MATCH REPORT: Team Green book place in CS Cup final

North & Scotland League champions Astley & Tyldesley booked their place in the CS Cup National Final, with a win in the North & Scotland Regional Final at Gin Pit yesterday.

Hull arrived with just four riders, so the B races consisted of three riders only. A heavy rain shower during the first half of the match made for tricky conditions for a few races. The first round of races was closely contested, with the scores after heat 8 being A&T 25, Stockport 23, Bury 21, Hull 7. It all went wrong for Stockport with three successive exclusions in heats 12, 13 and 14, with Jake Read also receiving a yellow card following his exclusion in heat 14. This put Stockport out of the running, with A&T having opened up an eight points lead at the interval. Interval scores were: A&T 52, Bury 44, Stockport 32, Hull 16.

Bury kept up the pressure on A&T during the second half, ensuring that Team Green didn’t pull away, until they won the last four races convincingly from their grid 1’s. All nine Astley & Tyldesley riders scored well and it was A&T’s strength in depth which gave them the edge over the other teams. Reece Pollitt recorded the fastest time of the match, 40.91 seconds, in heat 31.

North & Scotland Regional Final result

Astley & Tyldesley 102 Bury 86 Stockport 76 Hull 30

A&T: Reece Pollitt 14, Steve Harris 14, Kyle Holland 14, Max Evans 14, Pawel Idziorek 13, Paul Graham 10, Ciaran Collins 9, Mark Grantham 9, Mick Knowles 5, Emily Burgess dnr.

Bury: Will Owens 12, Neil Howarth 12, Adam Turnbull 11, Eryk Motala 11, Adam Taylor 11, Kris Ramsden 10, Kaysar Mohammadi 8, Danny Taylor 8, Harry Radford 3.

Stockport: Devon Campbell 14, Daniel Mason 13, Jack Lush 10, Michael Preston 9, Ben Higham 8, Ewan Ferreira 8, Jake Read 7, Louis Wright 7.

Hull: Andy Angell 13, Nathan Everett 6, Matt Eglen 6, Dan Teal 5.

Referee – Ewan Tulloch (Edinburgh).