of lunchstop necessitated a change of route and while we dropped Studdon Hairpins we gained some challenging green lanes and an ‘interesting’ observed section at Garrigill.
It does appear that some riders were confused by the change of route or it may be that getting lost and missing out part of the route was a useful excuse in the prevailing weather!
The Robert Atkinson Cup is for outstanding achievement and this year it has been been awarded to Steven Salvin, who despite the weather completed the run on the smallest machine entered – a 75cc Lambretta Vega.
Thanks to all our many helpers including: North Durham Motor Club, The Friends of Killhope Lead Mine, North East Classic Motorcycle Club, BSA Owners Club, Rievers Section VMCC and Northumbrian Section VMCC. Thanks also to the many members, partners and friends of South Durham VMCC who worked so hard prior to & on the day to enable all of the sections to be open & the event to be completed successfully.
We are also indebted to the Mark and the team at The New Board Inn, who allowed us to use the pub site for the start/finish again and the facilities at the pub for tea/coffee/meals/toilets. We would also like to thank all of our trophy sponsors. A massive ‘thank you’ to all the landowners and users who allowed us access to their land and property once again.
The off-site parking arrangements at The New Board Inn seemed to work. As you know the farmer makes no charge for this facility but we collect for a charity of his choice. Thanks to your generosity we have been able to present MacMillan Cancer Support with £195
As you may be aware we are strong supporters of LARA (Land Access Recreation Association). Their work is vitally important in protecting our use of green lanes. This year we raised £282 as a donation to the Lara Fighting Fund.
I mentioned last year that we needed to replenish our hi-viz stocks. BTT Entrant Simon Scaife from Ripon and his company Nu-Vech Safety Solutions volunteered to sponsor them. These have now been delivered – two days too late for this year’s event! A huge Thank You to Simon for his generosity.
The ‘Beamish Awards Night’ will be at our regular venue: Middleton St George Cricket & Social Club, Water View, Middleton St. George, Darlington, DL2 1JQ starting at 7:30pm on Thursday 17 October 2019. There will be a buffet, distribution of goodies for the marshals, and a still photograph display and the presentation of trophies. We are also inviting all the marshals, observers and helpers so it is an opportunity to thank them. We really hope you can make it.
Looking ahead, Sunday 20 September 2020 is the date for the 48th Beamish Trophy Trial. Entry invitations will be sent out by email in the second week of January 2020. We can only do this if we have your email address so if you don’t receive periodic emails from us please contact us at Beamishtt@live.co.uk. If you do not have access to email we can send you a paper entry if you send us a stamped addressed envelope to the address below.
Finally, I am very unhappy to have to tell you that long-term Beamish entrant John Barr from Easingwold riding a Greeves, retired after the first green lane section and was involved in a serious road traffic accident on his way back to the New Board Inn. John is still in hospital and is seriously ill. Our thoughts and prayers are with John and his wife at this difficult time.
Yours sincerely
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Tom Norman
