Taking place over the 23rd and 24th July 2011, the Blaze Horse Trials in Stafford were designed to challenge and encourage young horses and riders on the cross country course was designed and built by Janet and James Plant.

All photos from the event can be seen in our Blaze Horse Trials Stafford Flickr Set.

Uttoxeter Quarry has caused some controversy in the local area due to the extension to the works being undertaken to extract sand and gravel. Local residents are keen for the extraction work to reach completion and the area to be regenerated. Regeneration plans are proposed to restore the land with places suitable for agricultural and water areas and for nature conservation and recreation, including a sailing lake and a fishing lake.

Some old areas of the quarry have already been turned over for use as nature reserves, with many birds attracted to the area. A range of footpaths go through the area, and it’s a lovely place to explore.

The full set of photos from our trip can be seen in our Uttoxeter Quarry Flickr Set.

The 2011 Wales Rally GB in began in Llandudno on Thursday 10th November, with four exciting days that covered a total 1,860kms over 23 timed special stages. Almost 80 cars, representing 32 countries, competed in the 67th World Rally Championship finale. It was an exciting rally, taking place in unseasonably nice weather, featuring big names such as Ken Block, former F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastien Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen and many more.

Llandudno Stage

Sweet Lamb Stage

After much excitement across the stages, including retirements from Sebastien Loeb, Kimi Raikkonen, Mikko Hirvonen and Peter Van Merksteijn, the rally was won by Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala and co-driver Mikka Anttila in their Ford Fiesta, over three minutes ahead of second place driver, the Norwegian Mads Ostberg with his Swedish co-driver, Jonas Andersson.

The full range of photos can be seen in our Wales WRC Flickr collection.

After 3 previous attempts at exploring St Georges, each unsuccessful, talking to on-site security opened up a window of opportunity to be shown around the outside. The old conservatory and outbuildings just on the perimeter of the first inside fence were avaible to explore on the cold and damp morning.

Bovis Homes are redeveloping the area now known as St Georges Park, and over the next several years are expecting to spend £4million to restore the Grade II listed building St George’s Hospital building, build a range of new homes and regenerate the site with a range of landscaping and tree-planting.

More information is on their website, along with a PDF that goes into further detail on the work being undertaken.

The full set of photos can be seen on Flickr.

To raise money for Cash for Kids, a great charity that supports children who have been forced to run away from home, Kerrang! Radio organised an afternoon of sponsored bungee jumps at the West Midlands Water Ski Centre. Members of the public were invited to raise a minimum of £150 sponsorship money each to secure their place at the event. To support this great charity and to complete a personal goal, our own Dan Wheatley decided to sign himself up!

The full set of photographs from the day can be seen on the No Limits Photography Flickr account. And a video of Dan’s jump can be seen on our youtube account.

The Oakamoor Sidings on the Churnet Valley Railway Line is a popular site among ‘urbexers’. No Limits Photography have visited the Oakamoor ‘train graveyard’ on a few occasions (see our previous article – Oakamoor Railway Sidings). Our most recent visit saw the train carriages under a different light – or more specifically, a lack of light!

The Alsager Round Table event is typically held on the Saturday closest to the November 5, or the night itself if it falls on a weekend. This year saw the event take place on the Saturday evening in the fields adjacent to The Plough on Crewe Road, Alsager, and thousands of local people came along to enjoy the festivities.

Over £5,000 of professional fireworks and 6 lorry loads of timber were part of the preparation for this year’s Bonfire Night event.

The 2011 Gumball 3000 began in London with over 120 super cars travelling through 8 countries in 8 days to arrive in Istanbul, driving a total of 3,000 miles. The key checkpoints and big parties along the route were London, Paris, Barcelona, Monaco, Venice, Belgrade, Sofia and of course Istanbul.

The full collection of photos taken can be found on the Gumball 3000 Fickr Collection

The final Red Bull Mini Drome event of 2011 took place on 22nd October at the Victoria Baths in Manchester. The event saw over 100 riders take on the world’s smallest velodrome, with a total track length of only 25 metres.

Hosted by trials bike legend Chris Akrigg and British Paralympics cycling team coach Chris Fuber, this action-packed event consisted of a series of qualifiers, followed by head to head heats between the 32 fastest riders. The competition for 1st place was intense, with many spectacular crashes along the way!
Congratulations go to Janis Savickis who took third place, Ricky Crompton who took second place and Toms Alsbergs who took first place with a very impressive time of 34.769. The guys took home some amazing Charge bikes which had been painted bronze, silver and gold.

The fifth and final round of the British Trials Cup 2011, sponsored by Onza, took place in Shipley Glen, near Bradford – one of the UK’s most popular trials venues. Riders came from around the country to take part in the final and with good weather throughout the day, the event was thoroughly enjoyed by all that took part.

The event took the usual format, whereby riders had to complete two laps of eight sections. Each section provided a variety of challenges for riders of all abilities, leading to a range of results.

The full set of photos from the event can be viewed at No Limits Photography’s Facebook page.