PREVIEW: BYJL and CS Little League gets underway at Kesgrave

This Saturday, the national rounds of the British Youth and Junior League and CS Little League get underway at Kesgrave, one of the sport’s leading junior tracks, and we’re certain for an entertaining day of racing.

After a successful series of regional rounds which have seen an influx of new riders to boost the numbers taking part in the competition organisers are looking forward to a bumper day of racing, which commences at 10 am.

Until we see who is competing in this round, any predictions are difficult, but there will be a large entry of local riders in the U8s who will be joined by the top two in the North, A&T’s Aiden Green and Frank White, the S&SW’s Jack Tidball and Rylee Dunford and from the Midlands Liam Wells and Jude Wilcockson. Sadly, the Eastern region leading rider, Oliver Edmunds, will not be present.

In the U10s the regional winners have been Ronnie Wassall (100pts), Charlie Parr (95pts), JJ Wildman (93pts) and Joe Brownell (86pts), with Ryker Jolly and Duncan Whalley not far behind on 85pts, and these are sure to be among the frontrunners.

In the U12s, we will hopefully see the return to the National rounds of Exeter’s Rosie Tidball, who was unbeaten in the S&SW rounds. Judging by the competition in last week’s Dash event this category should be quite a battle. Rosie will be up against the local trio of Torsten Jolly, 2016 U10 British Champion Noah Woodhouse, and Kai Gowers, the 2016 BYJL U10 champion A&T’s John White, the Midlands’ duo of Connor Steel and Kyle Wells, team mate Shannon Tucker and the top two from last week’s Dash meeting Bury’s Harry Radford and Poole’s Joe Hurran.

In the U14s, last year’s runner up and U13 British Champion Lewis Brinhoff will be looking to get this year off to a good start with a win round his home track. Another who knows his way round the Kesgrave track is Ipswich’s Ben Clarke and from further afield Newport’s Dan Wright, who was unbeaten in the regional rounds, the Midlands Ben Wells and Tyler Bould and the North’s Kielan Burton and Louis Turner will be among the front runners.

In the U18s, multi-champion Brandon Whetton is the man to beat, but he will be aware that there are plenty of talented riders in this category who will be keen to do just that. Ipswich’s Pierce Bacon has looked in good form this year, the Midlands will hopefully provide Haydn Rowley, Jake White, Damien Pelaczyk and regional winner Cameron Gill, the S&SW challenge will be led by Poole’s ever lively Fraser Garnett, together with Sean Bennett, Ben Tinsdale and Will Jeffrey who looked impressive in the last week’s Battle of Britain match. Hopefully Max Evans will have recovered from last Saturday’s head butt of the Wednesfield safety fence (the safety fence won!) and can join the Stockport trio of Michael Preston and Devon Campbell in representing the North.

In the Girls, last year’s champion Macie Schmidt has been in fine form again this year and any challenger is going to have to somehow match her speed off the gate if they are to beat her. Leading the pack is last year’s runner-up Lizzie Rigley, and hopefully we shall see Chloe Pearce and Gemma Hill in their local round. The next generation also joins the competition this year with Maddie Saunders, Emily Burgess and Sophia Sinclair-Black amongst others out to make their mark.

In the team event Neil Garnett and the travelling Poole posse will be looking to defend the team title which they have held for the last two years.

It promises to be an excellent day of junior racing – whilst we have mentioned the competition’s leading participants let us not forget that this event is also about providing riders with a chance to compete against their peers from around the country. Everyone will go away with a medal (and hopefully a smile) even if they do not win a trophy, so please come along and take part if you can – remember any rider can compete in the Little League (U8 and U10s) even if they have not raced in the regional rounds

Rob Gifkins is in charge on the day and anyone with any queries should contact either him or BYJL manager Ross Mee ( ross.mee@nixonmee.co.uk or 0776 9734581)