CLUB NEWS: A busy few days for the Stars

Norwich Stars riders have seen plenty of action recently which started with the British Individual Championships over the August Bank Holiday Weekend. The action there began as far as Norwich were concerned in the Little League Under 10 Boys Individual Championship where Connor Jarrett took the runners-up spot with 19 points, losing only to Astley & Tyldesley rider Frank White who raced unbeaten. Next up was the British Under 14 Boys Individual Championship where Shaun Kell qualified for the final via a pre-qualifying round and finished 5th with 15 points. This was followed by the British Under 12 Boys Individual Championship where Will Blackmore was the Stars representative but he had to withdraw after his first ride following a nasty fall which necessitated a trip to hospital where thankfully no broken bones were diagnosed.

The following day Paddy Wenn was in action at Newport in the British Over 50’s Individual Championship where he scored 18 points, the same as Astley & Tyldesley’s Steve Harris who lost to Paddy in the run-off for 2nd & 3rd places. Meanwhile at East Newport Tom Blackmore rode in the British Junior Individual Championship where he finished 7th with 10 points

Wednesday September 1st saw the 5th round of the Norfolk Go-Ride series take place at Harford Park and the Under 10’s event saw Zackery Eastwood take the win with Stanley Budds 3rd. In the Under 13’s event Connor made it 5 wins out of 5 with Tabby Nierop taking 4th place. Will also rode but sustained another heavy fall in his opening race and took no further part in the meeting, being classed as 3rd in the C Final. Shaun won his second Under 16 final ahead of Hethersett’s Mason Martin. The Senior event saw Norwich riders take a clean sweep of the top 3 places as Tom led the A Final from start to finish with Paddy 2nd and Jamie Medler 3rd. Incredibly, Jamie leads the Senior standings despite having not won any of the 5 rounds. Rory Freeman also rode and finished as runner-up in the B Final

3 days later there was Norwich representation at Heckmondwike in the 4th round of the EuroVets series. Steve Copping made his first appearance of the year in the competition at a track he had never previously been to. He scored 10 points in the combined Over 35/Over 40 event which wasnt enough to qualify him for the A or B Finals. Paddy went into the event in 3rd place in the Over 50’s category and scored 12 points, his cause not helped by an exclusion in his 4th ride. He finished 3rd in the B Final and the 17 GP points he scored for that puts him tied for 2nd with Leicester’s Dave Frith. Both Paddy & Steve are not expected to be at the next round at Newport on September 18th due to other commitments.

The following day saw South-East League action with a Norfolk derby as the Stars made the trip to Hethersett. The main match saw Norwich defeated by 85 points to 74. Paddy scored 20 points, as did Lee Grange. Jamie scored 12, Shaun & Tom scored 8 each with Rory scoring 6. The Youth League match followed and this saw the Young Stars emerge victorious by 71 points to 58. Connor was the top scorer with 15 points with Shaun scoring 13, Josie Kell 12, Will scored 8 points as did Kenny Culling & Frank Spauls with Zackery scoring 7

The next team action for Norwich is on Sunday September 26th when Kesgrave are the visitors to Eaton Park in the South-East League as well as the Youth League with a 10.30am start. Before that there is the next Norfolk Go-Ride Grand Prix at Hethersett this coming Wednesday (8th September) then on Saturday September 18th it is the British Youth & Junior League National Round at East Park, Wolverhampton. At the time of writing it wasn’t known if any Norwich riders had qualified for this event