Preston Park (Brighton) Track League

28th of June 2006; Report from Gavin Smith

Seniors/Juniors
There were so many highlights in the senior racing at tonight's action-packed meet held in perfect conditions, it is difficult to single out one. The 50-odd riders and the 100 or so spectators will no doubt each have their own favourite moment from the evening, but I'll be naming my own highlight later in this report.

The 8-lap opener began ominously for one of the pre-race favourites Robin Thompson as he had difficulty uniting shoe and pedal. An efficient chase, however, saw him back in the safety of the bunch. From then on, the contest seemed to progress at a faster pace than usual. Matt Green could have been forgiven if he'd taken it easy tonight - after all, he'd just finished the Surrey League Jaunts 5-day stage-race the day before, notching up two stage wins and third on GC.

But Matt, as ever, couldn't resist the temptation to get involved in the action, along with Rupert Rivett, Adam Gent, Will Fraser, Nick Haskoll and Paul Gosling. Efforts to get away came to nothing, though, and it was a flying Robin Thompson - shoes and pedals now working in perfect harmony - who led home at the finish, followed by Adam Gent and Lee Povey. Significantly, Povey's third placing bagged him four league points to launch him into the overall league lead ahead of the absent Peter Mitchell.

The sprint final revealed no surprises as Lee Povey used his powerful trademark burst to beat Mark Burgess, Adam Gent, Sean McClelland and Robin Thompson to the line. A special ladies' sprint race was added to the menu by head chef Vern McClelland and at the end of an extremely closely-fought tussle Sophie Terry came out top ahead of Gabriella Coates and Kathryn McClelland. Sophie thereby edged slightly further ahead of Gabriella in the ladies' league - for the time being.

Next up, the devil was a superb race, at least for the spectators. With just one rider tangoed at the end of each lap, without any serious breakaways there were likely to be around 10 kilometres of entertainment - and so it turned out. The drip-feed elimination inevitably took its toll, though riders who perhaps succeeded in surviving longer than expected included youths Sophie Terry, Will Fraser, Alastair Carter and Lewis Earthrowl-Gould, and also newcomer Rory Hitchens who was impressive in his first-ever track meet. In the end, it was Phil Bendall who scored a fine win in front of Matt Green, Adam Gent, Lee Povey, Andy Parle and Sean McClelland.

Adam Gent extended his lead in the B league with a great victory in the 3-lap dash restricted to B riders, and he was followed by Gabriella Coates and Paul Gosling. The irrepressible Matt Green tried his luck at half-distance in the ensuing A 3-lap race, but he was kept in check before Lee Povey put in a sprint-tastic effort to win in front of Robin Thompson and Phil Bendall.

So far, the evening had been full of action, with the usual mix of tactics, close sprints, plots and sub-plots but, as mentioned at the top of this piece, the highlight was yet to come, in the form of the 8-lap block handicap. Commissaire and handicapping maestro Vern McClelland had stationed the select group of A riders plus some of the top Bs on the start-line with 8 full laps to cover, while the rest had just seven-and-a-half circuits to negotiate - an advantage of 290 metres.

The scratch riders definitely had their work cut out, as the lead group set off at a scorching pace. In fact, in the first three laps or so it wasn't obvious which group was making up ground on the other! But as the efforts of the evening took their toll, the scratch group noticeably splintered and some of the favourites dropped out.

This was certainly not the case for junior Matt Green and youth Adam Gent who took off in pursuit of the leading peloton. With around three laps remaining, they still had the best part of 200 metres to claw back. Sharing the workload, their efforts were for me the highlight of the meet as they put everything into their mission.

But as the bell rang for the leading 8-up bunch, Matt and Adam were still 100 metres adrift and, alas, doomed not to catch them. This had been a wonderful chase, but if they'd had another lap they would almost certainly have caught their prey. You could say their efforts ended in failure, but my view is that this was an example of two talented young riders succeeding in giving their all.

Meanwhile, up front there was more drama to come in the shape of the best sprint finish of the meet. Gabriella Coates thundered through for an outstanding win by half-a-wheel or so. This result, together with her earlier runner-up spot, propelled her back to the top of the ladies' league. Just behind her in the sprint, the next three riders caused headaches for the judges, who nevertheless managed to sort out the finishing order. Anthony Rogers got the verdict for second place, with Andy Parle third and Rupert Rivett fourth, followed by youths Lewis Earthrowl-Gould and Alastair Carter.

So ended another thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining Preston Park meet. Roll on next Wednesday!


A riders points:
Lee Povey 93
Peter Mitchell 76
Matt Green 46
Phil Bendall 40
Mark Burgess & Robin Thompson 20
Rob Fuller & Sean McClelland 19

B riders points:
Adam Gent 82
Gabriella Coates 32
Andy Parle 30
Paul Gosling 25
Anthony Rogers & Sophie Terry 24
Rupert Rivett 22


Under 16/Under 14
With two wins tonight, Felix English extended his lead in the U14 competition. At the end of the 4-lap scratch race, he stylishly led home ahead of George Webster and Philip Smith. Charlie Beeny rode well to win a very close handicap event, beating Brock Duncumb-Rogers to the line with Felix third. Felix also managed a win in the 5-lap block handicap, with Brock again second, and Imogen Cain notching up a fine third place.

U16 points:
Jake Anderson 91
George Webster 52
Ben Miller 42
Imogen Cain 40
Charlie Beeny 39

U14 points:
Felix English 105
Brock Duncumb-Rogers 60
Neil McClelland 56
Anthony Rawbin 32
Oliver Brennan 20

Under 12
Patrick Hough took the meet by storm to win all three races in style. This was Patrick's first visit to Preston Park this season, his triathlon duties having kept him away from previous meets. He is currently leading the regional U12 triathlon championship series, and tonight he showed off his cycling ability, firstly winning the 2-lap scratch race in front of league leader Milo Burdeau and Matthew Rawbin. The same finishing order prevailed in the handicap and block handicap events. Both Nathan Moore and Sara Gent put up good performances, which was particularly commendable in Sara?s case as she was not feeling completely well.

Points:
Milo Burdeau 116
Matthew Rawbin 105
Nathan Moore 75
Sara Gent 51
Ryan Gosling 31
Euan Cattermole & Patrick Hough 19

Under 10/Under 8
Kim English rode strongly to win the 1-lap scratch in front of Gabriel Parle and Nicholas Rawbin. Douglas McCauly pipped 6-year-old Stanley Earthrowl-Gould to the line in the 1-lap handicap, with Ferne Leonard third. A fascinating block handicap race involved the seeded riders having three laps to ride and the lesser lights doing just two circuits. In the end, Nicholas Rawbin scored a fine win ahead of Kim English and Laurence Riis.

U10 points:
Kim English 116
Gabriel Parle 96
Nicholas Rawbin 73
Theodora Duncumb-Rogers 28
Laurence Riis & Tobie Court 27

U8 points:
Amy Barnes 52
Lois Parle 48
Douglas McCauly 36
Stanley Earthrowl-Gould 28
Sam Barnes 12

Results
Event 1: Seniors 8-lap scratch
1st Robin Thompson
2nd Adam Gent
3rd Lee Povey
4th Matt Green
5th Phil Bendall
6th Andy Parle
7th Gabriella Coates
8th Sophie Terry

Event 2: U10 /U8 1-lap scratch
1st Kim English
2nd Gabriel Parle
3rd Nicholas Rawbin
4th Drew Miller-Hyndman
5th Laurence Riis
6th Amy Barnes
7th Douglas McCauly
8th George Stevenson
9th Grace Leonard
10th Lois Parle
11th Stanley Earthrowl-Gould
12th Ferne Leonard

Event 3: U12 2-lap scratch
1st Patrick Hough
2nd Milo Burdeau
3rd Matthew Rawbin
4th Nathan Moore
5th Sara Gent

Event 4a: Seniors sprint heat 1
1st Lee Povey
2nd Matt Green
3rd Anthony Rogers
4th Rory Hitchens

Event 4b: Seniors sprint heat 2
1st Robin Thompson
2nd Rob Fuller
3rd Nick Haskoll
4th Alastair Carter

Event 4c: Seniors sprint heat 3
1st Adam Gent
2nd Will Fraser
3rd Nigel Foskett
4th Gabriella Coates
5th Phil Bendall

Event 4d: Seniors sprint heat 4
1st Sean McClelland
2nd Andy Parle
3rd Sophie Terry
4th Lewis Earthrowl-Gould

Event 4e: Seniors sprint heat 5
1st Mark Burgess
2nd Paul Gosling
3rd Rupert Rivett
4th Kathryn McClelland

Event 5: U16 / U14 4-lap scratch
1st Felix English
2nd George Webster
3rd Philip Smith
4th Jake Anderson
5th Charlie Beeny
6th Emma Stevenson
7th Imogen Cain
8th Ben Miller
9th Brock Duncumb-Rogers
10th Anthony Rawbin
11th Sam Cheesman
12th Neil McClelland
13th Dominic Champion

Event 6: U10 / U8 1-lap handicap
1st Douglas McCauly
2nd Stanley Earthrowl-Gould
3rd Ferne Leonard
4th Lois Parle
5th Drew Miller-Hyndman
6th Kim English
7th Grace Leonard
8th Nicholas Rawbin
9th Amy Barnes
10th Laurence Riis
11th Gabriel Parle
12th George Stevenson

Event 7a: Seniors sprint final
1st Lee Povey
2nd Mark Burgess
3rd Adam Gent
4th Sean McClelland
5th Robin Thompson

Event 7b: Women?s sprint
1st Sophie Terry
2nd Gabriella Coates
3rd Kathryn McClelland

Event 8: U12 1-lap handicap
1st Patrick Hough
2nd Milo Burdeau
3rd Matthew Rawbin
4th Nathan Moore
5th Sara Gent

Event 9: U16 / U14 1-lap handicap
1st Charlie Beeny
2nd Brock Duncumb-Rogers
3rd Felix English
4th Anthony Rawbin
5th Ben Miller
6th George Webster
7th Jake Anderson
8th Imogen Cain
9th Phil Smith
10th Sam Cheesman

Event 10: Seniors devil
1st Phil Bendall
2nd Matt Green
3rd Adam Gent
4th Lee Povey
5th Andy Parle
6th Sean McClelland

Event 11: U10 / U8 3-lap block handicap
1st Nicholas Rawbin
2nd Kim English
3rd Laurence Riis
4th Gabriel Parle
5th Ferne Leonard
6th Stanley Earthrowl-Gould
7th Drew Miller-Hyndman
8th George Stevenson
9th Douglas McCauly
10th Amy Barnes
11th Grace Leonard

Event 12: U12 4-lap block handicap
1st Patrick Hough
2nd Milo Burdeau
3rd Matthew Rawbin
4th Sara Gent
5th Nathan Moore

Event 13a: "B" seniors 3-lap dash
1st Adam Gent
2nd Gabriella Coates
3rd Paul Gosling
4th Rupert Rivett
5th Nick Haskoll
6th Will Fraser
7th Sophie Terry
8th Alastair Carter
9th Andy Parle
10th Lewis Earthrowl-Gould

Event 13b: "A" seniors 3-lap dash
1st Lee Povey
2nd Robin Thompson
3rd Phil Bendall
4th Mark Burgess
5th Rob Fuller
6th Sean McClelland

Event 14: U16 / U14 5-lap block handicap
1st Felix English
2nd Brock Duncumb-Rogers
3rd Imogen Cain
4th Neil McClelland
5th Emma Stevenson
6th Sam Cheesman
7th Anthony Rawbin
8th Jake Anderson
9th Phil Smith
10th Charlie Beeny
11th George Webster
12th Ben Miller
13th Dominic Champion

Event 15: Seniors 8-lap block handicap
1st Gabriella Coates
2nd Anthony Rogers
3rd Andy Parle
4th Rupert Rivett
5th Lewis Earthrowl-Gould
6th Alastair Carter

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