MCC Exeter Trial
Sparkford
Yeovil BA22 7LH
UK
The youngest of the club’s ‘Big Three’, this started in 1910 when the MCC broke new ground by introducing the ‘London to Exeter and Back Winter Club Run’ on Boxing Day, when saner folk might be expected to be enjoying the warmth of the festive season with their families. To prove MCC members were, and still are, a race apart the event generated 81 entries on two, three and four wheels while within three years a dizzy 231 faced the starter. This was a no nonsense trial starting in the evening and finishing back at the same place the following afternoon during which nearly 500 miles had to be travelled at a predetermined average speed on indifferent roads through the worst of the winter weather, and it is perhaps this very feature which has always made this one so popular.