Halesowen Friday Night Track League Round 2
Story posted May 18, 2010; by William Fotheringham
Round two of the Halesowen Friday night track league saw a further increase in rider numbers in spite of weather that looked dubious during the afternoon, with the numbers for the B-category and Freewheelers looking particularly strong. Who knows how many the promised warm weather may bring out of the woodwork?
Above: Images by Jacob James
The youth riders were first out of the blocks with the home club’s Alex Watton, Angela Eggleton and Jack Austin keen to take advantage of the absence of three of the quartet who had dominated week one. Watton and Austin fought out the opening six-lap scratch, with Austin attacking at the bell only for Watton to retrieve him in the back straight before surging on to the finish.
Austin and Watton then both scored maximum points in the 800m, where the field was split by age and it was Austin who forged ahead in the evening’s other two events, taking first slot in the win-and-out before Emily Nelson of Lichfield led out the second sprint to win by a whisker and then working his way through the field to take the closing Scratch race.
The 22 Freewheeler As were a spectacular sight as they lined up for their first handicap race, with Keir Lewis the most spectacular as he lined up the first of three wins out of three for the evening. Lewis rode in alone in the first handicap to win from the home club’s Jake Phillips then outsprinted Matt Shaw of Solihull CC in the three-lap scratch. In their final event, a four-lap handicap, he led with Shaw at the bell, with the Solihull lad leading out before fading to permit Lewis and Halesowen’s Joe Feiven to nip past.
In the Freewheeler Bs the girls dominated proceedings, finishing in five out of the first six places in two of the events. Star of the evening was Chloe Weaver of Redditch R&PCC, a winner in all her three events – a brace of two-lap handicaps and a 240m dash – while Lorna Sharples of Halesowen managed second places in both the handicaps. The lads redressed the balance slightly in the other two 240m heats, won respectively by Redditch’s Max Stokes and Halesowen’s Joshua Hubble.
In the V-sprint sponsored starters league for the younger fixed-wheel riders, Joe Feiven took his second victory in as many weeks, clinching a tight sprint from George Cann and Daniel Bradbury in their four-lap handicap. Among the A cat seniors, young Halesowen sprinter Tom Gregory continued his inexorable progress with a brace of wins plus a second and third places to consolidate his overall lead.
The A and B categories were combined for the first Scratch race run alongside a separate veterans and women’s event. Jacob Tipper showed he was suffering no ill-effects from a road race crash the previous weekend by breaking away with five laps remaining together with youth rider George Stevens. Tipper proved the strongest in the finish straight, with Gregory winning the gallop for third. The vets and women’s field stayed together for their 10 laps, with William Fotheringham attacking just after the bell to hold off Jess Booth and Emily Kay.
The A cat 800m handicap was always going to favour Gregory, who timed his run to the line perfectly to win from Daniel Harris after the field came together in the back straight, while a hotly contested 12-lap points race went to Tipper, who figured in the only break of the evening along with Booth, Harris and Fotheringham and placed consistently enough in each sprint to hold off a late charge from Gregory who bridged to the break to take the last sprint.
That set the scene for the closing five-mile Scratch contested by both As and Bs, with a hefty 35-rider field. The pace was hot from the start as a select group seemed to have decided that their interests were best served by keeping the field strung out, with the distance eventually covered in under 11 minutes, while the consistently high tempo discouraged any breakaway attempts. The race came down to a hectic sprint, led out by youth rider Jack Cracknell, who was swallowed up coming into the final banking as Gregory came through to hold off Jack Hibberd and Ted Bate, who took the B category honours as Halesowen placed eight riders in the first nine, with Stourbridge veteran Kevin Paton riding his usual canny race to place sixth overall and second B cat.
Among the B categories, Stevens was the evening’s stand-out rider, winning a close victory in the four-lap scratch from Steve Croggon of Beacon RCC and following that up with a fine win in the devil, a hectic affair contested by a field of 28. With three to contest the final sprint, the last rider to be pulled out was Emily Kay leaving Stevens and Bate to take on Croggon. Stevens had sufficient strength to lead out for the finish, with Bate just unable to get to him. With veteran sprinter Jim Varnish absent, Croggon, Bate and Cracknell were the main beneficiaries in the overall standings along with Stevens but that may all change if the organisers ‘invite’ the stronger B-categories to move up to boost the A-cat field.
Further Info: http://www.halesowencycling.net/
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