Stump Wood Hill Climb - 14 August 2005

Report by Ben Falconer

Mike Wells conquered four exceptionally slippery hills to head West Glos and Dean Forest MCC's Stump Wood Hill climb. Over four attempts at individually timed grass hills at Rockfield, Monmouth on Saturday, August 20th, Wells was nearly 30 seconds quicker than hare and hounds ace Dean Lee.

And Wells' son Aaron made it a family affair by taking the best schoolboy award with an aggressive ride.

A few hours' rain before the start made conditions as difficult as they could have been. Hard ground under slippery grass made several riders on fiery Enduro steeds fight for grip, while the less powerful trials and trail machines proved that sometimes the tortoise is quicker than the hare.

Trials class winner Paul Tippins's time was fourth best in a field dominated by Enduro machines, while trail class winner Peter Neale was less than 20 seconds behind him. And Andrew Weddle proved modern machinery is not a pre-requisite for success too - his 1974 CZ barked its way up all the hills to keep him within 600 seconds aggregate time.

Thanks to the families Hannam and Bishop for time keeping and course plotting and club president Roy Breakwell for use of the venue.

Brief Results. (Detail results to come.)

Position	Rider	Bike	Points
Enduro
1	Mike Wells	KTM 400	426.92
2	Dean Lee	Honda CR 250	454.29
3	Steve Biddle	Honda XR 400	479.68
Trials
1	Paul Tippins	Montesa 250	497.51
Trail
1	Peter Neale	Honda CRF 230	516.31
Youth
1	Aaron Wells	Honda CR 85	587.46