MATCH REPORT: North & Scotland KO Cups at Bury

July 22, 2019 Steve Copping

Report by Mike Hack

Astley & Tyldesley raced to victory in the North & Scotland Junior Cup Final at Bury.

The first three races were shared, before A&T’s John White and Emily Burgess took a 7-3 over Harry Radford and Dawar Mohammadi. A 6-4 to Ciaran Collins and Emily over Kaysar Mohammadi and Harry put A&T six points up at the halfway stage. Disaster for Bury as Kaysar picked up a gate exclusion in heat 7, and a comfortable 7-2 win to Emily and Matt Snell over reserve Tom Dunphy, put A&T 40-29 ahead. After three shared heats, A&T rounded off the match with a last heat 7-3 to John White and Emily over Harry and Tom, to run out convincing 68-51 winners. All five A&T riders put in a solid performance, while Bury relied heavily on Kaysar Mohammadi and Adam Turnbull for their points. This is the fifth time that A&T have won the cup, but the first time since 2000.

North & Scotland Junior KO Cup winners Astley & Tyldesley

North & Scotland Junior K.O. Cup Final result
Bury 51 Astley & Tyldesley 68
Referee – Andy Schofield (Hull).

Edinburgh took the win in a hard fought North & Scotland Senior K.O. Cup Final, at Bury. Five competitive teams made for a thrilling match, with no shortage of incidents, clashes and controversy. Edinburgh and league champions Astley & Tyldesley were in close contention throughout, with Edinburgh holding a slender 1 point lead after heat 15. Two race wins put A&T ahead with two races to go, but Steve Harris was a faller in the re-run heat 19 and Jake Slight’s 2nd place in that penultimate heat saw Edinburgh clinch the victory. Some considered Slight to be fortunate to be in the re-run after his leg clearly brought down Harris at the first attempt on the first bend. Andy Angell rode to a 16 points maximum score, as Hull finished in 3rd place.