John Fulcher Memorial
This event was held at Constantia on Sunday 15th October for the fourteenth successive year. For those who may not know who John Fulcher was, he was the one who really put trials in Cape Town on the map from the early seventies and into the eighties. He, with Nomads support, brought out several leading overseas riders to South Africa to show us how to ride trials and our riders quickly went from being the new kid on the block to being winners in national events.
The event started off with the traditional moments silence and riders briefing. Classic bikes were a bit scarce this time with Johann Van Blerck (SWM) and Neil Tweddle (Greeves) not being able to ride. I was particularly hoping the Greeves would be taking part as not only is it another classic, but it would have been the oldest one there (1964). Non biking injuries also had an effect on the entry with Jorge being out with an Achilles tendon injury (soccer), and Neil out suffering from an ankle injury. Tim was bravely riding in pain with one finger in a splint from a horse related incident but he retired after the first lap and took up the observers sheet instead. Of the twelve entrants it was only Hans on a Yamaha and myself on the Cotton on classic bikes. Again, for those not familiar with this event, the Cotton is a long obsolete make of British trials bike that John Fulcher imported into South Africa in 1974 and is especially pertinent to this event as this was his own bike.
The course was the usual eight sections and four laps and there were classes for experts, clubmen and novices. There was only one novice, Thomas Sandell, and he really made short work of the novice sections with a loss of only seven marks. The clubmens class had six riders with a fairly wide spread of marks. Anton Krause had a fairly easy win with Craig McIver coming a very solid second.
In the experts class, there was some very keen competition. Mark Du Plessis , on his trials comeback, was doing very well, as expected, but a five on section three and then another on section six on the last lap put him in third place and possibly even cost him the victory. Mark was the only rider to get four cleans on section seven, the inevitable stream section. Jason Krause in the meantime quietly flew under the radar into second spot with Deon taking fourth just three marks adrift.
So that left me a little surprised to be in first place, as I had not had a trouble free run. Over the years the Cotton has had its moments and this year was no exception. I had to change the plug a few times and adjust the clutch to regain some disappearing disengagement. This had only cost me a few marks on some of the tighter turns where I needed full disengagement. Over the years I do have one thing to be thankful for though, and that is these various hassles with the Cotton have never cost me a five. As can be seen from the results a five for anybody in the experts class would have made a difference. But that’s trials. There’s always the “if only” factor.
Results:
| EXPERTS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total | Position |
| Brian Barson | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 19 | 1 |
| Jason Krause | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 23 | 2 |
| Mark Du Plessis | 2 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 25 | 3 |
| Deon De Villiers | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 26 | 4 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total | Position | |
| CLUBMEN | ||||||||||
| Anton Krause | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| Craig McIver | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 17 | 2 |
| Roddy Mills | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 11 | 2 | 27 | 3 |
| Nicholas Lucas | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 29 | 4 |
| Hans Klein | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 14 | 9 | 40 | 5 |
| Jeandre De Villiers | 1 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 68 | 6 |
| NOVICES | ||||||||||
| Thomas Sandell | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 1 |
Thanks to the Ramsden family for the use of the property once again, and to everyone who helped set the sections and collect markers, to Jorge for looking after the fires and Amber for adding up the scores.
Brian.
