The first round of the 2021 Southern Centre Championship was held at Manor Farm site at Langrish, the home of the Ken Hall Memorial Scramble. The massive site catered for the 120 riders with ease and with sections set for mixed weather only a clean trial was going to bring class victories over the three laps of sixteen sections.
Ben Skinner and Andrew Blackman posted cleans in the experts to tie for the victory in round one. as the top ten were covered by just nine marks. Skinner, who was a late entry and Blackman who has been a long time top southern expert put in a perfect ride to push 2019 Champion Thomas Moss into third. Moss had a stray dab on section 3 to end on one, which was matched by Bridport and Weymouth rider Ben Lovelace. Section 9 caused some difficulties coming down a steep drop from the top of the hillside over the ‘whoops’, James Graham lost his braking before a sharp turn on the expert route and had to go straight down the side of the hill to stay on the bike, his only loss of the day. Youth A rider Joe Snelling rode superbly losing just two which would have placed him in the top six of the adult runners.
In the clubman experts, several riders followed Colin Allsop to the end to see if he could stay clean, he kept his nerve on the tight wooded sections 15 and 16 and finished up with a clinical ride on section one. Again, the top nine were covered by just ten marks, Martin Carter took a dab on another hillside section 10 to finish second on one, ahead of Andy Kilby on Two and Gary Tarrant on three. On the B route Mick Marshall showed his usual superb concentration, not making a mistake to be clean. Neil Varney lost just two getting it wrong in on the section 15 in the woods but held on to second. On the C route Matty Brown cleaned for the main sportsman class win from the ever-improving Carl Barr. Geoff Herbert impressively muscled his Ariel HT around clean on the same route in a competitive Pre65 C class to finish level with Ian Peberdy on his Drayton Bantam. In the Veterans, Andy Pattison was clean whilst Alex Taylor took a good win in the Twinshocks on his Fantic. Regular top runners Geoff Muston and Mik Michanek had a tough day losing six fives between them including three on the tricky section four, which had a very sharp exit which caught out several riders who approached the climb to the last turn too quickly. On the novice route youth rider David James produced the best ride on the route along with Adam Kilby, both clean but it was only David who increased his pocket money for the week having beaten dad Lloyd who finished on one to top the main novice class. £10 extra this week David. Andy Withers topped Pre65 D by two marks from George Greenland and Chris Page, George and daughter Karen both seemed to have taken a wrong route on section 7 on the first lap, but George still gained family honour beating Karen by one.
This is a special event as trophies are presented from a set donated by George from his many exploits home and abroad, some unique momentoes. The next round of the Southern Centre Championship is for Pre65 and Twinshocks only at the Woodberry Lane site at Rowlands Castle. The date for this event is 4th July not 11th July as first advertised!
Results
Experts: Ben Skinner (GasGas) 0, Andy Blackman (Beta) 0, Thomas Moss (Honda) 1, Ben Lovelace (GasGas) 1, James Graham (Scorpa) 5 (47 cleans), Wayne Holdsworth (Montesa) 5 (45 cleans), Greg Marshall (GasGas) 6 (46 cleans), Brian Francis (TRS) 6 (46 cleans)
Clubman Expert: Colin Allsop (Scorpa) 0, Martin Carter (GasGas) 1, Andy Kilbey (TRS) 2, Garry Tarrant (GasGas) 3, Neal Hubbard (Beta) 3, Rob Hoyles (TRS) 4, David Sherlock (Vertigo) 5, Leigh Emery (TRS) 6.
Clubman: Mick Marshall (GasGas) 0, Neil Varney (GasGas) 2, Dave Penfold (GasGas) 3, Tim Ponting (Montesa) 5, Shaun Francis (GasGas) 6, Simon Dean (Beta) 6, Stuart Belcher (TRS) 7, Andy Gates (TRRS) 7.
Veteran: Andy Pattison(Scorpa) 0, Mick Treagus (GasGas) 1, Robert Bamford (Beta) 2, Stewart Read (Montesa) 3, Pete Brown (Sherco) 5, John Emery (GasGas) 5, Martin Penfold (TRS) 5, Trevor Gatrell (Sherco) 6, Tony Knott (Vertigo) 6.
Sportsman: Matty Brown (Sherco) 0, Carl Barr (Sherco) 19.
Twinshock C: Alex Taylor (Fantic) 1, John Long (Honda) 5, Tim Carter (Yamaha) 6, Lee Wildsmith (Honda) 6, Geoff Muston (Honda) 15, Mik Machinek (Honda) 15.
Pre65 C: Geoff Herbert (Ariel) 0, Ian Peberdy (BSA) 0, Bob Hampton (BSA) 7, Charlie Tindle (BSA) 15.
Novice: Lloyd James (Honda) 1, Trevor Newell (Yamaha) 6, Tony Gray (Honda) 12, Jonathon Bathe (Beta) 13, Calvin Wright (Ossa) 14, Jason Elford (Yamaha) 20, Geoff Parker (Fantic) 31, Steve Wagstaff (Honda) 36.
Pre 65 D: Andy Withers (BSA) 3, George Greenland (BSA) 5, Chris Page (BSA) 5, Karen Clarke (BSA) 6, Malcolm Peberdy (BSA) 7, Jim Gray (Ariel) 14, Alan Henbest (BSA) 25.
Youth A: Joe Snelling (Beta) 2
Youth C: Dylan Earle (GasGas) 51
Youth D: David James (Beta) 0, Adam Kilby (GasGas) 0, Jack Holdsworth (Beta) 9
Report: Andy Withers
Pictures: Awsportsphoto