MATCH REPORT: Great Blakenham in top form against Hellingly

Hellingly Lions from Sussex travelled to Great Blakenham in Suffolk for a Division 1 and 2 encounter in the South East and Eastern league on Sunday.

With the weather overcast and rather chilly, it did not deter Great Blakenham as they gave the Lions a right mauling. They provided 13 out 18 race winners, had only a single last place, but suffered 2 exclusions.

The first being in heat 5 when Adam Cooper brought down Jim Cox in a very heavy fall. After a lengthy delay Jim took his place in the re-run to complete a painful win. The second exclusion was to Adam Peck for a tapes offence but he went on to record 4 wins in the remainder of his rides.

In fact Adam was the only one to lower the colours of Neil Hollebon in heat 15. All the Great Blakenham team played their part with 6 of the 8 riders finished with double figure scores.

Hellingly were always going to be up against it as they had to travel without the services of captain Jesse Moore (injured shoulder) and vice captain Dan Welch. The only Hellingly rider to live with the opposition was Neil Hollebon with 4 wins and the one defeat.

It was an all round team performance by Great Blakenham where as the lack of match fitness showed up big time for Hellingly.

Great Blakenham 106
Jason Ashford 16+2, Adam Cooper 9+1, Adam Peck 16, Luke Harrison 14+3, Jonjo Slaughter 17+2, Lewis Osbourne 17+2, Keanu Bowers 10+2, William Rhodes 7.

Hellingly 72
Ed Ridley 9, Jim Cox 7, George Morley 8, Martyn Hollebon 12+1, Steven Archer 10, Neil Hollebon 18+1, Ethan Page 3, Jamie Morley 5.

 

The division 2 meeting was a closer affair, but again the Great Blakenham team put in a solid performance with some entertaining racing. With three of their team going unbeaten by an opponent the end result was never in doubt.

Heat 7 was one of the highlights, and in fact must go down in history as it brought together two unusual pairings in one race. For Great Blakenham we had Jason Ashford and his son Coben. For Hellingly we had Edward Ridley and his son Harry as the picture above shows.

The result was a 6-4 to Great Blakenham, but the score was unimportant. It was a joy to see the young boys racing each other having fun. Coben got the better of Harry in Ht 7 so when they met again in Ht 15 every one was watching in earnest.

Harry came out on top this time, so honours were even . Great Blakenham ran out easy winners of the match, but the sport of cycle speedway was the biggest winner with races of that nature.

Great Blakenham 89
Jason Ashford 16, Coben Ashford 6, Sam Turner 13, Adam Cooper 11+1 ,Keanu Bowers 17+2, Luke Harrison 12, Gavin Whitehouse 6, William Rhodes 7+1.

Hellingly 71
George Morley 16+1, Isaac Westwood 10+1, Ethan Page 10+2, Steven Archer 12+1, Jamie Morley 6+1, Ed Ridley 14, Harry Ridley 3.

Report by Brian Davidson