Martin Podesta	Jonathan Plant
Paul Hodgkins	Gary Wigston
Mick James	Gordon Pusey

2013 Harold Avery Trial

Report Ken O'Brien

Pictures by Gary Dowzall,  others can be found Sliders Gallery

A cold but sunny morning greeted sixty riders for the 66th running of this prestigious Open to Centre Trophy where in the past such great riders as John Avery Sammy Miller Don Smith Bill Faulkner Pat Lamper and John Reynolds have all been triumphant.
Twelve sections were plotted to be ridden three times with mainly long wooded climbs and loose cambers with no-stop rules to adhere.
Best expert today was John Cowley Ossa 280 who won this Trophy for the first time back in 1999.  John had to work hard on section nine though a real tough one ' The Bomb-Hole '  a virtually straight up climb from the rivers edge in forth gear where he recorded a clean sheet at every visit.
Runner -up in the Expert class was Martin Podesta over from the neighboring Leamington Spa club losing 12 marks.
Section Ten the toughest section of the day took a dab from Martin on the third lap, once up over a narrow track riders were confronted with a huge root step before trying to find grip on a very steep climb and then an equally tough vertical gully through trees to the last 20 yards of  slick roots.
Best Intermediate on the hard route was David Burk who rode section Eight the infamous Graded Hill as good as it could be recording three nice cleans.
The 'Graded Hill' is quite a spectacle for the crowds to watch as it rises gently from the edge of the Evenlode river and 250 yards later we are talking probably a gradient of 1in1 for the last 20 yards or so and not for the faint hearted.

Best Adult performance on the Standard White route ensures your name will be engraved on the Phillip Howkins Memorial cup and this year it is that of Alan Taylor who put an accomplished ride in on the Scorpa although was caught out for a dab on section five fondly known as the water-fall section a twisting rooty affair to start with before a long cambered climb and then an awkward low bough to pass with a greasy stony climb to finish.
Kevin Miller was nudged into second spot on the furthest clean rule a one on the Graded Hill first lap was the offending mark.

Twenty-one turned out for a gentlemanly days ride on the Blue eased route but in the end it wasn't as easy as it looked and Veteran  Billy Andrews had to call all his years of experience in to take the best in class ahead of  local Electrical contractor Ron Walters whose immaculately turned out 200 Fantic purred around the 3 mile course 1 mark adrift.