Cycle Speedway Round Up
Week Ending 7 Sept 2008
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British Premier League Horspath v Leicester
Match postponed, track waterlogged.
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British Premier League: Poole Seaview Coaches v Wednesfield
Images: Graham Sutton (more at foot of page)
The latest of many last heat deciders between these old adversaries was fought out at Harbourside Park as both sides battled hard for the league points with the home side snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the last two races. Poole made a series of unforced errors and suffered three exclusions as Wednesfield raced ahead by 7 points after just 4 races and they were still 66 - 60 in front with five heats to go.
The home side looked the stronger on paper but matches are won on the track and finally Poole woke up with 6 - 4's in heats 14 and 15 as first Dave Murphy then Gavin Wheeler took the chequered flag. Heat 16 was an epic as Thomas Reed, newly crowned British junior champion showed a clean pair of wheels to two former senior champions Terry Norman and Lee Aris but with the Aces sharing the heat, the scoreline stood 77 - 79 with two heats to go.
Heat 17 was pivotal and just as it looked as if Tom Haddock had the race sewn up, he took a tumble allowing Dom McCrae and Aaron Lowey through for maximum 7 - 3 and Poole led for the first time in the match. Cometh the hour, cometh the man as the home side lined up in the last heat decider from inside gates with newly crowned British Champion Gavin Wheeler on grid 1 and he made no mistakes with a cool 4 laps to seal what appeared an unlikely home victory.
Poole Seaview Coaches 90 (Gavin Wheeler 17+1, Artur Poprawski 16, Thomas Reed 16, Ben Donohue 11+1, Dave Murphy 10+1, Dominic McCrae 10, Aaron Lowey 6+1, Sam Hearn 4),
Wednesfield 86 (Lee Aris 16+2, Terry Norman16+1, Garry Pearce 15, Scott Docherty 11, Chris Jewkes 10+1, Andy Franks 9+1, Tom Haddock 8, Dave Jewkes 1).
Premier Combination Division - Poole 61.5 Wednesfield 70.5
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British Premier League: Norwich v Great Blakenham
On an Eaton Park track that had seen 33 heats of competitive Cycle Speedway the previous day in the East Anglian Senior and Junior Fours Finals, match report to follow, this East Anglian Premier League derby match between The Money Centre / Norwich 'Stars' and Great Blakenham / T.A. Security almost did not take place writes Glenn Grange.
It had rained for all of the morning, but the decision to see if the rain would ease and if the match would go ahead was agreed to be taken at mid-day and by noon, the clouds began to break with the rain stopping. The Norwich track staff had placed tarpaulin covers around the first and second bend and this seemed to work in keeping the rain off of the track.
As the conditions began to improve, the match was given the green light and by start time, sunshine had started to break through over Eaton Park. This was to be a keenly fought match and was always going to be tough. Great Blakenham took the lead in Heat 2 with a 7 - 2 heat win after Norwich's Ian Grange was excluded by Referee Mark Winwood for 'Illegal use of the leg' (7 - 12).
Norwich fought back in Heat 3 through a Nick Myhill / Lee Grange 7 - 3 heat win (14 - 15)., and by Heat 6 The Stars had taken the lead after James Studd was excluded, with a 7 - 3 heat win (30 - 27). It was tit for tat in the remaining three first half heats with the visitors going in at half time leading by 43 - 44. Everybody was sitting on the edge of their seats with the second half beckoning and it was once again the visitors who opened the second half racing with a 6 - 4 heat win (46 - 50).
There wasn't much to choose between the two sides throughout the second half, but as the meeting was drawing to its close, it was Great Blakenham who went on to finish the stronger by scoring two 6 - 4 heat wins and a vital Heat 17 7 - 3 heat win to go on and win the match by 82 - 93. After the sad goings on during the last few weeks within Cycle Speedway, this was a match that was tough, it had some controversial points in it, but it was fair and well Refereed by Mark Winwood of Birmingham.
The Money Centre / Norwich 'Stars' 82 (Jazz Abbott 9, Leigh Cossey 10, Ben Collins 8, Ian Grange 8+1, Lee Grange 10+2, Nick Myhill 12, Gary Colby 8, Chris Cullum 12)
Great Blakenham / TA Security 93 (Lee Ridgewell 11, Adam Peck 13+1, James Studd 14, Jason Ashford 15+1, Joshua Brooke 13+1, Alex Zielinski 9+2, Paul Brinkoff 10+1, Daniel Osborne 8)
In the Combination match, it was yet again a tough close affair, with neither side willing to take a step backwards. Norwich managed to put themselves ahead in Heat 5 through a Joshua Colby / Lewis Conner 6 - 4 heat win (26 - 24), and from that point on in the match, although the Suffolk visitors made their presence felt, they would never take the lead again. Two 7 - 3 heat wins in Heats 10 & 11 won the match for the young Norwich side and a Heat 13 7 - 2 heat win was the icing on the cake as Norwich moved up into third place in the Combination League with a good 77 - 59 win. Yet again another good Cycle Speedway match with plenty of good young talent on show and well Refereed by Lee Grange of Norwich.
The Money Centre / Norwich 'Stars' 'B' 69 + 8 Pp = 77 (James Wakefield 10+1, George Solomon 15+3, Liam Parker 14+1, Kieran Parr 8+1, Joshua Colby `13+1, Lewis Conner 9, Adam Osborne Did not ride)
Great Blakenham / TA Security 'b' 59 (Terry Ashford 7+1, Dan Osborne 14, Andy Turnbull 12, James Day 4,
Ray Pyke 7, Marcus Szyszlyk 15+1)
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Sheffield v Bretford
Bretford arrived at Sheffield to find it had finally stopped raining. The track didn't look to bad, despite a little surface water and a lot of hard work from the Sheffield Club Members meant racing could commence.
The first heat was drawn with a 5 - 5 Rhys Thomas and Lee kemp for Bretford and Aidan Wylde winning for Sheffield. Second Heat saw Joe Dominy make his debut for Bretford after only starting racing 4 weeks ago, and what a gater he is. Joe Dominy and Joe Kemp picked up a 7-3 over Kylie Brough and Niall Morton. After Heat 3 another 7-3 to Bretford. With Will Hanson and Callum Thomas ahead of Adam Watts and Eleri Kirkpatrick.
After Heat five the scores were 19 to Sheffield and 31 to Bretford. Then Sheffield scored a 7-3 Richard Hudson and Aidan Wylde beating Will Hanson and Matthew Hambidge, again another Debut meeting for Matthew. Bretford bounced back with a 7-3 Rhys and Lee getting the score to 29-41. Sheffield then scored well in the next 2 heats bringing the scores closure. By Heat 9 the scores were set 42-48 to Bretofrd. This was looking to be a close meeting. Bretford then pulled back a 7-3 and the rest of the racers finished all square. Bretford won 70 to 60. This meeting was close with each team being evenly matched. 
A Second Team Match was held and an Individual as well for the younger Children. Dan Price for Bretford only 6 years of age tried really hard and got to a D final with his team mate Niall Clever only 8 years old. Dan came Second followed in by Niall Clever. The Second Match was won by Bretford.
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Edinburgh Fours
On 7th September Redbraes hosted the 2nd round of the Edinburgh Fours Local League competition. With the track flooded in the morning due to the incessant overnight rain the track staff completed a great job to get the racing surface in order for a slightly late start.
In what turned out to be another great turnout at Redbraes, two competitive matches both went down to the last couple of heats before being decided. Special mention should go to our juniors who made the long journey from Glasgow, Fife and Aberdeenshire to put on a great show.
Final Scores
Match 1 - Lothian 62, Redbraes 56
Match 2 - Glasgow 54, Portobello 64
Top Scorers on the day -
Lothian: Mikey Hewitson 18, Gav Kennedy 15
Redbraes: Lee Lawrence 17, Tommy Lee 14
Glasgow: Craig Newsome 20, Andy McDougall 12
Portobello: Alan Smith 17, Neil McPherson & Jonny Murphy both scored 16
Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/57243403@N00/
Next home fixtures at Redbraes (double header) 14th September 2008 Edinburgh v Heckmondwike - 1pm start
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East Newport Cycle Speedway Under 18 Conference
An exciting match was watched by a large crowd when East Newport took on local rivals Newport in an u18 South West Conference league match at the International Sports Village track on Saturday 30th August.
The East Newport Club who were using 4 first year riders put on a great show against their more experienced opponents only just losing by 77 - 72.
The final sealing point in this exciting derby was heat 14 when Kieran Mahoney who last raced for the home side last year tucked in to secure a 7 - 3 & win the match for the title chasing Newport side. For the East Enders 8 year old Ethan Lewis had his best match by far, & was well supported by man of the match Colin Wildy plus the ever improving Josh Davis.
Aaron Hughes turned in another solid performance top scoring for the visitors and will be looking foward to a return to senior racing in the coming weeks. All the riders can be proud of their efforts & just shows what regular team training can do.
The match was well refereed by Filton rider/manager/Newport official Phil Davies.
Newport u18 77 (Lucian B Jones 18+1 (5), Jacob Street 7 (5) Corey B Jones 15 (5) Nick Ball 10+2 (5) Joe Lewis 16 (5), Kieran Mahoney 11+3 (5) Khalid Mitha dnr, Callum Goward dnr)
East Newport u18 72 (Aaron Hughes 17+1 (5) Josh Wall 3 (3) Colin Wildy 12+3 (5) Josh Davis 12 (5) Louis Harvey 16+1 (5), Ethan Lewis 10+1 (5) Jacob Prist 2 (2))
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6/9 TA Security East Anglian KO Cup Fours Finals at Norwich
Junior
HETHERSETT 47 - P.Adams 13
GT BLAKENHAM 45 - D.Osborne 16
NORWICH 32 - L.Parker 10 L.Connor 10
IPSWICH 31 - J.Stant 10
Senior
GT.BLAKENHAM 46 - L.Osborne 12 A.Peck 12 J.Ashford 12
IPSWICH 43 - D.Pike 15
HETHERSETT 43 - D.Martin 13
NORWICH 26 - I.Grange 10
(D.Pike beat D.Martin in race-off)
Referee - Stan Allinson
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9/9 Hethersett U13 Club Championship
1 Scott Grimes 24
2 Axl Johnson 22
3 Marcus Woods 20
champagne moment prize Reece Crowe
10 riders
Referee Simon Wilcox
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More Graham Sutton Pics from Poole
