Cycle Speedway Reports
Week Ending 6 July 2008
Wednesfield v Birmingham
British Team Championship Quarter Finals
The home team were in control of this fixture right from the first heat up to the last with Birmingham failing to register a single heat win over the eighteen heat quarter final,
The Aces team were solid through out with good support from their young reserves Dale Peace & Sam Smith,
The match was raced in some freak weather conditions there had been torrential ran all morning but the Wednesfield team had been hard at work keeping the track in good condition for the racing to go ahead. The weather had brightened up for the start of the match but after a few heats the rain turned into storm and the referee Ian Sizer suspended the racing until the rain stopped, racing was resumed after a while and then the sunshine came,
By the halfway stage of the fixture the Ace held a commanding lead of twelve points 51-39,
Referee Ian Sizer who was doing a grand job decided it best that we continue the match and skip the interval in case the weather turned again, the next three heats saw Wednesfield Aces really turn the screw on Birmingham with three staight 7-3 wins with the partnership of Tom Haddock and Lee Aris out gunning Birmingham's Marcus Wadhams & Nathan Groves,
The Aces were in a comfortable lead coming into the final heat and they gave both their reserves a ride taking out Jewkes & Pearce and they did not disappoint and returned a 6-4.
Wednesfield 107: Tom Haddock 15,Lee Aris 19+1,Chris Jewkes 11+2,Lewis Bates 17+1,Terry Norman 15+2,Garry Pearce 11+3,Dayle Peace 10+1,Sam Smith 9.
Birmingham 72: Chris Timms 14,Aaron Deery 7+1,Marcus Wadhams 18,Nathan Groves 6,Mark Winwood 10,Paul Timms 7,Phil Widdas 3, Bob Prince 7.
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Sheffield v Norwich
British Team Championships
Two torrential downpours left the track looking more like a lake, however with everybody mucking in the match got under way only an hour late at 4pm. Sheffield started with a 6-4 through Eaton & Turner but it wasn't long before Norwich had levelled the scores. A series of shared heats was to follow - one side would pull ahead only to be pegged straight back by the other. The track surface held up very well and the crowd was treated to some great racing and plenty of passing despite the conditions.
The deadlock was broken in heat 10 with a well taken 7-3 from Sheffield's Wild & Birks over Gary Colby & Wakefield, however Norwich were far from finished and fought their way back into the match. Luckily for Sheffield, everybody contributed vital points at the right time and the home team kept their noses in front and ran out winners by 7pts.
Jono Birks back for his first match in a couple of months lead from the front with a solid 18pts, Ryan Hoyland continued his devastating form that has seen him posting such big scores in the Premier League with 15 and it was good to see Chris Turner and Chris Eaton piling up the points with 14 apiece.
Richard Williamson top scored with16 for Norwich and received good support from Lee Cossey on 14, Nick Myhill on 12 would have contributed more but for an exclusion for ramming Ryan Hoyland, all in all an excellent match contested by two very evenly matched teams.
A big thank you to everyone from Norwich who pitched in and helped with the track and to the referee Andy Moody for allowing the fixture to go ahead, at 1.30 nobody in their right mind would have ever thought any kind of racing would have taken place today.
Sheffield 93: Jono Birks 18+1, Ryan Hoyland 15, Chris Eaton 14+1, Chris Turner 14, Jamie Brown 10+2, Mick Knowles 9, Leon Wild 8+1, Martin Gamble 5+1
Norwich 86: Richard Williamson 16+1, Lee Cossey 14+2, Nick Myhill 12+2, Gary Colby 12, Lee Grange 12, Chris Cullum 7+2, James Wakefield 7, Josh Colby 6
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Gt. Blakenham v Hull
British Team Championships
Gt. Blakenham 115 Chris Osborne 14, Jason Ashford 14+3, Adam Peck 15+3, Lee Ridgewell 18+2, Leon Mower 17+1, Josh Brooke 19+1, Dan Osborne 8, Ray Pyke 10.
Hull 59 Andy Angell 12, Corey Graham 10, Andy Norrie 6, Lewis Almer 7, Adam Stevenson 8, Paul Beharrell 6+1, Matt Beharrell 10
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Leicester v Sandwell
British Team Championships
The start of this match was delayed whilst track staff cleared away the water and periodic showers onto the already soaked surface made conditions challenging, with both sides suffering from falls and exclusions.
Sandwell contributed fully to an exciting match, their younger legs gaining several points from the back, the Monarchs will certainly have to improve to progress to the final of this competition.
Leicester 94 (D Hemsley 18, D Pike 15)
Sandwell 80 (J Ball 16+2, P Heard 14)
Harry Glover Memorial Shield
This was an excellent meeting, amazingly ridden in sunshine! Sandwell's strength in depth won through but all of the teams put in fine displays.
Sandwell 50 (M Smith 16)
Leicester 48 (M Hartshorn 15)
Leicester Ladies 34 (L Whitehead 12)
Bretford 28 (F Owen 7)
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Edinburgh Falcons v Astley and Tyldesley
6 July 2008
The Edinburgh Falcons recorded their biggest ever winning margin in a League match by defeating Astley at Tyldesley by 119 points to 58. With Astley & Tyldesley travelling to Edinburgh without their star men and with Edinburgh Team Manager Dave Baxter having a near full strength Team to choose from the writing was on the cards for the Team from Manchester before the first wheel was turned.
Six of the Edinburgh Team were undefeated by an opponent and only unfortunate falls for both Jake Slight and Neil McPherson during an eventful heat 13 prevented it from being a clean sweep. It was not all doom and gloom for Astley & Tyldesley as encouraging performances were noted from their youngsters, in particular Ben Dickinson who acquitted himself well in the tricky conditions.
Edinburgh 119: Gav Kennedy 18, Lee Lawrence 14, Craig Newsome 15, Andy McDougall 20, Neil McPherson 15, Jake Slight 15, Jonny Murphy 12, Tommy Lee 10
Astley & Tyldesley 58: Ben Dickinson 12, Mike Hack 9, Roy Heslop 8, Luke Jamson 6, Andy Knowles 8, Ben Keen 5, Laura Watson 3, Adam Phillips 7
Photos can be found here - www.flickr.com
Next up for the Falcons is an away league match at Hull on 20th July 2008.
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2 July - Norfolk Grand Prix Series Round 4 at Norwich
A Final Results -
U13/Novice - 1 R.Warminger NOR 2 M.Woods HET 3 T.Wakefield NOR 4 S.Grimes HET
U16 - 1 P.Adams HET 2 B.Collins HET 3 D.Chambers HET 4 K.Parr NOR
U19/Senior/Vets - 1 I.Grange NOR 2 L.Cossey NOR 3 D.Adams HET 4 R.Baumgarten NOR28 riders - Referee Stan Allinson
Result subject to scrutiny as only programme got saturated!!