A COUPLE from Kendal have enjoyed their best-ever season and scooped 16 trophies competing in the comparatively little-known world of sporting car trials.

The aim of the exercise is to drive a custom-built car through a series of 12 gates over difficult, hilly terrain without collecting penalty points for touching the gates or stopping forward motion.

Ian Smith and his fianc Sheila Monkhouse competed in all meetings held by Northern Phoenix Trial Car Club this winter, registering eight class wins and one outright win to promote them from B to the A class.

Ian, who works for Redistribution, Endmoor, won the B Class drivers championship and was second overall in the Cumbria Championship.

Sheila won the B class passenger title and the Cumbria Championship.

They compete in a special Crossle' car made in Northern Ireland and powered by an eight-valve, 14500cc, Honda engine.

It is set up with fiddle' brakes which operate independently on the rear wheels to control wheelspin and help tight manoeuvring, allowing drivers to climb startlingly steep hills, and usually - because the sport takes place during winter - in suitably testing, muddy conditions.

Ian has been car trialling for seven years and his interest in motor sport goes back to his teenage days when he started kart racing and was selected for the English team to go to Italy in the 1980s.

He became interested in trailing when he attended a meeting in Evesham on holiday and the couple have travelled all over Cumbria and into Scotland and Northern Ireland this winter to compete at this very friendly and sociable, but highly competitive sport.