The Walsingham Trial

🚜 Walsingham Trial 2025 – Competitor’s Report
📍 2nd March 2025 | Somewhere between a beech tree and a pine tree landscape!

🏁 Overview

Ah, Walsingham. That time of year when brave souls, trusting passengers, and questionably tuned machines take to the hills to ask life’s greatest questions—mainly, “Why is Hill 5 doing this to me?” This year’s trial was a delightful chaos of climbs, clutches, and comedy. The mud was slick, the stakes were high, and so were half the front wheels on Hill 7.

🥇 Overall Winner

🧊 Tom Bricknell & Beth Carroll – 27 Points (Car 1, IRS Red Crossle)
As is tradition, Tom swept through the event with his usual style: clean, clinical, and criminally consistent. Rumour has it he didn’t just drive the course—he levitated. Their Crossle barely put a tyre wrong, and Beth’s calm navigation was so precise it could’ve been AI-generated.

📦 Podium Finishers

• 🥈 George Watson & Victoria Watson – 32 Points (Car 4)
  The Watsons delivered a brilliant performance in their Hamilton, proving that the family who trials together, also defeats gravity together.

• 🥉 Andy Wilks & Mark Smith – 31 Points (Car 8)
  A strong, clean drive that balanced aggression and restraint—like a trialling Jedi. If they’d gone any more sideways, we’d have offered them a rally contract.

🛠️ Class Highlights & Notable Combatants

• Rookie Class Winner – 🥇 Alan Carr & Sharren Carr – 64 Points (Car 27)
  The Carrs lived up to their name and kept rolling, claiming the Rookie prize with big smiles and bigger roostertails.

• Best in Live Class – 🏅 James Flanagan & Sarah Gale – 45 Points (Car 21)
  Their Kincraft didn’t just survive—it thrived. A balanced effort through the trenches of Hill 6, with only the occasional existential crisis.

• Sherpa Sightings

  • Stuart Beare & Katka Beare (Car 16) – 41 Points
    This Sherpa made progress look stylish. It's unclear if the Beares were in control or just incredibly lucky, but either way, it worked.

  • Clive Raymont (Car 29) – 53 Points
    A solid show in the “Rookie who looks suspiciously experienced” category.

💣 Honourable Mentions & Glorious Carnage

• Bob Packham & Mark Tallon – 47 Points
  A classic Packham performance—steady, strategic, and just chaotic enough to be entertaining.

• Mike Readings & Carole Readings – 54 Points
  Possibly added bonus weight in tea flasks. Still managed to sneak into the top half, tea intact.

• Trevor Wood (Car 18) – 182 Points
  That’s not a typo. Trevor gave us all a lesson in endurance. He stuck with it, even when the hills clearly wanted to break both spirit and suspension. Legendary.

• Stuart Woods (Car 7) – 205 Points
  Took the scenic route through every section and probably passed three counties on the way. Commitment: 10/10. Directional accuracy: debatable.

• Simon Kingsley (Car 11), Dave Overy (Car 20), James Tickle (Car 3) – DNS/Retired
  They turned up. They looked at the hills. They wisely remembered they had something urgent to do at home.

🧗 Hill Highlights (and Lowlights)

• Hill 1: Calm before the storm. Gave a few people hope. That was its only job.

• Hill 5: The crusher. Claimed gearboxes, marriages, and several pairs of gloves.

• Hill 8: Described by one passenger as “more of a suggestion than a path.” If you didn’t stall here, we want a scrutineer to check your tyres.

🧠 What We Learned

• Balance matters – And not just on the hills. One too many sausage rolls can upset the centre of gravity.

• Communication is key – “Right” means different things to drivers and passengers. Decide before Hill 6.

• Clean scores look good—but muddy trousers tell better stories.

🏁 Final Thoughts

Walsingham 2025 was muddy, marvellous and just a little bit mad. Whether you left with silverware, scars, or just some excellent photos of your car doing a nosedive, you were part of something brilliantly bonkers.

And if you didn’t win? Don’t worry. At least you didn’t score a 205... probably.

Filed by a competitor who may or may not have spent half a round yelling “which gate are we going to?”