MATCH REPORT: Rain doesn’t dampen spirits at East Park

Waterproofs were once again needed at East Park’s Junior Invitational event on Saturday, although unlike last year, we did at least get part way before the rain came.

However, the rain did not spoil the enjoyment for the 50 plus riders who took part, as they made light of the conditions to produce plenty of exciting racing and everyone went home happy, if a little damp and dirtier.

The day gave one last opportunity for the Midlands riders to take to the track against riders from outside the region as they were joined by riders from Kesgrave, Ipswich, Poole, Horspath, Bury and A&T.

Eighteen riders competed in the U8s which needed a run-off to decide the final place in the A Final with the win taken by Liam Wells, ahead of Oscar Hammond and Jude Wilcockson after they had all scored 14 points. In the final it was Kesgrave’s Luca Woodhouse who added to his impressive haul of trophies for the year, followed home by the A&T duo of Aiden Green and Frank White, with Liam Wells in fourth.

PHOTOS: By Andrew Parr

Liam and Lily Jerrold then took up the spare spaces in the U10s, which saw a win for this year’s U10 Little League champion Oliver Saunders, who defeated  Charlie Parr, Charlie Buet-Gannon and Lewis Middleton in the A Final.  A special mention should go to East Park’s Shae Whitehead who only took his first rides at the previous Tuesday’s training session and raced to four second places.

There has been plenty of close racing in the BYJL U12s this year and this proved to be the case once again, with this year’s British U12 Champion Harry Radford taking the win, ahead of his great rivals Kyle Wells and John White, with Jonathan Middleton making his A final debut to take fourth place. Charlie Parr, who took up the spare place in this section, should be well pleased with his efforts, falling just one point short of a second A Final spot.

In the Open section there was a good contest between Jake Steel, Max Wells and Ross Loveridge which finished in that order.

A big thank you is due to everyone at the East Park club who agreed to take on the staging of the day at the last minute, and in particular to Al Bentley and Dave White who were the ones out in the rain refereeing and operating the tapes.  Also a thank you to Matt Parr and Kevin Saunders for their contributions towards the trophies.