Cycle Speedway Weekly Roundup
Week Ending 23 August 2009
All the week's cycle speedway action.
South West Jnr GP Round 6
Horspath (Oxford), Saturday August 22nd
Report: Geoff Gamage
The sixth and final qualifying round of the South West Junior Grand Prix took place at Horspath on Saturday. 100 competitors took part in perfect sunny conditions. East Newport grabbed top spot with 267, from Horspath on 251 and Exeter third with 223, Newport 126, Poole 111, Southampton 46, Filton 14, Swindon 10.
Over three hundred spectators witnessed a fast presentation with all the racing over before 7pm. No shocks early on as Shaun Bennett ( East Newport ) won the U8, from Hammers' Jack Currell, Eben Wakefield and Callum Cooper, who fell and didn't race in the re-run. The U10 predictably went to James Robinson of Exeter, with team mates Will Tidball and Jack Herbert following and remounted hammer George Horsley bringing up the rear.
Shock in the U12s as the leading contenders didn't make the A final. Poole's Harry Boucher coming 1st, from Exeter's Lauren Hookway, with Newport's Jacob Soper 3rd and Adam Bennett ( East Newport) 4th. The GP leader didn't make the A in the U14 either. East Newport's Louis Harvey won from Ollie Sidwick (Filton), Aaron Coles (Exeter) and Corey Hyde (Exeter). With the leader of the U16s not racing, Leighton Glover of Poole took top honours from Sam Dart (Exeter), Ryan Lewis (East Newport) and Aaron Hughes (East Newport). Thomas Reed of Exeter got the favourites back on track with a win from Horspath's Mark Carmichael, Craig Nethercott (Exeter) and Aaron Herbert (Exeter) The Girls section had a healthy 11 competitors with Rachel Edge of Horspath winning after a fall in the qualifying heats, from Jessica Lamb ( Poole), Charlie Jane Herbert (Exeter) and Jemma Cosh (Horspath) to bring a good day's racing to an end. Exeter retain the SWJGP League trophy despite heavy pressure from East Newport. October 3rd sees SWJGP Individual Finals day, when double Grand Prix points will be on offer, to add to the running totals. Riders have to be in the top 16 to qualify in each age category.
Premier League - Leicester v Sheffield
Report: Tim Jarvis
Images: Magda
Phew! What a match this was! For the neutral spectator it had the lot, more incidents than I can count, controversy and to cap it all a last heat decider.
The partisan amongst those present could point out various instances where their rider didn't get the decision they expected, however over the match these were pretty well balanced out.
Sheffield took an early lead after Craig Marchant crossed the inner line whilst trying to fend off Pawel Kozlowski, an advantage they held onto until a 6-4 from Pike and Burns in heat six swung the balance to the Monarchs.
Leicester entered the interval just a single point up, and they increased their lead to four points in heat sixteen after the fallen Andy Angell was lapped. The visitors closed the gap to a single point again in heat seventeen after Stephenson moved at the start, Yelland doing well to split the Pilas/Burchard pairing.
Above: There were spills aplenty throughout the match, as captured spectacularly here. Check out loads more great images from the meeting by clicking the gallery link at the top of the page.
The final heat saw Nowacki make a storming gate across Jamroschky to seal the match, partner Burns content to sit at the back for a share of the race points but to ensure a win on the day.
This result means that the title is likely to be decided at the Horspath/Sheffield match, if this encounter was anything to go by it won't be for the faint hearted!
Leicester 87 (L Nowacki 19, D Pike 14, L Yelland 13+1, K Burns 10, M Whitehead 10, C Marchant 9+1, A Stephenson 6, N Whitehead 6)
Sheffield 86 (P Kozlowski 18, P Jamroschky 17, R Burchardt 13+2, D Pilas 11+1, L Smith 9+1, A Angell 9, J Brown 5+1, R Hoyland 4)
Combination
Both sides fielded separate teams but Leicester had too much strength for the visitors.
Leicester 78 (Michelle Whitehead 16, Lucy Whitehead 14)
Sheffield 50 ( Ricky Wild 13, Simon Gamble 11)
Premier League - Wednesfield v Gt Blakenham
23rd August 2009BRITISH PREMIER LEAGUE: 23rd August 2009
Report: David Jewkes
Wednesfield Aces cruised to a comfortable win in the premier league fixture today against Great Blakenham,and although the visitors fielded a slightly weakend team they still gave a good account of themselves with several 5-5 shared heats. However, as the match progressed the Aces strung together several 7-3 heat wins to eventually win by a 20 point margin.
The second team combination match was won by the Aces after Gt Blakenham gave away 42 penalty points for fielding the same riders who had rode in the first team.
WEDNESFIELD 98 LEE ARIS 17+2, CHRIS JEWKES 17+1, SCOTT DOHERTY 14+2, TERRY NORMAN 14, SAM SMITH 11+1, ROGER COX 10+1, DAYLE PEACE 8, MARK GRIFFITHS 7+3.
GREAT BLAKENHAM 78 ADAM PECK 19, LEWIS OSBORNE 17+1, CHRIS OSBORNE 10, LEON MOWER 9, DAN OSBORNE 8+1, MARCUS SZYSZLYK 7, COLBY HACK 4, TERRY ASHFORD 4.
PREMIER COMBINATION
WEDNESFIELD 62+42=104 STEWART BENTLEY 16,LUKE DRAISLEY 13+1,MICK ARIS 8+3,LIAM JOHNSON 8+1,MATT TURLEY 7, JORDAN RICH 5+1,REANNA BRINDLEY 5.
GREAT BLAKENHAM 67 DAN OSBORNE 17,LEON MOWER 13,CHRIS OSBORNE 12+1,MARCUS SZYSZLYK 10,COLBY HACK 9, TERRY ASHFORD 6.
Premier League - Poole v Birmingham
Report: Graham Sutton
POOLE 90 BIRMINGHAM 87
Premier League racing at Harbourside just seems to get better and better this season in what is without doubt the most competitive and enjoyable season for many years. This match summed it all up perfectly with close racing, controversy and a last heat decider with the teams deadlocked after 17 pulsating races.
Thomas Reed, so often a pocket rocket on his home PL track could get nowhere near Chris Timms in heat 1 and Rich Harrison outfoxed Ben Mould for a 6 - 4 opener with heat 2 squared when Artur Poprawski outpaced Lewis Bates and Russ Evans. Poole made a breakthrough in the next as Marcus Wadhams slipped off on lap 2 undeintenser pressure from Gavin Wheeler allowing skipper Chris Roberts the chance to join his team mate for a 7 - 3.
Tom Colling led from the tapes in heat 4 but all the action was behind him as young Welsh international Mould succesfully challenged the Harrison/Heard pairing for another 7-3 maximum moving the score to 23 - 17. Timms once again once again opted for the gate to get the better of Reed in heat 5 with Dave Murphy outpacing Leighton Bates for a 5 - 5. Chris Roberts was ruled out at the tapes by referee Colin Simmons in the next heat but Wheeler kept his nerve to hold off a lively Lewis Batesin the re-start.
The next 3 races were shared with visitors Wadhams, Timms and Heard taking the chequered flag while the hosts packed the minor places including a last ditch pass in heat 8 by Poprawski on Harrison which saw the disgruntled visitor wreck the Pole's back wheel as the riders returned to the pits.The interval scoreline of 47 - 42 meant that either side was well capable of taking the two points.
Heat 10 saw the home lead extended with a Wheeler/Colling 6 - 4 over the Bates brothers before a contentious heat 11 saw hard charging Pole Poprawski ruled out by the referee to protests from the terraces as well as the home pits who claimed that the challenge on Paul Heard was firm but fair. With Pete Young marooned on gate 4, the re-run gave the visitors a lifeline which they took with a comfortable 7 - 2 from Heard and Wadhams to tranform the scoreboard to 55 - 53.
Heat 12 saw the first race win of the day for Reed ahead of Bates for another 5 - 5 but an incident packed heat 13 saw Birmingham take a 6 - 4 with Harrison the suprising winner and Wheeler even more surprisingly last with Roberts just getting the better of Timmsin all the confusion! Now it was level pegging and the Brummies had their tails up as Wadhams surprisingly gated over the usually fast starting Pole Poprawski in heat 14 for another share of the spoils.
Newly crowned British U.19 champion Paul Heard notched his third straight win in heat 15 while unsung hero Errol Thaw did well to shut out Young for a vital 3rd as his team went back into the lead for the first time since heat 2. The home side were desperate to stop the visitors momentum and up stepped the Reed/Roberts pairing for a vital 6 - 4 win to bring it back to all square with two heats remaining.
Birmingham unsurprisingly brought in their number 7 trump card Heard for Thaw in the penultimate heat and he made no mistakes from gate 1 but importantly Poprawski and Mould packed in the minor places leaving it at 84 points apiece with a race to go. Home fans amongst another healthy crowd were biting their nails in anticipation as British Champion Gavin Wheeler headed towards gate 1 but with Colling replacing Young on 3 and with Wadhams and Timms on 2 & 4 respectively, the odds were probably still on a drawn outcome.
At this point lady luck evened itself up on the day with the unfortunate exclusion of Wadhams at the tapes and a home victory was assured with Wheeler taking the re-start from Timms who passed Colling late in the race. Poole just about deserved to take another two league points in their quest to secure fourth place in the table behind their opponants. But the final comment is in danger of becoming something of an over-worked cliche in 2009.....cycle speedway was undoubtedly the real winner.
Poole 90 - Thomas Reed 17 Gavin Wheeler 17 Tom Colling 13 Chris Roberts 11 Artur Poprawski 11 Ben Mould 9 Pete Young 7 Dave Murphy 5 (2r)
Birmingham 87 - Paul Heard 18 Chris Timms 17 Lewis Bates 15 Marcus Wadhams 12 Richard Harrison 9 Russ Evans 8 Errol Thaw 5 Leighton Bates 3
Referee: Colin Simmons
Division 2
POOLE 59 BIRMINGHAM 70
Title favourites Birmingham hit the ground running by taking a ten point lead in the first four races after which the home side got their act together. With Nathan Groves in a class of his own and several of his team colleagues worthy of first team racing, the visitors held on to their advantage and already have one hand on the league trophy! Both clubs tracked separate eight rider teams and the quality of racing in the match was on a par with the best regional league racing which surely serves to fuel the debate about the merits of this compettion even more!
Poole 59 - Sam Hearn 15, Aaron Morgan 9, Leighton Glover 8, Rob Haywood 8, Chris Shylock 7, Luke Armes 7, Matt Elston 4, Jess Lamb 1.
Birmingham 70 - Nathan Groves 19, Andy James 11, Paul Timms 10, Tom Sensical 9, Carl Winwood 8, Mark Winwood 6, Mark Fletcher 5, Phil Widdas 2.
Referee - Mike Legge
Premier League - Norwich v Horspath
Report: Tim Jarvis
Horspath snatched a dramatic last race victory against Norwich. After trailing throughout the match, the Hammers snatched an amazing victory when Steve Harris and Mark Boaler combined brilliantly in the last race to score a crucial 7-3 to give Horspath victory.
Isolated on gate four after Rob Hunt was disqualified for a starting infringment, Harris was excluded after cutting across Richard Williamson just yards from the start. Earlier, in heat three, Harris was excluded for slowing up the race. Now he faced his second explusion in as many races. Team manager Robyn Carter appealed to referee Allinson after which the official changed his mind and re-instated Harris.
From the start, Norwich took control. With the Phil Howells/Ben Collins and Dave Solomon/Richard Hunt in dominant form, Norwich built up an eight point lead after just three races. Referee Allinson was unable to split Kieran Parr and Wayne Hutt for third place in heat five as Horspath took their first heat win of a gloriously sunny summer afternoon. Horspath were rattled as Norwich continued to boss the remaining heats going into the interval six points ahead of the visitors.
Horspath won two of the three heats immediately after the break to close the gap to two points. But just as they were getting back into the match, Mark Boaler moved on grid two, the Horspath rider pointing the accusing finger to Dave Solomon on his inside. Suddenly the gap was seven points. A major shock was back on the cards.
Enter Steve Harris. Using all his experience and racing skills, Harris brought through reserve Wayne Hutt for a maximum heat win, before Mark Camichael and Hutt again reduced the deficit to two with two races to go. Richard Williamson and Ben Collins sandwiched Rob Hunt into second place in the punultimate race, setting Horspath a maximum win from the final heat to take the most unlikely of victories.
What a race. Harris on one, double British champion Phil Howells on two, Mark Boaler on three and Dave Solomon on the wide outside. The wise money was on Howells separating the Horspath duo, to give Norwich victory. But Harris is a wily old fox. Going down the back straight he cleverly slowed down to distract Howells, giving Boaler a split-second chance to sprint through on the inside. It was a brilliant manouvre. Howells and Solomon got in each other's way. By the time Solomons slid off on the home straight, third time round it was all over. Horspath had taken the lead for the first time in the match, but more importantly has kept their title challenge on track.
The jubiliant Hammers raced on the track to embrace Harris and Boaler. This was such an important win. Without Mike Morgans, gigging it up at the V Festival, and Matuesz Symczak and Marcin Skowronek racing in the Polish League, Horspath certainly struggled. All credit to Rob Hunt, Danny Harper and Wayne Hutt for keeping them in the match when the pressure started to boil. And of course, Harris and Boaler for that remarkable match-winning ride when all looked lost, not fogetting team manager Robyn Carter who spent more time on the track than any of his riders.
In all, a truly great match. Drama, excitement, controversy, protests, stand-offs in the pits, amazingly competitive racing - this had it all, and more beside.
Norwich 87.5 Richard Williamson 13, Lee Grange 13+1, Phil Howells 15+1, Ben Collins 11+1, Richard Hunt 10+1, Dave Solomon 15, George Solomon 8+1, Kieran Parr 2.5
Horspath 88.5 Wayne Clarke 3, Mark Boaler 14+1, David Charmichael 8, Mark Charmichael 18, Steve Harris 15+1, Rob Hunt 10+1, Danny Harper 11+3, Wayne Hutt 9.5
COMBINATION
Norwich 85 (3 pp) Craig Norton 16, Barry Copping 10+1, Josh Colby 14+2, Liam Parker 15+1, James Wakefield 13+2, Lewis Conner 8, Rob Warminger 3, Andy Barrett 3
Horspath 47 Wayne Clarke 13, Jack Smith 6, Matt Coulter 7, Zak Payne, Lee Clarke 11, Gemma Cosh 5+1
Manchester League Junior Individual Finals
Report: Mike Hack
Bury hosted the second evening of the Manchester League Junior Individual Finals on Wednesday evening.
Stockport's Jake Read arrived just in time to take his first ride in heat 3 and he went on to win the U-13 Championship with a 16 points maximum score. Stockport made it a clean sweep with Joe Pickford taking runner-up spot and Matt Turner third place. U-10 Champion, Adam Watson of A & T, finished a creditable fourth.
Manchester League U-13 Individual Final result:
Jake Read (Stockport) 16, Joe Pickford (Stockport) 15, Matt Turner (Stockport) 14, Adam Watson (Astley & Tyldesley) 13, Georgina Healey (Stockport) 12, Chris South (Bury) 11, Adam South (Bury) 10, Sophie Pickford (Stockport) 9, Josh Ryan (Bury) 8.
Referee - John Whiting.
Stockport's Ben Higham took the U-19 title with a 16 points maximum score, to add to the U-16 title won at Gin Pit a fortnight earlier. He beat his team mate Dylan Radcliffe in heat 1 and that proved decisive, as Radcliffe also raced unbeaten after that. Third place went to A & T's Ben Dickenson, on 13 points, with Stockport's Jack Lush suffering an exclusion for legging first time out, which ended his chances.
Manchester League U-19 Individual Final result:
Ben Higham (Stockport) 16, Dylan Radcliffe (Stockport) 15, Ben Dickenson (Astley & Tyldesley) 13, Mat Lush (Stockport) 12, Ali Lam (Stockport) 12, Jack Lush (Stockport) 10, Chris Dyson (Bury) 9, Luke Jamson (Astley & Tyldesley) 8, Robin Yang (Bury) 8.
Referee - John Whiting.
PREMIER LEAGUE
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