NEWS

Hear 

I’d wanted to try a Trial for a long time, so when Tania called the Thursday before the Cotswold Trial to say they’d found me a bouncer seat, I could hardly wait. My brief was simple: bounce up and down and move the car as much as I could.

On Saturday morning, armed with a flask of tea and three pairs of socks, I found my driver Alan and his Austin 7 Tourer in the scrutineering queue. Bacon rolls in hand, we laughed about my OS map-reading skills, which are, quite frankly, non-existent. Somehow they had a moment of brilliance and we reached our first hill at Farmcote with ease.

We walked the hill and made a game plan. “When I say bounce, BOUNCE!” said Alan. After a wave from the marshal (the true heroes of the weekend), we were off, and I was soon holding on for dear life, throwing myself up and down to wriggle the car through the mud.

The soggy weather made the hills more exciting as the day went on. Some looked impossible to walk up, let alone drive, but Alan, the Austin 7 and I somehow made it up every one. By the end of the day, we heard the scores being read out and thought we’d come joint first in class. (Well, that’s what we thought we heard, anyway... hehe!)

I woke up on Sunday aching more than your average 23-year-old probably should, but with the biggest grin on my face. I’d ticked something off my “things I really, really want to do” list.

You can access the full results from the Cotswold Trial here