Clive Elliott Memorial Rally

The 2009 12 Car season finished on a high note with the Clive Elliott Memorial Rally bringing down the curtain on a busy and successful year of events. In tribute to Clive, the rally was based on roads in the North Tyne area that he knew so well with the Start and Finish in Wark.

Despite the horrible weather, and the threat of worse to come, we were delighted to receive an oversubscribed entry plus a full compliment of marshals, thanks very much to the latter. Starting right outside the Black Bull, a quick loop up the road towards Birtley and back down past Wark Station immediately created problems with the wee Peugeot van of Angela Jones/ Willie Jarman missing it out and David Lewis/ Andrew Fish missing RC1 and having to retrace their steps.

Heading East over towards Barrasford Park and up the A68, the little triangle at Carrycoats caught out several crews, notably Lewis/ Fish who slid off, Nigel Cardale/ Peter Littlefield sportingly stopped to push, dropping 10 minutes in the process. The gated road through Throckrington was followed by a run down to Hallington. Somewhere around here Rob Shepherd retired his Xantia with an oil leak.

Pressing on, up the hill to Ryal and then along past Stagshaw Mast the route then headed West towards Chollerton and done a little loop round Brunton before Keith Hetherington’s well lit control at Chesters. Kev Monaghan’s big Nissan dropped 4 minutes on this section, don’t think his navigator was feeling too well.

After looping round by Walwick and using the “Not as Map” triangle at Tower Tye, the route headed back towards Wark before diving into the very twisty road past Latterford. With the usual road round past Longlee blocked due to bridge works, the rally used the long loop around Broadpool Common, right up to Whygate and back to Hetherington, then sharp left through the gate and over to finish on the Pundershaw road. By now it was raining quite heavily and crews were mighty relieved to see the final control.

While everybody headed back to the Black Bull to demolish the sandwiches, Ed sat up on the fell working out results. In spite of the horrible weather, there were, surprisingly , 4 clean sheets with victory going to the Peugeot of Stu Hastings/ Ed Veitch by virtue of the “Earliest Entry” rule. Using the same principle, Chris Purvis/ Rob Renwick were 1st Experts and Ian Guthrie / Charlie Tynan picked up yet another Historic award in the venerable Volvo Amazon.

Thus ended another years competition, highlighted by pleasingly full entries and some good “Crack” at the rally finishes. See you all next year.

After 30 years of trying , David Lewis finally managed to win a Hexham organised event when he swept to victory on the Autumn Trophy Rally, a win made all the sweeter ass he had his Son Dan navigating for him. Davis posted the only clean sheet of the night, no mean feat given that the autumn Trophy was probably the toughest route we have seen on this years 12 Car series and the roads were extremely wet and soggy all night.

A maximum field gathered in Allendale Market Place for the penultimate round of the 2009 series and we were pleased to welcome first timers Dave and Sheila Ross while Angela Jones made the long journey from Workington to compete. Heading out of Allendale, the route headed South to TC1 near Knock Shield ford. Shield/ Fletcher had a brainstorm and dropped 10 minutes spoiling a good nights run. Section 2 featured the Acton Burn hairpins, finishing up near Thornley Five Road ends and then it was West to TC 3 at the familiar Keenley Crossroads.

The road through Oak Pool seems to get narrower every time we use it and the bridge in the bottom caused a few problems, notably for Jimmy McCall’s big Jeep. TC 4 was at Langley and then there was a dash to TC 5 on the white at Stublick, the McCall Jeep vanished somewhere round here for unknown reasons. Looping back round to Langley where Paul and Mart were on duty, crews then headed down the hairpins at Whitfield and back up to Keenley Crossroads before a long meandering section led down the West Allen Valley and over from Carrshield to visit Mc Cliff, perched high on the fell above Allenheads. Dave Dickinson/ Niall Cook had been going well in the Mini but a lapse of concentration saw them drop a chunk of time.

The final section proved to be the “Sting in the Tail”, an unmarked triangle causing a few navigators to scratch their heads and there was a fair bit of shuffling back and forward as crews worked out the correct route, eventually they all pitched up at the Allenheads Inn for Mrs. Homers unique brand of hospitality !

So, it is congratulations to the Lewis’, indeed, congratulations to everyone who finished what was quite a tough event. As always, the real heroes of the night were the marshals, that hardy bunch who stand out in all weathers and one must express great appreciation for all their efforts. The final 12 car of 2009 is the Clive Elliott Memorial Rally on December 9th.

Final Results For Autumn Trophy Rally :

1st Overall    David & Dan Lewis
1st. Expert    Charlie Tynan / Ali Proctor
1st. Historic  Jeff Tait / Luke Tait

Very many thanks to all Marshals, without whom the events wouldn’t run

Next Event : The Clive Elliott Memorial Rally 9th December 2009

Printable version of results

THE SEPTEMBER SORTIE FINAL RESULTS

No.	CREW	CAR	CLASS	TC	TC	TC	TC	TC	TC	TC	TC	TOTAL	POSITION
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8		OVERALL
1	N.Cardale/P.Littlefield	Clio	N	1	2							3	6
2	D.Dickinson/N.Cook	Mini	N	2					3			5	9
3	S.Hoggins/R.Hewitt	Puma	N	6	1			1				8	11
4	A.Proctor/C.McGough	Astra	N					5	2			7	10
5	R.Shepherd/Shaun	Citroen	N		1							1	4
6	M.Davison/J.Davison	Clio	E									0	1 O/A
7	I.Guthrie/C.Tynan	L.Cruiser	E	3				1			4	7
8	C.Purvis/R.Renwick	Astra	E	2								2	5
9	C.Dodds/P.Gibson	Peugeot	E									0	2 (1E)
10	D.Lewis/D.Lewis	BMW	N									0	3  (1N)
11	J.Tait/L.Tait	Escort	N/H	RETIRED Faulty Route Instructions
12	L.Charlton/G.Fletcher	Clio		1			5					6	10

Ties decided by Para.12 (a)   Earliest Entry Received

Next Hexham 12 car is The Autumn Trophy   4th. November 2009-09-24

Enter early, it might mean you winning !!!!!!!!!!!!!!