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Hawshaw – February 14th 2010
Up at sparrow
fart as usual. I managed to persuade the other half to let me out
on Valentines by resorting to buying a new suite but she still
got her own back by tagging along with the sprogs and making me
late for scrutineering (which can be a bit of an issue when
you’re supposed to be the scrutineer in question!!)
Having run
around like a blue arsed fly getting gear together and food and
drink for four people instead of just little old me, I was in
the car, out on the road, with the engine running and kids
securely strapped to the roof rack by 7.30 and ready to roll. It
was only at this point that “Her Indoors” decided that she
desperately needed a S**t. (How much you must have in your body
for this to take twenty minutes is a matter for the Guinness
world record people).
She finally
mooches out of the house at 7.50, taking her time and without a
care in the world and then proceeds to remonstrate with me for
setting off like Michael Shumacher’s dysfunctional cousin!
Obviously, the
word had got out that I was late as everyone had made a special
effort to get up and drive to Crosshills through Halifax, (even
JCB’s and old classic cars) and this was without even
considering the speed cameras which have clearly been left
somewhere dark to breed profusely.
I finally washed
up at Hawshaw at 8.50 to be met by Barnes’y with a cheery “Your
Late!!. Scrutineering starts at 8.30”
“ ?*#@£&^!
Wife *#@~/! Pain #*£&% Arse ” I replied.
He grinned
hugely, took a big bite out of his bacon butty and wandered off.
I set about
scrutineering the days entries and all went to normal
expectations (the odd ball joint, a loose wheel bearing, now’t
interesting at all!!). That is until I came to Mark Binns. He
fielded a sort of buggy called a Polaris which looked for all
the world like a quad bikes really bad-ass 2 seater older
brother with a roll cage on for good measure. It was light as a
feather and had come from the USA at a cost of over 14 grand.
(mind you they also arrived in an ’09 plate Range Rover so that
probably wasn’t a massive issue!)
To be honest I
thought it was just an overgrown tonka toy and didn’t expect
anything from it at all. HOW WRONG WAS I!!!. It was utterly
unstoppable!. Mud, water, near vertical climbs, nothing fazed it
at all. In fact, if it hadn’t been for a couple of “Pilot Error”
incidents it would have romped home clear on the day and made us
all look even sicker than it did.
We found
ourselves with 10 RTV and 10 CCV entries for the day which were
split into 2 groups. I went off with Martins group to the bottom
of the site and Barnes’y took the other up to the top end.
We got on with
section 1 until after about 10 minutes, Barnes’y roared up,
thoroughly red of face.
“Where are all
the Bl****y RTV sticks?”
“What sticks?”
replies Martin, poker faced
“I told you it
needed extra sticks for RTV’s!”
“I was just
going to move them in once the RTV’s had gone through"
“You can’t, it’s
got to be the same for this aft!”
With that he
floored it, doughnuted around and ploughed back up the track,
engine bellowing, back end sliding about and with dummies and
teddies flying in all directions, to calls of “Mind that
halfshaft”.
Anyway, we
banged in some extra sticks in short order and carried on
regardless.
Section 2
contained a steep hill climb at the 7 stick which I though would
cause some serious problems but which almost all cleared, only
to be caught up in the quagmire just after the water filled
bomb-hole by the 4 stick instead.
Section 3 proved
interesting, comprising a wade through a deep ice covered lake
that made you want to play dam-busters music for accompaniment,
followed by a steep hill climb to the 1 cane that nearly put one
of the RTV Disco’s on its side.
Things
progressed steadily until, as we were just walking section 5,
the other group boggled past having already finished for lunch
and we realised we were well behind on time.
“Bu***r Me
(metaphorically speaking)”, I thought, “We’re going to be
chasing the light later”
Section 6 and
the last man through made it all worthwhile. Ed Roe, whilst
nursing an appalling misfire on his Series 1 1600cc, (Yes,
1600cc. They hardly made any of these and I never expected to
actually see one in the flesh, or rather, Cast Iron), limped
right round to the 3 gate, having got a lot further than several
others with perfectly good power plants, who were stopped on a boggy hill at the 6 stick, only to
mount a hillock and roll gracefully onto his side.
Back to the
motor for lunch with unseemly haste and stuff self, wife and sprogs full
of butties and soup as quick as possible before legging it off after
Barnes’y and his group for the afternoon, who’d already set off
about 10 minutes after we got back.
The afternoon
was a total mud bath!. The ground had been basically pure bog
with a bit of grass on top for presentation and the mornings
motors had ripped it to bits, leaving basically slurry for
everyone to slither around in, vainly striving for a bit of
traction.
We slithered and
spun our way through the afternoon. At one point the kids turned
up, soaking wet and covered in mud, having gone ice-walking in
one of the bomb holes rather unsuccessfully and filled their wellies
with freezing brown water.
Strangely, the
other group caught us up so the other sections must either have
been much faster or none of them got beyond the 11 stick on some
of the sections because they were so badly ravaged by the
mornings traffic.
The last section
was run and the scores were added which brought a few new
winners to the forefront. Colin had pushed Mark into second
place in his new Class 4 auto and Ashley had come third overall
in the RTV and took the novice trophy as well.
All that
remained was to push everyone off the field as the ground was so
slimy, the towing motors
couldn’t get any grip either and no-one fancied camping in the
snow for some strange reason.
All in all, a
good solid day out with lots of new blood in attendance and a
goodly supply of funny moments
Roll on
Crosshills!!
Ade
Stop Press :
14th
Feb 2010 is exactly 28 years to the day since Keith Normington
(108) set off for a Pennine event only to roll his road motor on
Widdop Road after skidding on ice without
ever getting to turn a wheel in anger. (Still, at least
it gives you chance to check your chassis for holes without
getting mucky scrabbling around on the floor!!)
Hawshaw RTV / CCV 14th
Feb 2010
It was a lovely
day for our grand annual Valentines RTV / CCV event at Hawshaw.
As Keith wasn’t
going, I drove up in the Golf and got there nice and early.
“Fireman Phil”
Rigg kindly allowed me to use his Rangey Vogue for signing on.
Talk about luxury!!
Competitors
began arriving nice and steadily, including a buggy type
vehicle, which it’s owner, Ed Roe, told me he had brought in
from the USA. It was an AWESOME motor – Class 6 and cold climb
near vertical slopes. He collected the lowest score of the day
but wasn’t eligible for a trophy due to being the only one in
his class.
We had 10 RTV
and 10 CCV entries and nine new members joined the Pennine.
There were all
kinds of Motors; Disco’s, Landies, and Rangey’s and I could see
them all from where I was sitting sorting out money, forms and
results sheets.
After six
sections we had a dinner break and then off they went again.
There were only two breakdowns that I saw. Brian Braithwaite had
to come and fix his steering box which had come loose so he
couldn’t steer properly, and Nathan Cavalier who had to remove a
broken shock absorber.
It was nice to
see a long standing Pennine member arrive in his ’80, driven by
his son who had just passed his driving test. I recognized OVN606 immediately !.
At around
3.30pm, competition was over for the day and I got the results
together and prize-giving took place.
Many thanks to
Martin Carter who set up, all the Marshals and the Land owner
(and Phil for the use of his posh Rangey!) and anyone else who
helped to make this a very enjoyable day.
See you all at
Crosshills
Joy
“Gi’s Thi’ Brass” Holland
(Membership Secretary)
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