A beautiful autumn morning greeted riders for the last club event of 2017, the hill-climb championship.  The long, steady Bolderwood climb from Emery Down, being used for the first time, attracted some who might not normally be tempted to a hill-climb.  Defending champion Pat Lafford suffered a broken spoke before the start and though loaned a wheel from pusher-off Colin Smith (of Crabwood International Rescue!), the hasty wheel change resulted in the tyre rubbing against the frame for at least part of the ride.  Despite our best efforts to slow him down, Pat still took the win with 7.31.

Good to see Andy Stevens returning to racing - his first TT event for a few seasons.  And John who managed to get out of bed despite only returning from Canada on Saturday!

Amongst the private rides, 19-year old Elliott Chilton (JPCC) was fastest in 6.55 – with Ray Claridge of GA Cycles – more than twice the age of the winner – just 3 seconds behind.

Mary Corbett and John Radford (Sotonia CC) went off No.1 to record a short-lived course record(!) riding as part of Mary’s Tandem Challenge for ME awareness, recorded a respectable 9.13.

Many thanks to our timekeepers David Crocker and Norman Harvey (Sotonia CC) and pusher-off Colin.