JAMES Dabbill is on his way to a British trial championship victory after winning the Torridge clubs sixth round at Peter Tavy near Tavistock.

Overnight rain and showers on the day made it the toughest round of the series so far with Dabill, Mike Brown and Alex Wigg the only ones to lose less than a hundred marks on the main route despite several of the dozen sections being eased prior to the 9.30am start.

Dabbill gained his advantage over Brown on the opening lap. Brown was best on lap two, but Dabill returned the best performance on the final lap, and he goes to the next round with a nine-point advantage.

The second, fourth, fifth, eight, tenth and eleventh sections claimed marks from everyone on the main route, and Wigg was the only one to conquer the ninth, on his second lap, and Dabill was outstanding in the eleventh where his lap losses were three, nought, three whilst everyone else incurred three five-mark debits.

South West Centre championship leader Ricky Wiggins was competing in the expert "B" class and the Yeovil Gas Gas rider kept his title hopes alive by finishing third behind John Crinson and Sam Ludgate on a somewhat easier route.

Nick Baker, Alan Blackman and Chris Curtis, all from the Westcountry, finished in the top six, and there were minor placings for Ross Hancock, Rob Pollard, Ben Bramwell, Grant Laming, Ian Martin, Stefan Goodman, George Pollard, James Bright and Jimmy Baker in the Rene Pearce Memorial Event.

Paul Norrish was best clubman in the Moretonhampstead Club's trial at Lettaford.

In three laps of ten sections he lost just one mark, in the third section on his last lap. His closest rivals were Tom Bushin who lost single marks in the second and sixth sections, and John Church who lost marks in the first and last.

All the major award winners on the White route retained clean sheets and the only marks that David Smith lost in the Youth Class were in the seventh section.

In the other major event of the weekend Brad Anderson and Gareth Swanepoel finished with equal points after beating each other once in the two open-class races in the fifth round of the British Moto-X Championships at Lyng in Norfolk and KTM's Stephen Sword won both 250cc class races and he goes to the next round with a 55-point lead over Neville Bradshaw.

Results of the Torridge MCC British Champioship trial at Peter Tavy, Devon: Championship class: 1 J Dabbill (Gas Gas) 70 marks lost. 2 M Brown (Sherco) 81. 3 A Wigg (Gas Gas) 85. 4 S Haslam (Gas Gas) 111. 5 G Moreton (Beta) 116. 6 R Danby (Gas Gas) 118. 7 C Robinson (Gas Gas) 127. 8 J Challoner (Beta) 182. No other finishers.

Expert "A" Class: 1 S Connor (Beta) 21. 2 J Walker (Gas Gas) 57. 3 B Morphett (Beta) 62. 4 J Richardson (Sherco) 66. 5 J Fry (Sherco) 68. 6 G McDonald (Sherco) 75.

Expert "B" Class: 1 J Crinson (Scorpa) 69. 2 S Ludgate (Scorpa) 76. 3 R Wiggins (Gas Gas) 80. 4 N Baker (Gas Gas) 83. 5 A Blackman (Gas Gas) 86. 6 C Curtis (Gas Gas) 93.

Other Westcountry finishers: 8 R Hancock (Gas Gas) 104. 11 R Pollard (Beta) 114. 12 B Bramwell (Gas Gas) 117. 13 G Laming (Gas Gas) 118. 17 C Talbot (Beta) 121. 18 I Martin (Sherco) 126. 20 S Goodman (Sherco) 131. 21 G Pollard (Beta) 132. 22 J Bright (Beta) 135. 26 J Baker (Gas Gas) 145.

Results of British Championship Moto-X Series, Round 5, at Lyng, Norfolk: Open class first race: 1 G Swanepol (Kawasaki). 2 B Anderson (Honda). 3 C Nunn (Suzuki). 4 J Noble (Honda). 5 T Church (CCM). 6 J Rose (Honda). Second race: 1 Anderson. 2 Swanepol. 3 S Columb (Suzuki). 4 Church. 5 J Diugan (CCM). 6 Nunn.

Championship standings: Anderson 220 points. Noble 174. Swanepol 172. Nunn 160. W Mackenzie 127. Church 124. 250cc Class first race: 1 S Sword (KTM). 2 J Nicholls (KTM). 3 M Karro (Suzuki). 4 M Pocock (Yamaha). 5 M Barr (Suzuki). 6 S Elderfield (Honda). Second race: 1 Sword. 2 Nicholls. 3 Barr. 4 N Bradshaw (Honda). 5 Karro. 6 W Smith (Yamaha).

Championship standing: Sword 22. Bradshaw 170. Nicholls 161. Karro 159. Barr 139. Elderfield 125.

Results of Moretonhampstead MCC Trial at Lettaford, Devon: Clubman awards: P Norrish (Beta) 1 mark lost. T Bushin (Gas Gas) 2. J Church (Beta) 2.

Non expert awards: A Nenstead (Gas Gas) 0. M Whitehouse (Beta) 0. P Hodder (Honda) 0. T Heard 0. K James 0.

Youth awards: D Smith (Yamaha) 2. B Green (Gas Gas) 12. D Bond (Montesa) 23.