{"id":131,"date":"2019-05-28T21:58:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T19:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neu.gernot-menke.de\/?page_id=131"},"modified":"2025-11-25T14:27:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:27:57","slug":"windlesham-wheelers-trial-in-bagshot-heath-am-07-12-1947","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/windlesham-wheelers-trial-in-bagshot-heath-am-07-12-1947\/","title":{"rendered":"Windlesham Wheelers Trial in Bagshot Heath on 7 December 1947"},"content":{"rendered":"
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British Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The discovery I made in October 2018 at the British Library in London is sensational. Although it was to be expected that bike trials must have originated in Great Britain, the motherland of observed trials, no evidence had ever been found to support this. Apparently, the British had forgotten that this early cycle trial existed shortly after the war. They then introduced bike trials in the 1980s as \u2018Trialsin\u2019 by Pere Pi, who \u2013 using his Montesa business connections \u2013 prepared the Eurocup, which took place for the first time in 1982. When I visited the editorial office of TRIALS & MOTOCROSS NEWS in Morecambe in March 1981 (the editorial office was located on the upper floor of a hat shop), which also published BMX NEWS magazine, they knew nothing about bike trials and were surprised when I showed them photos from Germany.<\/p>\n

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British Library St. Pancras<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The organiser of the Windlesham Wheelers Trial was no stranger. I need to backtrack a little: the Scott Trial in the Yorkshire Dales, first held in 1914, is now a classic motorcycle trials event, which, like the Scottish Six Days Trial in Scotland, first held in 1909, still exists today. Both events were famous even in the past. The Scott Trial was and is notorious for its selective nature, as it is also a race against time on a very difficult course. Only the first rider to cross the finish line receives no time penalties \u2013 for every minute later at the finish, there is one penalty point. Added to this are the section penalty points. 1<\/a><\/sup> The Scott Trial was always a good trial, taking place in fantastic terrain, where style was important and the time trial was the icing on the cake. It is not without reason that the \u2018Scott\u2019 is considered something like the first motorcycle trial, even though the \u2018Scottish\u2019 is a few years older. The riders from this area had a reputation to match.<\/p>\n

This led to a rivalry with riders from southern England, who were not willing to take this lying down and organised the \u2018Southern Scott Trial\u2019 in Camberley Heath, southwest of London, in 1924, on the very heathland next to Bagshot and Aldershot (well-known names in motorcycle trials) and Windlesham. Due to the completely different terrain of this hilly and sandy heathland \u2013 the Scott Trial in Yorkshire had rocky terrain with streams and greater differences in altitude \u2013 the Southern Scott Trial focused solely on time. Two laps were ridden, with a lunch break in between. There was no style scoring; the fastest rider was the winner. I mention this here because this event became the forefather of the scramble<\/em>, which means something like \u2018wild brawl\u2019 or \u2018wild chaos\u2019 \u2013 the Belgians later turned this into the term motocross<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Camberley Club was a very active association that organized numerous activities. These included the bicycle trial or pedal cycle trial held by the Windlesham Wheelers in 1947 on the heath near Bagshot. The overlap in personnel with the Southern Scott Trial is discussed in the newspaper article in THE MOTOR CYCLE, which I have translated below and reproduced in the original text (click to enlarge). This oldest known bicycle trial to date has a good chance of also being the first bicycle trial ever. In any case, the corresponding newspaper report refers to a \u201cnew pastime.\u201d It was no small event, with 52 participants at the start. Among them were well-known names from motorcycle trials, as explained in the translated newspaper report. The gasoline shortage shortly after the war certainly contributed to these people, who were unable to pursue their beloved trial hobby on motorcycles, taking to pedals instead. The Nicholson referred to in the newspaper article is Bill Nicholson, winner of the Scott Trials in 1949, 1950, and 1951, winner of the British Experts Trial in 1950, and winner of the ACU Trials Star in 1951 and 1952.<\/p>\n

Windlesham Wheelers‘ Trial<\/h4>\n

Translation of a newspaper article from THE MOTOR CYCLE dated 18 December 1947, p. 484.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>In den fr\u00fchen 1920er Jahren war der Name A. B. Sparks der verwegenen Schar von Teilnehmern, die beim ber\u00fchmten Southern Scott Scramble in der Bagshot-Heide mitfuhren, wohlbekannt (Sparks gewann die Veranstaltung von 1924 auf einer Scott mit 596 Kubikzentimetern Hubraum gegen Konkurrenten wie George Dance, Gus Kuhn, Harry Langman, E. Mainwearing, R. B. Budd, P. L. B. Wills und H. L. Grimes). Am 7. Dezember bezwang Sparks Sohn, der elfj\u00e4hrige John, auf praktisch demselben Gel\u00e4nde viele der etablierten Wettbewerbsfahrer des South East Centre, in dem er das hoch unterhaltsame Fahrrad-Trial der Windlesham Wheelers mit neun Strafpunkten (drei F\u00fc\u00dfe) vor dem n\u00e4chstbesten Ergebnis von 16 Punkten gewann. Es war eine \u00fcberaus erfolgreiche Veranstaltung, ausgetragen in heiterster Atmosph\u00e4re und mit vielen bekannten Gesichtern in einem Starterfeld von nicht weniger als 52 heroischen \u201eTretern\u201c. Zwei Runden mu\u00dften auf einer kurzen Strecke absolviert werden, deren vierte und sechste von acht beobachteten Sektionen vom Schwierigkeitsgrad her einem offenen Trial dieser Art gut zu Gesicht gestanden h\u00e4tten. Die erste dieser beiden \u201eharten N\u00fcsse\u201c wurde von Jack Blackwell beaufsichtigt, dem \u201eSouthern Expert\u201c dieses Jahres, und der zeigte keine Nachsicht gegen\u00fcber den ungl\u00fccklichen Teilnehmern, die sich durch tiefes Wasser k\u00e4mpften, das das Hauptmerkmal dieses Hindernisses war. Nach einer vorherigen sorgf\u00e4ltigen Inspektion machte D. C. Hull den ersten erfolgreichen Versuch und bew\u00e4ltigte unter lautem Applaus die beiden Unterabschnitte. Aber es war der junge John Sparks, der geradezu demonstrierte, wie man eine solche Sektion angehen mu\u00df – den Rand des Wassers geschickt umfahrend und dann raus \u00fcber rutschige Unebenheiten mit der ganzen L\u00e4ssigkeit eines Nicholson.<\/p>\n

J\u00fcngere haben ihren Spa\u00df<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>Demgegen\u00fcber hatten so ber\u00fchmte \u201eRennfahrer\u201c wie Jim Cook und Jack Ballett (die beide am diesj\u00e4hrigen British Experts‘ Trial teilnahmen) hier und an anderen Stellen viele Strafpunkte zu beklagen. Die sechste Sektion war eine der steilsten Abfahrten, die es jemals bei einem Trial in Bagshot gegeben hat; gerade einmal zwei Teilnehmer blieben in der ersten Runde fehlerfrei. Die erfahrenen Gespannfahrer Neal und Savage kamen hier beide zum Stillstand \u2013 letzterer ganz pl\u00f6tzlich \u2013 und beide gingen die Abfahrt der n\u00e4chsten Sektion mit gro\u00dfer Vorsicht an. Zwei herausragende Vorstellungen boten D. C. Hull und M. A. C. Birchnell, doch war Ballett hier vielleicht von allen am sch\u00f6nsten anzusehen. In der zweiten Runde gab es trotz der erschwerenden Ab\u00e4nderung einiger Sektionen im Durchschnitt bedeutend weniger Strafpunkte \u2013 vor allem bei den sogenannten \u201eExperten\u201c. Dieser Eindruck d\u00fcrfte stimmen, denn als die Ergebnisse ausgewertet wurden, stellte sich heraus, da\u00df die ersten vier Pl\u00e4tze von Jungens belegt wurden, die noch nicht alt genug f\u00fcr den F\u00fchrerschein waren! Ganz ohne Zweifel wird dieser neue Zeitvertreib dem Sport letztendlich viele junge Talente zuf\u00fchren und nicht nur von den Jungen war zu h\u00f6ren, da\u00df sie noch nie so viel Spa\u00df gehabt h\u00e4tten. Sieger: J. Sparks (9 Strafpunkte). Preise erster Klasse: J. Bushby, 16 Strafpunkte; E. A. Alderton, 18 Strafpunkte. Preise zweiter Klasse: J. Derisley, 20 Strafpunkte; M. A. C. Birchnell und D. C. Hull, beide 21 Strafpunkte. Team-Preis: Jolly Farmer M. C. (Sparks und Bushby), 25 Strafpunkte.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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  1. \u2018Oberservers will be stationed at steep slopes and water crossings,\u2019 was first announced in 1924, when section scoring was introduced at the Scott Trial in addition to the older time scoring system; THE MOTOR CYCLE, 4 September 1924, p. 349. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Der Fund, den ich im Oktober 2018 in der British Library in London machte, ist sensationell. Zwar war eigentlich zu erwarten gewesen, da\u00df das Fahrrad-Trial im Mutterland des Trialsports Gro\u00dfbritannien zuerst entstanden sein m\u00fcsse, aber es hatten sich daf\u00fcr nie Belege gefunden. Offenbar haben die Briten vergessen, da\u00df es kurz nach dem Krieg dieses fr\u00fche…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-131","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3355,"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/131\/revisions\/3355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}