Location: Ipswich, Suffolk
Event: 22 June 2013
Report: Sharon Stant/Snowdon Sports
The third round of this year’s British Club Championship arrived in Ipswich with the British U16s taking centre stage with eight teams looking to become this year’s champs and also put vital grand prix points to their respective clubs scores in search of that coveted title British Club Champions.
The first semi final saw Leicester, Poole, Hellingly and Exeter in an even-looking contest, on paper this looked like going down to the last heat with Poole most probably slight favourites to progress with Hellingly and Exeter fighting it out for the other spot.
After the first four heats just five points covered all four teams, and by half time Poole and Hellingly had open up an eight point cushion Poole 26, Hellingly 23, with the other two teams locked on 15 points apiece.
The second half saw both Poole and Hellingly move further away and with four heats remaining there was nine points separating second from third place, but to Exeter’s credit they made a late surge to overturn that, winning three of the final four heats to come within four points of Poole in second place.
Hellingly proved a surprise package and qualified in first place with the stand-out rider being Jesse Moore, steering the team home with an 16 point haul.
Final score: Hellingly 45, Poole 43, Exeter 39, Leicester 31.
The second semi final brought together reigning champions Ipswich with Wednesfield, East Park and Sheffield, and on paper it always looked like the home team were almost certain to qualify.
By half time it was already looking like the writing was on the wall for the other three as Ipswich dominated from the off winning the first eight heats from grids one and four. As expected there were only three points between the other three clubs with Sheffield holding a slight advantage Ipswich 32, Sheffield 17, East Park 16 and Wednesfield 14.
Ipswich dropped their first points in heat nine when Matt Haddock secured Wednesfield's only heat win to put them well and truly back in the race with only two points from second to fourth.
Ipswich restored order, winning five of the remaining seven heats with only East Park's Brandon Whetton securing the other two, Sheffield secured second place with five second place positions out of the last eight heats.
Final score: Ipswich 59, Sheffield 38, East Park 34, Wednesfield 29.
Referee Terry Ashford got the 2013 Final under way with Poole's Aaron Smith drawing first blood after Knights for Ipswich spun at the grids leaving him in last place. To his credit fought back to collect second place, while the heat to went to Sheffield's Hudson with Ipswich picking up a single point for fourth.
It was in heat three that the hosts finally came to life with Matt Hill, Fellgett securing a solid second place behind the impressive Jesse Moore, so after four heats Ipswich shared the lead with Hellingly on 11 points.
With Ipswich now coming from their inside grids twos and ones punished the opposition with some powerful gating racking up an incredible 29 points with six heat wins and lead the field after 12 heats by 12 points leaving all trailing behind them.
While Ipswich were cruising to victory it meant a real battle Royale was going on behind them for second place with only four points separating the other three teams with Hellingly holding a one point lead over Poole.
Into the final set of heats with Hellingly off ones it was Sheffield who, with Kyle Holland, got right back in the mix, and with Micky Stretton picking up the fourth it meant that there was just a single point between all the teams.
In heat 14 the balance of power went the way of Hellingly when Etienne Patel secured second behind Knights of Ipswich and Sheffield's Ellie Sullivan having to settle for a point.
Ipswich's Richard Fellgett took his tally to 15 for the afternoon ,but once again all the action seemed to be going on behind him with Sheffield's Hudson holding off Basssett of Hellingly and Briggs of Poole.
In the final heat, and with the title already wrapped up, Ipswich could afford to give young Pierce Bacon his second heat with the other left to scrap it out for second place Hellingly had
Jesse Moore from one, Richard Hudson from two for Sheffield and completing the line-up was Poole's Aaron Smith.
After a couple of re-runs with the race not getting past the first bend we finally got it on
and with two points between all three teams it was anyone's race.
Moore held his nerve and his gate to hold Smith for four pulsating laps to give Hellingly an unlikely second place ahead of Poole with Sheffield having to settle for fourth spot on this occasion.
But for the second year running there can be no denying who the stand out team were again as Ipswich powered to their consecutive championship and also taking a further step closer to retaining the overall club championship.
Poole and Sheffield will cast an eye back to heats even with Dan Knights way out in front, Callum Albin of Poole and Richard Hudson of Sheffield battling it out behind they both came out of bend four together and seemed to get tangled and both riders came down leaving Tristan Bassett able to go from fourth to second. Was this the turning point where Hellingly snatched second spot on the day when one point became three as the final points tally suggests?
Two riders stood out - Hellingly's Jesse Moore who dropped just one point all afternoon and needs to be stepping up for more competitive racing, and Ipswich’s Matthew Hill who never dropped a point from his six rides, scoring 12 points in both the semi and final itself with some awesome gating.
Final scores: Ipswich 52, Hellingly 38, Poole 35, Sheffield 34.
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British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.
