THE INTERVARSITY TRIAL

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THE INTER VARSITY TRIAL

Oxford and Cambridge hold their A Milled A//air.

N Saturday, November 14th, occurred the annual mud

lark between the C.U.A.C. and the O.U.C.C. The weather was good, and although the organisation was more than a little hazy, the route was well and plainly marked, and a good time was had by all, or nearly all. After a certain amount of preliminary confusion, caused partly by the Cambridge secretary having other business to attend to unexpectedly, a few days before, in connection with some tomatoes (nothing to do with market gardening apparently), we finally ascertained that Ye Old Crown at Marlow was the starting point.

Having collected our namigator, mobile ballast, and court jester (all incorporated in the person of a fellow scribe who shares our predilection for utterly aimless and muddy motoring), we piloted one 5 year old Frazer-Nash to the start, to find an unexpectedly large entry working feverishly on an assortment of automobiles. These varied widely in age, type and suitability for trials work, but all seemed hopeful. Precautions against wheelspin ranged from chains and rope on the wheels, which lost the driver his 3 marks bonus at the start, and of which the latter ex

pedient is worse than useless, to a large block of masonry on the luggage grid of Bertram’s Vauxhall, which was highly ingenious, but of doubtful use. We were not due to start for over an hour after the first solo. We revived ourselves with hot coffee and food in Ye Old Crown till it was our turn to follow the procession

to the slaughter. The first hill produced no difficulty, and we arrived at the second, Shillingridge, to find a large queue waiting for sundry unsuitable vehicles to be assisted up the gradient. The climb was easy, however, though the ruts were uncomfortable without serving any useful purpose. Not a good trials hill in fact.

With the aid of our passenger’s instructions from the route card we made our way to Woolley and Wild, which is presumably named after the famous Wild and Woolly on Camberley Heath, where those of us who liked that sort of thing used to disport ourselves on motorcycles in the days of the Southern Scott Scramble. The hill is the same shape, being two gradients meeting at a spring-breaking angle at the bottom. However, this hill is easy in comparison with our old Camberley friend, and few drivers had any difficulty.

Shortly before arriving at the wood which encloses it, we found our motor on. three cylinders, but having replaced the detached plug lead which caused the trouble, had no further incident with the engine, which behaved perfectly and had lots of power for everything.

The next notable port of call was Alms Hill, said to be shortly coming under a ban for trials, but still open on this day for those who could cope with it. There was some delay here owing to the bashful attitude of the early cars who waited at the bottom to be signalled up, while an unknowing official out of sight on the hill waited to receive them. This little misunderstanding being cleared up, the attack began but with very little success by the majority. Burrow’s Lagonda nearly got up, but stopped with wheels on the end of the observed section. Actually the hill was comparatively dry for the time of year, and the lower slopes provided good wheel grip for those who would take advantage of it to get up sufficient speed. Bertram had two valiant attempts, but even the tombstone on the back failed to get him up. The FrazerNashes shot up at speed,.with King’s, very old one about the fastest, once again proving the value of a high