19 replies to this topic

[Hse289]

Hi all,

Some may remember me as a Ken Miles fan and admirer. In 1947 Miles owned a Frazer Nash and competed in a trials event but which one i cannot confirm. I have looked at details of the main events that year like Colmore, Lands End and Fedden etc but no luck there. I am thinking that from the area he lived in at that time Sutton Coldfield he might have taken part in the Kitching Trophy Trials run by the North Midland MC in March of that year. I have looked in my copies of The Motor for April but nothing there... So i am asking here if any members have a copy of The Light Car April 1947 could they have a browse and see if anything is mentioned of this event. Even better does anyone have a entry list for this event?

Thanks, Paul 

[Rupertlt1]

Event scheduled 30 March 1947. Motor Sport, March 1947, Page 69

 

RGDS RLT

[bradbury west]

Paul, perhaps there may be details in the relevant  issues of The Autocar or The Motor. Knowing the dates involved , the helpful folk at The NMM might be happy to look up a couple of weeks’ copies . I do not know whether the VSCC would have covered that event. 
Best regards and good luck

Roger Lund

[Hse289]

Hello Roger, thanks for your replies. I have the relevant copies of The Motor (no reference to Kitching) but haven't checked The Autocar. Thanks for the ideas.

[Vitesse2]

Hello Roger, thanks for your replies. I have the relevant copies of The Motor (no reference to Kitching) but haven't checked The Autocar. Thanks for the ideas.

I should be able to check both Autocar and Light Car tomorrow, Paul.

[Hse289]

Thank you Richard.

[jbbugatti]

Hello Roger, thanks for your replies. I have the relevant copies of The Motor (no reference to Kitching) but haven't checked The Autocar. Thanks for the ideas.

I have a run of bound volumes of Autocar (and Motor) in my archive.

There is no mention of the Kitching Trophy Trial in the relevant issues of Autocar for April 1947.

 

So it would seem that Light Car is the last hope…..

[Hse289]

Thats a shame jbbugatti. Thanks for looking.

[Vitesse2]

Been offline for a couple of days, so just catching up. I was hoping to find something in the archive at the Herbert in Coventry - as jbbugatti says, there's nothing in Autocar, apart from a note in their forthcoming events calendar. I too did check right through to the end of April and it looks like - except for the major trials events like the Exeter, which were well-reported - they were entirely reliant on club secretaries sending them the results, as some of them are a couple of weeks in arrears. Paper rationing was of course still in force at that time and I suspect that in order to make the best and most profitable use of the amount they were allowed, editorial took second place to advertising, meaning that some things simply weren't included for reasons of space.

 

Unfortunately, the Herbert's run of Light Car ends with the November 1939 issues. IIRC it went to monthly publication in a smaller format at the end of 1940 and resumed weekly publication some time in 1946. I think Gaydon has a complete - or near complete - run though. Beaulieu has a run of them too, although the smaller format wartime issues were missing when I last visited some years ago.

[Hse289]

Thank you for your search although it was to no avail. The Herbert looks like an interesting resource.

[Vitesse2]

Thank you for your search although it was to no avail. The Herbert looks like an interesting resource.

Their focus is mainly on the Coventry manufacturers, much of the material having been transferred from Coventry Transport Museum and/or Coventry Libraries. For example they have a bound run of the Riley house magazine Riley Record, which has some competition interest: I had a quick look at a couple of volumes of that and spotted several references to Percy Maclure. Kay Hague seems to have been a regular contributor with her personal impressions of British and continental rallies and trials. Unusually the volumes of Light Car I looked at, although bound in one run in normal fashion, also had the original front covers preserved and bound in in order at the end of each volume.

 

They also have a tranche of publications and documents which came from the SMMT - it appears that most of those documents are as yet uncatalogued though.

[Rupertlt1]

ILKESTON MOTOR CYCLE

AND LIGHT CAR CLUB.

On Sunday the North Midland Car

Club's Kitching Trophy Trial. Leave

Mundy Arms at 9.30 a.m.; bring lunch

and tea. The trial starts from the

George Hotel, Taddington at 11 a.m.

Here is an opportunity to see special

trial cars in action, and study the

methods of car clubs in organising car

trials.

Ripley and Heanor News and Ilkeston Division Free Press - Friday 11 July 1947

 

Could it be that the earlier event at the end of March was postponed due to heavy snow in north Derbyshire at that time?

Was this the second annual Kitching Trophy Trial? A 1946 report appears in Motor Sport, July edition, Page 141 — no event date given.

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 23 October 2022 - 07:14.

[jbbugatti]

Thats a shame jbbugatti. Thanks for looking.

For the revised date in July 1947 there is a brief report in the 1st August 1947 issue of Autocar.

There is no mention of Ken Miles in it.

If it is still of interest please send me a PM with your email address.

 

Jon

[Vitesse2]

Re Rupert's comment on the weather, by that time 'the big freeze' had ended and the snow melt meant there was widespread and severe flooding in England, seemingly exacerbated by heavy rain. Weather forecast for the 30th was more rain.

 

Derbyshire isn't mentioned in this Guardian retrospective from 2007, but I had a look at The Times for March 29th, which reported that a flight of nine Dakotas bringing food from the US Red Cross in Germany had to turn back due to bad weather. Food and other aid had also been promised from the US, Australia, 'other dominions', East Africa, the Gold Coast ...

 

The 29th also saw the Boat Race and the Grand National - and there was of course an enormous backlog of postponed sporting fixtures to clear.

[Rupertlt1]

BENROSE TRIAL OFF

Because snow still blocks the

roads in North Derbyshire, the

Benrose Trophy Trial, chief

East Midands motor-cycle trial of the

year, will not be held next Sunday.

No alternative date has yet been

arranged.

Leicester Evening Mail, Tuesday 25 March 1947

 

Possibly Bemrose.

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 23 October 2022 - 15:28.

[Hse289]

Thanks for the comments Roger. I think it was the 2nd event. I just looked in my copy of The Light Car from August 1947, no event report of the Kitching Trophy Trials. As the event was July 13th it would be too late for the July edition would`nt it? I do not have a copy of that.

[Rupertlt1]

For the record can somebody give brief results of this trial before this thread slips from sight?

 

RGDS RLT

[jbbugatti]

F D Gilson was the overall winner in his Allard.

Ken Wharton, in his Wharton Special, won the Parker Trophy.

Wharton, R W Phillips (Fairley Special) and Austen May (Ford Special) representing Sheffield & Hallamshire MC won the Scales-Haigh Team Trophy.

[jbbugatti]

I have been trying to ascertain if the North Midland Car Club still exists, or if it merged with another Club.
There is an outside chance that something exists within any archive relating to the Kitching Trophy trials.

Edited by jbbugatti, 06 November 2022 - 11:36.

[jbbugatti]

Sadly, I now understand that the North Midland Car Club is ‘long gone’….