VSCC in the Lakes
No, no, not literally! What I am implying is that the VSCC, being a traditional sort of Club, has for years ended its trials season with the toughest event of the lot, by taking competitors up to Lakeland, this time 111 of them (only nine unfortunates failing to start), so popular is it. These stalwarts were faced with 14 observed-sections good and true, or not so good if skill and luck ran out. Starting with Prickly, the course finished with the dreaded Drumhouse. In between, such horrors as Thirlby’s Folly, Sale Fell, Darling Howe and Grey Stones had to be attempted. Swinside was perhaps the greatest horror, although Hindle’s, Evan’s and Diffey’s A7s and the Rileys of Odell and McEwen took top scores here, when many scarcely got away, and clean climbs were likewise achieved by Joseland (Frazer Nash), Murray (Frazer Nash), Hall (Frazer Nash) and Blakeney-Edwards (Frazer Nash) — jubilation in the “Chain Gang” camp! In contrast, Drumhouse seems to have lost its string.
Whereas it poured in the South, the weather in the Lakes was quite nice and the awards list probably expanded on this account. Miss Tarring (Frazer Nash) and S Diffey (Humber) omitted nine sections and Meeks (1921 Austin), Saggerson (Riley) and Roger Collings in the 1907/16 19-litre Mercedes-Maybach missed five each, the aero-engined monster having a few problems including an inflammatory one, but making the journey out and back to Hereford as rapid consolation. Only Thring (1920 Vauxhall) seems to have retired early. Patrick Blakeney-Edwards was the winner of the Bridge Hotel Trophy, by a clear two marks from James Diffey’s A7 and Rodney Felton’s Brescia Bugatti, the A7 having run out of petrol, the Bugatti jumping out of gear on one section. In Class 2 David Bond did very well to win the Kirkstile Plate, with a 1926 Morris, six marks ahead of Baxter’s Chrysler, with Ben Collings eight marks behind the lighter American challenger, with the heavier 4-1/2-litre Bentley less agile on the grass uplands. One mark behind Ben was Hamish Moffatt, who got the Roy Patterson Trophy. W B
First Class Awards: P Blakeney-Edwards (1929 Frazer Nash), R Felton (1923 Bugatti), D Bond (1926 Morris), R Thwaite (1930 Chrysler), B Collings (1928 Bentley).
Second Class Awards: R Clark (1937 HRG), L Murray (1925 Frazer Nash), P Evans (1928 A7), J McEwen (Riley), S Welsh (1930 A7), R Odell (1923 Riley), T Threlfall (1928 Ford), B Spollon (1924 30/98), P Cassidy (1929 Riley), S Baxter (1928 Chrysler), A Goding (1917 Studebaker).
Third Class Awards: J Hindle (1924 A7), G Winder (1930 A7), B Clarke (1928/29 A7), I Hall (1930 Frazer Nash), A Johnson (1923 Bugatti), J Baxter (1929 A7), M Joseland (1926 Frazer Nash), D Hescroff (1935 AC), D Marsh (1923 30/98), G Toms (1921 Fiat), and H Monro (1925 30/98).