My head is spinning! It’s Friday evening, I’ve just sat down at the laptop to start working on this week’s column and have just ploughed my way through 97 postings about the possibility that trials will return to no-stop. There’s simply too much to take in and I have no idea what will change or even if anything will change, and if there are changes, to which events they will apply.
Inevitably, what is written here is my opinion or interpretation. IF (in capitals for a reason) World, British Championship and Novogar trials return to no-stop, in my view it is likely to mean that if you stop, then you will be penalised 5 marks – not 1!
I can’t see no-stop trials being one mark for stopping, I don’t think that’s the interpretation planned, not that I know for sure either way.
I ride almost entirely in the north of England, certainly no further south than Derbyshire these days, so let’s analyse trials marking the way it is practiced in the events I ride.
Many trials in Yorkshire are classed as no-stop and the interpretation is quite clear, if you stop, even momentarily, you are likely to be penalised five marks. Some observers will be lenient and let you faff around for a moment or two to see if you can get going again whilst others will write five on their scoresheet the fraction that front wheel stops revolving.
Trials in the Northern Centre, North Western Centre and the nationals I ride (Bemrose, Dave Rowland) in Derbyshire use stop permitted rules. Generally, the interpretation I put on my expected score is that if I stop, I can expect a one mark penalty in addition to anything else I lose in the section. However, I also recognise that some observers are lenient and they will not penalise me for a momentary stop.
Let me explain my position as a frequent observer as well as a rider. I always observe in my own club’s evening trial series, events which attract entries from riders who have limited ability. (This is not a criticism, that’s the type of rider we encourage and want in our trials). In these events I’m as lenient as it’s possible to be. Short of falling off, if the rider gets to the end of the section, no matter how many times he stops, I’ll give him a three.
Why? Easy, because he has come to my club’s trials because he knows we won’t be harsh on him; we encourage him to do his best, and remember, for many of these less able riders, simply completing four laps of ten dead easy sections is a severe test in itself. Only last week we had two guys who only managed two laps; they were chuffed with that as it was a lap more than they had managed before. Their next aim is to complete three, then four laps in an evening, only trouble is that we’ve run out of evenings!
I also observe big events, like the Alan Trial and the Scott, a trial in which I have been a regular observer for a number of years. And in these trials I observe strictly to the rules. As I recall, the Alan is currently run to stop permitted with a one mark penalty for stopping, and that’s exactly how I mark. I well remember Shaun Morris having a right moan at me for giving him a dab in the Bootle Club’s Presidents Trial for a section he had cleaned. However, he had stopped long enough for a one mark penalty to be awarded, and that’s what he got, so whilst I sympathised with Shaun for having to take a mark when he considered he had cleaned, I stuck by the rules of the trial at the time.
Equally, in the Scott, which is a no-stop trial, riders get a five for momentary stopping in any section I observe. Do I consider this to be fair? Not particularly as it happens, because the Scot is tough and many times riders are simply knackered and their momentary stop is a result of exhaustion, but sorry lads, that’s the way the trial runs.
Now, having just run a Lancs County trial today, if we were on no-stop rules (5 for a stop) then scores would rise dramatically with the sections as they were marked. Were they hard – not especially, but they were very slippery with rocks embedded in mud and really good efforts frequently incurred momentary halts as riders heaved their bikes through the sections.
So would Lancs County ever go no-stop? I can’t say yes or no, but the way the riders ride that we attract to our events, no-stop would be a rude awakening to them, and we, like many clubs,are there to provide lads with a bit of Sunday afternoon sport, there’s no way any of our riders will be anything other than real clubmen, certainly there’s no champs emerging, so I can see us doing what they want, and I rather suspect a return to no-stop would not be welcomed.
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