A PORT Isaac grandfather is riding high after winning a Cornish Trials Championship for beginners.

Tony Stuart, 72, from Trelights won the title in his first full season of competing on a full trials bike.

Although he has been a motorcyclist since the age of 20, Tony did not take part in a competitive event until the middle of 2007, on a particularly unsuitable motorbike. But after nagging by his son and a friend, he bought his first trials bike in July 2008. 

By the end of 2008 he missed winning the beginners' championship by a very narrow margin but has won it this year.

Pleasure

Tony was so determined to compete in this last  championship event of the year, at Trevaylor Woods near Penzance, that he drove 467 miles from where he was staying in County Durham on holiday.

Tony said: "Motorcycling has given me so much pleasure and allowed me to meet so many pleasant and enthusiastic people who are so different to the public perception.

"It is also one of the few very active sports that can still be undertaken by those of more mature years and can contribute a lot to a person's general physical fitness and feeling of well-being.   

"A perfect illustration of this is Des Wickett, who, at the tender age of 73 and despite having a replacement hip not long ago, still rides with the same ability and enthusiasm. And Jeff Hewitt is still as keen despite having a 'bionic' knee."

Tony has been a member of the Trail Riders' Fellowship (TRF), since 1971 and has had years of enjoyment riding his trail motorbike on green lanes in England, Wales, France, Andorra and Spain.

Competing

He has been both the National and Cornwall chairman of the TRF Group and is now the Cornwall group's president.

As well as competing in trials on a regular basis Tony and friend Stuart Dymond practice a couple of times a week in fields belonging to a local farmer.

Tony said: "I would encourage any rider to either join the TRF for the fun of riding green lanes, or one of the many clubs here in Cornwall that organise motorbike trials in order to have lots of pleasure with likeminded boys and girls aged between eight and 80 and stay fit and healthy at the same time."